Open Radar

 
Summary: xcodebuild can be used to Build & Archive an app from the command line. However, there is no easy way to export the archived application as an .ipa from the command line.

Steps to Reproduce:N/A

Expected Results:N/A

Actual Results:N/A

Regression:N/A

Notes:

One can use an "xcodebuild ... archive" command to build an application and add it to Xcode's Organizer - Archives view. Using Xcode, one can click the Distribute... button to save the app for Enterprise or Ad-Hoc deployment, or to export as an .xcarchive. Unfortunately, there is no way to perform these operations with xcodebuild itself.

There are workarounds. For example, to build an app for ad-hoc distribution, one can do an "xcodebuild ... build" command to generate the .app bundle, then perform the steps necessary to create an .ipa file from that .app. However, the process is complicated. Another option is to use "xcrun PackageApplication ...", but that is complicated too, due to the need to specify iOS code-signing information.

It would be really nice if xcodebuild provided "exportipa" and/or "exportarchive" build actions.