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I’m happy to announce the supply of Fastlane in your AWS CodeBuild for macOS environments. AWS CodeBuild is a totally managed steady integration service that compiles supply code, runs checks, and produces ready-to-deploy software program packages.
Fastlane is an open supply software suite designed to automate numerous facets of cellular software growth. It gives cellular software builders with a centralized set of instruments to handle duties similar to code signing, screenshot technology, beta distribution, and app retailer submissions. It integrates with standard steady integration and steady deployment (CI/CD) platforms and helps each iOS and Android growth workflows. Though Fastlane provides vital automation capabilities, builders could encounter challenges throughout its setup and upkeep. Configuring Fastlane will be complicated, significantly for groups unfamiliar with the syntax and package deal administration system of Ruby. Preserving Fastlane and its dependencies updated requires ongoing effort, as a result of updates to cellular platforms or third-party companies could necessitate changes to current workflows.
When we launched CodeBuild for macOS in August 2024, we knew that one in every of your challenges was to put in and preserve Fastlane in your construct atmosphere. Though it was potential to manually set up Fastlane in a customized construct atmosphere, at AWS, we take away the undifferentiated heaving lifting out of your infrastructure so you possibly can spend extra time on the facets that matter for your corporation. Beginning in the present day, Fastlane is put in by default, and you should utilize the acquainted command fastlane constructin your buildspec.yaml file.
Fastlane and code signing
To distribute an software on the App Retailer, builders should signal their binary with a personal key generated on the Apple Developer portal. This personal key, together with the certificates that validates it, should be accessible in the course of the construct course of. This generally is a problem for growth groups as a result of they should share the event personal key (which permits deployment on chosen check units) amongst workforce members. Moreover, the distribution personal key (which allows publishing on the App Retailer) should be obtainable in the course of the signing course of earlier than importing the binary to the App Retailer.
Fastlane is a flexible construct system in that it additionally helps builders with the administration of growth and distribution keys and certificates. Builders can use fastlane match to share signing supplies in a workforce and make them securely and simply accessible on particular person builders’ machines and on the CI atmosphere. match permits the storage of personal keys, the certificates, and the cellular provisioning profiles on a secured share storage. It makes positive that the native construct atmosphere, whether or not it’s a developer laptop computer or a server machine within the cloud, stays in sync with the shared storage. At construct time, it securely downloads the required certificates to signal your app and configures the construct machine to permit the codesign utility to choose them up.
match permits the sharing of signing secrets and techniques by way of GitHub, GitLab, Google Cloud Storage, Azure DevOps, and Amazon Easy Storage Service (Amazon S3).
Should you already use one in every of these and also you’re migrating your tasks to CodeBuild, you don’t have a lot to do. You solely want to ensure your CodeBuild construct atmosphere has entry to the shared storage (see step 3 within the demo).
Let’s see the way it works
Should you’re new to Fastlane or CodeBuild, let’s see the way it works.
For this demo, I begin with an current iOS undertaking. The undertaking is already configured to be constructed on CodeBuild. You may confer with my earlier weblog submit, Add macOS to your steady integration pipelines with AWS CodeBuild, to be taught extra particulars.
I’ll present you methods to get began in three steps:
- Import your current signing supplies to a shared personal GitHub repository
- Configure
fastlaneto construct and signal your undertaking - Use
fastlanewith CodeBuild
Step 1: Import your signing supplies
A lot of the fastlane documentation I learn explains methods to create a brand new key pair and a brand new certificates to get began. Though that is definitely true for brand spanking new tasks, in actual life, you most likely have already got your undertaking and your signing keys. So, step one is to import these current signing supplies.
Apple App Retailer makes use of totally different keys and certificates for growth and distribution (there are additionally advert hoc and enterprise certificates, however these are exterior the scope of this submit). You need to have three recordsdata for every utilization (that’s a complete of six recordsdata):
- A
.mobileprovisionfile which you can create and obtain from the Apple developer console. The provisioning profile hyperlinks your identification, the app identification, and the entitlements the app might need. - A
.cerfile, which is the certificates emitted by Apple to validate your personal key. You may obtain this from the Apple Developer portal. Choose the certificates, then choose Obtain. - A
.p12file, which comprises your personal key. You may obtain the important thing if you create it within the Apple Developer portal. Should you didn’t obtain it however have it in your machine, you possibly can export it from the Apple Keychain app. Observe that the KeyChain.app is hidden in macOS 15.x. You may open it withopen /System/Library/CoreServices/Purposes/Keychain Entry.app. Choose the important thing you wish to export and proper click on to pick out Export.
