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I have created an iPhone application, and I want to send the compiled .app file to my client, so he can install and test this iPhone application on his device.

Is it possible that he can view the contents of this .app file, like the resource files used in this application (images, sound files, etc.)? Could he reverse engineer the source code used to build this application from the compiled product?

Peter Mortensen
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iHS
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    To see package contents, CTRL-Click .app file, then "Show Package Contents." However, code is compiled into Unix executables and .nib/ Interface builder files, which are not human readable. – Tom Feb 20 '11 at 16:11
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    @Jerry Coffin: No it's not. app files are directories. – jer Feb 20 '11 at 16:16
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    @Harinder - Your original wording was very short and not too clear. With your additional clarification, I edited some of your wording to help show that this is a legitimate question. I agree that this should now be reopened. – Brad Larson Feb 21 '11 at 20:11
  • @fuzzy lollipop: Yes, this is what I figured out, after some googling – iHS Feb 22 '11 at 17:22
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    @fuzzy lollipop thanks for the correction. I mixed up `.app` with `.ipa` ... – ohho Feb 23 '11 at 02:31

1 Answers1

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On OSX an Application Bundle is just a directory named .app with some special meta-data files about the application, and the application executables and its resources. Right clicking and picking Show Package Contents will show the entire contents of the Application.app directory.

Any file resources, images, sounds, properties filed, etc. that are not using some application specific encryption will be plainly accesible.

That said, the application code, if a native Objective-C application, will be compiled and not easily reverse engineered, it would have to be decompiled, and if stripped of debugging information would take a dedicated hacker to grok the assembly output and modify it.

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    does it mean they can get the exact source code if they put efforts towards it? – RK- Jul 20 '11 at 08:09