Software Inventory

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Level 1

8 points

Software Inventory

I'm looking for a way to generate a report for 600 Macs that shows what Apple Apps versions are installed and if there are any updates/security that needs to be installed. I will need to this remotely and use an application or script that can query that information. If the solution could also look a third party software than that would be a bonus.

I don't want to use ARD because of the quantity of Macs and they are not all set up correctly to use with ARD. Thanks!

Current Pro Desktops

Posted on Apr 16, 2021 8:57 AM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,576 points

Apr 16, 2021 7:21 PM in response to MacGeek13

ssh into the Macs and run

system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType

You could also dump the output to an xml file.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,576 points

Apr 21, 2021 6:22 AM in response to MacGeek13

Updates are likely listed somewhere else. This will show all of the data types you can search.

system_profiler -listDataTypes

You can combine them all on the same command, like

system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType SPInstallHistoryDataType

If you look at System Information (Option key + Apple Menu), all of that data should be available through system_profiler. The names of the sections may provide a clue as to which Data Type to use.

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Answer 3

MacGeek13 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 21, 2021 6:12 AM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks Barney-15E,

That provided me with a list of every application installed on my Mac with all the udpate information. I'm only seeing one security update from Apple in the list. I'm not sure this is possible but I would like to see what updates, especially security updates haven't been installed for each OS. I know that's a very tall order but so many of our users never install any updates at all. Most of them are Admins so they can change any System Preference I setup or choose not to update when prompted.

As our company becomes more concerned with security, we want to know what needs updating similar to what they say can be done on Windows.

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Software Inventory

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