[msbuild/dotnet] Add support for listing the devices and simulators available to run on. #24279

rolfbjarne · 2025-11-18T11:13:08Z

This consists of two parts:

Add an MSBuild target that lists all the available devices (ComputeAvailableDevices), by returning them in a $(Devices) item group.
Add support for the $(Device) property to specify the device or simulator to use.

Regarding the device list, we'll filter the returned list by:

Platform (don't return an Apple TV simulator for an iOS app).
Minimum OS version (not return an iOS 18.0 device when the app's minimum OS version is 26.0).
Only devices that are actually available, as reported by devicectl or simctl.

References:

…vailable to run on. This consists of two parts: * Add an MSBuild target that lists all the available devices (`ComputeAvailableDevices`), by returning them in a `$(Devices)` item group. * Add support for the `$(Device)` property to specify the device or simulator to use. Regarding the device list, we'll filter the returned list by: * Platform (don't return an Apple TV simulator for an iOS app). * Minimum OS version (not return an iOS 18.0 device when the app's minimum OS version is 26.0). * Only devices that are actually available, as reported by `devicectl` or `simctl`. References: * dotnet/android#10576 * https://github.com/dotnet/sdk/blob/2b9fc02a265c735f2132e4e3626e94962e48bdf5/documentation/specs/dotnet-run-for-maui.md Fixes #23995.

rolfbjarne · 2025-11-18T11:15:40Z

@jonathanpeppers I think the spec needs to be updated so that the correct RuntimeIdentifier is set, depending on what the user chose - maybe the returned item group with the devices can have a 'RuntimeIdentifier' metadata that, if specified, is set for the subsequent build/run operation?

Copilot

Pull Request Overview

This PR adds support for listing available devices and simulators for iOS and tvOS apps, enabling device selection via the dotnet run --device command. The implementation follows the .NET SDK's device selection specification for MAUI-style device management.

Key Changes:

New GetAvailableDevices MSBuild task that queries devicectl and simctl to retrieve available physical devices and simulators
New ComputeAvailableDevices target that can be invoked to list all compatible devices
Property rename from _DeviceName to Device for specifying target devices

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 9 out of 9 changed files in this pull request and generated 8 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
tools/common/JsonExtensions.cs	New utility class with JSON parsing extension methods for processing devicectl/simctl output
tests/msbuild/Xamarin.MacDev.Tasks.Tests/TaskTests/GetAvailableDevicesTest.cs	Comprehensive test suite covering device filtering scenarios (platform, OS version, device family)
msbuild/Xamarin.MacDev.Tasks/Tasks/GetAvailableDevices.cs	Main task implementation that queries devices, applies filters, and returns available devices
msbuild/Xamarin.Shared/Xamarin.Shared.targets	Moved `_AppBundleManifestPath` property definition to allow access by GetAvailableDevices
msbuild/Xamarin.MacDev.Tasks/Xamarin.MacDev.Tasks.csproj	Added JsonExtensions.cs to the project
dotnet/targets/Xamarin.Shared.Sdk.targets	Added ComputeAvailableDevices target and Device property with backward compatibility for _DeviceName
tests/common/shared-dotnet.mk	Updated to use `Device` property instead of deprecated `_DeviceName`
docs/building-apps/build-targets.md	Documentation for the new ComputeAvailableDevices target
docs/building-apps/build-properties.md	Documentation for the new Device property

msbuild/Xamarin.MacDev.Tasks/Tasks/GetAvailableDevices.cs

docs/building-apps/build-targets.md

docs/building-apps/build-properties.md

Copilot · 2025-11-18T11:29:35Z

dotnet/targets/Xamarin.Shared.Sdk.targets

+
+	Target that queries available devices and simulators.
+	This target is called by 'dotnet run' to support device selection.
+	Returns @(Devices) items with metadata: ???????


The comment states "Returns @(Devices) items with metadata: ???????" which appears to be a placeholder that was not filled in. The metadata should be documented here (Description, Type, OSVersion, UDID) similar to what's in the build-targets.md documentation.

Suggested change

Returns @(Devices) items with metadata: ???????

Returns @(Devices) items with metadata: Description, Type, OSVersion, UDID

tools/common/JsonExtensions.cs

msbuild/Xamarin.MacDev.Tasks/Tasks/GetAvailableDevices.cs

jonathanpeppers · 2025-11-18T15:57:16Z

dotnet/targets/Xamarin.Shared.Sdk.targets

-		<DeviceName Condition="'$(DeviceName)' == ''">$(_DeviceName)</DeviceName>
+		<!-- Try to keep _DeviceName working for a while yet -->
+		<Device Condition="'$(Device)' == ''">$(_DeviceName)</Device>


Do you need to keep $(DeviceName) around, it's public? Maybe it's not really used/documented.

jonathanpeppers · 2025-11-18T15:57:49Z

dotnet/targets/Xamarin.Shared.Sdk.targets

+			Condition="'$(IsMacEnabled)' == 'true'"
+			SessionId="$(BuildSessionId)"


That is a question... Will this work on Windows? Ideally, it could, but that could be future PR.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <[email protected]>

vs-mobiletools-engineering-service2 · 2025-12-01T18:13:06Z

✅ [CI Build #815c295] Build passed (Build macOS tests) ✅

Pipeline on Agent
Hash: 815c295d4b58c151538fa446d563863a01b6f216 [PR build]

vs-mobiletools-engineering-service2 · 2025-12-01T18:22:12Z

💻 [CI Build #815c295] Tests on macOS X64 - Mac Sonoma (14) passed 💻

✅ All tests on macOS X64 - Mac Sonoma (14) passed.

