Question

I have been developing a Cydia tweak called BrightnessControl (I am very new to developing). For now, all it does is use Winterboard to patch var/stash/Applications/Brightness.plist with my modified version. Is there a way, maybe with Theos, that I can patch this file without Winterboard? I am wanting to back this file up somehow and replace it with my modified .plist upon imstall, and then upon un-install delete my modified .plist and restore the original .plist. I have seen something like this done with other tweaks, but I don’t know how this is done. May anyone please push me in the right direction?

Answer 1

You don’t even need to know programming to do this. The trick is inside the Debian packages’ postinst and prerm scripts.

Edit: as per @Nate’s comments: beware, because these scripts also run upon updating a package. So, for example, a package with one update which is then removed would do this:

1st installation:
run preinst
(APT installs your package)
run postinst

update:
run prerm of the old version
(APT removes old version)
run postrm of old version

run preinst of new version
(APT installs new version)
run postinst of new version

removal:
run prerm of new version
(APT removes the new version... you no longer have the package)
run postrm of new version