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Xctool: a replacement for xcodebuild to build and test iOS and Mac projects

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Re: Xctool: a replacement for xcodebuild to build and test iOS and Mac projects

#12

Post by orta »

rogerbinns wrote: post #3

I'm incredibly frustrated by the lack of command line dev tools for iOS. For example using adb with Android, I can stop a running app, clear all of its data and start it again. I can push and pull files and can dissect the internal state as a result. I do find various unmaintained tools for iOS as they generally use undocumented and changing backends. My current biggest need is to grab and put files in the app sandbo…

I have a library that does this for simulator apps in iOS: http://github.com/orta/chairs/ - but as you say, undocumented , unofficial & hacky

Re: Xctool: a replacement for xcodebuild to build and test iOS and Mac projects

#14

Post by jsankey »

puls wrote: post #4

"Runs the same tests as Xcode.app." If this works, it's huge. Mad excited about this.

Agreed. When first I encountered these differences with xcodebuild I found it incredible that the IDE and command line builds are not based on the same backend (indeed the IDE could just wrap the command line tools if well-designed).

Every project's main build should be scriptable -- for reproducible releases, continuous integration etc. I wonder how Apple internally builds things for release when something this simple doesn't work (maybe they don't use OCUnit?).

Re: Xctool: a replacement for xcodebuild to build and test iOS and Mac projects

#17

Post by rogerbinns »

orta wrote: post #12
rogerbinns wrote: post #3

I'm incredibly frustrated by the lack of command line dev tools for iOS. For example using adb with Android, I can stop a running app, clear all of its data and start it again. I can push and pull files and can dissect the internal state as a result. I do find various unmaintained tools for iOS as they generally use undocumented and changing backends. My current biggest need is to grab and put files in the app sandbo…

I have a library that does this for simulator apps in iOS: http://github.com/orta/chairs/ - but as you say, undocumented , unofficial & hacky

For various reasons I need this mostly for real devices which is even less documented, official and more hacky :-)

Re: Xctool: a replacement for xcodebuild to build and test iOS and Mac projects

#18

Post by orta »

rogerbinns wrote: post #17
orta wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a library that does this for simulator apps in iOS: http://github.com/orta/chairs/ - but as you say, undocumented , unofficial & hacky

For various reasons I need this mostly for real devices which is even less documented, official and more hacky :-)

well, TBH, apps like iExplorer exist. If I can find out how that can access the device's filesystem I can probably do the same and support device & sim. I'll make a github issue.

Re: Xctool: a replacement for xcodebuild to build and test iOS and Mac projects

#19

Post by rogerbinns »

orta wrote: post #18
rogerbinns wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For various reasons I need this mostly for real devices which is even less documented, official and more hacky :-)

well, TBH, apps like iExplorer exist. If I can find out how that can access the device's filesystem I can probably do the same and support device & sim. I'll make a github issue.

Cool. iExplorer even has a Fuse module which would be perfect except it is extremely buggy. You have to use the gui to mount, and can only mount an application sandbox not one level up. If the app is uninstalled/reinstalled they lose the plot. (They never responded to my bug reports and inquiries. The iFunbox folks didn't either - seems to be a pattern with these kind of tools for Mac.)
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