Profiling iOS apps on M1 with Instruments xctrace invalid code signature

Question

Created Aug ’21

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I'm trying to profile app launch of an iOS app running on an M1 Mac. After downloading a Mac compatible app from the iOS App Store (Airbnb) I'm able to select it in instruments by selecting the .app in /Applications

Screen Shot 2021-08-15 at 3.45.41 PM.png

This allows me to launch the app and profile it by pressing the record button

Screen Shot 2021-08-15 at 3.47.06 PM.png

Now I want to do this in an automated way with xctrace so I ran :

xcrun xctrace record --template 'App Launch' --device CE3D229D-A2BF-5455-8923-5D49498F06DC --launch -- '/Applications/Airbnb.app'

Using the id of my Mac returned from xcrun xctrace list devices. This attempts to launch the app but it immediately crashes with an error about an invalid code signature:

Screen Shot 2021-08-15 at 3.49.55 PM.png

If I try the same process with a MacOS app like Twitter, instead of an iOS app running on Mac, I'm able to launch it with xctrace. I'm also able to attach to Airbnb using the --attach PID option, but this doesn't help for testing app launch.

I also tried launching the internal iOS .app using: xcrun xctrace record --template 'App Launch' --device CE3D229D-A2BF-5455-8923-5D49498F06DC --launch -- '/Applications/Airbnb.app/Wrapper/Airbnb.app' but got the same crash.

How can I use the command line to launch an iOS app for profiling instruments?

This is using Xcode 12.5.1 on macOS 11.5.2

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Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Aug ’21

I would not expect this to work. Apps that you download from the store have the get-task-allow entitlement set to false [1] and, as such, can’t be run under the debugger (or, equivalently, but xctrace).

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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

[1] Well, more typically, they have no get-task-allow entitlement and, for iOS apps, no entitlement triggers a default of false.

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Answer 2

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Aug ’21

Any idea why it would still not work for locally signed apps packaged as iOS apps running on Mac?

No, sorry. I’m not really up-to-speed on the whole iOS Apps on Mac story.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

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