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Home » Learning Curve » Developers Workshop » One Year with Lion

One Year with Lion (2)

Year Two might be better.

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CUPERTINO (Rixstep) — Apple's OS X 10.7 Lion was introduced one year ago next week. It's been a bumpy ride. Lion's successor is due out within days. Let's hope for something a bit better.

'10.8?'

With all the woes befalling 10.7 Vista, the prudent move was to calmly wait for the successor. Tragedies like Microsoft's and now Apple's seem to have become a staple of the industry. Once Apple announced 10.8 for release a mere year after 10.7 (remember when Avie T told everyone OS X releases wouldn't happen as often anymore?) it became obvious the move was indeed prudent.

But a quick look at the wasteland of the king of the jungle won't hurt. Not much anyway. Or that at any rate was the idea.

'Scroll Bar Arrows'

Once the gesturing works the right way, there's no turning back. A flick of the wrist gets you anywhere you want to go. Making it all the more difficult to use fossilised machines from other platforms.

But the new scrolling and scroll bars have a disadvantage: they make precision scrolling a makeshift operation. How do you scroll one line at a time? Accurately? Precisely? The scroll bar arrows are gone and visually they have no given place in the new setup. Quite a few third party engineers hit the roof. The lack of scroll bar arrows does slow them down. And an option to let them return would have been polite. But it wouldn't have been 'Apple'.

'Preview'

There's probably no handier system app in OS X than Preview. Preview makes most of Adobe obsolete. It trims, it resizes, it crops - excellently. Better and better all the time. At least up until 10.7. When things really take a wrong turn into outer space.

Apple have announced they'll be reverting some of the 'features' of Preview and similar apps for 10.8, but the world will have to wait and see.

Of particular concern to the engineers in Cupertino seems to have been the risk third party technologies - in particular those stellar specimens from Adobe - might somehow compromise the Rock Solid Foundation™. And the apprehension is justified: if there's one company who seem bent on staying out of date - and dangerously so - it's Warnock's empire.

What to do? Don't risk a system attack through a seemingly innocuous PDF - sandbox the app! But hold on a minute - even though OxCharlie already sends his greets and approval. What does this sandboxing entail?

Apple tried closing off ~/Library so you wouldn't easily get a peek inside but what essentially happens is this: the complete runtime environment of the sandboxed app is duplicated, and the app is only capable of modifying this copy. What you get is roughly this.

total 40
drwx------   4 rixstep  staff    136 Jul 12 05:56 .
drwx------   4 rixstep  staff    136 Jul 12 07:32 ..
-rwxr--r--   1 rixstep  staff  19256 Jul 12 05:56 Container.plist
drwx------  10 rixstep  staff    340 Jul 12 05:55 Data

com.apple.Preview/Data:
total 48
drwx------  10 rixstep  staff  340 Jul 12 05:55 .
drwx------   4 rixstep  staff  136 Jul 12 05:56 ..
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   31 Jul 12 05:55 .CFUserTextEncoding -> ../../../../.CFUserTextEncoding
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   19 Jul 12 05:55 Desktop -> ../../../../Desktop
drwx------   2 rixstep  staff   68 Jul 12 05:55 Documents
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   21 Jul 12 05:55 Downloads -> ../../../../Downloads
drwx------  27 rixstep  staff  918 Jul 12 05:56 Library
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   18 Jul 12 05:55 Movies -> ../../../../Movies
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   17 Jul 12 05:55 Music -> ../../../../Music
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   20 Jul 12 05:55 Pictures -> ../../../../Pictures

com.apple.Preview/Data/Documents:
total 0
drwx------   2 rixstep  staff   68 Jul 12 05:55 .
drwx------  10 rixstep  staff  340 Jul 12 05:55 ..

