a cli tool to duplicate iOS apps "correctly"

python v3.8 or later, the zip command, and ldid installed globally. installing pyzule is an easy way to get this taken care of.

windows is not supported. use wsl.

$ python appdupe.py -h
usage: appdupe.py [-h] -i input -o output [-s seed] [-b id]

a cli tool to duplicate ios apps

options:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit
  -i input    ipa to duplicate
  -o output   duplicated ipa to create
  -s seed     a "seed" to derive the app id from (any string of your choosing)
  -b id       bundle id to use (see README)

you can use -s to ensure multiple apps share the same data container. an example where this can be useful can be found in the code.

this is really messy. i made this without caring about quality so there's probably some bugs.. who cares though, it works, doesn't it?

also, there might be some remaining shared app containers due to app extensions. you can use pyzule to remove app extensions, change the app display name, and modify the app further.

don't change the bundle id though.. not sure if that would break anything due to changing application-identifier. you can try if you want and tell me if it works, just open an issue or dm me on telegram or something.

let's think of this example: you need to duplicate discord, so you run this command:

$ python appdupe.py -i ~/Discord-v217.0.ipa -o ~/DiscordDupe
[?] ipa file extension not detected, appending manually
[*] using seed: "7c54c5db-d6c3-41f7-a5ab-c21d87e3e4e2" (save this!)
[*] will use bundle id: fyi.zxcvbn.appdupe.700603c620 (save this!)
[*] will use team id: 1429A9E38A
[*] done, remember to remove app extensions (if u wanna)

everything works fine! but what if you wanted to update the duped discord? starting in v1.1 you can use -s and -b to achieve this. simply remember to save the command's output (like appdupe tells you to) then run:

# "700603c620" was the last part of the bundle id given to us last time
$ python appdupe.py -i ~/Discord-v218.0.ipa -o ~/DiscordDupeUpdated -s "7c54c5db-d6c3-41f7-a5ab-c21d87e3e4e2" -b 700603c620
[?] ipa file extension not detected, appending manually
[*] using seed: "7c54c5db-d6c3-41f7-a5ab-c21d87e3e4e2" (save this!)
[*] will use bundle id: fyi.zxcvbn.appdupe.700603c620 (save this!)
[*] will use team id: 1429A9E38A
[*] done, remember to remove app extensions (if u wanna)

then you can install the updated ipa normally, and you'll keep all your data.