Xcode Build and Archive from command line

Question

Xcode 3 2 provides an awesome new feature under the Build menu   Build and Archive  which generates an  ipa file suitable for Ad Hoc distribution   You can also open the Organizer  go to  Archived Applications   and  Submit Application to iTunesConnect    Is there a way to use  Build and Archive  from the command line  as part of a build script    I d assume that xcodebuild would be involved somehow  but the man page doesn t seem to say anything about this   UPDATE Michael Grinich requested clarification  here s what exactly you can t do with command-line builds  features you can ONLY do with Xcode s Organizer after you  Build and Archive     You can click  Share Application     to share your IPA with beta testers   As Guillaume points out below  due to some Xcode magic  this IPA file does not require a separately distributed  mobileprovision file that beta testers need to install  that s magical  No command-line script can do it   For example  Arrix s script  submitted May 1  does not meet that requirement  More importantly  after you ve beta tested a build  you can click  Submit Application to iTunes Connect  to submit that EXACT same build to Apple  the very binary you tested  without rebuilding it  That s impossible from the command line  because signing the app is part of the build process  you can sign bits for Ad Hoc beta testing OR you can sign them for submission to the App Store  but not both   No IPA built on the command-line can be beta tested on phones and then submitted directly to Apple    I d love for someone to come along and prove me wrong  both of these features work great in the Xcode GUI and cannot be replicated from the command line

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Open Terminal  amp  drag and drop your project folder  cd  Users username Desktop demo  Execute the following commands one by one  Builds app as- quot demo xcodeproj quot  into an archive xcodebuild archive -project demo xcodeproj -scheme demo -archivePath  Users username Desktop demo xcarchive If your app has Podfile fie as- quot demo xcworkspace quot - xcodebuild -workspace Project-Name xcworkspace -scheme Scheme-Name -sdk iphoneos -configuration Release  Provisioning Profile    Provision-Name    Development Team    Team-ID    archive -archivePath  Path To Output AppName xcarchive archive IPA Export Build Command Download ExportOptions plist file from Here xcodebuild -exportArchive -archivePath  Users shilpa Desktop demo xcarchive  -exportPath  Users shilpa Desktop demo ipa  -exportOptionsPlist  Users shilpa Downloads ExportOptions plist You will find  xcarchive to  ipa using terminal details in the article

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For Xcode 7  you have a much simpler solution  The only extra work is that you have to create a configuration plist file for exporting archive    Compared to Xcode 6  in the results of xcrun xcodebuild -help  -exportFormat and -exportProvisioningProfile options are not mentioned any more  the former is deleted  and the latter is superseded by -exportOptionsPlist    Step 1  change directory to the folder including  xcodeproject or  xcworkspace file   cd MyProjectFolder   Step 2  use Xcode or  usr libexec PlistBuddy exportOptions plist to create export options plist file  By the way  xcrun xcodebuild -help will tell you what keys you have to insert to the plist file   Step 3  create  xcarchive file  folder  in fact  as follows build  directory will be automatically created by Xcode right now    xcrun xcodebuild -scheme MyApp -configuration Release archive -archivePath build MyApp xcarchive   Step 4  export as  ipa file like this  which differs from Xcode6  xcrun xcodebuild -exportArchive -exportPath build  -archivePath build MyApp xcarchive  -exportOptionsPlist exportOptions plist   Now  you get an ipa file in build  directory  Just send it to apple App Store   By the way  the ipa file created by Xcode 7 is much larger than by Xcode 6

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I found how to automate the build and archive process from the comand line  I just wrote a blog article explaining how you can achieve that   The command you have to use is xcrun    usr bin xcrun -sdk iphoneos PackageApplication   -v    RELEASE BUILDDIR    APPLICATION NAME  app    -o    BUILD HISTORY DIR    APPLICATION NAME  ipa    --sign    DEVELOPER NAME     --embed    PROVISONING PROFILE     You will find all the details in the article  If you have any questions dont hesitate to ask

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if you use next tool  https   github com nomad shenzhen  then this task is very easy   which ipa 1 gt  dev null 2 gt  amp 1    echo  no shenzhen  to install use  sudo gem install shenzhen --no-ri --no-rdoc  ipa build --verbose --scheme    schemeName     source

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You CAN actually resign a build  just as XCode does  so that you can test and ship the same binary  For example in my script  similar to those above  I build my release version signed as an AdHoc build  then I archive that as an IPA for testing  then resign with my distribution cert and create a zip file  which is what I send to Apple  The relevant line is   codesign -f -vv -s   DistributionIdentity    APPDIR