com.apple.Preview/Data/Library:
total 144
drwx------  27 rixstep  staff  918 Jul 12 05:56 .
drwx------  10 rixstep  staff  340 Jul 12 05:55 ..
drwx------   3 rixstep  staff  102 Jul 12 05:55 Application Scripts
drwx------   4 rixstep  staff  136 Jul 12 05:55 Application Support
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   17 Jul 12 05:55 Audio -> ../../../../Audio
drwx------@  2 rixstep  staff   68 Jul 12 05:56 Autosave Information
drwx------   3 rixstep  staff  102 Jul 12 05:56 Caches
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   21 Jul 12 05:55 Calendars -> ../../../../Calendars
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   24 Jul 12 05:55 ColorPickers -> ../../../../ColorPickers
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   21 Jul 12 05:55 ColorSync -> ../../../../ColorSync
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   18 Jul 12 05:55 Colors -> ../../../../Colors
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   22 Jul 12 05:55 Components -> ../../../../Components
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   24 Jul 12 05:55 Compositions -> ../../../../Compositions
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   21 Jul 12 05:55 Favorites -> ../../../../Favorites
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   27 Jul 12 05:55 FontCollections -> ../../../../FontCollections
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   17 Jul 12 05:55 Fonts -> ../../../../Fonts
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   25 Jul 12 05:55 Input Methods -> ../../../../Input Methods
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   23 Jul 12 05:55 KeyBindings -> ../../../../KeyBindings
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   28 Jul 12 05:55 Keyboard Layouts -> ../../../../Keyboard Layouts
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   21 Jul 12 05:55 Keychains -> ../../../../Keychains
drwx------   2 rixstep  staff   68 Jul 12 05:55 Logs
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   16 Jul 12 05:55 Mail -> ../../../../Mail
drwx------  28 rixstep  staff  952 Jul 12 05:58 Preferences
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   21 Jul 12 05:55 QuickLook -> ../../../../QuickLook
drwx------   2 rixstep  staff   68 Jul 12 05:58 Saved Application State
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   18 Jul 12 05:55 Sounds -> ../../../../Sounds
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   20 Jul 12 05:55 Spelling -> ../../../../Spelling

com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Application Scripts:
total 8
drwx------   3 rixstep  staff  102 Jul 12 05:55 .
drwx------  27 rixstep  staff  918 Jul 12 05:56 ..
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   52 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.Preview -> ../../../../../Application Scripts/com.apple.Preview

com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Application Support:
total 16
drwx------   4 rixstep  staff  136 Jul 12 05:55 .
drwx------  27 rixstep  staff  918 Jul 12 05:56 ..
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   46 Jul 12 05:55 AddressBook -> ../../../../../Application Support/AddressBook
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   41 Jul 12 05:55 iCloud -> ../../../../../Application Support/iCloud

com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Autosave Information:
total 0
drwx------@  2 rixstep  staff   68 Jul 12 05:56 .
drwx------  27 rixstep  staff  918 Jul 12 05:56 ..

com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Caches:
total 0
drwx------   3 rixstep  staff  102 Jul 12 05:56 .
drwx------  27 rixstep  staff  918 Jul 12 05:56 ..
drwxr-xr-x@  3 rixstep  staff  102 Jul 12 05:56 com.apple.Preview

com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Caches/com.apple.Preview:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 rixstep  staff  102 Jul 12 05:56 .
drwx------  3 rixstep  staff  102 Jul 12 05:56 ..
drwxr-xr-x@ 4 rixstep  staff  136 Jul 12 05:56 com.apple.opencl

com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Caches/com.apple.Preview/com.apple.opencl:
total 136
drwxr-xr-x@ 4 rixstep  staff    136 Jul 12 05:56 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 rixstep  staff    102 Jul 12 05:56 ..
-rw-r--r--@ 1 rixstep  staff  65536 Jul 12 05:57 com.apple.ocl.64.data
-rw-r--r--@ 1 rixstep  staff    920 Jul 12 05:57 com.apple.ocl.64.maps

com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Logs:
total 0
drwx------   2 rixstep  staff   68 Jul 12 05:55 .
drwx------  27 rixstep  staff  918 Jul 12 05:56 ..

