Question

In our environment, we share resources across multiple projects and platforms. When building for iPhone, only a subset of those resources are needed. Since that subset is still considerable, we have a manifest file listing what goes in, which limits the copy. We have our own Python script which does the copy, refreshing only the files which have changed.

I have made a Run Script Phase in Xcode to call that script, but I am having a few issues related to the Code Signing phase.

Since we use a separate manifest file, my Run Script Phase cannot specify any input/output file in the Xcode GUI: it varies depending on what is contained in directories at the time. The side effect of this is that Xcode doesn t strictly know what files will get copied (things happen "under the cover", so to speak).

The problem I have is that if I only modify resource files between builds, rebuilding my app will properly call my script, which copies the appropriate files, only Xcode won t rerun the Code Signing step, and won t re-copy my app to my device.

I found that odd, considering that my resource files are indeed listed in the <app_bundle>/_CodeSignature/CodeResources file, but it looks like Xcode determines rebuilds requirements independent of that (likely only files listed in the project file), which is understandable.

I tried playing tricks by touching my app bundle s directory, or the app s binary itself, but it doesn t quite work. Touching the app s bundle directory doesn t seem to do anything, while touching the binary will work, but NOT FOR THE CURRENT BUILD, only the subsequent one (since no input file requires recompilation, Xcode infers no new binary gets generated, but the next time, it will indeed detect that the binary has been touched, and redo both Code Signing and on).

Still, this is quite an imperfect workaround, because:

Having to build twice is error prone
My dSYM file will needlessly get regenerated

Does anyone know of any way to force the Code Signing step in Xcode (from a Run Script, or elsewhere)?

Answer 1

You can call codesign directly from the command line or a shell script, e.g.

codesign -f -s "iPhone Distribution" --entitlements Entitlements.xcent -vv location/MyApp.app/MyApp

Run man codesign to find out the usage.

You can discover all the internal commands run by viewing the detailed build output in Xcode. Select the Build tab, then click the little icon at the bottom left of that window pane - the one that looks like text (it is next to the warning icon). This will show the full build output in a new pane in Xcode.

I created a shell script calling codesign directly so I could re-sign an existing binary using a new certificate and provisioning profile (e.g. after updating some graphics in the binary).

This turned out to be really complicated as Xcode does some subtle stuff as part of its internal build processes (one example: Xcode embeds the provisioning profile in the resulting app binary, but in the process changes some of its values, e.g. the get-task-allow setting). That meant I had to write a tool to generate an appropriate .xcent file from the provisioning profile, depending on whether a Development/Distribution/App Store build is being done. Hopefully none of that will affect you...

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