Subject: 29.0.50; [PATCH] Document a macOS error message when opening Emacs for the first time

From: Daniel Martín <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2021 19:53:20 +0100

As requested at
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2021-11/msg00152.html,
the attached patch documents a problem that may happen when Emacs is
opened on macOS for the first time.

>From 4b5c1a8d6922a601238db3d7bd4b1397fae4a395 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?Daniel=20Mart=C3=ADn?= <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2021 19:45:18 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Document a macOS error message when opening Emacs

* etc/PROBLEMS: Document a potential error message when opening Emacs
on macOS for the first time.
---
 etc/PROBLEMS | 15 +++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+)

diff --git a/etc/PROBLEMS b/etc/PROBLEMS
index daff102a0d..c1c5d80d3b 100644
--- a/etc/PROBLEMS
+++ b/etc/PROBLEMS
@@ -2749,6 +2749,21 @@ If you do, please send it to [email-masked] so we can list it here.
 
 * Runtime problems specific to macOS
 
+** Error "Emacs can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software".
+
+Apple may incorrectly catalog Emacs as potentially malicious software
+and show an error that resembles the following when you try to open
+Emacs for the first time:
+
+  "Emacs" can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious
+  software. This software needs to be updated. Contact the developer
+  for more information.
+
+To avoid this alert, open Finder, go to Applications, control-click
+the Emacs app icon, and then choose Open.  This adds a security
+exception for Emacs and from now on you should be able to open it by
+double-clicking on its icon, like any other app.
+
 ** macOS doesn't come with libxpm, so only XPM3 is supported.
 
 Libxpm is available for macOS as part of the XQuartz project.
-- 
2.31.0