imobiledevice.nim

Nim bindings for libimobiledevice – the cross-platform library that talks to iOS devices.

Upstream: https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libimobiledevice

Features

• Complete low-level coverage – 28 headers, 332 functions in src/imobiledevice/bindings/ (afc, lockdown, installation_proxy, diagnostics_relay, house_arrest, file_relay, sbservices, heartbeat, screenshotr, debugserver, mobile_image_mounter, misagent, mobileactivation, webinspector, bt_packet_logger, companion_proxy, reverse_proxy, syslog_relay, ostrace, preboard, restore, service, property_list_service, mobilebackup/mobilebackup2, mobilesync, notification_proxy and core libimobiledevice.h)
  • C-style naming preserved, {.push importc, header: "<libimobiledevice/...>" .} / {.pop.} pragmas
  • Opaque structs as incompleteStruct, enums with exact C values, cstringArray (system/ctypes.nim) helpers
  • Links with -limobiledevice -lplist via {.passL.}
• High-level idiomatic API directly in src/imobiledevice/*.nim (plus optional subdirs, not all in one subdir) – device, lockdown_client, afc_client, installation_proxy_client, diagnostics_relay_client, house_arrest_client, file_relay_client, etc.
  • Device / Connection / *Client as ref object with =destroy/close RAII
  • seq[string] instead of char**, Plist (src/imobiledevice/plist.nim) for plist_t, string/uint64 handles
  • Exceptions (errors.nim: MobileDeviceError, IdeviceError, LockdownError, AfcError …) via *_strerror
  • utils.nim uses cstringArray, cstringArrayToSeq, allocCStringArray/deallocCStringArray from system.nim
  • Every high-level proc carries ## doc comments inside the body
• Plist helper – src/imobiledevice/plist.nim wraps plist_t from <plist/plist.h> (newPlist, borrow, takeOwnership, toXml/fromXml, dictSetString/dictGetString)

Requirements

• Nim >= 2.2.10
• libimobiledevice and libplist development packages
  • macOS: brew install libimobiledevice libplist
  • Debian/Ubuntu: apt install libimobiledevice-dev libplist-dev
  • From source: https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libimobiledevice

Installation

nimble install imobiledevice

Or for local development:

nimble install --depsOnly

Quick start – high-level API

All high-level modules live directly in src/imobiledevice/*.nim and are importable as import imobiledevice/device.

List devices and query version

import imobiledevice/device

let devices = listDevices()
echo devices  # @["00008030-00123456789ABC"]

if devices.len > 0:
  let dev = newDevice(devices[0])
  defer: dev.close()
  echo dev.getUdid()
  echo dev.getVersion()        # (major, minor, patch)
  echo dev.versionAtLeast(17, 0, 0)
  echo libVersion()

Lockdown – get device name and start a service

import imobiledevice/device
import imobiledevice/lockdown_client
import imobiledevice/plist

let dev = newDevice("00008030-00123456789ABC")
let lockdown = newLockdownClient(dev)
defer: lockdown.close()

echo lockdown.getDeviceName()
echo lockdown.getDeviceUdid()
echo lockdown.getSyncDataClasses()

let info = lockdown.getValue("", "DeviceName")
echo info.toXml()

let svc = lockdown.startService("com.apple.afc")
echo svc.port, svc.sslEnabled

AFC – browse filesystem

import imobiledevice/device
import imobiledevice/afc_client

let dev = newDevice("00008030-00123456789ABC")
let afc = newAfcClient(dev)
defer: afc.close()

for entry in afc.readDirectory("/"):
  echo entry

echo afc.getDeviceInfoValue("FSTotalBytes")

let h = afc.openFile("/test.txt", AFC_FOPEN_RDONLY)
defer: afc.closeFile(h)
echo afc.read(h, 1024)

afc.makeDirectory("/MyDir")
afc.removePath("/MyDir")

Installation proxy – list apps

import imobiledevice/device
import imobiledevice/installation_proxy_client
import imobiledevice/plist

let dev = newDevice("00008030-00123456789ABC")
let inst = newInstallationProxyClient(dev)
defer: inst.close()

var opts = newDict()  # empty plist dict
var res: plist_t
inst.lookup(nil, opts.raw, addr res)  # low-level still accessible
# High-level browse returns via plist, convert with plist helpers

Diagnostics, house arrest, file relay

import imobiledevice/device
import imobiledevice/diagnostics_relay_client
import imobiledevice/house_arrest_client
import imobiledevice/file_relay_client

let dev = newDevice("00008030-00123456789ABC")
let diag = newDiagnosticsRelayClient(dev)
defer: diag.close()
# diag.requestDiagnostics("All", ...)

let har = newHouseArrestClient(dev)
# har.sendCommand("VendDocuments", "com.example.app")

Low-level bindings

Direct C API remains available via src/imobiledevice/bindings/:

import imobiledevice/bindings/libimobiledevice
import imobiledevice/bindings/afc
import imobiledevice/bindings/lockdown

var dev: idevice_t
if idevice_new(addr dev, "00008030-00123456789ABC".cstring) == IDEVICE_E_SUCCESS:
  defer: discard idevice_free(dev)
  var afc: afc_client_t
  if afc_client_start_service(dev, addr afc, "mobiledevice".cstring) == AFC_E_SUCCESS:
    defer: discard afc_client_free(afc)
    var list: cstringArray
    discard afc_read_directory(afc, "/".cstring, cast[ptr ptr cstring](addr list))
    for s in cStringArrayToSeq(list):
      echo s
    discard afc_dictionary_free(cast[ptr cstring](list))

Low-level uses {.push importc, header: "<libimobiledevice/afc.h>" .} and incompleteStruct as in the reference libevent-nim example, with exact C error values (-256 for unknown, 1 | 4 for lock flags, etc.).

Project layout

src/imobiledevice.nim              # re-exports bindings + high-level core
src/imobiledevice/
  bindings/                        # 28 low-level C bindings
  device.nim                       # high-level Device / Connection
  errors.nim                       # MobileDeviceError hierarchy
  plist.nim                        # Plist ref wrapper
  utils.nim                        # cstringArray helpers (system.nim)
  lockdown_client.nim
  afc_client.nim
  installation_proxy_client.nim
  ... (25 service clients directly in src/imobiledevice/*.nim)
reference/include/libimobiledevice # vendored C headers

High-level lives directly in src/imobiledevice/*.nim (and optional subdirs like src/imobiledevice/bindings/ for low-level), not all isolated in a single highlevel/ directory.

API reference

Generate with nim doc src/imobiledevice.nim or nimble doc.

License

MIT – see LICENSE.

Upstream libimobiledevice is LGPL-2.1 – see https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libimobiledevice.