As an iPhone developer it’s crucial to be able to make sense of those pesky crash logs you get back from your testers. Unfortunately Apple’s tools offerings in in this area aren’t much to write home about — they appear to require a few specific pre-conditions to be met.

Make sure you have the necessary intermediary build files to hand:

1. Create the symbol files — *.dSYM — as part of your build process.
2. Keep a copy of your symbol files and your Application Bundle for any builds you wish to debug.

When setting up your environment, experimentation shows that the following is required:

• Snow Leopard — while I have seen nothing official, I have been unable to get the scripts to work on a Leopard machine.
• The Application Bundle and symbol file should be placed in the same directory as your crash log.
• There should be no other copies of the symbol file on your Mac — Symbol files are located by the script using Spotlight and it gets confused if there are multiple copies.

Symbolising a crash should then simply be a matter of running something like the following command:

/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DTDeviceKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/symbolicatecrash -A -v crash.log  > decoded.log

Just because I can…

It seemed high-time that I got around to joining the "What’s In Your Bag" bandwagon and contributing my own collection of curios to the mix.

Left-to-right, top-to-bottom:

1. Belkin NE-MS 12" Laptop Messenger Case (Website) – Recently purchased during a trip to Hong Kong.

2. Friendly Bunny – An as-yet nameless but exceedingly friendly bunny who recently found his way to Beijing from Taipei.

3. Shanghai Tang Writing Case (Website) – One of the few decent Chinese fashion brands out there, Shanghai Tang contribues one of the more garish things in the bag.

4. MacBook Air (Website) – A fairly frivolous purchase during my last trip back to Japan, the MacBook Air is now the prize jewel of the collection.

5. Sony Reader (Website) – Sony’s second attempt at an eBook reader makes a fairly good paperback replacement.

6. Ray-Ban Sunglasses – Slightly practical. Mostly for posing.

7. Victorinox – A seemingly more heavy-duty gunmetal equivalent of the Leatherman as made by Victorinox.

8. British Passport – A must when living abroad – "Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State Requests and requires in the Name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary."

9. Shure SE310s – Using a pair of these is like hearing your music collection for the first time all over again.

10. Security Pass – Two RFID cards, an RSA keyfob and various other miscellanea.

11. Pen & Glass Marker – While it may be straight out of a scene in A Beautiful Mind, carrying a glass marker is perfect for anyone who finds themselves with an idea but without a whiteboard. Thankfully there is no shortage of windows!

12. Business Cards – No self-respecting business-man-in-asia should be without a set.

13. Wallet – A chinese knock-off bought in the Silk Market, Beijing. The wallet came with a choice of either Gucci or Armani branding. Less than 100 RMB and genuine leather to boot!

14. iPhone (Website) & Moshi iPouch (Website) – The battery life may be terrible and the telephony questionable, but I cannot cope without this one. The iPouch is the best I’ve found so far.

15. Seiko Watch – A 20th birthday present which has suffered more than its fair share of war wounds.

16. Mints – A box of ‘National Embarassmints’ sporting a picture of our good friend Mr. George W. Bush. Some things never get old.

17. Taiwanese Pebble – An exceedingly thoughtful gift from Junko, hand-picked from the shores of a Taiwanese beach.

Looking at the various offerings, it seems I’m not the only one with a bunny in the bag.