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Going one step further  uploading to iTunesConnect via commandline with Xcode 7   Assuming you are starting with an  ipa that has been signed with the correct release profile and signing identity    Enter altool  the CLI interface for the Application Loader  docs  page 38   Hidden deep within Xcode app s structure  is a handy function to let us upload directly to ItunesConnect    Applications Xcode app Contents Applications Application Loader app Contents Frameworks ITunesSoftwareService framework Versions A Support altool   Simply run   altool --upload-app -f file -u username  -p password  to upload your newly minted  ipa straight to Apple  The password is optional  and will prompt you for it if you leave it off the command    If there are any issues with the app during the verification step  the console will print them out   You will likely have to export the path to altool if you don t want to save its location   export PATH  PATH  Applications Xcode app Contents Applications Application  Loader app Contents Frameworks ITunesSoftwareService framework Versions A Support    Thats it  Simply login to iTunesConnect com and select your new build for testing with testflight   Final Note  If you get an error saying Exception while launching iTunesTransporter  Transporter not found at path   usr local itms bin iTMSTransporter   You should reinstall the application  you can follow the suggestion on this SO answer  to run a symlink to the correct location   ln -s  Applications Xcode app Contents Applications Application  Loader app Contents itms  usr local itms

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How to build iOS project with command    Clean   codebuild clean -workspace work-space-name xcworkspace -scheme scheme-name     amp  amp    Archive   xcodebuild archive -workspace work-space-name xcworkspace -scheme  scheme-name  -configuration Release -archivePath IPA-name xcarchive     amp  amp    Export   xcodebuild -exportArchive -archivePath IPA-name xcarchive -exportPath IPA-name ipa -exportOptionsPlist exportOptions plist    What is ExportOptions plist   ExportOptions plist is required in Xcode   It lets you to specify some options when you create an ipa file  You can select the options in a friendly UI when you use Xcode to archive your app    Important  Method for release and development is different in ExportOptions plist  AppStore        exportOptions release   method    app-store    Development      exportOptions dev   method   development

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You mean the validate share submit options  I think those are specific to Xcode  and not suited for a command-line build tool    With some cleverness  I bet you could make a script to do it for you  It looks like they re just stored in   Library MobileDevice Archived Applications  with a UUDI and a plist  I can t imagine it would be that hard to reverse engineer the validator either   The process I m interested automating is sending builds to beta testers   Since App Store submission happens infrequently  I don t mind doing it manually  especially since I often need to add new description text   By doing a pseudo Build Archive using Xcode s CLI  I can trigger automatic builds from every code commit  create IPA files with embedded provisioning profiles  and email it to testers

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We developed an iPad app with XCode 4 2 1 and wanted to integrate the build into our continuous integration  Jenkins  for OTA distribution  Here s the solution I came up with     Unlock keychain security unlock-keychain -p jenkins  Users jenkins Library Keychains login keychain    Build and sign app xcodebuild -configuration Distribution clean build    Set variables APP PATH   PWD build Distribution-iphoneos iPadApp app  VERSION  defaults read  APP PATH Info CFBundleShortVersionString  REVISION  defaults read  APP PATH Info CFBundleVersion  DATE  date    Y m d- H M S   ITUNES LINK   lt a href   itms-services      action download-manifest  amp url https     xxx xxx xxx  iPadApp- VERSION  REVISION- DATE plist   gt Download iPad2-App v VERSION  REVISION- DATE lt   a gt      Package and verify app xcrun -sdk iphoneos PackageApplication -v build Distribution-iphoneos iPadApp app -o  PWD iPadApp- VERSION  REVISION- DATE ipa    Create plist cat iPadApp plist template   sed -e  s    VERSION   VERSION   -e  s    DATE   DATE   -e  s    REVISION   REVISION    gt  iPadApp- VERSION  REVISION- DATE plist    Update index html curl https   xxx xxx xxx index html -o index html  DATE cat index html  DATE   sed -n  1h 1 H    g s    lt h3 gt Aktuelle Version lt   h3 gt            lt h3 gt  amp Auml ltere Versionen lt   h3 gt   lt ul gt   lt li gt     1    ITUNES LINK    3 2 lt   li gt    lt li gt  g p      sed -e  s    ITUNES LINK   ITUNES LINK    gt  index html   Then Jenkins uploads the ipa  plist and html files to our webserver   This is the plist template    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  UTF-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC  -  Apple  DTD PLIST 1 0  EN   http   www apple com DTDs PropertyList-1 0 dtd  gt   lt plist version  1 0  gt   lt dict gt       lt key gt items lt  key gt       lt array gt           lt dict gt               lt key gt assets lt  key gt               lt array gt                   lt dict gt                       lt key gt kind lt  key gt                       lt string gt software-package lt  string gt                       lt key gt url lt  key gt                       lt string gt https   xxx xxx xxx iPadApp-  VERSION    REVISION -  DATE  ipa lt  string gt                   lt  dict gt                   lt dict gt                       lt key gt kind lt  key gt                       lt string gt full-size-image lt  string gt                       lt key gt needs-shine lt  key gt                       lt true  gt                       lt key gt url lt  key gt                       lt string gt https   xxx xxx xxx iPadApp png lt  string gt                   lt  dict gt                   lt dict gt                       lt key gt kind lt  key gt                       lt string gt display-image lt  string gt                       lt key gt needs-shine lt  key gt                       lt true  gt                       lt key gt url lt  key gt                       lt string gt https   xxx xxx xxx iPadApp sm png lt  string gt                   lt  dict gt               lt  array gt               lt key gt metadata lt  key gt               lt dict gt                   lt key gt bundle-identifier lt  key gt                   lt string gt xxx xxx xxx iPadApp lt  string gt                   lt key gt bundle-version lt  key gt                   lt string gt   VERSION  lt  string gt                   lt key gt kind lt  key gt                   lt string gt software lt  string gt                   lt key gt subtitle lt  key gt                   lt string gt iPad2-App lt  string gt                   lt key gt title lt  key gt                   lt string gt iPadApp lt  string gt               lt  dict gt           lt  dict gt       lt  array gt   lt  dict gt   lt  plist gt    To set this up  you have to import the distribution certificate and provisioning profile into the designated user s keychain

