Ask admin credentials if Xcode installation in /Applications is not allowed

[pyby]

As a developer, my Mac OS session runs with a "Standard" user.
I have an "Admin" user, if some actions require admin privilege, like installing Xcode application in the /Applications folder.

I tried to install Xcode 12.5 beta 2 with the application with aria2.
The zip was in the Application Support folder, and Xcode was unzipped.
But nothing happen to allow the installation in the /Applications.

I've installed the "Privileged helper" but it didn't help.

Some ideas:

• Like Sparkle, when Xcodes application detects an update, the sdk downloads it. Then, it asks credential to install in /Applications.
• I assume the "Privileged helper" needs "admin" authorisation to do the stuff. Ask credentials in the UI if needed.

[rzulkoski]

Any movement on this? This would be useful for a use-case I have as well.

[MrCoBalt]

Chiming in/bumping as this would be very helpful for us as well… or perhaps it could be clarified if the helper tool is supposed to be able to accomplish these privileged operations, but just isn't working as expected?

We scripted the installation of Xcodes.app and an auto-install of the helper tool for our often-standard-level devs in the hopes that it could save them some privilege escalation but it appears that they still hit a wall post-un-xip where the app can't be moved to /Applications with the error “Xcode” couldn’t be moved because you don’t have permission to access “Applications”. 😞

[triplef]

We’d love to see this supported as well.

[ziekxq]

Any update on this? We recently implemented privilege management in our environment and running into this very same issue.

[esummers]

I didn't dive deeply in to it, but I'm guessing the problem is Xcodes assumes you are an admin user when copying to the Applications folder. The file copy probably needs to be moved to the Privileged Helper to be compatible with standard user accounts and privilege management software.

[rhysm94]

Hey – just to bump this issue and say that I'm experiencing it too.

I've got the privileged helper installed, and yet I still can't get Xcodes to rename my Xcode installs to Xcode.app when changing versions, nor to uninstall any versions of Xcode that I no longer need. In every case, I get the "Xcode-15.4.0.app" couldn’t be moved because you don’t have permission to access "Applications" error.

[Bearzooka]

Bumping this as well.

In a controlled environment, where users don't regularly have admin rights, the Helper should be the one taking care of the copy with the entitlements to do so and a configuration profile to approve it. Otherwise users continue relying on IT admins.

[MrCoBalt]

We ended up just getting staff to change Xcodes’ prefs to use the installation path of ~/Applications instead of /Applications

We’re still not entirely sure that the Privileged Helper Tool actually does anything (other than make the installation process require extra IT effort/scripting) but various Xcode.app versions seems happy enough to run from the userspace Applications folder, and that bypasses this permission issue (…for now, until some breaking change by Apple/Xcode/Xcodes arises!)