Simple iOS IPA App Distribution Server

This is a simple, self-hosted IPA app distribution server.

This server can be used for either Ad-hoc or Enterprise application distribution. Developers can perform internal builds on their computers (without using a service like Expo) and utilize this platform to easily distribute the build among other developers, testers, or clients.

We wrote a blog post about this project, it explains the 'Why' and has a walkthrough on how to use/deploy it (more 'How-to' style): How to distribute iOS IPA builds.

The project provides a single endpoint for uploading an .ipa build. It returns a publicly accessible, minimalistic installation page with a QR code - that simple. It is designed for easy deployment within your infrastructure via a Docker container. And the upload functionality is secured with a pre-shared authorization token (see "Configuration" below).

To maintain simplicity and focus, this project does not handle device ID registration or application building.

Usage

To run with Docker:

docker run \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v ipa-uploads:/uploads \
  -it ghcr.io/significa/ipa-app-distribution-server

To upload your first IPA app build (your-app-build.ipa in the working directory):

curl -X "POST" \
  "http://localhost:3000/upload" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "X-Auth-Token: secret" \
  -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
  -F "ipa_file=@your-app-build.ipa"

This will return a link to the installation page.

More documentation in the Swagger OpenAPI explorer available on /docs.

Configuration

• UPLOADS_SECRET_AUTH_TOKEN: Token used for uploads. PLEASE CHANGE IT! Default: secret.

• APP_BASE_URL: The front-facing app URL for link generation. Defaults to http://localhost:8000.

• STORAGE_URL: A PyFilesystem2 compatible URL. Defaults to osfs:///uploads for Docker installations, and osfs://./uploads when running directly with Python. This means /uploads and ./uploads respectively.

  Compatible with many storage backends. Check out the possible configurations in the index of filesystems.

  AWS S3 Example: s3://your-bucket-name (and then provide the credentials via the usual AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY).

Development

Requirements:

• Python 3.11
• Make tools

Useful development commands:

• Setup a virtual environment (ex: make setup-venv).

• Install the dependencies: make install-deps.

• Start the development server: make dev.
  Open the interactive OpenAPI explorer: http://localhost:3000/docs.

• When changes to the dependencies are made, freeze them in the lockfile with: make lock-deps.

License

GNU GPLv3

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Built by Significa