Resolving the Fastlane SSH Execution Issue: Unlocking Keychain for Code Signing

Discover how to troubleshoot the Fastlane execution issue over SSH when building Xcode projects. Learn the solution to unlock your keychain for seamless code signing when remote building.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/78107974/ asked by the user 'mcExchange' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/2191652/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/78113267/ provided by the user 'mcExchange' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/2191652/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Troubleshooting Fastlane Execution Over SSH: Unlocking Your Keychain

When working with Xcode projects, building and deploying your app is often a multi-step process that can involve complex tools and configurations. For developers looking to streamline this process, Fastlane is a popular choice. However, sometimes things don’t go as planned, especially when trying to execute commands over SSH. If you've found yourself facing an execution failure while trying to build your app remotely, you're not alone. Here’s how you can overcome this challenge.

The Problem

You want to build an Xcode project using Fastlane on a remote Mac machine through SSH. While everything works perfectly when accessing the machine via VNC, executing the scripts remotely leads to a frustrating issue: the build fails during the code-signing process. The error message might look something like this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Understanding the Cause

The crux of the issue lies in how SSH handles access to the keychain on macOS. When you initiate a build process through SSH, it does not automatically unlock your keychain, which is necessary for accessing signing certificates. This is why you’re seeing the error during the code-signing step.

The Solution: Unlocking Your Keychain

To resolve this issue, you need to explicitly unlock your keychain within your build script. Here’s how you can do that:

Step-by-Step Instructions:

Modify Your Script:
Add the following line to your build script before the Fastlane commands are executed:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Set Your Password:

Make sure to replace "$PASSWORD" with the actual password for your keychain or store the password securely in an environment variable.

Running the Script:

Now, when you run your script via SSH, the script will unlock the keychain first, allowing Fastlane to access your signing certificates seamlessly.

Additional Considerations

It's important to note that prior to this solution, you might have granted access to your signing certificates for OpenSSH through the GUI on macOS. Although this method didn't resolve the current issue, it’s useful information to keep in mind as part of the overall setup.

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined above, you can troubleshoot and resolve the SSH execution issue when using Fastlane on a remote macOS machine. Unlocking your keychain is a crucial step that allows for proper access to necessary signing certificates, ensuring your builds can execute smoothly without interruption.

With this solution, you're now empowered to run your builds remotely without the hassle of missing certificates or failed signing processes.

Happy coding!