Core Tunnel on Mac App Store

Core Tunnel Request Feature
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1

Will you publish Core Tunnel on the Mac App Store? I’m hoping you will.

2

We hope we can, actually we really like Mac App Store just as you.

But, there is always a “but” :joy:, it means functionalities will be reduced, Apple has very strict resource access limitation for apps selling on Mac App Store, following functions will be affected:

  1. May not able to access ssh-agent for authentication
  2. Can not use privileged ports (0~1024)
  3. ForwardAgent may not work
  4. ProxyCommand will not work
  5. LocalCommand will not work
  6. ControlMaster will not work
  7. Could not use /etc/ssh_config and ~/.ssh/ssh_config directly, all options must be configured manually
  8. Users must manually select every private key / certificate file they want to use

App Store Review Guidelines has a long list “Don’ts”, some of those restrictions may be appropriate for general purpose apps, like games or productivity tools, but obviously false for developer / techie tools like Core Tunnel.

You may argue that some of developer tools like Xcode also can be downloaded from Mac App Store, but, it’s Apple’s app. Famous apps has large userbase have leverage to negotiate with Apple, but not for apps in niche market, still, like Core Tunnel. I even saw some apps selling on MAS doesn’t sandboxed (which is a mandatory requirement).

We will try to consult Apple’s review team, but according to our previous experience with Apple, that might be a pie in the sky.

If you search google for keywords, you will see lots of apps began selling outside of Mac App Store: Google “Leave Mac App Store”

So, you may see a cut version of Core Tunnel on Mac App Store, but will be never full function, and the smooth experience will be broke.

I hope this explains :slight_smile:

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3

Understand. Highly appreciate you listing many of the reasons! An approach by some apps has been to offer a Helper application to the Mac App Store version, completing the functionality. Since I prefer installing via MAS for the extra scrutiny (while of course never perfect), I’ve encouraged some of them to open-source only the helper. I don’t feel that’s necessarily the way you should go.

In any case I’ll be following your developments. Continue working the way you do.

4

Thank you so much for understanding and supporting! Could you please tell some of those apps use helper tool to extend functionality, I’ll investigate how they did it, and see if the approach can be used in Core Tunnel.

5

One I recall immediately is Paste.

https://pasteapp.me/helper

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6

We did a lot of effort on reconstructing Core Tunnel, and it is now on Mac App Store! :tada::tada::tada:

As of version 1.1.2, it contains all functionalities in version 1.0, plus Sync and AppleScript features that promised in version 1.0.

All existing 1.0 users will receive an email contains a lifetime premium license of App Store version.

I must say thank you @jooize, your suggestion inspired us and helped us to find out a solution that finally makes Core Tunnel could landing App Store, while without sacrificing a certain level of feature or function.

I hope you won’t mind that in next update, we’d like to add your name to “Special Thanks” in About window.

Thank you again for your inspiration! :rose:

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