Set up Appium Device Farm on MacOS

Dependecies

Install these as a non-root user.

Android Debug Bridge (adb)

If you install Android Studio, adb will be available on this path: /Users/youruser/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools

Node

Install node version manager (nvm)

https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm?tab=readme-ov-file#installing-and-updating

curl -LO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.3/install.sh

bash install.sh

Install node and the node package manager (npm) with nvm

https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm?tab=readme-ov-file#usage

nvm install node # "node" is an alias for the latest version

Appium

Install the appium server

https://github.com/appium/appium

npm -g install appium

Install the appium chrome driver

https://github.com/appium/appium-chromedriver

npm install -g appium-chrome-driver

Install the appium device farm plugin

https://github.com/AppiumTestDistribution/appium-device-farm

appium plugin install --source=npm appium-device-farm

For use of phisical mobile devices, install Android and iOS appium drivers

For android:

https://github.com/appium/appium-uiautomator2-driver

appium driver install uiautomator2

For ios:

https://github.com/appium/appium-xcuitest-driver

appium driver install xcuitest

Start the appium server on boot

Create /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.devicefarm.appium.plist. Node and appium are installed for your user, so absolute paths have to be used and some environment variables have to be set in the service plist for appium to launch successfully. The user environment variables can be printed with the env command.

Validate the syntax with:

sudo plutil -lint /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.devicefarm.appium.plist

The service will be started on boot. You can also start it with:

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.devicefarm.appium.plist

View status:

sudo launchctl list com.devicefarm.appium

Stop:

sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.devicefarm.appium.plist

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.devicefarm.appium.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>com.devicefarm.appium</string>

  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/Users/youruser/.nvm/versions/node/v20.19.5/bin/appium</string>
    <string>server</string>
    <string>-ka</string>
    <string>800</string>
    <string>--use-plugins</string>
    <string>device-farm</string>
    <string>-pa</string>
    <string>/wd/hub</string>
    <string>--plugin-device-farm-platform</string>
    <string>both</string>
    <string>--plugin-device-farm-ios-device-type</string>
    <string>real</string>
    <string>--plugin-device-farm-android-device-type</string>
    <string>real</string>
    <string>--allow-insecure</string>
    <string>'*:chromedriver_autodownload'</string>
  </array>

  <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
  <string>/Users/youruser</string>

  <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
  <dict>
    <key>PATH</key>
    <string>/Users/youruser/.nvm/versions/node/v20.19.5/bin:/Users/youruser/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:/usr/local/bin</string>

    <key>HOME</key>
    <string>/Users/youruser</string>

    <key>ANDROID_HOME</key>
    <string>/Users/youruser/Library/Android/sdk</string>

    <key>ANDROID_SDK_ROOT</key>
    <string>/Users/youruser/Library/Android/sdk</string>

    <key>JAVA_HOME</key>
    <string>/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-21.jdk/Contents/Home</string>

    <key>NVM_DIR</key>
    <string>/Users/youruser/.nvm</string>

    <key>NVM_CD_FLAGS</key>
    <string>-q</string>

    <key>NVM_BIN</key>
    <string>/Users/youruser/.nvm/versions/node/v20.19.5/bin</string>

    <key>NVM_INC</key>
    <string>/Users/youruser/.nvm/versions/node/v20.19.5/include/node</string>
  </dict>

  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
  <key>KeepAlive</key>
  <true/>

  <key>StandardOutPath</key>
  <string>/var/log/appium.out</string>
  <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
  <string>/var/log/appium.err</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Log rotation

The above config writes appium logs to /var/log/appium.out and /var/log/appium.err. By default these files will grow indefinitely, so rotation has to be configured for old logs to be removed from the filesystem.

Create /etc/newsyslog.d/com.devicefarm.appium.conf with the below content:

/var/log/appium.out  644  7  1000  *  Z
/var/log/appium.err  644  7  1000  *  Z

Explanation:

field	meaning
/var/log/myapp.out	Log file path
644	File mode after rotation
7	Keep 7 old log files
1000	Rotate when file >1000 KB (1 MB)
*	Don’t rotate on schedule (only by size)
Z	Compress old logs with gzip

To execute a manual rotation, run:

sudo newsyslog -v