XCLogParser is a CLI tool that parses the SLF
serialization format used by Xcode and xcodebuild
to store its Build and Test logs (xcactivitylog
files).
You can find more information about the format used in the logs here. You can also check Erick Camacho's talk at AltConf 2019 about it.
The tool supports creating reports of different kinds to analyze the content of the logs. XCLogParser can give a lot of insights in regards to build times for every module and file in your project, warnings, errors and unit tests results.
This is an example of a report created from the Build Log of the Kickstarter iOS open source app.
XCLogParser
is written as a SPM executable and it supports three commands:
- Dump the contents of an
xcactivitylog
into aJSON
document. - Parse the contents of an
xcactivitylog
into different kind of reports (json
,flatJson
,summaryJson
,chromeTracer
,issues
andhtml
). - Dump the Manifest contents of a
LogStoreManifest.plist
file into aJSON
document.
Depending on your needs, there are various use-cases where XCLogParser
can help you:
- Understanding and detailed tracking of build times.
- Automatically retrieve unit test results, warnings and errors.
- Build other developer tools for usage outside Xcode.
- Automatically and continuously data delivery for historic analysis.
You can compile the executable with the command rake build[debug]
or rake build[release]
or simply use the Swift Package Manager commands directly. You can also run rake install
to install the executable in your /usr/local/bin
directory.
$ brew install xclogparser
We are currently working on adding more installation options.
You can automate the parsing of xcactivitylog
files with a post-scheme build action. In this way, the last build log can be parsed as soon as a build finishes. To do that, open the scheme editor in a project and expand the "Build" panel on the left side. You can then add a new "Post-action" run script and invoke the xclogparser
executable with the required parameters:
xclogparser parse --project MyApp --reporter html
This script assumes that the xclogparser
executable is installed and present in your PATH.
The run script is executed in a temporary directory by Xcode, so you may find it useful to immediately open the generated output with open MyAppLogs
at the end of the script.
The Finder will automatically open the output folder after a build completes and you can then view the generated HTML page that contains a nice visualization of your build! ✨
- Errors thrown in post-action run scripts are silenced, so it could be hard to notice simple mistakes.
- Since Xcode 11,
xcodebuild
only generates the .xcactivitylog build logs when the option-resultBundlePath
is present. If you're compiling with that command and not with Xcode, be sure to set that option to a valid path ending in.xcresult
. - Xcode likes to wait for all subprocesses to exit before completing the build. For this reason, you may notice a delayed "Build Succeeded" message if your post-scheme action is taking too long to execute. You can workaround this by offloading the execution to another script in the background and immediately close the input, output and error streams in order to let Xcode and xcodebuild finish cleanly. Create the following
launcher
script and invoke it from your post-scheme action as followslauncher command-that-parses-the-log-here
:#!/bin/sh # The first argument is the directory of the executable you want to run. # The following arguments are directly forwarded to the executable. # We execute the command in the background and immediately close the input, output # and error streams in order to let Xcode and xcodebuild finish cleanly. # This is done to prevent Xcode and xcodebuild being stuck in waiting for all # subprocesses to end before exiting. executable=$1 shift; $executable "$@" <&- >&- 2>&- &
- The post-scheme action is not executed in case the build fails. An undocumented feature in Xcode allows you to execute it even in this case. Set the attribute
runPostActionsOnFailure
toYES
in your scheme'sBuildAction
as follows:<BuildAction buildImplicitDependencies='YES' parallelizeBuildables='YES' runPostActionsOnFailure='YES'>
The xcactivitylog
files are created by Xcode/xcodebuild
a few seconds after a build completes. The log is placed in the DerivedData/YourProjectName-UUID/Logs/Build
directory. It is a binary file in the SLF
format compressed with gzip.
In the same directory, you will find a LogStoreManifest.plist
file with the list of xcactivitylog
files generated for the project. This file can be monitored in order to get notified every time a new log is ready.
The test logs are created inside the DerivedData/YourProjectName-UUID/Logs/Test
directory. Xcode and xcodebuild
create different logs. You can find a good description about which ones are created in this blog post.
Dumps the whole content of an xcactivitylog
file as JSON
document. You can use this command if you want to have a raw but easy to parse representation of a log.
