ditto returned error code (9) during build

[castagnenicolas-alt]

Hello everyone.

Sorry to spam the issue system if the solution to my problem is evidence... but could not find detail so far.

Wince I upgraded to MacOS 15.7, then upgraded Packages, when running Packages / Build from the GUI, I get the following arror :

ditto returned error code (9)

Using the "build with debug" mode does not help.

When running packagesbuild from the Terminal with the verbose option, I get the following output :

Building Project (12:55:10) at path: XXX_Path_to_my_pkgproj_project_XXXX

Build Folder (done)

Distribution

Package "Genesis"

  Payload

  	Assemble file hierarchy (done)
  	Split forks (done)
  	Create bill of material (done)
  	Create pax archive

==============================================================================
ERROR:

Description:

ditto returned error code (9)

Build Failed

From that point, could you please tell me I should investigate the issue ?

Thanks in advance !

[packagesdev]

Are there very big files in the payload or the sum of all the files is very big?

[bdresher]

I am seeing a similar error with ditto. In my case, there are several .dmg files I am including in a package, and one very big .dmg file. The largest .dmg is 13.82 GB in size, and when I try to build the project either in the packages GUI or command line, I receive the following error with ditto:

Package "Really big package"

	Payload

		Assemble file hierarchy (done)
		Split forks (done)
		Create bill of material (done)
		Create pax archive

==============================================================================
ERROR:

Description:

ditto returned error code (1)
==============================================================================
Build Failed

I considered segmenting the massive .dmg file, but Apple deprecated the segment option several years ago, and while it still appears to work, I am a little hesitant to adopt a technology that will soon be completely unsupported. I am wondering if this is a limitation with ditto which defaults to using cpio archives and is subject to the cpio 8 GB file limit.

If ditto were used with the -k option, would this overcome this limitation? What other suggestions do you have?

[bdresher]

As a further follow-up to this, the Apple tool /usr/bin/pkgbuild includes an option --large-payload.
From the man page

By default, packages that are created have a per-file size limit associated with them. 
This method instructs pkgbuild to construct a package where the included payload format supports large files.
A large file is defined as any file that is 8 GiB or larger.

Warning: The --large-payload option generates packages that are only compatible with macOS Monterey (12.0) and above.
Packages using this feature will fail to install or extract on previous releases.
Specifying this option requires the user to pass [--min-os-version 12.0] or later to acknowledge this requirement.

Will something like this be implemented in packages to support payloads of larger files when needed?