JamfRecipeMaker

JamfRecipeMaker is an AutoPkg pre- or post-processor designed to write a .jamf recipe based on information gathered during the run of an existing recipe. It currently supports the following recipe types:

• .pkg recipes
• .jss recipes

It is able to output the following recipe types:

• -pkg-upload.jamf recipes: these recipes will upload a package to Jamf Pro. A supplied package category is added to the package data. Optionally, the category will be created if not already existing on the Jamf server.
• .jamf recipes: these recipes will upload a package to Jamf Pro, and create a smart group and a policy. These are functionally equivalent to "standard" .jss recipes. A supplied package category is added to the package data, and a category and icon are added to the policy. Optionally, the categories will be created if not already existing on the Jamf server. The VersionRegexGenerator processor can also be optionally added.

How it works

Run a .pkg or .jss recipe from the command line, and add JamfRecipeMaker as a pre-processor or post-processor.

Make a -pkg-upload.jamf recipe

Here we are running Flux.pkg and generating Flux-pkg-upload.jamf in the current directory:

autopkg run Flux.pkg --post com.github.grahampugh.recipes.commonprocessors/JamfRecipeMaker

Note that you are actually running the recipe - the package will be downloaded to your computer. As with any recipe, you need to have added the repo containing the recipe to run it.

You may also run the recipe as a pre-processor. In this case, the recipe is created at the start of the run, so it doesn't need to complete. This also means you can run in check-only mode (-c) to speed things up.

autopkg run -c Flux.pkg --pre com.github.grahampugh.recipes.commonprocessors/JamfRecipeMaker

This will create a recipe with the default identifier-prefix of com.github.autopkg.grahampugh-recipes. You probably want to change this. You can do this with the RECIPE_IDENTIFIER_PREFIX key:

autopkg run Flux.pkg --key RECIPE_IDENTIFIER_PREFIX=com.company.recipes --post com.github.grahampugh.recipes.commonprocessors/JamfRecipeMaker

Make a .jamf recipe

To make a full .jamf recipe which is completely equivalent to "standard" .jss recipes, set the make_policy key to True.

It is advisable to run an existing .jss recipe to make a .jamf recipe, so that the values of SELF_SERVICE_DESCRIPTION and POLICY_CATEGORY can be obtained automatically:

autopkg run Flux.jss --key make_policy=True --post com.github.grahampugh.recipes.commonprocessors/JamfRecipeMaker

Please note that the JamfRecipeMaker does not currently check the existing .jss recipe for scripts, extension attributes or other non-standard settings. This is because scripts and extension attributes are handled in a very different way in .jamf recipes in comparison to .jss recipes, so these recipes need to be developed manually. However, the auto-generated recipe can still be useful as a basis for adding the script and/or extension attribute, or any other app-specific settings.

Option: create the category if it doesn't exist

To ensure the categories specified in the recipe will be created if they don't exist, set the make_categories key to True:

autopkg run Flux.pkg --key make_categories=True --post com.github.grahampugh.recipes.commonprocessors/JamfRecipeMaker

Option: Set an output directory

The default output directory is ., that is, whatever directory you are running autopkg in. This can be overridden with the RECIPE_OUTPUT_PATH key:

autopkg run Flux.pkg --key RECIPE_OUTPUT_PATH=/path/to/my/recipe-repo/Jamf_Pkg_Upload_Recipes --post com.github.grahampugh.recipes.commonprocessors/JamfRecipeMaker 

Option: create recipes in PLIST format

Recipes are created in YAML format by default. The recipe filename is automatically generated based on the NAME key, with spaces removed, for example if the name is Microsoft PowerPoint, the recipe filename will become MicrosoftPowerPoint-pkg-upload.jamf.recipe.yaml, or if make_policy is set to True, the filename will be MicrosoftPowerPoint.jamf.recipe.yaml.

If you would prefer to create recipes in PLIST format, set the format key to plist:

autopkg run Microsoft\ PowerPoint.jss --key format=plist --post com.github.grahampugh.recipes.commonprocessors/JamfRecipeMaker

In this case, a PLIST recipe is created and the recipe filename will become MicrosoftPowerPoint-pkg-upload.jamf.recipe. If make_policy is set to True, the filename will be MicrosoftPowerPoint.jamf.recipe.

Run a recipe list to create multiple new recipes at once

If you have an existing recipe list of .jss recipes, simply run the list with the post-processor and all recipes will be created at once.

autopkg run --recipe-list /path/to/my-jss-recipe-list.txt --post com.github.grahampugh.recipes.commonprocessors/JamfRecipeMaker

Note that if this is run as a post-processor, it will not run if the recipe has failed or been stopped, for example if there is no new package and STOP_IF_NO_JSS_UPLOAD is not set to False. To overcome the latter, run as a pre-processor.

autopkg run --recipe-list /path/to/my-jss-recipe-list.txt --pre com.github.grahampugh.recipes.commonprocessors/JamfRecipeMaker

Alternatively, you can set STOP_IF_NO_JSS_UPLOAD to False in your run - but be aware that this will overwrite existing policies and smart groups on your Jamf Pro server.

autopkg run --recipe-list /path/to/my-jss-recipe-list.txt --key STOP_IF_NO_JSS_UPLOAD=False --post com.github.grahampugh.recipes.commonprocessors/JamfRecipeMaker

Default templates

The JamfRecipeMaker processor assumes a default smart group template exists in the same repo as the generated recipe, named JamfSmartGroupTemplate.xml, and that a default policy template named JamfPolicyTemplate.xml also exists in the same repo. These values can be overridden, however.

Setting your own defaults

You can add any of the keys mentioned above into your autopkg preferences file, so that you don't have to add --key X=Y every time. Use the defaults command to add your defaults into the autopkg prefs:

defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.github.autopkg.plist RECIPE_OUTPUT_PATH /path/to/my/recipe-repo/Jamf_Recipes
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.github.autopkg.plist RECIPE_IDENTIFIER_PREFIX com.acme.autopkg-recipes
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.github.autopkg.plist make_policy -bool YES
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.github.autopkg.plist make_categories -bool YES
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.github.autopkg.plist format plist