asctl(1) BSD General Commands Manual asctl(1)NAMEasctl — App Sandbox Control Tool
SYNOPSISasctl [-p] [--container-path <path>] command [arguments]
DESCRIPTION
Many commands require an application specification as one of their argu‐
ments. Applications can be specified any of the following ways:
<name> The application name as it appears in the Applications folder,
with or without the .app extension. For example, "TextEdit".
<path> The path to the application binary or bundle. For example,
"/Applications/TextEdit.app".
--file <path>
Explicitly indicate the following argument is to be interpreted
as the path to the application binary or bundle. The --file flag
removes ambiguity when an argument can be interpreted as either
an application name or a valid path to an application. For exam‐
ple, "--file /Applications/TextEdit.app".
--bundle <bundle Id>
Interpret the following argument as the bunder identifier of the
application. For example, "--bundle com.apple.TextEdit".
--pid <process Id>
Interpret the following argument as the process identifier of a
running application. For example, "--pid 1".
GENERAL COMMANDS
help Prints a summary of commands and their behaviours.
sandbox check <app specification>
Determines with the given application is signed with App Sandbox
entitlements. In addition, if the application is specified by
pid using the --pid syntax, prints out whether the application is
actually running with App Sandbox enabled, a traditional sandbox,
or no sandbox at all.
CONTAINER MANAGEMENT COMMANDS
The following commands manage filesystem containers for sandboxed apps.
container path <app specification>
Print the path to the application's container.
container create <app specification>
Create and initialize the application's container. Containers
are normally created automatically when sandboxed applications
are run. This command creates the container for an application
without running the application.
container upgrade <app specification>
Upgrade the application's container to the current container
schema. Existing containers are normally automatically upgraded
to the latest container schema when their associated applications
are run. This command upgrades an existing container without
running the associated application.
CONTAINER ACL MANAGEMENT COMMANDS
Each container has an access control list comprised of code requirements.
A sandboxed application must satify one or more of the code requirements
on their container in order to run.
The following commands manipulate the container's access control list:
container acl add <app specification>
Update the access control list for the application's container
to include the application's designated code requirement.
container acl add <app specification> <code requirement>
Update the access control list for the application's container
to include the specified code requirement.
container acl update <app specification>
Update the access control list for the application's container
such that it consists of only the application's designated code
requirement. Any other code requirements will be removed from
the ACL.
container acl list <app specification>
Print list of code requirements in the access control list for
the given application's container.
container acl validate <app specification>
Validate the application against each of the code requirements
in its container's access control list. Each code requirement
in the ACL is labeled with one of the following:
[FAIL] application does not validate against code requirement.
[VALID] application validates against code requirement.
[EXACT] application validates against code requirement and code
requirement is the same as the application's designated
code requirement.
container acl verify <app specification>
Synonym for acl validate.
SYMLINK SUPPORT COMMANDS
App Sandbox will follow any symlinks in the paths to users' home directo‐
ries. In addition, it has a whitelist of other locations where it will
acknowledge and honor symbolic links. Any symlinks not in this whitelist
will not be followed and, as a result, App Sandboxed applications will
not have access to the paths that the symlinks refer to.
The following command displays the whitelist of paths where App Sandbox
will acknowledge symlinks at:
symlink list <path ...>
Display the list of paths that App Sandbox searches for symlinks
and, for any paths that are symlinks, display where the symlinks
currently resolve to.
DIAGNOSTIC COMMAND
Collect diagnostic information related to Application Sandboxing and con‐
tainers. The information is collected into a single file that can be
sent to Apple to aid in diagnosing problems when an application runs
inside of a sandbox. Should you choose to send the diagnostic informa‐
tion to Apple, then you must agree to this disclaimer:
This diagnostic tool generates files that allow Apple to investigate
issues with your computer and help Apple to improve its products. The
generated files may contain some of your personal information, which may
include, but not be limited to, the serial number or similar unique num‐
ber for your device, your user name, your file names or your computer
name. The information is used by Apple in accordance with its privacy
policy (www.apple.com/privacy) and is not shared with any third party.
By enabling this diagnostic tool and sending a copy of the generated
files to Apple, you are consenting to Apple's use of the content of such
files.
Additional information concerning a specific application can be gathered
via the app subcommand. This command must be run as 'root'.
The following command collects diagnostic information:
diagnose [--no-compress | --no-disclaimer | --no-reveal | --no-verbose]
[app <app specification>]
Collection diagnostic information. Outputs the path to the
folder or file containing the information.
Optional arguments:
--no-compress
Do not compress the folder containing the dianostic
files into a Zip file.
--no-disclaimer
Do not show the disclaimer. Use of this option consti‐
tutes acceptance of the disclaimer.
--no-reveal
Do not reveal the resulting diagnostic file in Finder.
--no-verbose
Do not show verbose output while running the diagnos‐
tic.
Optional subcommand:
app <app specification>
Specify an application for which additional information
will be gathered.
GLOBAL OPTIONS-p By default, asctl displays paths relative to the user's home
directory. This flag causes any paths in the output to be dis‐
played as absolute paths instead.
SEE ALSOcodesign(1)HISTORY
The asctl command first appeared in Mac OS X Version 10.7.
BSD February 7, 2012 BSD