ios-deploy

Install and debug iOS apps without using Xcode. Designed to work on un-jailbroken devices.

Requirements

• Mac OS X. Tested on 10.11 El Capitan, 10.12 Sierra, iOS 9.0 and iOS 10.0
• You need to have a valid iOS Development certificate installed.
• Xcode 7 or greater should be installed (NOT Command Line Tools!)

Roadmap

See our milestones.

Significant changes:

1.8.0 will use an Xcode project instead of a Makefile (to prepare for 2.0.0) (1.x branch)
2.0.0 will break out the commands into their own files, and create ios-deploy-lib for node.js use (master branch)

Development

The legacy 1.x version is under the 1.x branch. Bug fixes for the 1.x series will occur under there. The 'master' branch now contains the 2.x series, and is the development branch.

Installation

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ios-deploy installation is made simple using the node.js package manager. If you use Homebrew, install node.js:

brew install node

Now install ios-deploy with the node.js package manager:

npm install -g ios-deploy

To build from source:

xcodebuild

This will build ios-deploy into the build/Release folder.

Testing

Run:

npm install && npm test

OS X 10.11 El Capitan or greater

If you are not using a node version manager like nvm or n, you may have to do either of these three things below when under El Capitan:

1. Add the --unsafe-perm=true flag when installing ios-deploy
2. Add the --allow-root flag when installing ios-deploy
3. Ensure the nobody user has write access to /usr/local/lib/node_modules/ios-deploy/ios-deploy

Usage

Usage: ios-deploy [OPTION]...
    -d, --debug                  launch the app in lldb after installation
    -i, --id <device_id>         the id of the device to connect to
    -c, --detect                 only detect if the device is connected
    -b, --bundle <bundle.app>    the path to the app bundle to be installed
    -a, --args <args>            command line arguments to pass to the app when launching it
    -t, --timeout <timeout>      number of seconds to wait for a device to be connected
    -u, --unbuffered             don't buffer stdout
    -n, --nostart                do not start the app when debugging
    -I, --noninteractive         start in non interactive mode (quit when app crashes or exits)
    -L, --justlaunch             just launch the app and exit lldb
    -v, --verbose                enable verbose output
    -m, --noinstall              directly start debugging without app install (-d not required)
    -p, --port <number>          port used for device, default: dynamic
    -r, --uninstall              uninstall the app before install (do not use with -m; app cache and data are cleared) 
    -9, --uninstall_only         uninstall the app ONLY. Use only with -1 <bundle_id> 
    -1, --bundle_id <bundle id>  specify bundle id for list and upload
    -l, --list                   list files
    -o, --upload <file>          upload file
    -w, --download               download app tree
    -2, --to <target pathname>   use together with up/download file/tree. specify target
    -D, --mkdir <dir>            make directory on device
    -R, --rm <path>              remove file or directory on device (directories must be empty)
    -V, --version                print the executable version 
    -e, --exists                 check if the app with given bundle_id is installed or not 
    -B, --list_bundle_id         list bundle_id 
    -W, --no-wifi                ignore wifi devices
    --detect_deadlocks <sec>     start printing backtraces for all threads periodically after specific amount of seconds

Examples

The commands below assume that you have an app called my.app with bundle id bundle.id. Substitute where necessary.

// deploy and debug your app to a connected device
ios-deploy --debug --bundle my.app

// deploy and debug your app to a connected device, skipping any wi-fi connection (use USB)
ios-deploy --debug --bundle my.app --no-wifi

// deploy and launch your app to a connected device, but quit the debugger after
ios-deploy --justlaunch --debug --bundle my.app

// deploy and launch your app to a connected device, quit when app crashes or exits
ios-deploy --noninteractive --debug --bundle my.app

// Upload a file to your app's Documents folder
ios-deploy --bundle_id 'bundle.id' --upload test.txt --to Documents/test.txt

// Download your app's Documents, Library and tmp folders
ios-deploy --bundle_id 'bundle.id' --download --to MyDestinationFolder

// List the contents of your app's Documents, Library and tmp folders
ios-deploy --bundle_id 'bundle.id' --list

// deploy and debug your app to a connected device, uninstall the app first
ios-deploy --uninstall --debug --bundle my.app

// check whether an app by bundle id exists on the device (check return code `echo $?`)
ios-deploy --exists --bundle_id com.apple.mobilemail

// Download the Documents directory of the app *only*
ios-deploy --download=/Documents --bundle_id my.app.id --to ./my_download_location

// List ids and names of connected devices
ios-deploy -c

// Uninstall an app
ios-deploy --uninstall_only --bundle_id my.bundle.id

// list all bundle ids of all apps on your device
ios-deploy --list_bundle_id

Demo

The included demo.app represents the minimum required to get code running on iOS.

• make demo.app will generate the demo.app executable. If it doesn't compile, modify IOS_SDK_VERSION in the Makefile.
• make debug will install demo.app and launch a LLDB session.

Notes

• --detect_deadlocks can help to identify an exact state of application's threads in case of a deadlock. It works like this: The user specifies the amount of time ios-deploy runs the app as usual. When the timeout is elapsed ios-deploy starts to print call-stacks of all threads every 5 seconds and the app keeps running. Comparing threads' call-stacks between each other helps to identify the threads which were stuck.