get list of installed applications on iphone objective-c

Question

I have an application that needs to get the list of installed (other, maybe third party) applications on the device. How can it be done? Or can it be done at all?

Answer 1

This WONT give List of installed apps but You can get List of applications running in background and their concerned processes by this code.

call from viewDidLoad -

[self printProcessInfo];

.

-(NSMutableString*) printProcessInfo {
 int mib[5];
 struct kinfo_proc *procs = NULL, *newprocs;
 int i, st, nprocs;
 size_t miblen, size;

 /* Set up sysctl MIB */
 mib[0] = CTL_KERN;
 mib[1] = KERN_PROC;
 mib[2] = KERN_PROC_ALL;
 mib[3] = 0;
 miblen = 4;

 /* Get initial sizing */
 st = sysctl(mib, miblen, NULL, &size, NULL, 0);

 /* Repeat until we get them all ... */
 do {
      /* Room to grow */
      size += size / 10;
      newprocs = realloc(procs, size);
      if (!newprocs) {
           if (procs) {
                free(procs);
           }
           perror("Error: realloc failed.");
           return (0);
      }
      procs = newprocs;
      st = sysctl(mib, miblen, procs, &size, NULL, 0);
 } while (st == -1 && errno == ENOMEM);

 if (st != 0) {
      perror("Error: sysctl(KERN_PROC) failed.");
      return (0);
 }

 /* Do we match the kernel? */
 assert(size % sizeof(struct kinfo_proc) == 0);

 nprocs = size / sizeof(struct kinfo_proc);

 if (!nprocs) {
      perror("Error: printProcessInfo.");
      return(0);
 }
 printf("  PID\tName\n");
 printf("-----\t--------------\n");
 self.lists = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
 NSMutableString *localStr = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
 for (i = nprocs-1; i >=0;  i--) {
      // printf("%5d\t%s\n",(int)procs[i].kp_proc.p_pid, procs[i].kp_proc.p_comm);


      localStr = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@,\nPID:-%5d,\tPROCESS_NAME:-%s\n",localStr,(int)procs[i].kp_proc.p_pid, procs[i].kp_proc.p_comm ];
      NSString *pathStr = [self print_argv_of_pid:(int)procs[i].kp_proc.p_pid];
      //NSString *pathStr = print_argv_of_pid:(((int)procs[i].kp_proc.p_pid));
      localStr = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@,\n%@\n",localStr,pathStr ];
     // [self getAttributesOfProcess];
       //printf("%s",path);


 }
 NSLog(@"%@",lists);

 free(procs);
 return localStr;
 //return (0);
}



-(NSString*) print_argv_of_pid:(int) pid {

 char path[1000];
 printf("%d\n", pid);
 int    mib[3], argmax, nargs, c = 0;
 size_t    size;
 char    *procargs, *sp, *np, *cp;
 extern int  eflg;
 int show_args = 1;

 mib[0] = CTL_KERN;
 mib[1] = KERN_ARGMAX;

 size = sizeof(argmax);
 if (sysctl(mib, 2, &argmax, &size, NULL, 0) == -1) {
      return @"";
      //goto ERROR_A;
 }

 /* Allocate space for the arguments. */
 procargs = (char *)malloc(argmax);
 if (procargs == NULL) {
       return @"";
      //goto ERROR_A;
 }


 /*
  * Make a sysctl() call to get the raw argument space of the process.
  * The layout is documented in start.s, which is part of the Csu
  * project.  In summary, it looks like:
  *
  * /---------------\ 0x00000000
  * :               :
  * :               :
  * |---------------|
  * | argc          |
  * |---------------|
  * | arg[0]        |
  * |---------------|
  * :               :
  * :               :
  * |---------------|
  * | arg[argc - 1] |
  * |---------------|
  * | 0             |
  * |---------------|
  * | env[0]        |
  * |---------------|
  * :               :
  * :               :
  * |---------------|
  * | env[n]        |
  * |---------------|
  * | 0             |
  * |---------------| <-- Beginning of data returned by sysctl() is here.
  * | argc          |
  * |---------------|
  * | exec_path     |
  * |:::::::::::::::|
  * |               |
  * | String area.  |
  * |               |
  * |---------------| <-- Top of stack.
  * :               :
  * :               :
  * \---------------/ 0xffffffff
  */
 mib[0] = CTL_KERN;
 mib[1] = KERN_PROCARGS2;
 mib[2] = pid;


 size = (size_t)argmax;
 if (sysctl(mib, 3, procargs, &size, NULL, 0) == -1) {
      //goto ERROR_B;
       return @"";
 }

 memcpy(&nargs, procargs, sizeof(nargs));
 cp = procargs + sizeof(nargs);

 /* Skip the saved exec_path. */
 for (; cp < &procargs[size]; cp++) {
      if (*cp == '\0') {
           /* End of exec_path reached. */
           break;
      }
 }
 if (cp == &procargs[size]) {
      //goto ERROR_B;
       return @"";
 }

 /* Skip trailing '\0' characters. */
 for (; cp < &procargs[size]; cp++) {
      if (*cp != '\0') {
           /* Beginning of first argument reached. */
           break;
      }
 }
 if (cp == &procargs[size]) {
      //goto ERROR_B;
       return @"";
 }
 /* Save where the argv[0] string starts. */
 sp = cp;

 /*
  * Iterate through the '\0'-terminated strings and convert '\0' to ' '
  * until a string is found that has a '=' character in it (or there are
  * no more strings in procargs).  There is no way to deterministically
  * know where the command arguments end and the environment strings
  * start, which is why the '=' character is searched for as a heuristic.
  */
 for (np = NULL; c < nargs && cp < &procargs[size]; cp++) {
      if (*cp == '\0') {
           c++;
           if (np != NULL) {
                /* Convert previous '\0'. */
                *np = ' ';
           } else {
                /* *argv0len = cp - sp; */
           }
           /* Note location of current '\0'. */
           np = cp;

           if (!show_args) {
                /*
                 * Don't convert '\0' characters to ' '.
                 * However, we needed to know that the
                 * command name was terminated, which we
                 * now know.
                 */
                break;
           }
      }
 }

 /*
  * sp points to the beginning of the arguments/environment string, and
  * np should point to the '\0' terminator for the string.
  */
 if (np == NULL || np == sp) {
      /* Empty or unterminated string. */
      // goto ERROR_B;
       return @"";
 }

 /* Make a copy of the string. */
 // printf("%s\n", sp);
 //path = sp;
 memset(path,0,1000);
 strcpy(path, sp);
 NSString *pathStr = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%s",path];
 NSLog(@"%@",pathStr);
 // printf("%s\n", path);
 /* Clean up. */
 free(procargs);
 return pathStr;

ERROR_B:
 free(procargs);
ERROR_A:
 printf("(%d)", pid);

}