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A disk icon representing this 'virtual disk' will appear in the Finder, and when you are finished with the virtual disk, you 'eject' it just as if it were an actual physical disk. These files are called 'disk image' files because when they are opened to access their contents, your computer acts as if an actual physical removable disk (such as USB thumb drive or – for you old-timers – a floppy disk) had been inserted.

#EXTRACT DMG IMAGE FULL#

A disk image file can be identified by its '.dmg' extension (meaning that its full filename ends with the suffix '.dmg'). You will need to follow the rest of the instructions below, however.ĭisk images are a way of packaging several files together for convenience, so that they can be downloaded and copied as a single file. If you can find that disk, then you can just copy what you want and eject the virtual disk, skipping the initial step of mounting the disk. A Finder window might even open automatically showing you the contents of the virtual disk.

If so, you should be able to locate the corresponding virtual disk on your Desktop that is the result of the automatic mounting. Skip this step: Your browser may automatically open (i.e. A 'Software.dmg' file should be produced. What you do: Find the '' file that you downloaded (wherever your browser is configured to put files that you download).

#EXTRACT DMG IMAGE SOFTWARE#

Double-clicking a typical Stick Software product's '' file should produce a 'Software.dmg' file in the same folder. They can be uncompressed using another utility, gunzip, but in recent versions of OS X the Finder can also uncompress gzip files. These files are called 'gzip' files because they are created by a Unix-based compression utility called gzip. A gzip file can be identified by its '.gz' extension (meaning that its full filename ends with the suffix '.gz'). If you can find that file, you can proceed directly to the next step.Ī gzip file is a compressed version of an ordinary file. If so, you should be able to locate a 'Software.dmg' file somewhere, and that is your download.

#EXTRACT DMG IMAGE DOWNLOAD#

gz files, or your download might have been an uncompressed disk image (i.e. Skip this step: Your browser may automatically decompress. Don't be worried if this is gibberish we will cover this information in much more detail below. On the left is the gzipped disk image, in the center is the disk image file itself, and on the right is the virtual disk mounted when the disk image file is opened (note the exact icons depend on the version of OS X you're running, but they ought to resemble these enough to be recognizable). Here are the icons associated with each step of this process for a download of Measles, our bouncy CPU monitor and desktop companion: To get to the software, you first undo the gzipping process, bringing you back to 'Software.dmg', and then you mount the disk image (making a virtual disk called 'Software', in this example) to get at the software within. This means that the software is first packaged into a disk image, so it ends up with a filename like 'Software.dmg', and then it is gzipped, giving it a filename like '' (for example in practice, it might be '' or ''). Stick Software products are distributed as disk images, sometimes compressed with gzip. Without these extensions, it is more difficult to determine what type the Finder considers different files to be, and the rest of this page will make a lot less sense.

Now you will be able to see the '.gz' and '.dmg' file extensions on the ends of the names of files on your disks (as well as many other kinds of file extensions). Just switch to the Finder, select 'Preferences' from the Finder menu, select the 'Advanced' settings, and check the checkbox labelled 'Show all filename extensions'. You are just hiding useful information from yourself, and once you turn extensions on, you will soon become so accustomed to them that you will wonder how you ever managed without them. Before we even get into that, however, we will touch briefly on gzip files, since Stick Software disk images are sometimes compressed using gzip.īefore we begin with that, however: if you have your Finder preferences set to hide extensions, you should change that. The purpose of this page is to help users who are unfamiliar with disk images get started. Disk images are easy to use once you know how, but many users initially find them confusing. Stick Software products are distributed using a packaging method called a disk image.

Extract dmg image