Examples:
xclogparser dump --file path/to/log.xcactivitylog --output activity.json
xclogparser dump --project MyProject --output activity.json --redacted
An example output has been omitted for brevity since it can contain a lot of information regarding a build.
Available parameters
Parameter Name | Description | Required |
---|---|---|
--file |
The path to the xcactivitylog . |
No * |
--project |
The name of the project if you don't know the path to the log. The tool will try to find the latest Build log in a folder that starts with that name inside the DerivedData directory. Use --strictProjectName for stricter name matching. |
No * |
--workspace |
The path to the xcworkspace file if you don't know the path to the log. It will generate the folder name for the project in the DerivedData folder using Xcode's hash algorithm and it will try to locate the latest Build Log inside that directory. |
No * |
--xcodeproj |
The path to the xcodeproj file if you don't know the path to the log and if the project doesn't have a xcworkspace file. It will generate the folder name for the project in the DerivedData folder using Xcode's hash algorithm and it will try to locate the latest Build Log inside that directory. |
No * |
--derived_data |
The path to the derived data folder if you are using xcodebuild to build your project with the -derivedDataPath option. |
No |
--output |
If specified, the JSON file will be written to the given path. If not defined, the command will output to the standard output. | No |
--redacted |
If specified, the username will be replaced by the word redacted in the file paths contained in the logs. Useful for privacy reasons but slightly decreases the performance. |
No |
--without_build_specific_info |
If specified, build specific information will be removed from the logs (for example bolnckhlbzxpxoeyfujluasoupft will be removed from DerivedData/Product-bolnckhlbzxpxoeyfujluasoupft/Build ). Useful for grouping logs by its content. |
No |
--strictProjectName |
Used in conjunction with --project . If specified, a stricter name matching will be done for the project name. |
No |
No *: One of
--file
,--project
,--workspace
,--xcodeproj
parameters is required.
Parses the build information from a xcactivitylog
and converts it into different representations such as a JSON file, flat JSON file, summary JSON file, issues JSON file, Chrome Tracer file or a static HTML page.
This command supports parsing additional data if some flags are passed to Xcode/xcodebuild:
swiftc
reported compilation times. For using that feature, you need to build your project with the options-Xfrontend -debug-time-expression-type-checking
and-Xfrontend -debug-time-function-bodies
.- ld64's statistics output. The statistics info can be generated by adding
-Xlinker -print_statistics
to Xcode's "Other Linker Flags" and it's useful for tracking linking time regression. - Clang's time trace data. When the
-ftime-trace
flag is specified, clang will generate ajson
tracing file for each translation unit and XCLogParser will collect them and add its data to the parser output.
Examples:
xclogparser parse --project MyApp --reporter json --output build.json
xclogparser parse --file /path/to/log.xcactivitylog --reporter chromeTracer
xclogparser parse --workspace /path/to/MyApp.xcworkspace --derived_data /path/to/custom/DerivedData --reporter html --redacted
Example output available in the reporters section.
Available parameters
Parameter Name | Description | Required |
---|---|---|
--reporter |
The reporter used to transform the logs. It can be either json , flatJson , summaryJson , chromeTracer , issues or html . (required) |
Yes |
--file |
The path to the xcactivitylog . |
No * |
--project |
The name of the project if you don't know the path to the log. The tool will try to find the latest Build log in a folder that starts with that name inside the DerivedData directory. Use --strictProjectName for stricter name matching. |
No * |
--workspace |
The path to the xcworkspace file if you don't know the path to the log. It will generate the folder name for the project in the DerivedData folder using Xcode's hash algorithm and it will try to locate the latest Build Log inside that directory. |
No * |
--xcodeproj |
The path to the xcodeproj file if you don't know the path to the log and if the project doesn't have a xcworkspace file. It will generate the folder name for the project in the DerivedData folder using Xcode's hash algorithm and it will try to locate the latest Build Log inside that directory. |
No * |
--derived_data |
The path to the derived data folder if you are using xcodebuild to build your project with the -derivedDataPath option. |
No |
--output |
If specified, the JSON file will be written to the given path. If not defined, the command will output to the standard output. | No |
--rootOutput |
If specified, the HTML file will be written to the given folder, it has precedence over output if the folder doesn't exist will be created. It works with relative home path.~ |
No |
--redacted |
If specified, the username will be replaced by the word redacted in the file paths contained in the logs. Useful for privacy reasons but slightly decreases the performance. |
No |
--without_build_specific_info |
If specified, build specific information will be removed from the logs (for example bolnckhlbzxpxoeyfujluasoupft will be removed from DerivedData/Product-bolnckhlbzxpxoeyfujluasoupft/Build ). Useful for grouping logs by its content. |
No |
--strictProjectName |
Used in conjunction with --project . If specified, a stricter name matching will be done for the project name. |
No |
--machine_name |
If specified, the machine name will be used to create the buildIdentifier . If it is not specified, the host name will be used. |
No |
--omit_warnings |
Omit the warnings details in the final report. This is useful if there are too many of them and the report's size is too big with them. | No |
--omit_notes |
Omit the notes details in the final report. This is useful if there are too many of them and the report's size is too big with them. | No |
--trunc_large_issues |
If an individual task has more than a 100 issues (Warnings, notes, errors) it truncates them to be 100. This is useful to reduce the amount of memory used. | No |
No *: One of
--file
,--project
,--workspace
,--xcodeproj
parameters is required.
