Since the "System Integrity Protection" is new, I am guessing that the automator plugin documentation was not updated to show how we can debug such a plugin.
Correct.
Are Automator plugins no longer supported?
They are still supported just fine.
If they are, does [anyone] know how to debug one?
That’s a bit tricky. To start, I recommend that you get up with speed with System Integrity Protection (SIP):
The issue here is that the Automator app is part of the base OS install, and thus is considered a restricted process by SIP, and thus you can’t attach to it with the debugger. This is a good thing in general, but makes it hard to debug your Automator action.
Clearly we need a better solution to this problem. You should file a bug requesting that, then post your bug number, just for the record.
As to workarounds, there are two that I can think of:
disable SIP — The instructions for doing this are in the System Integrity Protection Guide, however, I generally recommend against this except as a last resort.
create your own Automator — If you make a copy of Automator and replace the code signature with your own signature (using the command install), the system no longer considers it part of the base OS install. You can then set it as the target executable in Xcode and debug from there.
$ codesign -s "Developer ID" -f Automator.app Automator.app: replacing existing signature
Note This assumes you have a Developer ID code signing identity in your keychain. If not, you should get one.
You may run into some odd misbehaviours here. For example, if your copy of Automator accesses the keychain, it’ll likely run into problems because it claims to be Apple code but isn’t signed by Apple. However, it should allow you to get started with the basics.
IMPORTANT Obviously this is a hackish workaround, hence my advice earlier that you file a bug requesting a real solution to this problem.
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Quinn "The Eskimo!"
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware
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