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Whats the best approach for generating an IPA file from command-line?

I'm on xcode 4.2 and generating the archive using:

xcodebuild -scheme AppStore clean archive

This generates the .dSYM and .app files in the build output directory, after codesigning. How should I proceed to generate the .ipa file? In other words, I'm looking for the command-line equivalent of doing the following in GUI

  1. Organizer - Archives
  2. Share
  3. iOS App Store Package
  4. Don't Re-sign

Thanks!

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3 Answers 3

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19

The missing piece is using the PackageApplication utility.

/usr/bin/xcrun -sdk iphoneos PackageApplication -v $FULL_PATH_TO_APP -o $OUTPUT_PATH

You can also pass this script options for resigning, and profile embedding. Using the --sign and --embed flags respectively.

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5 Comments

How can I access $FULL_PATH_TO_APP? If I'm building the app, instead of archiving, I could use BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR. Whats the equivalent of BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR for Archive product dir? I know I could change the location of archive dir to a custom location, but I would hate to have that dependency. Thanks for the answer!
BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR should work for archive as well, but I thought you said you weren't archiving, but doing a normal build?
No, I'm archiving, but the .app files aren't in BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR, which is /Users/vasanth/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Foo-drauzdtlrihjsddujotyhbjojcpa/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/Foo.app rather its available here: /Users/vasanth/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Foo-drauzdtlrihjsddujotyhbjojcpa/ArchiveIntermediates/Debug/InstallationBuildProductsLocation/Applications/Foo.app. But I just realized that I could use $INSTALL_DIR instead of $BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR.
I like that answer more stackoverflow.com/questions/5640776/…
This is no longer a valid answer PackageApplication does not exist
8

This tool makes it trivial to build (and distribute): https://github.com/nomad/shenzhen

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1 Comment

This tool is a really great solution. Thanks for posting.
7

After Archive, you need to "Export" to desired format ie ipa:

xcodebuild -sdk iphoneos7.0 -archivePath "path to archive file" -exportPath "path_for_export" -exportFormat ipa -exportArchive -exportProvisioningProfile "provisioning_profile_to_export_with"

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