idb

![idb logo](website/static/img/idb_logo.jpg)

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The "iOS Development Bridge" or `idb`, is a command line interface for automating iOS Simulators and Devices. It has three main principles:

* *Remote Automation*: `idb` is composed of a "companion" that runs on macOS and a python client that can run anywhere. This enables scenarios such as a "Device Lab" within a Data Center or fanning out shards of test executions to a large pool of iOS Simulators.
* *Simple Primitives*: `idb` exposes granular commands so that sophisticated workflows can be sequenced on top of them. This means you can use `idb` from an IDE or build an automated testing scenario that isn't feasible with default tooling. All of these primitives aim to be consistent across iOS versions and between iOS Simulators and iOS Devices. All the primitives are exposed over a cli, so that it's easy to use for both humans and automation.
* *Exposing missing functionality*: Xcode has a number of features that aren't available outside its user interface. `idb` leverages many of Private Frameworks that are used by Xcode, so that these features can be in GUI-less automated scenarios.

`idb` is built on top of the `FBSimulatorControl` and `FBDeviceControl` macOS Frameworks, contained within this repository. These Frameworks can be used independently of `idb`, however `idb` is likely to provide the simplest install and the most sensible defaults for most users.

`idb` is nearly a pure Swift codebase: the companion and the Frameworks are written in Swift, apart from the XCTest `DTX` layer in `FBXCTestCore`. [The architecture documentation](https://www.fbidb.io/idb/architecture) describes where the migration stands.

A talk from F8 2019 covers the original motivation for `idb`; a [recording is available here](https://developers.facebook.com/videos/2019/reliable-code-at-scale/).

## Quick Start

`idb` is made up of 2 major components, both of which are installed by a single brew formula.

### `idb` companion

Each target (simulator/device) will have a companion process attached allowing `idb` to communicate remotely.

The `idb` companion can be installed via brew or built from [source](https://github.com/facebook/idb)

```
brew tap meta/fb
brew trust meta/fb
brew install meta/fb/idb
```
Current Homebrew refuses formulae from a tap you have not trusted, along with the dependencies they pull in from it. If you tapped `facebook/fb` before GitHub renamed the facebook organization to meta, run `brew update` instead of `brew tap meta/fb`: Homebrew moves the tap to `meta/fb` but drops its trust, so `brew trust meta/fb` is still needed.

Note: Instructions on how to install brew can be found [here](https://brew.sh)

To install the CI build of any commit or pull request, ru