difference between normal profile and provisioning profile iOS

Question

I would like to know the difference between a normal iOS profile (configuration profiles, restriction profiles etc) and a provisioning profile. This is in relation to using the MDM profile commands. There are commands to install/remove a profile and there are commands for install/remove provisioning profile.

What is the difference?

Thank you

Answer 1

A provisioning profile is a profile that contains information about the app's signature. It is really only required in early versions of iOS 5 where you can not install an .ipa without first installing the provisioning profile. Starting late iOS 5, Apple introduced a feature where the XCode bundles the embedded.mobileprovision file into the .ipa so modern MDM servers can skip this.