Question

Is it possible to start an application test that runs in the simulator with a terminal command(s)?

Thanks

Answer 1

Yes, I got it to work. My solution is somehow rough and might not be suitable in every case.

Disclaimer: This solution requires to edit system files. It works for
me, but may mess up XCode’s unit testing stack, especially if you
do not understand what you are doing.

In /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Tools/RunPlatformUnitTests
replace

if [ "${TEST_HOST}" != "" ]; then

    Warning ${LINENO} "Skipping tests; the iPhoneSimulator platform does not currently support application-hosted tests (TEST_HOST set)."

else

with

if [ "${TEST_HOST}" != "" ]; then

    mkdir -p "${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/Documents"
    mkdir -p "${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/Library/Caches"
    mkdir -p "${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/Library/Preferences"
    mkdir -p "${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/tmp"

    export CFFIXED_USER_HOME="${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/"

    RunTestsForApplication "${TEST_HOST}" "${TEST_BUNDLE_PATH}"
else

You may move the fixed user home to a different location, but I think you would need to move the .app and .octest bundles along.

Add -RegisterForSystemEvents to the OTHER_TEST_FLAGS build setting of your test bundle.

Make sure your test bundle contains a run script build phase with the contents

# Run the unit tests in this test bundle.
"${SYSTEM_DEVELOPER_DIR}/Tools/RunUnitTests"

Create a new scheme for your tests.

You should be able to run the tests from the command line using the standard xcodebuild:

xcodebuild -workspace $(WORKSPACE_NAME).xcworkspace -scheme $(TEST_SCHEME) -configuration debug -sdk iphonesimulator

The simulator must not be running, at the time you what to run the tests.

I hope this information is complete, if something doesn’t work as expected please ask.