x/mobile: apps built with go 1.13, still rejected by Apple app store

[mmaxim]

What version of Go are you using (go version)?

$ go version
1.13

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

Yes.

What operating system and processor architecture are you using (go env)?

gomobile for iOS.

What did you do?

Build an app and try to submit to Apple App Store.

What did you expect to see?

Acceptance.

What did you see instead?

The fix provided here #31628 is not complete. ptrace is not the only symbol that is being rejected by the store. Go >= 1.12 (including the latest release with a fix for the aforementioned ptrace problem) still triggers a rejection on the sysctl symbol. Some sample text from Apple:

ITMS-90338: Non-public API usage - The app references non-public symbols in Keybase: ___sysctl

The only way we can submit our app to the app store is to run the now unsupported Go 1.10.8, which works.

[hyangah]

@khr @eliasnaur

Can we disable the use of sysctl as well in the syscall package?

[eliasnaur]

Sure, should we backport the fix as well?

[eliasnaur]

@mmaxim, can you provide exact reproduction steps? I ask because my scatter.im app went into the App Store (testflight) just fine.

[mmaxim]

Unfortunately, I do not have a small repro for this (although I haven't really tried to get one). Right now this just affects when we submit the Keybase (https://github.com/keybase/client) app (which is substantial). We are likely doing something in there that is causing this symbol to get included, but I don't know what it would be. Like I said, it works for us with 1.10.8, but we have been stuck there because of this problem.

Note that before 1.13 we saw ptrace in the error from Apple as well, but that is now gone, so that previous fix seemed effective for us on that symbol.

[mmaxim]

Also, if you get a patch together at some point, I'd be happy to test it out on Keybase if that would help.

[eliasnaur]

What I would like with a reproducer is to avoid the whack-a-mole game of disabling one symbol at a time. Perhaps I can include all syscalls in a synthetic reproducer.

[mmaxim]

Yeah that totally makes sense. For what it's worth the error from Apple lists all the offending symbols in our submission. Before 1.13, that list was ptrace and sysctl. On 1.13, that list is now down to sysctl.

[eliasnaur]

@mmaxim please test https://golang.org/cl/193843.

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/193843 mentions this issue: syscall: disable sysctl on iOS

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/194097 mentions this issue: unix: disable sysctl on iOS

[eliasnaur]

@gopherbot please consider this for backport to 1.13 to allow Go apps through the App Store checks.

[gopherbot]

Backport issue(s) opened: #34170 (for 1.13).

Remember to create the cherry-pick CL(s) as soon as the patch is submitted to master, according to https://golang.org/wiki/MinorReleases.