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try xctool  it is a replacement for Apple s xcodebuild that makes it easier to build and test iOS and Mac products  It s especially helpful for continuous integration  It has a few extra features    Runs the same tests as Xcode app   Structured output of build and  test results   Human-friendly  ANSI-colored output    No 3 is extremely useful  I don t if anyone can read the console output of xcodebuild  I can t  usually it gave me one line with 5000  characters  Even harder to read than a thesis paper   xctool  https   github com facebook xctool

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I have given a brief description of steps to follow  and parameters to pass while generating an ipa using terrminal below    Go to the folder which contains the MyApp xcodeproject file in terminal By using the command given below you will get all the Targets of the application   usr bin xcodebuild -list   After the above command is executed  you will get a list of targets of which you should select a specific target you need to generate  ipa   usr bin xcodebuild -target  TARGET -sdk iphoneos -configuration Release  The above command builds the project and creates a  app file The path to locate the  app file is   build Release-iphoneos MyApp app After Build gets succeeded then execute the following command to generate  ipa of the application using Developer Name and Provisioning Profile using the syntax below    usr bin xcrun -sdk iphoneos PackageApplication -v      TARGET  app    -o      OUTDIR    TARGET  ipa       sign      IDENTITY        embed      PROVISONING PROFILE        Explanation of each Parameter in the above syntax     TARGET  app                   Target path  ex   Users XXXXXX desktop Application build Release-iphoneos MyApp app    OUTDIR                        Select the output directory Where you want to save  ipa file    IDENTITY                       iPhone Developer  XXXXXXX  XXXXXXXXXX  which can be obtained from Keychain access    PROVISONING PROFILE       Path to the provisioning profile  Users XXXXXX Library MobileDevice Provisioning Profiles XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX mobileprovision        ipa will be generated at selected output directory    OUTDIR

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Improving on Vincent s answer  I wrote a script to do that  xcodearchive It allows you to archive  generate an ipa  your project via the command line  Think of it like the sister of the xcodebuild command  but for archiving   Code is available on github  http   github com gcerquant xcodearchive   One option of the script is to enable the archiving of the dSYM symbols in a timestamped archive  No excuse to not keep the symbols anymore  and not be able to symbolicate the crash log you might later receive

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Updating my answer with Xcode 9 and Swift   Archive  xcodebuild -workspace  lt ProjectName gt   lt ProjectName gt  xcworkspace     -scheme  lt schemeName gt  clean archive -configuration release     -sdk iphoneos -archivePath  lt ProjectName gt  xcarchive   IPA Export  please note the export option plist   xcodebuild -exportArchive -archivePath   lt ProjectName gt  xcarchive     -exportOptionsPlist   lt ProjectName gt  exportOptions plist     -exportPath   lt ProjectName gt  ipa     For those who don t know about exportOptions plist   https   blog bitrise io new-export-options-plist-in-xcode-9         Those who were using this for building project in CI CD tools like teamcity jenkins  please make sure you are using the right xcode installed in the build agent for for both archive and export   You can use either of below 2 options for this     Use the full path to xcodebuild      Applications Xcode 9 3 1 app Contents Developer usr bin xcodebuild    Use xcode-select    xcode-select -switch  Applications Xcode 9 3 1 app        Below is my old answer   Here is command line script for creating archive and IPA example  I have an iPhone xcode project   which is located in Desktop MyiOSApp folder   Execute following commands one by one   cd  Users username Desktop MyiOSApp   xcodebuild -scheme MyiOSApp archive     -archivePath  Users username Desktop MyiOSApp xcarchive  xcodebuild -exportArchive -exportFormat ipa     -archivePath   Users username Desktop MyiOSApp xcarchive      -exportPath   Users username Desktop MyiOSApp ipa      -exportProvisioningProfile  MyCompany Distribution Profile    This is tested with Xcode 5 and working fine for me