Outputs the contents of LogStoreManifest.plist
which lists all the xcactivitylog
files generated for the project as JSON.
Example:
xclogparser manifest --project MyApp
Example output:
{
"scheme" : "MyApp",
"timestampEnd" : 1548337458,
"fileName" : "D6539DED-8AC8-4508-9841-46606D0C794A.xcactivitylog",
"title" : "Build MyApp",
"duration" : 46,
"timestampStart" : 1548337412,
"uniqueIdentifier" : "D6539DED-8AC8-4508-9841-46606D0C794A",
"type" : "xcode"
}
Available parameters
Parameter Name | Description | Required |
---|---|---|
--log_manifest |
The path to an existing LogStoreManifest.plist . |
No * |
--project |
The name of the project if you don't know the path to the log. The tool will try to find the latest Build log in a folder that starts with that name inside the DerivedData directory. Use --strictProjectName for stricter name matching. |
No * |
--workspace |
The path to the xcworkspace file if you don't know the path to the log. It will generate the folder name for the project in the DerivedData folder using Xcode's hash algorithm and it will try to locate the latest Build Log inside that directory. |
No * |
--xcodeproj |
The path to the xcodeproj file if you don't know the path to the log and if the project doesn't have a xcworkspace file. It will generate the folder name for the project in the DerivedData folder using Xcode's hash algorithm and it will try to locate the latest Build Log inside that directory. |
No * |
--derived_data |
The path to the derived data folder if you are using xcodebuild to build your project with the -derivedDataPath option. |
No |
--output |
If specified, the JSON file will be written to the given path. If not defined, the command will output to the standard output. | No |
--strictProjectName |
Used in conjunction with --project . If specified, a stricter name matching will be done for the project name. |
No |
No *: One of
--log-manifest
,--project
,--workspace
,--xcodeproj
parameters is required.
The parse command has different types of reporters built-in that can represent and visualize the data of the logs:
This reporter parses the log and outputs it as JSON. It contains information about the duration of each step in the build, along other metadata and interesting information such as errors and warnings.
