Install and debug iOS apps from the command line. Designed to work on un-jailbroken devices.
- 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 just Command Line Tools!)
See our milestones.
The 1.x branch has been archived (renamed for now), all development is to be on the master branch for simplicity, since the planned 2.x development (break out commands into their own files) has been abandoned for now.
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.
Run:
npm install && npm test
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:
- Add the
--unsafe-perm=true
flag when installing ios-deploy - Add the
--allow-root
flag when installing ios-deploy - Ensure the
nobody
user has write access to/usr/local/lib/node_modules/ios-deploy/ios-deploy
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
-s, --envs <envs> environment variables, space separated key-value pairs, 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
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, debug and pass environment variables to a connected device
ios-deploy --debug --envs DYLD_PRINT_STATISTICS=1 --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
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, modifyIOS_SDK_VERSION
in the Makefile.make debug
will install demo.app and launch a LLDB session.
--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.