"mist list installer Ventura" misses 13.2 and below versions

[Alexey-Ayupov]

:beetle: Description

While executing mist list installer Ventura or mist list installer, macOS versions 13.2 and below are missing.

:clipboard: Steps to Reproduce

1. Run mist list installer Ventura
2. observe macOS versions above 13.2 only

┌─────────┬────────────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬─────────┬──────────┐ │ IDENTIFIER │ NAME │ VERSION │ BUILD │ SIZE │ DATE │ COMPATIBLE │ ├─────────┼────────────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼─────────┼──────────┤ │ 032-69593 │ macOS Ventura │ 13.5 │ 22G74 │ 11.95 GB │ 2023-07-24 │ True │ │ 042-01917 │ macOS Ventura │ 13.4.1 │ 22F82 │ 11.80 GB │ 2023-06-28 │ True │ │ 042-01860 │ macOS Ventura │ 13.4.1 │ 22F2083 │ 10.40 GB │ 2023-06-21 │ False │ │ 032-84608 │ macOS Ventura │ 13.4 │ 22F2073 │ 10.40 GB │ 2023-06-05 │ False │ │ 032-84910 │ macOS Ventura │ 13.4 │ 22F66 │ 11.80 GB │ 2023-05-18 │ True │ │ 002-75541 │ macOS Ventura │ 13.3 │ 22E252 │ 11.79 GB │ 2023-03-27 │ True │ └─────────┴────────────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴─────────┴──────────┘

:white_check_mark: Expected Behaviour

Get all available installers using mist list installer command.

:computer: Environment

• mist version (mist --version): 1.14
• macOS Version (sw_vers): 13.3.1 (22E261)
• Hardware (system_profiler SPHardwareDataType):
  • Model Identifier: Macmini9,1
  • Chip : Apple M1

:camera: Screenshots

n/a

:information_source: Additional context

Not sure if is it really a bug or a feature, but I would like to understand why it is missing and what should we wait for. Will other old versions also disappear or not?

[ninxsoft]

The list of macOS Installers is populated from the Apple Software Update Catalogs (SUCatalog), which are maintained by Apple. By default, mist list installer retrieves the following SUCatalogs:

https://github.com/ninxsoft/mist-cli/blob/d15c9c5ec8513bb8d8e909fad4cfdb1eda92a49f/Mist/Model/Catalog.swift#L18-L30

To answer your question, Apple may remove older versions of macOS installers - most likely ones that have known security vulnerabilities and/or exploits.

Did you have a specific use case for downloading macOS Ventura 13.2 or older?

[Alexey-Ayupov]

Yes, @ninxsoft. We have some reason to generate images based on the 13.2 macOS version. And we are using installers and cannot use firmware, unfortunately.

[ninxsoft]

@Alexey-Ayupov I understand, unfortunately since mist relies on the Apple SUCatalog, we do not currently have a way to offer macOS 13.2 as an installer option.

Your best bet might be to reach out on the MacAdmins Slack, or search via the internet, but YMMV.

I'll close the issue for now, and we can re-open if we discover another path forward 👍