com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences:
total 192
drwx------  28 rixstep  staff  952 Jul 12 05:58 .
drwx------  27 rixstep  staff  918 Jul 12 05:56 ..
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   51 Jul 12 05:55 .GlobalPreferences.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   54 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.AddressBook.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   57 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.LaunchServices.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   60 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.MultitouchSupport.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.MultitouchSupport.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   67 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist
-rw-------@  1 rixstep  staff   93 Jul 12 05:58 com.apple.Preview.bookmarks.plist
-rwxr-xr-x@  1 rixstep  staff    0 Jul 12 05:58 com.apple.Preview.bookmarks.plist.lockfile
-rw-------@  1 rixstep  staff  155 Jul 12 05:57 com.apple.Preview.plist
-rwxr-xr-x@  1 rixstep  staff    0 Jul 12 05:57 com.apple.Preview.plist.lockfile
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   64 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.ServicesMenu.Services.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.ServicesMenu.Services.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   80 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   83 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   63 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   54 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.iWork.Pages.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.iWork.Pages.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   57 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.inputmethodkit.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.inputmethodkit.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   49 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.opengl.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.opengl.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   51 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.security.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.security.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   58 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.security_common.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.security_common.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   73 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.speech.synthesis.general.prefs.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.speech.synthesis.general.prefs.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   61 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.speech.voice.prefs.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.speech.voice.prefs.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   58 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   54 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.systemsound.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.systemsound.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   58 Jul 12 05:55 com.apple.universalaccess.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.apple.universalaccess.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   50 Jul 12 05:55 com.nvidia.OpenGL.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/com.nvidia.OpenGL.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   55 Jul 12 05:55 org.cups.PrintingPrefs.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/org.cups.PrintingPrefs.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 rixstep  staff   36 Jul 12 05:55 pbs.plist -> ../../../../../Preferences/pbs.plist

com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Saved Application State:
total 0
drwx------   2 rixstep  staff   68 Jul 12 05:58 .
drwx------  27 rixstep  staff  918 Jul 12 05:56 ..

Note that there are a lot of unwieldy symlinks in there. That's where the app is actually allowed to venture outside its 'walled garden'.

But what happens if you don't want this walled garden? What happens if you say 'hey this is Unix, and I am not stupid, and no corrupt PDF is going to own me anyway' - what happens then?

You can try but you won't get far. Preview has its XPCServices module and it expects its sandbox to be up and running before it completes its own initialisation.

And if the sandbox isn't ready?

This thing happens over and over again. It can happen if you completely close off the Containers directory, or it can happen simply because the XPCServices were too sluggish to get it ready in time. Either way, the Apple's engineers weren't ready for it.

Process:         Preview [19215]
Path:            /Applications/Preview.app/Contents/MacOS/Preview
Identifier:      com.apple.Preview
Version:         5.5.2 (719.25)
Build Info:      Preview-719025000000000~8
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [124]

Date/Time:       2012-07-11 14:01:56.236 +0200
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.7.4 (11E53)
Report Version:  9

Interval Since Last Report:          143136 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           -4
Per-App Interval Since Last Report:  36498 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   1
Anonymous UUID:                      D54EF5D4-4959-49A8-A77E-194579D275F6

Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, running initializers
/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
xpchelper reply message validation: sandbox creation failed: 1002
Container object initialization failed: The operation couldn't be completed. (Cocoa error 13.)

Application Specific Signatures:
sandbox creation failed: 1002

Process:         Preview [27289]
Path:            /Applications/Preview.app/Contents/MacOS/Preview
Identifier:      Preview
Version:         ??? (???)
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [124]

Date/Time:       2012-07-11 15:35:29.148 +0200
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.7.4 (11E53)
Report Version:  9

Interval Since Last Report:          148755 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           -1
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   1
Anonymous UUID:                      D54EF5D4-4959-49A8-A77E-194579D275F6

Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, running initializers
/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
xpchelper reply message validation: sandbox creation failed: 1002
Container object initialization failed: The operation couldn't be completed. (Cocoa error 13.)

