How to quickly get app's directory from its bundle id on jailbroken iOS device?

Question

In iOS devices, all user applications are located in /var/mobile/Applications directory, and each app has a unique random uuid as its directory name, for instance:

/var/mobile/Applications/15FD62FD-2BEB-4C1E-A9B8-BC93E5C721CC

the uuid is 15FD62FD-2BEB-4C1E-A9B8-BC93E5C721CC.

Now I want to get the directory by application's bundle identifier, my solution is enumerate the /var/mobile/Applications directory, get the bundle identifier from Info.plist and check.

This solution is rather slow, is there any quicker way to do this?

e.g. if there is a plist that records the bundle id to uuid mapping, then I can read that file to avoid directory enumeration.

Answer 1

I think the file you are looking for is

/var/mobile/Library/Caches/com.apple.mobile.installation.plist

For example, it contains information like this for each app:

    "com.zillow.ZillowMap" =         {
        ApplicationDSID = 216284405;
        ApplicationType = User;
        CFBundleDisplayName = Zillow;
        CFBundleExecutable = ZillowMap;
        CFBundleIconFiles =             (
            "app-icon",
            "app-icon-iPad.png",
            "app-icon-iPad@2x.png"
        );
        CFBundleIcons =             {
            CFBundlePrimaryIcon =                 {
                CFBundleIconFiles =                     (
                    "app-icon",
                    "app-icon-iPad.png",
                    "app-icon-iPad@2x.png"
                );
                UIPrerenderedIcon = 1;
            };
        };
        CFBundleIdentifier = "com.zillow.ZillowMap";
        CFBundleName = ZillowMap;
        CFBundleShortVersionString = "6.1.0112";
        CFBundleVersion = "6.1.0112";
        CodeInfoIdentifier = "com.zillow.ZillowMap";
        Container = "/private/var/mobile/Applications/B9284FBE-E558-4A65-A7E4-AE20CDAD9A1D";
        Entitlements =             {
            "application-identifier" = "JEWMY3RZ4A.com.zillow.ZillowMap";
            "aps-environment" = production;
        };
        EnvironmentVariables =             {
            "CFFIXED_USER_HOME" = "/private/var/mobile/Applications/B9284FBE-E558-4A65-A7E4-AE20CDAD9A1D";
            HOME = "/private/var/mobile/Applications/B9284FBE-E558-4A65-A7E4-AE20CDAD9A1D";
            TMPDIR = "/private/var/mobile/Applications/B9284FBE-E558-4A65-A7E4-AE20CDAD9A1D/tmp";
        };
        IsUpgradeable = 1;
        LSRequiresIPhoneOS = 1;
        MinimumOSVersion = "5.0";
        Path = "/private/var/mobile/Applications/B9284FBE-E558-4A65-A7E4-AE20CDAD9A1D/ZillowMap.app";
        SequenceNumber = 2618;
        SignerIdentity = "Apple iPhone OS Application Signing";
        UIDeviceFamily =             (
            1,
            2
        );
        UIPrerenderedIcon = 1;
    };

Update

This file was removed in iOS 8: (https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/Com.apple.mobile.installation.plist)

There exists a similar file for iOS 8 at /var/mobile/Library/MobileInstallation/LastLaunchServicesMap.plist, but it might only be updated at launch (reboot).

Answer 2

And here this is another solution, if your code runs in SpringBoard:

NSString *applicationBundleIdentifier = @"...";
SBApplication *application = [[SBApplicationController sharedInstance]applicationWithDisplayIdentifier:applicationBundleIdentifier];
NSString *path = application.containerPath;