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When you’ve these recordsdata, create a fastlane/Matchfile file with the next content material:
git_url("https://github.com/sebsto/secret.git")
storage_mode("git")
kind("growth")
# or use appstore to make use of the distribution signing key and certificates
# kind("appstore")Remember to change the URL of your GitHub repository and be sure this repository is personal. It would function a storage on your signing key and certificates.
Then, I import my current recordsdata with the fastlane match import --type appstore command. I repeat the command for every atmosphere: appstore and growth.
The very first time, fastlane prompts me for my Apple Id username and password. It connects to App Retailer Hook up with confirm the validity of the certificates or to create new ones when needed. The session cookie is saved in ~/.fastlane/spaceship/<your apple consumer id>/cookie.
fastlane match additionally asks for a password. It makes use of this password to generate a key to crypt the signing supplies on the storage. Don’t neglect this password as a result of will probably be used at construct time to import the signing supplies on the construct machine.
Right here is the command and its output in full:
fastlane match import --type appstore
[✔] 🚀
[16:43:54]: Efficiently loaded '~/amplify-ios-getting-started/code/fastlane/Matchfile' 📄
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Detected Values from './fastlane/Matchfile' |
+--------------+--------------------------------------+
| git_url. | https://github.com/sebsto/secret.git |
| storage_mode | git |
| kind | growth |
+--------------+--------------------------------------+
[16:43:54]: Certificates (.cer) path:
./secrets and techniques/sebsto-apple-dist.cer
[16:44:07]: Non-public key (.p12) path:
./secrets and techniques/sebsto-apple-dist.p12
[16:44:12]: Provisioning profile (.mobileprovision or .provisionprofile) path or depart empty to skip
this file:
./secrets and techniques/amplifyiosgettingstarteddist.mobileprovision
[16:44:25]: Cloning distant git repo...
[16:44:25]: If cloning the repo takes too lengthy, you should utilize the `clone_branch_directly` choice in match.
[16:44:27]: Trying out department grasp...
[16:44:27]: Enter the passphrase that needs to be used to encrypt/decrypt your certificates
[16:44:27]: This passphrase is particular per repository and might be saved in your native keychain
[16:44:27]: Be sure to recollect the password, as you will want it if you run match on a distinct machine
[16:44:27]: Passphrase for Match storage: ********
[16:44:30]: Sort passphrase once more: ********
safety: SecKeychainAddInternetPassword <NULL>: The required merchandise already exists within the keychain.
[16:44:31]: 🔓 Efficiently decrypted certificates repo
[16:44:31]: Repo is at: '/var/folders/14/nwpsn4b504gfp02_mrbyd2jr0000gr/T/d20250131-41830-z7b4ic'
[16:44:31]: Login to App Retailer Join (sebsto@mac.com)
[16:44:33]: Enter the passphrase that needs to be used to encrypt/decrypt your certificates
[16:44:33]: This passphrase is particular per repository and might be saved in your native keychain
[16:44:33]: Be sure to recollect the password, as you will want it if you run match on a distinct machine
[16:44:33]: Passphrase for Match storage: ********
[16:44:37]: Sort passphrase once more: ********
safety: SecKeychainAddInternetPassword <NULL>: The required merchandise already exists within the keychain.
[16:44:39]: 🔒 Efficiently encrypted certificates repo
[16:44:39]: Pushing modifications to distant git repo...
[16:44:40]: Completed importing recordsdata to Git Repo [https://github.com/sebsto/secret.git]
I confirm that Fastlane imported my signing materials to my Git repository.
I may also configure my native machine to make use of these signing supplies in the course of the subsequent construct:
» fastlane match appstore
[✔] 🚀
[17:39:08]: Efficiently loaded '~/amplify-ios-getting-started/code/fastlane/Matchfile' 📄
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Detected Values from './fastlane/Matchfile' |
+--------------+--------------------------------------+
| git_url | https://github.com/sebsto/secret.git |
| storage_mode | git |
| kind | growth |
+--------------+--------------------------------------+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Abstract for match 2.226.0 |
+----------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
| kind | appstore |
| readonly | false |
| generate_apple_certs | true |
| skip_provisioning_profiles | false |
| app_identifier | ["com.amazonaws.amplify.mobile.getting-started"] |
| username | xxxx@xxxxxxxxx |
| team_id | XXXXXXXXXX |
| storage_mode | git |
| git_url | https://github.com/sebsto/secret.git |
| git_branch | grasp |
| shallow_clone | false |
| clone_branch_directly | false |
| skip_google_cloud_account_confirmation | false |
| s3_skip_encryption | false |
| gitlab_host | https://gitlab.com |
| keychain_name | login.keychain |
| drive | false |
| force_for_new_devices | false |
| include_mac_in_profiles | false |
| include_all_certificates | false |
| force_for_new_certificates | false |
| skip_confirmation | false |
| safe_remove_certs | false |
| skip_docs | false |
| platform | ios |
| derive_catalyst_app_identifier | false |
| fail_on_name_taken | false |
| skip_certificate_matching | false |
| skip_set_partition_list | false |
| force_legacy_encryption | false |
| verbose | false |
+----------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
[17:39:08]: Cloning distant git repo...
