Setting Version of iOS simulator from Command line - ios-simulator

Question

Context: Running automated scripts using Xcode's UIAutomation with simulators 6.1 and 5.1
Xcode version is 4.6.1
Problem: When running a shell script from the Terminal, UIAutomation ALWAYS opens up 6.1, even though i've set the app path to 5.1.
I've tried building and running on 5.1, also if i run the test from Instruments, I'm able to choose the target for 5.1 and it works fine. The problem is only when i run it from the command line.
I checked the iphonesimulator.plist and the currentSDKRoot points to the 5.1 path, but as soon as the shell script runs, it changes to 6.1. Is there anyway I can force it to use 5.1?
After hours of searching (including the most apt one - Launch a specific Hardware version of iOS simulator using instruments command line utility) , there seems to be no solution to this.
There is a way to set the device using defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator \ "SimulateDevice" '"iPad"'
I need something like defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator \ "Version" '"5.1"'
though obviously that doesn't work.
Any pointers will be much appreciated. Thank You!
EDIT: I was hoping this would be resolved with XCode 5, but I still have the same issue and iOS7 simulator ALWAYS opens up! Btw,is there a way to circumvent this issue - I'm sure there are many out there running multiple simulator versions.

Answer 1

This isn't elegant, but it is a work around that we have been able to get to work on our automation setup:
Install Xcode 5 from the App Store
Install Xcode 4.6.3 or from the developer portal's "Old Versions of Xcode page"
Repeat with older versions of Xcode where the max sim version == the one you want to run
Use "sudo xcode-select -switch /path/to/Xcode.app" to pick the version of Xcode
Hope that helps!

Answer 2

I also ran into this issue while running my automation tests on my Jenkins box and I did the following to test my app with ver 6.1 simulator and not 7.0 simulator:
Using Jenkins:
STEP 1 = I create one job that builds my ios app with the 6.1 sdk version.
===========================================
STEP 2 = I create a 2nd job using a bash script that downstreams from the 1st job which does the following:
[Go inside the Xcode app location to get to the iphone simulator sdk directory]
cd '/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/SDKs/'
[Move the 'iPhoneSimulator7.0.sdk' directory to another location (I chose the desktop)]
echo [ENTER ADMIN PASSWORD HERE] | sudo -S mv iPhoneSimulator7.0.sdk/ ${HOME}/Desktop
[Rename the 'iPhoneSimulator6.1.sdk' to 'iPhoneSimulator7.0.sdk']
echo [ENTER ADMIN PASSWORD HERE] | sudo -S mv iPhoneSimulator6.1.sdk/ iPhoneSimulator7.0.sdk/
===========================================
STEP 3 = I create 3rd job that executes my tests. The 3rd job downstreams from my 2nd job.
===========================================
STEP 4 = I create a 4th job that downstreams from the 3rd job. The 4th job uses a bash script which does the following:
[Go inside the Xcode app location to get to the iphone simulator sdk directory]
cd '/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/SDKs/'
[Rename the 'iPhoneSimulator7.0.sdk' back to 'iPhoneSimulator6.1.sdk']
echo [ENTER ADMIN PASSWORD HERE] | sudo -S mv iPhoneSimulator7.0.sdk/ iPhoneSimulator6.1.sdk/
[Go to directory where you moved the 'iPhoneSimulator7.0.sdk' (in my case I moved the 'iPhoneSimulator7.0.sdk' to the desktop)]
cd ${HOME}/Desktop
[Move the 'iPhoneSimulator7.0.sdk' directory back to the Xcode app sdk directory]
echo [ENTER ADMIN PASSWORD HERE] | sudo -S mv iPhoneSimulator7.0.sdk/ '/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/SDKs/'
[I kill any lingering processes related to the automation]
ps ax|grep [b]ash|awk '{print $1}'|xargs kill -9
ps ax|grep [i]nstruments|awk '{print $1}'|xargs kill -9
===========================================
I probably need to make this process more foolproof however I think its better than having multiple instances of xcode on the automation machine.