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@rakhmad
Created November 9, 2012 01:24
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Jenkins, Xcode, Github, Testflight on a Mac Mini
  • Buy a mac mini
  • Install 10.8
  • Create a user account for Jenkins
  • Install xcode
  • Turn on screen sharing
  • Turn off energy save sleeping
  • Login as your jenkins user
  • Use ssh-keygen to create a key for github
  • Create a github account for your build machine
  • Add the key to your build machine github account
  • Run xcode, install xcode command line tools
  • From terminal accept xcode's license agreement (xcodebuild --license)
  • From another build machine export your .developerprofile from xcode and import it into your build box (or you can do this the old fashioned way - but xcode export and import seems to just magically work)
  • Use git to clone your project
  • Locally (i.e. not while ssh-ed in) use xcodebuild (with right settings, e.g. release config) to make sure it builds clean on the command line.
  • The keychain should prompt for access to your signing certificate you WANT to make sure you always allow access to this certificate (otherwise jenkins CANNOT build headlessly)
  • Install homebrew
  • Install jenkins via homebrew
  • Follow directions to add homebrew to your launchd
  • Remove the line in the launchd plist that limits jenkins to localhost
  • Use launctl to run jenkins
  • ADDED: Accept "Are you sure you're mad enough to install Java" dialog.
  • ADDED: Relaunch jenkins (chances are the dialog prompt prevent it from launching): ("launctl unload/load")
  • ADDED: You can now unplug the display and keyboard from the Mac Mini and just ssh and/or screen share with it.
  • Visit the jenkins homepage http://buildmachine:8080
  • Remove useless jenkins default plugins (unless you want to build java crap)
  • Add jenkins plugins for xcode, git, github and testflight
  • Create a new jenkins job that builds via xcode
  • Turn on xcode ipa generation
  • Add your github clone URL to the job, fill in the polling field (I've set up jenkins to poll github every 10 minutes)
  • ADDED: Add your testflight API keys to jenkins, create a testflight distribution list and add that to jenkins too.
  • I created two jobs - one that polled github every 10 minutes and one that builds each day. Only the daily build generates testflight builds.

What now?

This list doesn't cover tagging, branching, versioning, e-mail setup, etc, etc. But it should get you up and running.

Troubleshooting:

My three biggest problems were:

  • Jenkins by default runs on localhost (lo), I needed it to run on en0. This is controlled via a switch passed to jenkin's launchd plist.
  • Xcodebuild couldn't sign the binary and no keychain dialog was appearing on the mini. I had to manually allow access to the keychain certiciate. See here for more: https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Xcode+Plugin#XcodePlugin-Userinteractionisnotallowed
  • I forgot to turn off sleeping on the Mac Mini and the next daily build didn't happen.
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