How can I find the version number of an iPhone app from the IPA?

Question

We're trying out a new way of specifying version numbers for our app. I'd like to be able to check that the IPAs we're building have the version numbers we want. How do I get the version number out of the IPA?

Note - I'm not asking for a way of finding it from code inside the app; I've got a terminal open and the IPA file is built, and I want to know what to look for inside the IPA file.

tar -zxvOf YourIPAFile.ipa Payload/YourAppName.app/Info.plist | plutil -convert xml1 -r -o - -- - | grep -A 1 CFBundleShortVersion — user1695975, Oct 03 '20 at 17:30
tar -zxvOf YourIPAFile.ipa Payload/YourAppName.app/Info.plist | plutil -convert xml1 -r -o - -- - | grep -A 1 CFBundleVersion — user1695975, Oct 03 '20 at 17:31

score 49 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 12 '18 at 07:43

49

Do the below from your terminal

    //Unzip the file 
    unzip YourIPAFile.ipa

    //Open payload folder
    cd Payload

    //Open your .app file
    cd yourApp.app

    //Open the plist file
    open Info.plist

You can find the version under Bundle version key enter image description here

edited Mar 12 '18 at 07:43

Simon

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answered Jul 03 '12 at 08:54

sElanthiraiyan

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can I use these command and write it into a tools and the tools is just check for the minimumOSVersion? – jefferyleo Nov 23 '15 at 08:33

Sam Soffes · Answer 2 · 2021-10-13T19:28:27.473

12

There's a better way than PlistBuddy and grep:

unzip -d unzipped-ipa MyApp.ipa
defaults read "$(pwd)/MyApp.app/Contents/Info.plist" CFBundleVersion
rm -rf unzipped-ipa

It's worth noting that using defaults read requires an absolute path to your app.

edited Oct 13 '21 at 19:28

answered Feb 01 '16 at 21:54

Sam Soffes

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Thanks! Also note you should probably quote the whole string because the path may have a space in it. Mine now looks like: `buildNumber=$(defaults read "$(pwd)/MyApp.app/Contents/Info.plist" CFBundleVersion)` – EricS Oct 13 '21 at 18:38
PlistBuddy is a better solution as defaults should not be used to read arbitrary plist files. – Frizlab Jan 24 '22 at 00:18

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 22 '16 at 23:27

Unzip your ipa file
```
unzip YourIPAFile.ipa
```

Following plistBuddy command prints Bundle Version

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c print Payload/NAME.app/Info.plist | grep CFBundleVersion

CFBundleVersion = 1.0

Following plistBuddy command prints BundleVersion String

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c print Payload/NAME.app/Info.plist | grep CFBundleShortVersionString

CFBundleShortVersionString = 1.0

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 03 '12 at 08:41

4

It's in IPA/payload/NAME.app/Info.plist

answered Jul 03 '12 at 08:41

prince

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That's it. You can decompress the ipa file as if it was a zip file. – Ricard Pérez del Campo Jul 03 '12 at 08:47
1

It'd be inadvisable to try and re-zip it afterwards and then use it, I don't think it would be code signed, so wouldn't run on a device. – prince Jul 03 '12 at 08:49
You can do that on a copy of the ipa file. – Ricard Pérez del Campo Jul 03 '12 at 09:00
Well yes, I was just saying, don't bother re-zipping it hahaha. – prince Jul 03 '12 at 09:02

user1695975 · Answer 5 · 2020-10-03T17:33:03.700

You can do it without writing and deleting a file by using tar's feature to extract a single file, then streaming the result to standard output and piping it into the plutil command (pl=>property lists). Extra bonus, pipe that to grep, looking for the string "Version" showing only one line past the found pattern.

In the command below, replace YourIPAFile.ipa with the name of the ipa file you want to inspect and YourAppName.app with the name of the bundle executable in the Plist.info file. For me, using flutter, these two values were the same "Runner", but it's essentially the directory in the tar file where the info.plist file is located.

tar -zxvOf YourIPAFile.ipa Payload/YourAppName.app/Info.plist | plutil -convert xml1 -r -o - -- - | grep -A 1 Version

The output is:

x Payload/YourAppName.app/Info.plist
        <key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
        <string>6.0</string>
--
        <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
        <string>1.0.5</string>
--
        <key>CFBundleVersion</key>
        <string>1</string>
--
        <key>DTPlatformVersion</key>
        <string>14.0</string>
--
        <key>MinimumOSVersion</key>
        <string>9.0</string>

Or more to the point:

tar -zxvOf YourIPAFile.ipa Payload/YourAppName.app/Info.plist | plutil -convert xml1 -r -o - -- - | grep -A 1 CFBundleVersion

x Payload/YourAppName.app/Info.plist
        <key>CFBundleVersion</key>
        <string>1</string>

or

tar -zxvOf YourIPAFile.ipa Payload/YourAppName.app/Info.plist | plutil -convert xml1 -r -o - -- - | grep -A 1 CFBundleShortVersion

x Payload/YourAppName.app/Info.plist
        <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
        <string>1.0.5</string>

Best answer. For those who aren't sure about what YourAppName.app is - just rename your .ipa to a .zip and then unzip it. Whatever's in the Payload is the name of the app — kraftydevil, Mar 10 '21 at 02:35
This is way more performant, thanks for this! If you are just interested in the build number itself you can use this command instead build_number=$(tar -zxvOf YourApp.ipa Payload/YourApp.app/Info.plist | plutil -convert xml1 -r -o - -- - | grep -A 1 CFBundleVersion | grep string | awk -F">" '{print $2}' | awk -F"<" '{print $1}') In this case it will assign "1" to build_number — iVentis, Jan 19 '23 at 12:59

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 04 '17 at 04:44

I prefer to use ProvisionQL. https://github.com/ealeksandrov/ProvisionQL It provides a quick look of the IPA file (touching the IPA file with two fingers and clicking in Quick Look). It shows information like: Name, version, bundle id, device family, provisioning information, certificates, distribution profile, entitlements and more.

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 11 '18 at 18:35

0

Easy and better way is if you could see the details in QuickLook.

Now there is a plugin for quick look which gives you many details.

You must have homebrew installed.

Link to quicklook plugin here.

answered Mar 11 '18 at 18:35

Parth Adroja

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How can I find the version number of an iPhone app from the IPA?

7 Answers7