Did I mess up my Mac?

Hi, I'm new to Mac and I was installing a plugin for music production. It is a vst3 file. It comes with a command file, I tried to use the plugin in a program called FL Studio and it prompted an error that says " Apple could not verify "drum clone.vst3" is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy". I tried to enable it by going to privacy settings and click on the "Open Anyway" button but it didn't do anything. The plugin installation folder was in a zip file. The vst3 file and the command file named "REQUIRED_SETUP.command"


I assumed that it is used so that Mac would recognize the plugin but when I try to open that file in terminal it says the same error above. Now, my ignorant self tried to do a workaround and opened Terminal using the spotlight search and just copy and pasted the code inside the command file to terminal directly. The code inside is "CURRENT_LOCATION=$(dirname "$0")

cd "$CURRENT_LOCATION"

echo

echo "[drumclone setup]"

echo

echo "Clearing quarantine checks."

echo "Location: $CURRENT_LOCATION"

find "$CURRENT_LOCATION" -name 'drumclone*' -exec xattr -d com.apple.quarantine {} \; 2>/dev/null

echo

echo "Done."

"


now after hitting the return button on my keyboard, the terminal then showed this


"dirname: illegal option -- z


usage: dirname string [...]




[drumclone setup]




Clearing quarantine checks.


Location: 


Done."


It was later that I realized that the command code seems to tell the computer to use the current folder location of the command file. What I did is just copy pasted it to Terminal straight up. I don't know if that breaks something in the background without me knowing. Please help me understand what this return message from Terminal means.


I don't know what that means but it bothers me. Did I break my Mac without noticing it or is that something I should not worry about? Please help me have peace of mind. Thank you so much in advance.



Posted on Oct 17, 2024 7:20 AM

Reply
3 replies

Oct 17, 2024 6:50 PM in response to cooldy21

Of all the commands the 'xattr' command used here is only removing the quarantine flag. Plus it probably caused the "CURRENT_LOCATION" to be an empty value (I'm not certain on this). You got really lucky this time I think.


FYI, never run any Terminal commands without fully understanding what they do. There are no safety nets when using the command line. Even people with decades of command line experience can make a catastrophic mistake just by typing one incorrect character. And you should make sure to have a good backup as well so if a catastrophic mistake is made, you can at least recover the data from the backup.


As for your plugin, does the developer confirm it is fully compatible with macOS 15.x Sequoia? macOS Sequoia has changed how third party software from unidentified developers is processed by Gatekeeper. You should be contacting the developer of your third party software for assistance. It is up to them to make sure it is fully compatible with the OS. I'm not entirely clear on the new behavior of Gatekeeper, so I cannot provide any more assistance in that area.

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Did I mess up my Mac?

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