MRYIPC

Easy-to-use iOS IPC without the need for RocketBootstrap

MRYIPC is an easy-to-use IPC (inter-process communication) mechanism for jailbroken devices (although it will also work on unjailbroken devices) that eliminates the need for RocketBootstrap.

MRYIPCCenter is similar in API to CPDistributedMessagingCenter, so it shouldn't be too challenging to replace current CPDistributedMessagingCenter implementations with MRYIPCCenter.

How to use

To use MRYIPC, copy MRYIPCCenter.h to $THEOS/include and usr/lib/libmryipc.dylib to $THEOS/lib/ and/or var/jb/usr/lib/libmryipc.dylib to $THEOS/lib/iphone/rootless/. Then you can add XXX_LIBRARIES = mryipc to your Makefile and #import <MRYIPCCenter.h> into any source files you want to use it in. Then add Depends: com.muirey03.libmryipc to your control file.

An example usage can be seen in ExampleClient and ExampleServer in this repository.

The client

First, create the client center:

MRYIPCCenter* center = [%c(MRYIPCCenter) centerNamed:@"com.muirey03.MRYExampleServer"];

Then, go ahead and call any method you like:

NSNumber* result = [center callExternalMethod:@selector(addNumbers:) withArguments:@{@"value1" : @5, @"value2" : @7}];

MRYIPCCenter provides 3 ways to call methods on the center:

//asynchronously call a void method
-(void)callExternalVoidMethod:(SEL)method withArguments:(id)args;
//synchronously call a method and recieve the return value
-(id)callExternalMethod:(SEL)method withArguments:(id)args;
//asynchronously call a method and receive the return value in the completion handler
-(void)callExternalMethod:(SEL)method withArguments:(id)args completion:(void(^)(id))completionHandler;

Please note that the arguments and return value type must be one that can be stored in a plist (NSString*, NSNumber*, NSData*, NSArray* or NSDictionary*).

The server

IMPORTANT NOTE: Only one server is allowed for any given name. You cannot create 2 servers in 2 different processes with the same name, that is illegal, and will cause the second process to crash.

Again, start by creating a sever center with the same name as the client (you'll need to store a reference somewhere to stop it being deallocated):

MRYIPCCenter* center = [%c(MRYIPCCenter) centerNamed:@"com.muirey03.MRYExampleServer"];

Then register any methods you want to make external:

[center addTarget:self action:@selector(addNumbers:)];

Then just implement the methods and let MRYIPC handle the rest:

-(NSNumber*)addNumbers:(NSDictionary*)args
{
	NSInteger value1 = [args[@"value1"] integerValue];
	NSInteger value2 = [args[@"value2"] integerValue];
	return @(value1 + value2);
}

MRYIPC also allows for block-based servers for more simple callbacks where you don't necessarily need an object to act as the server:

static MRYIPCCenter* center;

%ctor
{
	center = [MRYIPCCenter centerNamed:@"com.muirey03.MRYExampleServer"];
	[center addTarget:^NSNumber*(NSDictionary* args){
		NSInteger value1 = [args[@"value1"] integerValue];
		NSInteger value2 = [args[@"value2"] integerValue];
		return @(value1 + value2);
	} forSelector:@selector(addNumbers:)];
}

Credits

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @Muirey03. If you have any contributions you want to make to this, please submit a Pull Request.