Can xcodebuild manage automatic signing?

Question

SUMMARY:

If you open a project in Xcode 8 with "Automatically manage signing" enabled and a new bundle ID, it will automatically create and download a provisioning profile for it. But how can I make the same thing happen with xcodebuild, so I can use it on a remote build server?

DETAILS:

I'm trying to build a Cordova app on a Mac. Cordova configures the Xcode project to use "Automatically manage signing", so I'm trying to use that.

I change the bundle ID often, so I want Cordova to be able to build it with a new bundle ID, that hasn't been used before.

But when I run cordova build ios --release --device --buildConfig build.json, I get a return code 65 and the following error:

Check dependencies
No profiles for 'com.my.bundle.id' were found:  Xcode couldn't find a provisioning profile matching 'com.my.bundle.id'.
Code signing is required for product type 'Application' in SDK 'iOS 10.3'

** ARCHIVE FAILED **

The following build commands failed:
    Check dependencies
(1 failure)
Error: Error code 65 for command: xcodebuild with args: -xcconfig,/cordova-project/platforms/ios/cordova/build-debug.xcconfig,-workspace,MyApp.xcworkspace,-scheme,MyApp,-configuration,Debug,-destination,generic/platform=iOS,-archivePath,MyApp.xcarchive,archive,CONFIGURATION_BUILD_DIR=/cordova-project/platforms/ios/build/device,SHARED_PRECOMPS_DIR=/cordova-project/platforms/ios/build/sharedpch

(I can manually run that xcodebuild command and get the same error, so it's probably not a Cordova issue.)

My build.json file looks like this:

{
    "ios": {
        "debug": {
            "codeSignIdentity": "iPhone Developer",
            "developmentTeam": "MY_TEAM_ID",
            "packageType": "development"
        },
        "release": {
            "codeSignIdentity": "iPhone Developer",
            "developmentTeam": "MY_TEAM_ID",
            "packageType": "enterprise"
        }
    }
}

I'm using cordova 7.0.1, cordova-ios 4.4.0, Xcode 8.3.3, and MacOS 10.12.5. I have an Apple Enterprise account.

WHAT I TRIED:

If I open the generated project in Xcode, it fixes the automatic signing, and from then on I can run cordova successfully with that bundle ID. But if I try to run it with a different bundle ID, it will fail again.

I tried using security unlock-keychain ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db first, since that's worked in the past, but it didn't help.

I also tried opening my private signing key in Keychain Access and setting it to "Allow all applications to access this item", without any luck.

I get the same error regardless of whether I pass --debug or --release to cordova.

Answer 1

This isn't directly supported in Xcode 8. In Xcode 9, however, you can pass -allowProvisioningUpdates to xcodebuild and automatic signing will work just as in the Xcode UI, without needing any additional tools.

e.g. cordova run ios --buildFlag="-allowProvisioningUpdates"