Dev:Jailbreak Development Tools

The first step in developing for jailbroken devices (this includes MobileSubstrate extensions, or "tweaks") is understanding the commonly-used development tools.

Theos: Build System
Not to be confused with a toolchain or SDK, Theos helps create and manage projects. Theos:


 * Creates new empty projects based on templates (see NIC, below)
 * Handles Makefiles for your build environment
 * Automates packaging (to .deb) and installation

NIC (New Instance Creator)
The New Instance Creator is a script, included with Theos, that creates empty projects for you to use as starting points for your development.

An example of how NIC is used can be found here.

Logos
Logos is a preprocessor that aids in MobileSubstrate extension development. It allows you to define hooks with a clear, readable syntax.

Logify
Unlike the tools listed above, Logify isn't a tool you would use throughout a project's life cycle. Logify accepts a class header and generates a MobileSubstrate extension which hooks all of that class's methods, printing log messages when they are called. This helps a hook developer see when certain methods are invoked during use.

IOSOpenDev
iOSOpenDev is an open-source project that sets up the iOS SDK to allow open development in Xcode of jailbreak-type projects not supported or allowed by default and provides Xcode templates for building common jailbreak-type projects and the various tools needed for such development.

On-device toolchains
See On-device toolchains for details.

6.1 Toolchain For Windows
Coolstar is working on an iOS toolchain for Windows, available here.

Reverse Engineering Tools
See Reverse Engineering Tools for details.