Extract the contents of this self-extracting BIN and package it as a modern PKG. Solution: Step 1: Make the bin executable and run it with --help chmod +x installer.bin ./installer.bin --help Many such BINs have a --extract or --noexec flag. Step 2: Extract without installing ./installer.bin --extract --target /path/to/extract or
Use a hex editor to inspect the BIN header. If it contains executable code for a different CPU architecture (e.g., ARM for a router vs. x86 for macOS), a PKG on a Mac will never run it. Part 4: Scenario 3 – The BIN is a Unix Self-Extracting Installer ( .bin executable) On older Linux and macOS systems, software distributors often shipped a .bin file that was a shell script + compressed tar archive (makeself). For example, jdk-6u23-macosx-x64.bin . bin to pkg
if [[ -z "$INPUT_BIN" || -z "$OUTPUT_PKG" ]]; then echo "Usage: $0 file.bin output.pkg" exit 1 fi file_type=$(file -b "$INPUT_BIN") Case 1: It's a disc image (look for CUE or ISO signature) if echo "$file_type" | grep -q "ISO 9660"; then echo "Detected disc image. Mounting and extracting..." mountpoint="/tmp/bin_mount_$$" mkdir -p "$mountpoint" hdiutil attach -mountpoint "$mountpoint" "$INPUT_BIN" pkgbuild --root "$mountpoint" --identifier "com.bin2pkg.discimage" --version 1.0 "$OUTPUT_PKG" hdiutil detach "$mountpoint" rm -rf "$mountpoint" exit 0 fi Case 2: Self-extracting script if head -n 1 "$INPUT_BIN" | grep -q "#!/bin/sh"; then echo "Detected self-extracting script. Extracting..." extract_dir="/tmp/bin_extract_$$" mkdir -p "$extract_dir" (cd "$extract_dir" && sh "$INPUT_BIN" --noexec --target .) pkgbuild --root "$extract_dir" --identifier "com.bin2pkg.extractor" --version 1.0 "$OUTPUT_PKG" rm -rf "$extract_dir" exit 0 fi Case 3: Unknown – fail gracefully echo "Error: Unsupported BIN type. Not a disc image nor self-extracting archive." file "$INPUT_BIN" exit 1 Extract the contents of this self-extracting BIN and
#!/bin/bash # bin2pkg.sh – Attempt to convert various .bin files into a .pkg INPUT_BIN="$1" OUTPUT_PKG="$2" If it contains executable code for a different
./installer.bin --noexec --keep Navigate to the extracted folder. You will likely see a payload or data folder. Use pkgbuild (as shown in Scenario 1) to wrap that folder into a deployable PKG.