I just discovered the RemoteUpdateManager tool for helping to deploy updates to client machines. Handy tool. Thank you.
I'd love for it to be a little more verbose about what it is going to do and what it is doing. Currently, invoking the tool without any commands downloads and installs all updates. Fine. However, it says NOTHING of what it is going to do, what it is doing or any other kind of useful status information. Instead, I have to monitor the log file it generates, which is just darned ugly when displayed in a terminal window.
What I'd like to see would be a -l or --list flag added to RemoteUpdateManager that, when invoked, would query the update server and then display the updates available before doing anything. Apple's softwareupdate cli tool does a nice job of this, making it easy to see what it wants to install before actually installing it.
It would also be nice if the progress of downloading and/or installing was output to the terminal window when running RemoteUpdateManager. The way it works now, it just looks like the program is stuck with no feedback happening. I shouldn't have to tail a log file to get this kind of feedback. And if I *do* have to tail a log file, the text in that log file should be simple and easy to comprehend in a standard shell window. Currently, ~/Library/Logs/RemoteUpdateManager.log outputs lines like this:
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07/16/13 13:31:29:765 | [INFO] | | AAMEE | Utilities | RemoteUpdateManager | | | *** Downloading (AdobeDigitalPublishingCC-2.0/27.0.0) ...
07/16/13 13:32:11:853 | [INFO] | | AAMEE | Utilities | RemoteUpdateManager | | | *** Successfully downloadeded (AdobeDigitalPublishingCC-2.0/27.0.0) ...
07/16/13 13:32:11:853 | [INFO] | | AAMEE | Utilities | RemoteUpdateManager | | | *** Downloading (AdobeExtensionManagerCS5.5-5.5/5.5.3) ...
07/16/13 13:32:22:383 | [INFO] | | AAMEE | Utilities | RemoteUpdateManager | | | *** Successfully downloadeded (AdobeExtensionManagerCS5.5-5.5/5.5.3) ...
07/16/13 13:32:22:384 | [INFO] | | AAMEE | Utilities | RemoteUpdateManager | | | *** Downloading (AdobeMediaEncoderX64-7/7.0.1) ...
07/16/13 13:33:21:357 | [INFO] | | AAMEE | Utilities | RemoteUpdateManager | | | *** Successfully downloadeded (AdobeMediaEncoderX64-7/7.0.1) ...
07/16/13 13:33:21:357 | [INFO] | | AAMEE | Utilities | RemoteUpdateManager | | | All Updates downloaded successfully ...
07/16/13 13:33:21:358 | [INFO] | | AAMEE | Utilities | RemoteUpdateManager | | | **************************************************
07/16/13 13:33:21:358 | [INFO] | | AAMEE | Utilities | RemoteUpdateManager | | | Starting UpdaterCore InstallUpdates...
07/16/13 13:33:21:358 | [INFO] | | AAMEE | Utilities | RemoteUpdateManager | | | *** Installing (AdobeDigitalPublishingCC-2.0/27.0.0) ...
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It's nearly incomprehensible in a standard size shell window. I'm all for having a rather verbose log file *IF* the tool presents simplified output to the shell while running. Again, see Apple's softwareupdate tool (even better under Mountain Lion) for a good example of useful and comprehendable output, imho.
-Matt