Which processes can be launched using performTaskWithPathArgumentsTimeout function? - ios-ui-automation

Question

I use UIAutomation to automate an iPad application. I have tried to use
(object) performTaskWithPathArgumentsTimeout(path, args, timeout) to run Safari.app from my script:
var target = UIATarget.localTarget();
var host = target.host();
var result = host.performTaskWithPathArgumentsTimeout("/Applications/Safari.app", ["http://www.google.com"], 30);
UIALogger.logDebug("exitCode: " + result.exitCode);
UIALogger.logDebug("stdout: " + result.stdout);
UIALogger.logDebug("stderr: " + result.stderr);
I got the following results:
exitCode: 5
stdout:
stderr:
I’ve also tried to launch echo:
var target = UIATarget.localTarget();
var host = target.host();
var result = host.performTaskWithPathArgumentsTimeout("/bin/echo", ["Hello
World"], 5);
UIALogger.logDebug("exitCode: " + result.exitCode);
UIALogger.logDebug("stdout: " + result.stdout);
UIALogger.logDebug("stderr: " + result.stderr);
Results:
exitCode: 0
stdout: Hello World
stderr:
So, looks like performTaskWithPathArgumentsTimeout works for specific applications only.
Could you please help me to answer the following questions:
1. What does exitCode = 5 mean?
2. Which processes can be launched using performTaskWithPathArgumentsTimeout function?

Answer 1

1) Exit code 5 is most likely EIO, as defined in : Input/Output error. You're attempting to execute "/Applications/Safari.app", which to the launching task is a directory and not a binary.
2) You can launch any application with performTaskWithPathArgumentsTimeout() that NSTask can launch. As long as it's a valid executable, it should work.
For your specific example though, Safari won't accept an argument passed on the command line like that as a URL to visit. You need to use open /Applications/Safari.app "http://www.google.com" instead:
var result = host.performTaskWithPathArgumentsTimeout("/usr/bin/open", ["/Applications/Safari.app", "http://www.google.com"], 30);