Pipeline on Agent
Hash: 815c295d4b58c151538fa446d563863a01b6f216 [PR build]

vs-mobiletools-engineering-service2 · 2025-12-01T18:24:05Z

💻 [CI Build #815c295] Tests on macOS M1 - Mac Monterey (12) passed 💻

✅ All tests on macOS M1 - Mac Monterey (12) passed.

Pipeline on Agent
Hash: 815c295d4b58c151538fa446d563863a01b6f216 [PR build]

vs-mobiletools-engineering-service2 · 2025-12-01T18:27:16Z

💻 [CI Build #815c295] Tests on macOS arm64 - Mac Tahoe (26) passed 💻

✅ All tests on macOS arm64 - Mac Tahoe (26) passed.

Pipeline on Agent
Hash: 815c295d4b58c151538fa446d563863a01b6f216 [PR build]

vs-mobiletools-engineering-service2 · 2025-12-01T18:29:22Z

💻 [CI Build #815c295] Tests on macOS arm64 - Mac Sequoia (15) passed 💻

✅ All tests on macOS arm64 - Mac Sequoia (15) passed.

Pipeline on Agent
Hash: 815c295d4b58c151538fa446d563863a01b6f216 [PR build]

vs-mobiletools-engineering-service2 · 2025-12-01T18:29:37Z

💻 [CI Build #815c295] Tests on macOS M1 - Mac Ventura (13) passed 💻

✅ All tests on macOS M1 - Mac Ventura (13) passed.

Pipeline on Agent
Hash: 815c295d4b58c151538fa446d563863a01b6f216 [PR build]

vs-mobiletools-engineering-service2 · 2025-12-01T19:47:28Z

🔥 [CI Build #815c295] Test results 🔥

Test results

❌ Tests failed on VSTS: test results

4 tests crashed, 2 tests failed, 99 tests passed.

Failures

❌ generator tests

1 tests failed, 4 tests passed.

Roslyn Transformer tests: TimedOut (Execution timed out after 30 minutes.)

Html Report (VSDrops) Download

❌ monotouch tests (macOS)

1 tests failed, 8 tests passed.

monotouch-test/macOS/Debug: TimedOut (Execution timed out after 1200 seconds.
Test run crashed)

Html Report (VSDrops) Download

❌ monotouch tests (tvOS)

🔥 Failed catastrophically on VSTS: test results - monotouch_tvos (no summary found).

Html Report (VSDrops) Download

❌ msbuild tests

🔥 Failed catastrophically on VSTS: test results - msbuild (no summary found).

Html Report (VSDrops) Download

❌ xcframework tests

🔥 Failed catastrophically on VSTS: test results - xcframework (no summary found).

Html Report (VSDrops) Download

❌ xtro tests

🔥 Failed catastrophically on VSTS: test results - xtro (no summary found).

Html Report (VSDrops) Download

Successes

✅ cecil: All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ dotnettests (iOS): All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ dotnettests (MacCatalyst): All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ dotnettests (macOS): All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ dotnettests (Multiple platforms): All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ dotnettests (tvOS): All 1 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ framework: All 2 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ fsharp: All 4 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ interdependent-binding-projects: All 4 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ introspection: All 4 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ linker: All 44 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ monotouch (iOS): All 9 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ monotouch (MacCatalyst): All 11 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download
✅ windows: All 3 tests passed. Html Report (VSDrops) Download

Pipeline on Agent
Hash: 815c295d4b58c151538fa446d563863a01b6f216 [PR build]

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rolfbjarne and others added 2 commits December 1, 2025 17:53

Update docs/building-apps/build-targets.md

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Co-authored-by: Copilot <[email protected]>

Update docs/building-apps/build-targets.md

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jonathanpeppers mentioned this pull request Dec 2, 2025

[Epic] vibe-coding .NET MAUI apps works out of the box dotnet/maui#32967

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30 tasks

rolfbjarne linked an issue Dec 3, 2025 that may be closed by this pull request

Improve device selection when using 'dotnet run' #23995

Open

	Returns @(Devices) items with metadata: ???????
	Returns @(Devices) items with metadata: Description, Type, OSVersion, UDID

		Condition="'$(IsMacEnabled)' == 'true'"
		SessionId="$(BuildSessionId)"

[msbuild/dotnet] Add support for listing the devices and simulators available to run on. #24279

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[msbuild/dotnet] Add support for listing the devices and simulators available to run on. #24279

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Pull Request Overview

Key Changes:

Reviewed Changes

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vs-mobiletools-engineering-service2 commented Dec 1, 2025

✅ [CI Build #815c295] Build passed (Build macOS tests) ✅

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vs-mobiletools-engineering-service2 commented Dec 1, 2025

💻 [CI Build #815c295] Tests on macOS X64 - Mac Sonoma (14) passed 💻

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vs-mobiletools-engineering-service2 commented Dec 1, 2025

💻 [CI Build #815c295] Tests on macOS M1 - Mac Monterey (12) passed 💻

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💻 [CI Build #815c295] Tests on macOS arm64 - Mac Tahoe (26) passed 💻

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💻 [CI Build #815c295] Tests on macOS arm64 - Mac Sequoia (15) passed 💻

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💻 [CI Build #815c295] Tests on macOS M1 - Mac Ventura (13) passed 💻

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