Example:
xclogparser parse --project MyApp --reporter json
Example Output
{
"detailStepType" : "swiftCompilation",
"startTimestamp" : 1545143336.649699,
"endTimestamp" : 1545143336.649699,
"schema" : "MyApp",
"domain" : "com.apple.dt.IDE.BuildLogSection",
"parentIdentifier" : "095709ba230e4eda80ab43be3b68f99c_1545299644.4805899_20",
"endDate" : "2018-12-18T14:28:56.650000+0000",
"title" : "Compile \/Users\/<redacted>\/projects\/MyApp\/Libraries\/Utilities\/Sources\/Disposables\/Cancelable.swift",
"identifier" : "095709ba230e4eda80ab43be3b68f99c_1545299644.4805899_185",
"signature" : "CompileSwift normal x86_64 \/Users\/<redacted>\/MyApp\/Libraries\/Utilities\/Sources\/Disposables\/Cancelable.swift",
"type" : "detail",
"buildStatus" : "succeeded",
"subSteps" : [
],
"startDate" : "2018-12-18T14:28:56.650000+0000",
"buildIdentifier" : "095709ba230e4eda80ab43be3b68f99c_1545299644.4805899",
"machineName" : "095709ba230e4eda80ab43be3b68f99c",
"duration" : 5.5941859483718872,
"errors" : "",
"warnings" : "",
"errorCount" : 0,
"warningCount" : 0,
"errors" : [],
"warnings" : [],
"swiftFunctionTimes" : [
{
"durationMS" : 0.08,
"occurrences" : 5,
"startingColumn" : 36,
"startingLine" : 48,
"file" : "file:\/\/\/Users\/<redacted>\/MyApp\/Libraries\/Utilities\/Sources\/Disposables\/Cancelable.swift",
"signature" : "getter description"
}
],
"swiftTypeCheckTimes" : [
{
"durationMS" : 0.5,
"occurrences" : 2,
"startingColumn" : 16,
"startingLine" : 9,
"file" : "file:\/\/\/Users\/<redacted>\/MyApp\/Libraries\/Utilities\/Sources\/Disposables\/Cancelable.swift",
}
]
}
For more information regarding each field, check out the JSON format documentation.
Parses the log as an array of JSON objects, with no nested steps (the field subSteps
is always empty). Useful to dump the data into a database so it's easier to analyze.
The format of the JSON objects in the array is the same to the one used in the json
reporter.
Example:
xclogparser parse --file path/to/log.xcactivitylog --reporter flatJson
Example Output
[
{
"parentIdentifier" : "",
"title" : "Build MobiusCore",
"warningCount" : 0,
"duration" : 0,
"startTimestamp" : 1558590748,
"signature" : "Build MobiusCore",
"endDate" : "2019-05-23T05:52:28.274000Z",
"errorCount" : 0,
"domain" : "Xcode.IDEActivityLogDomainType.BuildLog",
"type" : "main",
"identifier" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e_1558640253_1",
"buildStatus" : "succeeded",
"schema" : "MobiusCore",
"subSteps" : [
],
"endTimestamp" : 1558590748,
"architecture" : "",
"machineName" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e",
"buildIdentifier" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e_1558640253",
"startDate" : "2019-05-23T05:52:28.244000Z",
"documentURL" : "",
"detailStepType" : "none"
},
{
"parentIdentifier" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e_1558640253_1",
"title" : "Prepare build",
"warningCount" : 0,
"duration" : 0,
"startTimestamp" : 1558590748,
"signature" : "Prepare build",
"endDate" : "2019-05-23T05:52:28.261000Z",
"errorCount" : 0,
"domain" : "Xcode.IDEActivityLogDomainType.XCBuild.Preparation",
"type" : "target",
"identifier" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e_1558640253_2",
"buildStatus" : "succeeded",
"schema" : "MobiusCore",
"subSteps" : [
],
"endTimestamp" : 1558590748,
"architecture" : "",
"machineName" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e",
"buildIdentifier" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e_1558640253",
"startDate" : "2019-05-23T05:52:28.254000Z",
"documentURL" : "",
"detailStepType" : "none"
},{
"parentIdentifier" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e_1558640253_1",
"title" : "Build target MobiusCore",
"warningCount" : 0,
"duration" : 4,
"startTimestamp" : 1558590708,
"signature" : "MobiusCore-fmrwijcuutzbrmbgantlsfqxegcg",
"endDate" : "2019-05-23T05:51:51.890000Z",
"errorCount" : 0,
"domain" : "Xcode.IDEActivityLogDomainType.target.product-type.framework",
"type" : "target",
"identifier" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e_1558640253_3",
"buildStatus" : "succeeded",
"schema" : "MobiusCore",
"subSteps" : [
],
"endTimestamp" : 1558590712,
"architecture" : "",
"machineName" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e",
"buildIdentifier" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e_1558640253",
"startDate" : "2019-05-23T05:51:48.206000Z",
"documentURL" : "",
"detailStepType" : "none"
},
...
]
For more information regarding each field, check out the JSON format documentation.
Parses the log as a JSON object, with no nested steps (the field subSteps
is always empty). Useful to get a high level summary of the build.
