A few questions that people haven't seemed to ask right. I'm needing some answers.

[Ty Cox]

Hey there imore users!

I have a bunch of questions to ask about jailbreaking and cydia.

1. What does jailbreaking do exactly? I understand that is a broad question so let me break it down. Does it decrypt the original code for Apple IOS? This would explain why we can edit some files with iFile (Cydia App). Or has the phone always been open source like that? I've notice some of the file types and i'll try to do my best of explaining what i think they are for: (plz correct me if i'm wrong)
   • plist (XML configuration files?)
   • deb (Cydia Compiled files?)
   • ipa (Xcode compiled apps?)
   If there are any others please could you explain them for me?
   
2. This leads me to my second question, how can I approach dissecting a cydia file? I want to make my own cydia application but I don't know where to start. I've found a few threads on other sites that kinda explain the basics of it, but nothing that helps push me into coding. They always talk about Object Oriented C language but they don't tell where to write the code. Is there an IDE that you guys code in? Or do you use xcode? I'm on a windows so I can't use xcode, and i'm not interested in running mac on a VM. So if you are using xcode, is there an alternative? Where would you compile the file? I saw someone compile a deb file with WinSCP, is that what most people do?
   
3. Where can you get open source deb files, because I would love to have an example of code to start with. I've coded in a lot of different languages so i'm not afraid of some code
   
4. WHERE are the cydia tweaks located on the iPhone? Lets say you copied all the tweaks from this folder, could they be placed on another device inside the same directory? (Considering it has the same jailbreak, IOS version, ect.) EDIT: I found something... "/Applications" contains applications and tweaks. Where would the origin of all the code be for the application/tweak? Ex: Folder "Activator.app" has a file called "Activator"(filetype: file) would this be the code that makes the app do what it needs to do? If so how can I dissect it to look into how it works?

I think that's it for now. Thanks for reading all this

 

[Massie]

Some good articles about jailbreaking:
Behind The Scenes Of The iPhone 5 Jailbreak | TechCrunch
iOS jailbreaking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I don't know much about coding myself, but its easy to find any number of debs you can look into. CydiaUpdates is a good source; just click the file name and look for File Download: CydiaUpdates.net

Once installed, things live in different places depending on what they are; some are in the Library, some in Themes, etc. A single deb may install files in many places.

You might have better luck asking about this stuff on stackoverflow or even the jailbreak section of reddit; imore doesn't seem to attract a lot of coders.

Some other links that might shed some light:
http://thebigboss.org/hosting-repository-cydia/submit-your-app/compile-for-cydia-submission
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4756444/how-to-build-an-app-for-cydia-store
http://shahiddev.blogspot.com/2011/11/mobilesubstrate-tweak-tutorial-with.html?m=1
http://ios-blog.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-create-a-mobilesubstrate-tweaks-for-ios/
http://iphonedevwiki.net/index.php/Theos/Getting_Started

Good luck!

 

[sherlock]

You can extract a debian file using 7-zip. Debs can be converted to ipa files... The difference is iTunes uses ipa and Cydia uses the Unix deb files.