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The xcodebuild tool can build and export archive products with the -exportArchive flag  as of Xcode 5   The export step was previously only possible via the Xcode Organizer UI   First archive your app   xcodebuild -scheme  lt scheme name gt  archive   Given  ARCHIVE PATH  the path to the  xcarchive file   export the app from the archive with one of the following   iOS  ipa file   xcodebuild -exportArchive -exportFormat ipa -archivePath   ARCHIVE PATH  -exportPath  myApp ipa  -exportProvisioningProfile  My App Provisioning profile    Mac  app file   xcodebuild -exportArchive -exportFormat app -archivePath   ARCHIVE PATH  -exportPath  myApp app  -exportSigningIdentity  Developer ID Application  My Software Company    In both commands the -exportProvisioningProfile and -exportSigningIdentity arguments are optional  man xcodebuild for details on the semantics  In these examples  the provisioning profile for the iOS build specified an AdHoc distribution provisioning profile  and the signing identity for the Mac app specified a Developer ID for export as a 3rd party application  i e  not distributed via the Mac App Store

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I ve been using my own build script to generate the ipa package for ad hoc distribution   die         echo       gt  amp 2     exit 1    appname  AppName  config  Ad Hoc Distribution  sdk  iphoneos3 1 3  project dir   pwd   echo using configuration  config  echo updating version number agvtool bump -all fullversion    agvtool mvers -terse1    agvtool vers -terse    echo building version  fullversion  xcodebuild -activetarget -configuration   config  -sdk  sdk build    die  build failed   echo making ipa      packaging cd build   config -iphoneos    die  no such directory  rm -rf Payload rm -f   appname    ipa mkdir Payload cp -Rp   appname app  Payload  if   -f   project dir  iTunesArtwork     then     cp -f   project dir  iTunesArtwork Payload iTunesArtwork fi  ipaname   appname  fullversion   date -u   Y m d H M S  ipa  zip -r  ipaname Payload  echo finished making  ipaname   The script also increment the version number  You can remove that part if it s not needed  Hope it helps

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After updating to Xcode 8  I found that enterprise ipa generate by    usr bin xcrun -sdk iphoneos PackageApplication -v    RELEASE BUILDDIR    APPLICATION NAME  app  -o    BUILD HISTORY DIR    APPLICATION NAME  ipa  --sign    DEVELOPER NAME   --embed    PROVISONING PROFILE         Command cannot be launched because of some signature issue  The log   indicates that  warning  PackageApplication is deprecated  use   xcodebuild -exportArchive instead    So I switch to xcodebuild -exportArchive and everything went back normal

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Go to the folder where s your project root and   xcodebuild -project projectname -activetarget -activeconfiguration archive

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With Xcode 4 2 you can use the -scheme flag to do this   xcodebuild -scheme  lt SchemeName gt  archive   After this command the Archive will show up in the Xcode Organizer

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I found some of the other answers here hard to get going  This article did if for me  Some paths may need to be absolute  as mentioned in the other answers   The Command   xcrun -sdk iphoneos PackageApplication         path to build MyApp app        -o  output path to MyApp ipa        --sign  iPhone Distribution  My Company        --embed   path to something mobileprovision

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Xcode 8     IPA Format   xcodebuild -exportArchive -exportFormat IPA -archivePath MyMobileApp xcarchive -exportPath MyMobileApp ipa -exportProvisioningProfile  MyMobileApp Distribution Profile    Exports the archive MyMobileApp xcarchive as an IPA file to the path MyMobileApp ipa using the                   provisioning profile MyMobileApp Distribution Profile   APP Format   xcodebuild -exportArchive -exportFormat APP -archivePath MyMacApp xcarchive -exportPath MyMacApp pkg -exportSigningIdentity  Developer ID Application  My Team    Exports the archive MyMacApp xcarchive as a PKG file to the path MyMacApp pkg using the appli-cation application               cation signing identity Developer ID Application  My Team   The installer signing identity               Developer ID Installer  My Team is implicitly used to sign the exported package   Xcodebuild man page

[xcode] Xcode "Build and Archive" from command line

Open Terminal & drag and drop your project folder:

Execute the following commands one by one:

Builds app as-"demo.xcodeproj" into an archive

If your app has Podfile fie as-"demo.xcworkspace"-

IPA Export Build Command

Download ExportOptions.plist file from Here

You will find .xcarchive to .ipa using terminal details in the article.

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