Cordova: start specific iOS emulator image

Question

I\'m developing a cross-platform mobile app using Cordova, focussing mainly on iOS in the development stage.

For my development process it would be ideal if I could

Answer 1

To find out what are the simulator images available you can use to list them

$ cordova emulate ios --list
Available iOS Virtual Devices:
    iPhone-4s, 9.3
    iPhone-5, 9.3
    iPhone-5s, 9.3
    iPhone-6, 9.3
    iPhone-6-Plus, 9.3
    iPhone-6s, 9.3
    iPhone-6s-Plus, 9.3
    iPad-2, 9.3
    iPad-Retina, 9.3
    iPad-Air, 9.3
    iPad-Air-2, 9.3
    iPad-Pro, 9.3

Then use one of the simulator names in the --target parameter:

cordova emulate ios --target="iPhone-4s, 9.3"
cordova emulate ios --target="iPad-Air-2, 9.3"
cordova emulate ios --target="iPhone-6s, 9.3"
cordova emulate ios --target="iPhone-6-Plus, 9.3"

Important Quit the simulator before launching a different target simulator (On Menu bar select Simulator->Quit)

Take into account that you may need to quit the iOS simulator via menu to switch from 3.5 to 4 inch iPhone.

dynamic list is available in platforms/ios/cordova/lib/list-emulator-images

Answer 2

Don't include version number

cordova run ios --target="iPhone-6s"

Answer 3

@Birja's answer is working right now but the run command he used finally is still wrong so here the right answer:

To list all the devices available in simulator cordova run ios --list

It will result in something like this:

Available ios devices:
Available ios virtual devices:
Apple-TV-1080p, tvOS 12.2
Apple-Watch-Series-2-38mm, watchOS 5.2
iPhone-5s, 12.2
iPhone-6, 12.2
iPad-Air-2, 12.2
iPad--5th-generation-, 12.2
iPad-Pro--9-7-inch-, 12.2
iPad-Pro, 12.2
iPad-Pro--12-9-inch---2nd-generation-, 12.2
iPad-Pro--10-5-inch-, 12.2
iPad--6th-generation-, 12.2
iPad-Pro--11-inch-, 12.2
iPad-Pro--12-9-inch---3rd-generation-, 12.2

cordova run ios --target "iPad-Pro, 12.2" Use any target from the above. To run in simulator.

Answer 4

TL;DR

You can start a specific emulator and choose your ios version by directly using ios-sim.

export appname="./platforms/ios/build/emulator/Hello World.app"
ios-sim launch "$appname" --devicetypeid "com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPad-2, 8.0" --stderr ./platforms/ios/cordova/console.log --stdout ./platforms/ios/cordova/console.log

Details

When I ran this:

cordova emulate ios --target="iPad"

and looked at the processes running, I saw this (on a single line):

ios-sim launch ./platforms/ios/build/emulator/HelloWorld.app 
        --stderr ./platforms/ios/cordova/console.log 
        --stdout ./platforms/ios/cordova/console.log 
        --family ipad 
        --exit

Investigating further into ios-sim, it looks like there are some more specific options, particularly:

--devicetypeid <device type>    The id of the device type that should be simulated (Xcode6+). Use 'showdevicetypes' to list devices.
  e.g "com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.Resizable-iPhone6, 8.0"

So I did as it suggested and ran ios-sim with a "showdevicetypes" argument and got this:

$ ios-sim showdevicetypes
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPhone-4s, 7.1
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPhone-5, 7.1
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPhone-5s, 7.1
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPad-2, 7.1
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPad-Retina, 7.1
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPad-Air, 7.1
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPhone-4s, 8.0
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPhone-5, 8.0
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPhone-5s, 8.0
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPhone-6-Plus, 8.0
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPhone-6, 8.0
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPad-2, 8.0
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPad-Retina, 8.0
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPad-Air, 8.0
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.Resizable-iPhone, 8.0
com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.Resizable-iPad, 8.0