ios-deploy

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

Requirements

Mac OS X. Tested on 10.10 Yosemite and iOS 8.1
You need to have a valid iOS development certificate installed.
Xcode 6.1 should be installed

Usage

Usage: ios-deploy [OPTION]...
  -d, --debug                  launch the app in GDB 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: 12345 
  -r, --uninstall              uninstall the app before install (do not use with -m; app cache and data are cleared) 
  -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
  -V, --version                print the executable version

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 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

Demo

The included demo.app represents the minimum required to get code running on iOS.
make install will install demo.app to the device.
make debug will install demo.app and launch a GDB session.

Notes

With some modifications, it may be possible to use this without Xcode installed; however, you would need a copy of the relevant DeveloperDiskImage.dmg (included with Xcode). lldb would also run slower as symbols would be downloaded from the device on-the-fly.

Listing Device Ids

Device Ids are the UDIDs of the iOS devices. From the command line, you can list device ids this way:

    system_profiler SPUSBDataType | sed -n -e '/iPod/,/Serial/p' | sed -n -e '/iPad/,/Serial/p' -e '/iPhone/,/Serial/p' | grep "Serial Number:" | awk -F ": " '{print $2}'

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