Archiving a Build Product

• US 20110246964A1
• Filed: 03/31/2011
• Published: 10/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Verstaen, Marc, Fernandez, Todd R., Cox, Clark S. III, Drukman, Maxwell O.
• Granted Patent: US 8,631,390 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/122
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management

Abstract

An enhanced integrated development environment (IDE) is able to archive a build product and/or work with an archived build product in various ways. In one embodiment, a build product archive includes a manifest, a source code snapshot, a symbol table, and a build product. The manifest contains meta-data about the archive. The source code snapshot is a copy of the source code that was used in the build process. The symbol table is a copy of the symbol table that was generated by the build process. The build product is a copy of the build product that was generated by the build process. A developer can use the enhanced IDE to help share a build product with others and/or to understand system logs and reports that describe operation of the build product (e.g., crash logs and memory logs).

Claims

1. A method for creating a software application archive, the method comprising:

receiving an instruction to create a build of a software application;

determining a globally unique identifier (GUID);

creating the build of the software application;

creating a build of a symbol table;

associating the GUID with each of the build of the software application and the build of the symbol table; and

storing the build of the software application and the build of the symbol table in an archive on a computer readable storage medium.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the archive further comprises source code that was used to create the build of the software application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the archive further comprises a manifest including meta-information about the build of the software application.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the manifest further includes one element of a group containing a name of a file that contains icon graphics, a bundle identifier, a version number, an application file name, an application name, and a date/time stamp indicating when the archive was created.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the archive is associated with a universally unique identifier (UUID).

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a crash report, the crash report associated with the software application and including a GUID;

identifying, from among a plurality of archives, the archive including the software build having the associated GUID matching the received GUID;

symbolicating the crash report according to the symbol table contained in the identified archive; and

displaying the symbolicated crash report.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the build of the software application was signed with a first provisioning profile prior to being stored in the archive, and further comprising:

retrieving the build of the software application from within the stored archive;

unsigning the retrieved build, thereby generating an unsigned build; and

signing the unsigned build with a second provisioning profile, thereby generating a signed build.

8. A computer program product stored on a computer-readable medium and including instructions that, when loaded into memory, cause a processor to perform a set of operations, the set of operations comprising:

receiving an instruction to create a build of a software application;

determining a globally unique identifier (GUID);

creating the build of the software application;

creating a build of a symbol table;

associating the GUID with each of the build of the software application and the build of the symbol table; and

storing the build of the software application and the build of the symbol table in an archive.

9. A system for creating a software application archive, comprising:

a software module adapted to receive an instruction to create a build of a software application;

an archive module adapted to;

determine a globally unique identifier (GUID);

create the build of the software application indicated by the instruction received by the software module;

create a build of a symbol table; and

associate the GUID with each of the build of the software application and the build of the symbol table; and

a storage module adapted to receive from the archive module the build of the software application and the build of the symbol table and to store the build of the software application and the build of the symbol table in an archive on a computer readable storage medium.