Application Specific Signatures:
sandbox creation failed: 1002

Process:         Preview [3305]
Path:            /Applications/Preview.app/Contents/MacOS/Preview
Identifier:      com.apple.Preview
Version:         5.5.2 (719.25)
Build Info:      Preview-719025000000000~8
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [129]

Date/Time:       2012-07-11 15:56:28.647 +0200
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.7.4 (11E53)
Report Version:  9

Interval Since Last Report:          149487 sec
Per-App Interval Since Last Report:  36522 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   2
Anonymous UUID:                      D54EF5D4-4959-49A8-A77E-194579D275F6

Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, running initializers
/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
xpchelper reply message validation: sandbox creation failed: 1002
Container object initialization failed: The operation couldn't be completed. (Cocoa error 13.)

Application Specific Signatures:
sandbox creation failed: 1002

Process:         Preview [3343]
Path:            /Applications/Preview.app/Contents/MacOS/Preview
Identifier:      com.apple.Preview
Version:         5.5.2 (719.25)
Build Info:      Preview-719025000000000~8
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [129]

Date/Time:       2012-07-11 15:59:26.884 +0200
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.7.4 (11E53)
Report Version:  9

Interval Since Last Report:          149660 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           1
Per-App Interval Since Last Report:  36570 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   3
Anonymous UUID:                      D54EF5D4-4959-49A8-A77E-194579D275F6

Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, running initializers
/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
xpchelper reply message validation: sandbox creation failed: 1002
Container object initialization failed: The operation couldn't be completed. (Cocoa error 13.)

Application Specific Signatures:
sandbox creation failed: 1002

Process:         Preview [3437]
Path:            /Applications/Preview.app/Contents/MacOS/Preview
Identifier:      com.apple.Preview
Version:         5.5.2 (719.25)
Build Info:      Preview-719025000000000~8
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [119]

Date/Time:       2012-07-12 05:29:32.102 +0200
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.7.4 (11E53)
Report Version:  9

Interval Since Last Report:          159822 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           -7
Per-App Interval Since Last Report:  36577 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   1
Anonymous UUID:                      D54EF5D4-4959-49A8-A77E-194579D275F6

Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, running initializers
/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
xpchelper reply message validation: sandbox creation failed: 1002
Container object initialization failed: The operation couldn't be completed. (Cocoa error 13.)

Application Specific Signatures:
sandbox creation failed: 1002

Process:         Preview [5097]
Path:            /Applications/Preview.app/Contents/MacOS/Preview
Identifier:      com.apple.Preview
Version:         5.5.2 (719.25)
Build Info:      Preview-719025000000000~8
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [119]

Date/Time:       2012-07-12 05:55:53.501 +0200
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.7.4 (11E53)
Report Version:  9

Interval Since Last Report:          161404 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           -7
Per-App Interval Since Last Report:  36586 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   1
Anonymous UUID:                      D54EF5D4-4959-49A8-A77E-194579D275F6

Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, running initializers
/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
xpchelper reply message validation: sandbox creation failed: 1002
Container object initialization failed: The operation couldn't be completed. (Cocoa error 13.)

Application Specific Signatures:
sandbox creation failed: 1002

Process:         Preview [5241]
Path:            /Applications/Preview.app/Contents/MacOS/Preview
Identifier:      com.apple.Preview
Version:         5.5.2 (719.25)
Build Info:      Preview-719025000000000~8
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [119]

Date/Time:       2012-07-12 07:44:10.345 +0200
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.7.4 (11E53)
Report Version:  9

Interval Since Last Report:          167898 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           -6
Per-App Interval Since Last Report:  36667 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   2
Anonymous UUID:                      D54EF5D4-4959-49A8-A77E-194579D275F6

Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, running initializers
/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
xpchelper reply message validation: sandbox creation failed: 1002
Container object initialization failed: The operation couldn't be completed. (Cocoa error 13.)

Application Specific Signatures:
sandbox creation failed: 1002

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