Retrieve branch name inside iOS project - ios

Question

An app I'm building contains a debug view for development purposes and can only be presented if the app is built in the debug environment.
What I would also like to accomplish is that I would like to be able to present the branch name inside that debug mode which the built was taken from. Since various builds are being deployed all the time, it would greatly help as to get a clear idea about which branch the build came from.
I tried some approaches(e.g. Swift scripting but realized it doesn't perform on iOS, etc.) with no luck in the end.
Does anyone have any ideas as to how to achieve this? Since this feature would not make it to the AppStore it's not bounded by Apple's rules so I'm open for private frameworks.

Answer 1

From this article you could use this script in a build phase to insert git information into Info.plist, which you can then query using Swift.
#!/bin/sh
git_version=$(git log -1 --format="%h")
git_branch=$(git symbolic-ref --short -q HEAD)
git_tag=$(git describe --tags --exact-match 2>/dev/null)
build_time=$(date)
git_branch_or_tag="${git_branch:-${git_tag}}"
info_plist="${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${EXECUTABLE_FOLDER_PATH}/Info.plist"
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :CFBundleVersion '${git_branch_or_tag}-${git_version}'" "${info_plist}"
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :BuildTime '${build_time}'" "${info_plist}"

Answer 2

As Edmund Dipple' answer points out, this article shows how to get the git branch into your info.plist. I'm giving a new answer, because it took me a while to understand how it works and maybe it's good to have it complete here on SO.
First, open the app’s Info.plist and add an empty row with key = BuildTime and type = String.
Then, in your project target's Build Phases, click on the plus sign to add a New Run Script phase:
#!/bin/sh
git_version=$(git log -1 --format="%h")
git_branch=$(git symbolic-ref --short -q HEAD)
git_tag=$(git describe --tags --exact-match 2>/dev/null)
git_branch_or_tag="${git_branch:-${git_tag}}"
git_branch_or_tag_version="${git_branch:-${git_tag}}-${git_version}"
info_plist="${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${INFOPLIST_PATH}"
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :BuildBranch '${git_branch_or_tag_version}'" "${info_plist}"
Finally, the result can be retrieved in Swift like this:
Bundle.main.infoDictionary?["BuildBranch"] as? String
EXTRA 1
If you need the build info more than once, you could write this extension:
import Foundation
extension Bundle {
var buildBranch: String? {
return infoDictionary?["BuildBranch"] as? String
}
var buildTime: String? {
return infoDictionary?["BuildTime"] as? String
}
}
Then you can nicely query:
Bundle.main.buildBranch
and
Bundle.main.buildTime
Just remember to properly unwrap, as these are optionals.
EXTRA 2
I had a problems getting info.plist path right.
Option 1:
info_plist="${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${EXECUTABLE_FOLDER_PATH}/Info.plist"
This info.plistpath given in the linked article didn't work in my project.
Option 2:
info_plist="${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${INFOPLIST_PATH}"
In my build phase script, this info.plist path worked reliable.
However, I found that even though there was no error in the build log, the newly set entry got deleted after the first run. It worked only right after clean build folder. I haven't found out why. Maybe a build timing issue?
Option 3:
info_plist="${PROJECT_DIR}/${INFOPLIST_FILE}"
Setting info.plist on the project level was more persistent for me. But it's not a clean solution to have a branch name in this info.plist "template".
Maybe Option 2 is the best.