[17:39:08]: If cloning the repo takes too lengthy, you should utilize the `clone_branch_directly` choice in match.
[17:39:10]: Trying out department grasp...
[17:39:10]: Enter the passphrase that needs to be used to encrypt/decrypt your certificates
[17:39:10]: This passphrase is particular per repository and might be saved in your native keychain
[17:39:10]: Be sure to recollect the password, as you will want it if you run match on a distinct machine
[17:39:10]: Passphrase for Match storage: ********
[17:39:13]: Sort passphrase once more: ********
safety: SecKeychainAddInternetPassword <NULL>: The required merchandise already exists within the keychain.
[17:39:15]: 🔓 Efficiently decrypted certificates repo
[17:39:15]: Verifying that the certificates and profile are nonetheless legitimate on the Dev Portal...
[17:39:17]: Putting in certificates...
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Put in Certificates |
+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Consumer ID | XXXXXXXXXX |
| Widespread Identify | Apple Distribution: Sebastien Stormacq (XXXXXXXXXX) |
| Organisation Unit | XXXXXXXXXX |
| Organisation | Sebastien Stormacq |
| Nation | US |
| Begin Datetime | 2024-10-29 09:55:43 UTC |
| Finish Datetime | 2025-10-29 09:55:42 UTC |
+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
[17:39:18]: Putting in provisioning profile...
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Put in Provisioning Profile |
+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Parameter | Surroundings Variable | Worth |
+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| App Identifier | | com.amazonaws.amplify.cellular.getting-starte |
| | | d |
| Sort | | appstore |
| Platform | | ios |
| Profile UUID | sigh_com.amazonaws.amplify.cellular.getting-s | 4e497882-d80f-4684-945a-8bfec1b310b9 |
| | tarted_appstore | |
| Profile Identify | sigh_com.amazonaws.amplify.cellular.getting-s | amplify-ios-getting-started-dist |
| | tarted_appstore_profile-name | |
| Profile Path | sigh_com.amazonaws.amplify.cellular.getting-s | /Customers/stormacq/Library/MobileDevice/Provis |
| | tarted_appstore_profile-path | ioning |
| | | Profiles/4e497882-d80f-4684-945a-8bfec1b310 |
| | | b9.mobileprovision |
| Improvement Workforce ID | sigh_com.amazonaws.amplify.cellular.getting-s | XXXXXXXXXX |
| | tarted_appstore_team-id | |
| Certificates Identify | sigh_com.amazonaws.amplify.cellular.getting-s | Apple Distribution: Sebastien Stormacq |
| | tarted_appstore_certificate-name | (XXXXXXXXXX) |
+---------------------+----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+
[17:39:18]: All required keys, certificates and provisioning profiles are put in 🙌Step 2: Configure Fastlane to signal your undertaking
I create a Fastlane construct configuration file in fastlane/Fastfile (you should utilize fastlane init command to get began):
default_platform(:ios)
platform :ios do
before_all do
setup_ci
finish
desc "Construct and Signal the binary"
lane :construct do
match(kind: "appstore", readonly: true)
gymnasium(
scheme: "getting began",
export_method: "app-store"
)
finish
finish
Make it possible for the setup_ci motion is added to the before_all part of Fastfile for the match motion to perform appropriately. This motion creates a brief Fastlane keychain with appropriate permissions. With out this step, you could encounter construct failures or inconsistent outcomes.
And I check an area construct with the command fastlane construct. I enter the password I used when importing my keys and certificates, then I let the system construct and signal my undertaking. When every thing is appropriately configured, it produces the same output.
...
[17:58:33]: Efficiently exported and compressed dSYM file
[17:58:33]: Efficiently exported and signed the ipa file:
[17:58:33]: ~/amplify-ios-getting-started/code/getting began.ipa
+---------------------------------------+
| fastlane abstract |
+------+------------------+-------------+
| Step | Motion | Time (in s) |
+------+------------------+-------------+
| 1 | default_platform | 0 |
| 2 | setup_ci | 0 |
| 3 | match | 36 |
| 4 | gymnasium | 151 |
+------+------------------+-------------+
[17:58:33]: fastlane.instruments completed efficiently 🎉Step 3: Configure CodeBuild to make use of Fastlane
Subsequent, I create a undertaking on CodeBuild. I’m not going into the step-by-step information that will help you to take action. You may confer with my earlier submit or to the CodeBuild documentation.
