Make iPhone (iOS) & iPad (iPadOS) app handling consistent throughout mas

[martimlobao]

mas config

mas ▁▁▁▁ 1.9.0
arch ▁▁▁ arm64
from ▁▁▁ homebrew/core/mas
origin ▁ https://github.com/mas-cli/mas.git
rev ▁▁▁▁ a5a928a2e6a28a5c751bca7f63f26b06cede8197
driver ▁ 1.115
swift ▁▁ 6.0.2 (swiftlang-6.0.2.1.2 clang-1600.0.26.4)
region ▁ US
macos ▁▁ 15.2 (24C101)
mac ▁▁▁▁ MacBookPro18,3
cpu ▁▁▁▁ Apple M1 Pro

Installation method

Homebrew core (via brew install mas)

Bug description

mas doesn't recognize several app IDs, even though it finds them using mas search. For example:

$ mas search 'delta emulator'
  1136800740  GameTrack                                       (5.4.3)
...
  1048524688  Delta - Game Emulator                           (1.6.5s)
   388491656  Fly Delta                                       (6.6)
  1190074407  Nintendo Switch Parental Cont…                  (1.22.0)
  1293634699  Mario Kart Tour                                 (3.6.2)
...

$ mas info 1048524688
Error: Unknown app ID 1048524688

$ mas info 388491656
Error: Unknown app ID 388491656

$ mas info 1190074407
Error: Unknown app ID 1190074407

$ mas info 1293634699
Error: Unknown app ID 1293634699

This doesn't happen with all IDs (1136800740 works, for example), but clearly a large fraction don't. mas install also fails with the same error.

Steps to reproduce

$ mas info 1048524688
$ mas info 388491656

[rgoldberg]

@martimlobao

This is because, a few years ago, someone else added support for iOS & iPadOS apps only to mas search, not elsewhere.

I cannot work on iOS or iPadOS app support until summer 2025, as I'm stuck on Intel until then.

The only thing to potentially do now is to change mas search to only return macOS apps, not iOS or iPadOS apps, to make it consistent with the rest of mas.

Unless someone else implements it before the summer.

Subscribe to #321 for updates about iOS & iPadOS app support.

I'll leave this open as I might remove iOS & iPadOS apps from mas search for 1.9.1.

[martimlobao]

@rgoldberg Thanks, at least there's a rhyme and reason to why this isn't working. Is it possible to just print out an error message that mas doesn't currently support iOS and iPadOS apps?

[martimlobao]

@rgoldberg The one reason I prefer a better error message over just removing it from search is that people will still be confused if they directly extract an app ID from a URL (as suggested in the readme) and try to install the app that way.

[rgoldberg]

@martimlobao I can look into a better error message in a little bit.

In the meantime, can you try mas install (& possibly all other commands) for an iOS or iPadOS app?

IIRC, someone else didn't see iOS or iPadOS apps in mas list or mas outdated output, as they aren't in the data structure that mas currently uses for listing installed apps, but I don't think anyone let me know whether or not install or other commands work.

This will help me know where to put error outputs, and the extent to which iOS & iPadOS apps are already supported.

Thanks for any potential help.

[martimlobao]

@rgoldberg Happy to help. I have Delta Emulator (ID 1048524688) installed, but afaict, it only shows up in mas search. All other commands don't recognize the ID. Interestingly, mas install returns an error message in red, whereas mas info doesn't. Let me know if you'd like to try some other commands as well.

[martimlobao]

Interestingly, mas lucky works (sort of).

❯ mas purchase 1048524688
Error: Unknown app ID 1048524688

~
❯ mas lucky 1048524688
==> Downloading Delta - Game Emulator (1.6.10)
Error: Download failed: The installation could not be started.

~ took 16s
❯ mas upgrade 1048524688
Error: Unknown app ID 1048524688

[rgoldberg]

@martimlobao thanks for the info.

Red vs. white "Error" are from an explicit print to stderr vs. a thrown error (which gets printed to stderr), respectively.

That will all be cleaned up in the output overhaul (see #626). It doesn't explicitly mention the colors, but it will all be cleaned up by the 4-stream setup, once #626 is done.