Example:
xclogparser parse --file path/to/log.xcactivitylog --reporter summaryJson
Example Output
{
"parentIdentifier" : "",
"title" : "Build MobiusCore",
"warningCount" : 0,
"duration" : 0,
"startTimestamp" : 1558590748,
"signature" : "Build MobiusCore",
"endDate" : "2019-05-23T05:52:28.274000Z",
"errorCount" : 0,
"domain" : "Xcode.IDEActivityLogDomainType.BuildLog",
"type" : "main",
"identifier" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e_1558640253_1",
"buildStatus" : "succeeded",
"schema" : "MobiusCore",
"subSteps" : [
],
"endTimestamp" : 1558590748,
"architecture" : "",
"machineName" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e",
"buildIdentifier" : "68a2bbd0048a454d91b3734b5d5dc45e_1558640253",
"startDate" : "2019-05-23T05:52:28.244000Z",
"documentURL" : "",
"detailStepType" : "none"
}
For more information regarding each field, check out the JSON format documentation.
Parses the xcactivitylog
as an array of JSON objects in the format used by the Chrome tracer. You can use this JSON to visualize the build times in the Chrome tracing tool inside Chrome: chrome://tracing
.
Example:
xclogparser parse --file path/to/log.xcactivitylog --reporter chromeTracer
Outputs the list of Errors and Warnings found in the log as a JSON document. Useful when you only want to check the issues found while building.
Example:
xclogparser parse --file path/to/log.xcactivitylog --reporter issues
Example Output
```json
{
"errors" : [
{
"characterRangeStart" : 0,
"startingColumnNumber" : 5,
"endingColumnNumber" : 30,
"characterRangeEnd" : 18446744073709551615,
"title" : "use of undeclared type 'AType'",
"endingLineNumber" : 10,
"type" : "swiftError",
"documentURL" : "file:\/\/\/MyProject\/MyFile.swift",
"startingLineNumber" : 10,
"severity" : 1
"detail": "\/MyProject\/MyFile.swift:10:5: error: use of undeclared type 'AType'\r func doSomething(completion: @escaping () -> AType) -> void) {\r^~~~\r"
}
],
"warnings" : [
{
"characterRangeStart" : 0,
"startingColumnNumber" : 5,
"endingColumnNumber" : 30,
"characterRangeEnd" : 18446744073709551615,
"title" : "Warning",
"endingLineNumber" : 10,
"type" : "swiftWarning",
"documentURL" : "file:\/\/\/MyProject\/MyFile.swift",
"startingLineNumber" : 10,
"severity" : 1
}
]
}
```
Generates an HTML report to visualize build times per module and file, along with warning and error messages.
Example:
xclogparser parse --file path/to/log.xcactivitylog --reporter html --output build/reports
Environment | Version |
---|---|
🛠 Xcode | 11.0 |
🐦 Language | Swift 5.0 |
XCLogParser is currently in alpha status. We are using it internally and tested it on various projects, but we need the help from the community to test and improve it with more iOS and Mac applications.
MacOS:
- Clone the repo with
git clone git@github.com:MobileNativeFoundation/XCLogParser.git
. - Run
rake gen_resources
to generate a static resource Swift file that is needed to compile the app. - Run
swift package generate-xcodeproj
to generate a Xcode project (or use any text editor). - Run tests in Xcode directly (CMD + U) or using
rake test
. - Create issue and discuss a possible solution or improvement.
- Create a PR.
Linux:
- A Dockerfile is provided, you can create an image with the tag xlogparser:
docker build --tag xclogparser .
- To compile the app in Linux, just run the shell script:
./run-in-docker.sh
If you find a bug or you would like to propose an improvement, you're welcome to create an issue.
- Make sure version set in Version.swift is updated
- Create new release tag in GitHub with a tag format like
vx.x.x
. Provide release title and description. - Build release artifacts:
- for macOS, build an artifact using
DEVELOPER_DIR=<path_to_xcode_version> rake archive
. Use Xcode version matching with Requirements section. - for Linux, run
./build_release_in_docker.sh
- for macOS, build an artifact using
- Upload release artifacts to the release version summary:
- for macOS, upload zip file placed in
releases/XCLogParser-x.x.x.zip
- for Linux, update current version in the filename and upload
releases/linux/XCLogParser-x.x.x-Linux.zip
- for macOS, upload zip file placed in
This project adheres to the Open Code of Conduct. By participating, you are expected to honor this code.