LibreSwift iOS Development for VS Code

LibreSwift empowers developers to build, sign, and deploy native iOS Swift applications directly to an iPhone over USB from Linux (and WSL), fully bypassing the need for macOS and Xcode.

Architecture

graph TD
    A[VS Code Extension] --> B[SourceKit-LSP]
    A --> C[xtool]
    A --> D[rcodesign]
    A --> E[libimobiledevice]
    
    B --> F{Autocompletion & Diagnostics}
    C --> G(Compile arm64-apple-ios)
    D --> H(Sign App Bundle)
    E --> I[usbmuxd]
    I --> J[Physical iPhone]

Features

• Native Swift IntelliSense: Cross-compiled SourceKit-LSP integration.
• One-Click Deployment: Build, sign, and push to a connected iOS device natively.
• Real-time Logs: Stream idevicesyslog directly to the VS Code output console.
• Automated SDK Extraction: Unpack official Xcode .xip files on Linux automatically.
• Secure Secret Management: Keep your Apple Developer .p12 certificates secure using VS Code SecretStorage.

Prerequisites

To use LibreSwift on Linux, you must have the following system dependencies installed and in your $PATH:

1. xtool - Used for cross-compiling Swift.
2. rcodesign - Used for cryptographic signing without macOS.
3. libimobiledevice (specifically ideviceinstaller, idevicesyslog, idevice_id) - Used for interacting with iOS devices.
4. usbmuxd - Daemon for USB communication with iOS devices.
5. xar, pbzx, and cpio - Used for unpacking Xcode .xip archives.
6. sourcekit-lsp - Ensure the Swift toolchain is installed.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

If you are running LibreSwift under WSL2, you must pass your iPhone's USB connection through to Linux using usbipd-win.

1. Open PowerShell on Windows: usbipd list
2. Bind the device: usbipd bind --busid <busid>
3. Attach to WSL: usbipd attach --wsl --busid <busid>

Quickstart

1. Install LibreSwift in VS Code.
2. Open the LibreSwift Welcome Walkthrough via the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P -> Welcome: Open Walkthrough -> LibreSwift).
3. Follow the walkthrough to extract the SDK and set up your certificate password.
4. Open a Swift file, wait for SourceKit-LSP to initialize, and click the $(play) Run on iOS button in your title bar or status bar to deploy!

Configuration Options

You can customize paths in .vscode/settings.json:

• libreswift.sdkPath: Absolute path to iPhoneOS.sdk (Default: ~/.local/share/ios-linux-sdk/iPhoneOS.sdk)
• libreswift.p12Path: Absolute path to your .p12 Apple Developer certificate.
• libreswift.mobileprovisionPath: Absolute path to your .mobileprovision file.
• libreswift.bundleIdentifier: The bundle ID of your application.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Acknowledgments

A massive thank you to the developers and maintainers of the open-source tools that make LibreSwift possible:

• The apple-platform-rs team for rcodesign.
• The libimobiledevice community for reverse engineering Apple's protocols.
• The creators of xtool, pbzx, and the Swift open-source community.