Ben Ford

benford.me

UIAutomation on the Command Line

You can run UIAutomation scripts from the command line. It doesn’t seem to be very well documented by Apple. Here are my notes.

The command to run UIAutomation from the command line is:

instruments -t <template> <path to app in simulator> -e UIASCRIPT <path to automation script>

A real world example:

instruments -t /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/PlugIns/AutomationInstrument.bundle/Contents/Resources/Automation.tracetemplate \
"/Users/ben/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/7.1/Applications/4E07A63F-F14A-482B-9E50-E18EB29D668C/InstrumentsPlayground.app" \
-e UIASCRIPT "~/TestDemo.js"

Path to App in Simulator

Run something like this:

NSLog(@"bundle path: %@", [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath]);

How to find UIAutomation template path

To find the UIAutomation template path, call:

instruments -s

You will get something like this. Find the path that references Automation.

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/Resources/templates/Activity Monitor.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/Resources/templates/Allocations.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/Resources/templates/Blank.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/Resources/templates/Counters.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/Resources/templates/Event Profiler.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/Resources/templates/Leaks.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/Resources/templates/Network.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/Resources/templates/System Trace.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/Resources/templates/Time Profiler.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/PlugIns/AutomationInstrument.bundle/Contents/Resources/Automation.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/PlugIns/OpenGLESAnalyzerInstrument.bundle/Contents/Resources/OpenGL ES Analysis.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/PlugIns/XRMobileDeviceDiscoveryPlugIn.bundle/Contents/Resources/Energy Diagnostics.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/PlugIns/XRMobileDeviceDiscoveryPlugIn.bundle/Contents/Resources/OpenGL ES Driver.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/PlugIns/XRMobileDeviceDiscoveryPlugIn.bundle/Contents/Resources/templates/Core Animation.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/PlugIns/XRMobileDeviceDiscoveryPlugIn.bundle/Contents/Resources/templates/System Usage.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/Library/Instruments/PlugIns/CoreData/Core Data.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/Library/Instruments/PlugIns/templates/Cocoa Layout.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/Library/Instruments/PlugIns/templates/Dispatch.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/Library/Instruments/PlugIns/templates/File Activity.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/Library/Instruments/PlugIns/templates/GC Monitor.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/Library/Instruments/PlugIns/templates/Multicore.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/Library/Instruments/PlugIns/templates/Sudden Termination.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/Library/Instruments/PlugIns/templates/UI Recorder.tracetemplate
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/Library/Instruments/PlugIns/templates/Zombies.tracetemplate

This will probably change, but this is the current template path:

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/PlugIns/AutomationInstrument.bundle/Contents/Resources/Automation.tracetemplate