While waiting for a long-running QGIS process to finish I was reminded that macOS 10.9 (“Mavericks”) introduced a feature called App Nap, which suspends or pauses applications that aren’t visible on screen. A few seconds after I switching away from the Spaces virtual desktop that QGIS was running on, macOS would suspend QGIS, preventing the process I was waiting on from ever completing. In earlier versions of macOS there was a checkbox to disable App Nap on a per-application basis in the Get Info window for the app.

If you’ve ever wondered what files are strewn about your hard disk when you install a package on your Mac, there’s an easy way to find out! Just open the package and select “Show Files” from the File menu in Installer. You’ll get a window that lists all the files included in the .pkg file.