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The AI deleted every app I had installed on my Mac while packaging a dmg

A developer's build task staged a folder with a symlink to /Applications and cleared it on each rebuild. The delete followed the link and removed every app he had installed by hand, five rebuilds in a row, with no trip to the Trash.

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How it works

  1. His packaging task stages a folder holding a symlink to /Applications
  2. At each rebuild it deletes that folder's contents
  3. The delete follows the symlink into /Applications
  4. Every app his account could write to is unlinked, across five runs
  5. System apps survive because they are protected
  6. He finds Firefox and Chrome gone and asks what happened

Why it’s worth knowing

The build task's own cleanup followed a shortcut into the real Applications folder and emptied it, five times over.

Where it’s from

Summarized from a public post on github.com. See the original ↗

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