There is only one Fastlane-specific configuration. To entry the signing supplies, Fastlane requires entry to 3 secret values that I’ll move as atmosphere variables:
MATCH_PASSWORD, the password I entered when importing the signing materials. Fastlane makes use of this password to decipher the encrypted recordsdata within the GitHub repositoryFASTLANE_SESSION, the worth of the Apple Id session cookie, positioned at~/.fastlane/spaceship/<your apple consumer id>/cookie. The session is legitimate from a few hours to a number of days. When the session expires, reauthenticate with the commandfastlane spaceauthout of your laptop computer and replace the worth ofFASTLANE_SESSIONwith the brand new worth of the cookie.MATCH_GIT_BASIC_AUTHORIZATION, a base 64 encoding of your GitHub username, adopted by a colon, adopted by a private authentication token (PAT) to entry your personal GitHub repository. You may generate PAT on the GitHub console in Your Profile > Settings > Builders Settings > Private Entry Token. I take advantage of this command to generate the worth of this atmosphere variable:echo -n my_git_username:my_git_pat | base64.
Observe that for every of those three values, I can enter the Amazon Useful resource Identify (ARN) of the key on AWS Secrets and techniques Supervisor or the plain textual content worth. We strongly suggest utilizing Secrets and techniques Supervisor to retailer security-sensitive values.
I’m a security-conscious consumer, so I retailer the three secrets and techniques in Secrets and techniques Supervisor with these instructions:
aws --region $REGION secretsmanager create-secret --name /CodeBuild/MATCH_PASSWORD --secret-string MySuperSecretPassword
aws --region $REGION secretsmanager create-secret --name /CodeBuild/FASTLANE_SESSION --secret-string $(cat ~/.fastlane/spaceship/my_appleid_username/cookie)
aws --region $REGION secretsmanager create-secret --name /CodeBuild/MATCH_GIT_BASIC_AUTHORIZATION --secret-string $(echo -n my_git_username:my_git_pat | base64)
In case your construct undertaking refers to secrets and techniques saved in Secrets and techniques Supervisor, the construct undertaking’s service function should enable the secretsmanager:GetSecretValue motion. Should you selected New service function if you created your undertaking, CodeBuild contains this motion within the default service function on your construct undertaking. Nonetheless, in the event you selected Current service function, you will need to embrace this motion to your service function individually.
For this demo, I take advantage of this AWS Identification and Entry Administration (IAM) coverage:
{
"Model": "2012-10-17",
"Assertion": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"secretsmanager:GetSecretValue"
],
"Useful resource": [
"arn:aws:secretsmanager:us-east-2:012345678912:secret:/CodeBuild/*"
]
}
]
}After I created the undertaking within the CodeBuild part of the AWS Administration Console, I enter the three atmosphere variables. Discover that the worth is the identify of the key in Secrets and techniques Supervisor.
You can even outline the atmosphere variables and their Secrets and techniques Supervisor secret identify in your buildpsec.yaml file.
Subsequent, I modify the buildspec.yaml file on the root of my undertaking to make use of fastlane to construct and signal the binary. My buildspec.yaml file now appears like this one:
# buildspec.yml
model: 0.2
phases:
set up:
instructions:
- code/ci_actions/00_install_rosetta.sh
pre_build:
instructions:
- code/ci_actions/02_amplify.sh
construct:
instructions:
- (cd code && fastlane construct)
artifacts:
identify: getting-started-$(date +%Y-%m-%d).ipa
recordsdata:
- 'getting began.ipa'
base-directory: 'code'The Rosetta and Amplify scripts are required to obtain the Amplify configuration for the backend. Should you don’t use AWS Amplify in your undertaking, you don’t want these.
Discover that there’s nothing within the construct file that downloads the signing key or prepares the keychain within the construct atmosphere; fastlane match will try this for me.
I add the brand new buildspec.yaml file and my ./fastlane listing to Git. I commit and push these recordsdata. git commit -m "add fastlane assist" && git push
When every thing goes nicely, I can see the construct working on CodeBuild and the Succeeded message.
Pricing and availability
Fastlane is now pre-installed at no further price on all macOS photographs that CodeBuild makes use of, in all Areas the place CodeBuild for macOS is accessible. On the time of this writing, these are US East (Ohio, N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Sydney), and Europe (Frankfurt).
In my expertise, it takes a little bit of time to configure fastlane match appropriately. When it’s configured, having it engaged on CodeBuild is fairly simple. Earlier than attempting this on CodeBuild, make sure it really works in your native machine. When one thing goes incorrect on CodeBuild, triple-check the values of the atmosphere variables and ensure CodeBuild has entry to your secrets and techniques on AWS Secrets and techniques Supervisor.
Now go construct (on macOS)!