For detailed instructions on how to get started with contributing to fastlane, first check out YourFirstPR.md and Testing.md. This guide will focus on more advanced instructions on how to debug fastlane and spaceship issues and work on patches.
Open a fastlane console by running fastlane console
inside or outside your project.
This will allow you to invoke any of the fastlane modules and classes and test their behavior.
Debug using pry
Before you’re able to use pry, make sure to have completed the YourFirstPR.md setup part, as this will install all required development dependencies.
To add a breakpoint anywhere in the fastlane codebase, add the following 2 lines wherever you want to jump in
require 'pry'
binding.pry
As debugging with pry requires the development dependencies, make sure to execute fastlane using bundle exec
after running bundle install
in the project- or fastlane directory.
bundle exec fastlane beta --verbose
If you need the breakpoint when running tests, make sure to have the DEBUG
environment variable set, as the default test runner will remove all output from stdout, and therefore not showing the output of pry
:
DEBUG=1 bundle exec rspec
You will then jump into an interactive debugger that allows you to print out variables, call methods and much more.
To continue running the original script use control
+ d
You can open an IRB console by running bin/console
Debugging and patching spaceship problems
spaceship is fastlane's connection to Apple service. It is a Ruby library that exposes the Apple Developer Center and App Store Connect API. It’s super fast, well tested and supports all of the operations you can do via the browser. Scripting your Developer Center workflow has never been easier!
If spaceship doesn’t work, it’s best to first find out if the actual website (Developer Portal or App Store Connect) is currently working. Sometimes this might be a temporary server issue that gets resolved quickly. To gather information, make sure to check if other people are having the same issue on GitHub. If it is a server issue, it’s best to file a radar or call the App Store Connect hotline.
Setting up Charles Web Proxy
This section explains how you can set up Charles Proxy to track local https traffic and inspect the requests and their responses. Charles is a paid application with a free option that’s usually good enough for a quick debugging session limited to 30 minutes. If you prefer a free open source alternative, check out mitmproxy.
First, download and install the latest version of Charles Proxy. After the first launch, you’ll have to install its Root Certificate.
In Charles go to the Help menu and choose "SSL Proxying > Install Charles Root Certificate". Keychain Access will open, and prompt you about the certificate. Click the "Always Trust" button. You will then be prompted for your Administrator password to update the system trust settings.
You might have to restart your Mac for the changes to be applied. To see if it works, relaunch Charles and Chrome/Safari and try opening App Store Connect.
If everything worked, you’ll already see a list of requests in the sidebar of Charles. Take a look at the above list of used API endpoints, and enable SSL Proxying
and Focus
on all endpoints you are interested in.
After doing so, refresh the App Store Connect page. You should be able to see all web requests with their responses.
We’re not using the built-in network tracker of your browser, since we also need a proxy for our local fastlane install, which will be covered in the next section of this document.
They key is to do the same action you want to test on both the website, and in spaceship, so you can see how the requests are different.
To pipe spaceship requests through your local proxy, you need to set an environment variable:
SPACESHIP_DEBUG=1 bundle exec fastlane your_normal_command
To make it easier to run the same script again, you can temporarily edit the Rakefile
to look like this:
# leave existing code, and append the following
task :debug do
require 'spaceship'
# first login
Spaceship::Tunes.login("apple@fastlane.tools") # use your own test account
# or
Spaceship::Portal.login("apple@fastlane.tools") # use your own test account
# then add code to test whatever part of _spaceship_ needs to be tested
# e.g.
apps = Spaceship::Tunes::Application.all
require 'pry'
binding.pry
end
To run the newly created script, run
SPACESHIP_DEBUG=1 bundle exec rake debug
You can open an interactive spaceship session console by running fastlane spaceship
See also the Debugging spaceship documentation.