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Signing and Notarization FAQ: what changed

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11## Questions and Answers
22
33**Question:** Official Mac page (which assumes Xcode) says one must bind to 10.9 SDK but can deploy/target older macOS releases for hardening/notarization: <https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/notarizing_macos_software_before_distribution>
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55So has anyone here tried? If I target 10.9 instead of 10.8 (which I currently do to avoid some compilation problems when targeting older) I believe I will hinder my software in running on old macOS versions.
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77**Answer:** I don't have any idea about the necessity in terms of notarisation, but it's perfectly possible to link against a newer SDK (-XR) while targeting an older macOS version (-WM). The two have been decoupled by Apple since quite a while now.
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99*Source: <https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,47637.0.html>*
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1212
1313**Question:** Is notarization/hardening necessary at present in Catalina?
1414
1515**Answer:** You can still open non-codesigned/non-notarized applications on Catalina in exactly the same way as on older macOS versions: via right-click or control-click -\> Open. The main difference in Catalina is that codesigning is basically useless now without notarization, because it will still result in a warning and the requirement for the right-click/control-click workaround.
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1717*Source: <https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,47636.0.html>*
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2020
2121**Question:** Code signing fails with *errSecInternalComponent*. What's wrong?
2222
2323**Answer:** If you are using an ssh session to the Apple computer, this occurs when the login keychain is locked. Before attempting code signing, unlock the login keychain with this command:
2424
25-` $ security unlock-keychain login.keychain`
25+```text
26+ $ security unlock-keychain login.keychain
27+```
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2830
2931**Question:** My application is notarised successfully but is still denied by Gatekeeper. Why?
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3133**Answer:** Notarising your application is necessary to pass Gatekeeper, but it’s not sufficient. Gatekeeper has its own array of checks, and it’s easy to trip over one of those checks even though notarisation is successful. It’s not always easy to work out why Gatekeeper is unhappy. See [[macOS Gatekeeper Debugging Tips]].
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3335*Source: <https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/125567>*
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3638
3739**Question:** My notarised application was working without complaint on macOS 10.15 but not on macOS 10.14. Why?
3840
3941**Answer:** You should always set *CFBundlePackageType* to *APPL* in your application `Info.plist` file.
4042
4143*Source: <https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/77430>*
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4446
4547## See also
4648
4749- [[Notarization for macOS 10.14.5+]]
4850- [[Code Signing for macOS]]
4951- [[macOS Gatekeeper Debugging Tips]]
5052
5153---
5254*From the Free Pascal wiki, page "Signing and Notarization FAQ", as it stood on 2021-09-11 after a change by Trev, out of the wiki's dump of 2024-05-26. Copyright stays with the author who wrote it, according to the old wiki's [[Licensing]] page. If you have concerns about this material, [message the admin](/wiki-contact).*

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