How to create & run Simulator Build on simulator?

Generate a Simulator Build

In order to generate a simulator build you will:

  • Find the folder containing your xcode project.
  • Open a terminal and run a couple of commands to generate the build.

ind your Xcode project directory

The easiest way to find your Xcode project is to use Xcode itself. Control-click on your project and select Show in Finder:


Open a Terminal and Find Your Simulator SDK Version

Click on the tasks menu in finder, Open With and Terminal. This will open the finder and automatically select the .xcodeproj directory.



This will open a terminal with the right directory already opened:



Change the working directory for the shell inside of the terminal so that it's set to the parent directory:



Figure out which SDKs versions are available by running the following command in the terminal:xcodebuild -showsdks



What you want from this output is the string for the iOS Simulator SDK. Choose the most recent version if you have more than one installed:


Build the Simulator Package

In your terminal you will want to run this command with the proper simulator SDK string replaced with the string you found in the previous step:
xcodebuild -arch i386 -sdk iphonesimulator{version}

If you are using workspace instead of xcodeproj
xcodebuild -arch i386 -sdk iphonesimulator{version} -workspace [projectName].xcworkspace -scheme [projectName]

For example:
This should generate a build. If the build was successful you should see a lot of output from the build tools followed by the string ** BUILD SUCCEEDED ** in your terminal.

Your build path is
{base directory}/build/Release-iphonesimulator/{projectname}.app
If you build the workspace.
{Derive data directory}/build/Release-iphonesimulator/{projectname}.app

It is your final Simulator Build.

How to run it on Simulator?

your simulator build by running ios-sim launch <path to .app> and verify that the app opens in the simulator.


How to install ios-sim?


If you get error with error message: -bash: ios-sim: command not found.
Follow the step to install the ios-sim


  • Download node.js from http://nodejs.org/download/ for your system.
  • Open node package file.
  • Install it on your system.
  • Open the terminal and run the command: $ sudo npm install ios-sim -g
Now ios-sim is install on your system.


4 comments:

  1. By learning IOS you can able to create build views. You can handle user interaction via controls like buttons, switches, and sliders etc. We can also able to display data in a table view. You can create alert boxes, handle navigation and transition between views. You can also follow iOS App Development online Course India

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  3. How do I run older older SDK's, namely iPadOS 12.4? I only see the latest SDK's when I list them, and build command can't find older ones even though I've got the older ones installed in Xcode!

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