Shell script to symlink up links to all iOS apps in simulator. Depends on https://github.com/kallewoof/plget

app.sh

#!/bin/bash
if [ ! -e ".appshfolder" ]; then
    echo "Run this from the designated folder please."
    echo "If this is the first time you run this script, this is recommended:"
    echo "  cd"
    echo "  mkdir iosapps"
    echo "  cd iosapps"
    echo "  touch .appshfolder"
    echo "  cp <path to app.sh> ."
    echo "  ./app.sh"
    exit
fi

rm -f simulator
rm -f *.sdk
rm -f *.dr
rm -f *.iapp

blacklisted="DDActionsService MobileSafari StoreKitUIService Web WebContentAnalysisUI WebViewService"

dest=$PWD
ln -s ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices simulator
cd simulator
for uuid in *; do # uuid refers to some simulated device (e.g. iPhone 5S on iOS 8.1)
    # Some devices have *no* applications; we don't care about them
    if [ -d "$uuid/data/Applications" ] || [ -d "$uuid/data/Containers/Data/Application" ]; then
	devtype=`plget $uuid/device.plist deviceType`
	runtime=`plget $uuid/device.plist runtime`
	devtype=${devtype:38} # trim out "com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType."
	runtime=${runtime:35} # trim out "com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimRuntime."
	# we now have e.g. devtype = iPhone-5s and runtime = iOS-8-1
	# we refer to this as "iOS-8-1_iPhone-5s"
	drref="$runtime"_"$devtype"

	# iOS 8 has: data/Containers/Data/Application/<app uuid>
	# iOS < 8 has: data/Applications/[UUID]
	ln -s simulator/$uuid/data $dest/$drref.dr

	if [ -d "$uuid/data/Applications" ]; then
	    # iOS ..7
	    appfolder="Applications"
	    datfolder="Applications"

	    prevwd=$PWD
	    cd $uuid/data/"$appfolder"
	    for appdir in *; do
		for appname in $appdir/*.app; do
		    if [ -e "$appname" ]; then
			# We have "appdir/Some app.app" and we want "Some app"
   			# This also means this IS an app, and not e.g. '.' or '..' or something weird
			appname=${appname:0:$((${#appname}-4))}
			appname=${appname:${#appdir}}
			include=1
			for bl in $blacklisted; do
			    # appname has a leading / so we put one into the blacklisted entries too
			    if [ "/$bl" = "$appname" ]; then
				include=
			    fi
			done
			if [ $include ]; then
			    if [ -e $dest/"$appname"-$drref.iapp ]; then
				# The drref and app exist; which is very odd but happens
				iter=2
				while [ -e $dest/"$appname ($iter)"-$drref.iapp ]; do
				    let iter++
				done
				appname="$appname ($iter)"
			    fi
			    ln -s $drref.dr/"$datfolder"/$appdir $dest/"$appname"-$drref.iapp
			fi
		    fi
		done
	    done
	    cd "$prevwd"
	else
	    # iOS 8..

	    # We parse the plist instead, but first we need to de-binarize it
	    prevwd=$PWD
	    cd "$uuid/data/Library/BackBoard"
	    if [ -e "applicationState.plist" ]; then
		plutil -convert xml1 -o - applicationState.plist > plainas.plist
		entries=`plget plainas.plist "*/compatibilityInfo/sandboxPath"`
		rm plainas.plist
		appid=
		for e in $entries; do
		    # is this an app id or a sandboxPath? determined by whether * at start or not
		    if [ "${e:0:1}" = "*" ]; then
			appid=${e:1}
		    elif [ "$appid" != "" ]; then
			# this is a sandbox path; we ignore all "com.apple." app ids
			if [ "${appid:0:10}" != "com.apple." ]; then
			    ln -s "$e" $dest/"$appid"-$drref.iapp
			fi
		    fi
		done
		cd $prevwd
	    fi
	fi
    fi
done

cd $dest