Encountered a strange error when using hdiutil to create a dmg file in OSX 10.7.5

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Encountered a strange error when using hdiutil to create a dmg file in OSX 10.7.5

Hello all,

I encountered a very strange issue that when I use hdiutil to create a dmg file in OS 10.7.5. My commands and the result as below.

/usr/bin/hdiutil create -ov -fs HFS+ -srcfolder "/dummy/myApp" "myApp.dmg"

......................................................................

diskimages-helper: resize request is above maximum size allowed.

hdiutil: create failed - Invalid argument

The total size of myApp is about 200MB, so I don't think it is above maximum size allowed. Another very interesting thing is if I double click the myApp folder to create a temp file .DS_Store in myApp, then re-run the commands and it works. Does anyone know why it is or how to fix it?

Thanks,

-xixu

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Jan 16, 2013 5:25 AM

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Answer 1

phil@sap

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Jun 18, 2013 1:51 PM in response to xixu

I have encountered the same problem on 10.8.

By adding the -debug flag, I see that hdiutil is trying to grow the DMG by 2 blocks (1 KB) after copying all of the files in. I wonder if this is for alignment purposes? I have not tried playing with alignment settings.

The empty file trick worked. I used .Trash, though if I then add -scrub to the command line, the problem returns.

I eventually settled on working around this by adding -stretch 1g to the command line. Interestingly, -stretch 4g did not help.

It would be nice if Apple would have a look at this issue and confirm whether this is a bug or expected behaviour.

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Answer 2

msuper69

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8,705 points

Jun 18, 2013 1:52 PM in response to phil@sap

What's stopping you from filing a bug report?

That's how Apple prioritizes most user reported bugs (by the number of bug reports filed) and is the best way to get something fixed (if it's broke).

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Answer 3

phil@sap

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Jun 18, 2013 2:01 PM in response to msuper69

I just assumed that something called an "Apple Support Community" would have the ear of Apple's Support. My mistake. I will file a bug.

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Answer 4

xixu Author

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Jun 18, 2013 5:45 PM in response to phil@sap

Sorry for my ignorance. Where I can find the filed bug?

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Answer 5

msuper69

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8,705 points

Jun 18, 2013 8:38 PM in response to xixu

You file bug reports here: https://bugreport.apple.com/

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Answer 6

Jan 31, 2014 5:51 PM in response to xixu

I'm late to the party, but this may help someone: Creating .Trash alone didn't help... but as soon as I deleted .DStore all was well again :-)

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Answer 7

pagej97

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May 28, 2015 4:05 PM in response to xixu

I'm even later to the party:

You can optionally specify a '-size' parameter when you invoke hdiutil. If you specify a size large enough that the disk image doesn't need to be resized during .dmg creation, it seems you can avoid this error.

E.g.:

hdiutil create -size 240m -fs HFS+ -srcfolder test -volname Test test.dmg

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