I have an Xcode project (A) referencing another project (B). By default (as far as I understand it) Xcode will implicitly build the configuration for the B dependency that matches the configuration of the A's target (e.g., "Debug"). But what if I want, say, A to build as "Debug" and the B to build as "Release"? How would I go about specifying that in Xcode?
I don't know of any easy approach, but you can brute-force it by calling xcodebuild directly for the dependency with a "Run Script" build phase.
I know it was just an example, but if your real goal is that the sub-project be a Release (no symbols) build, then you may have a better experience by just building the sub-project into a library or framework and checking the resulting binary into your version control system. Whenever I have a piece of the system that seldom changes and that I don't want debug symbols for, I go ahead and build it as a static library and check it in. I often go ahead and move the code elsewhere as well (with a README file with the .a that says where the code is and how it was built). This saves time on both build and checkout and is invaluable for large projects in my experience.
This might help: if the configuration of the project A is not found, Xcode will build Release config as a fallback (or maybe the first config of the list).
Then you can "force" the link using this tip: Xcode custom build configuration causes "library/file not found" for static libraries
Yes, this is not naturally supported by Xcode; when you build a target, it builds one configuration of itself and of all dependent targets.
The workaround, as Rob mentioned, is to have a dependent target that's an Aggregate Target type that comprises a single Run Script build phase, which simply invokes xcodebuild -configuration Release (or whatever).
You can specify the default 'fallback' configuration in the project info.
Change from:
Use 'Release' for command-line builds.
to:
Use 'Debug' for command-line builds.
And default will be 'Debug'.
Diffs of project file:
Related
I wrote a ruby script that changes some build settings through a .xcconfig file.
(Don't ask me why, but it improves our workflow quite a bit; different environments etc.)
And I put it in the first row (after 'Target Dependencies') in my Build Phases.
The only problem is when I build my app the variables defined in that xcconfig file are not used for that particular build. But for the build that follows.
The only reasonable explanation would be that the project build parameters are already set when the Build Phases start.
So my question is quite simple:
Is it possible to run a script before the project gets build. So I'm talking about pressing ⌘ + R; first my script runs and then fires up the project build.
Stuff I tried:
Using 'pre-actions' in build schemes
Using an 'External Build System' target
Using an 'Aggregate' target
None of them seem to give me the desired result
I have a project which is a plugin for an opensource system. In order to run a CI build for the plugin, it needs to be installed into an existing instance of the main opensource system. I have mostly got this working, however, the install procedure for the main system is long and complex, so the build takes forever. It is also awkward to set up as checking out the plugin from git always happens first, whereas it needs to happen after the main system has been put in place so that the right directories are there. The solution I have right now is to use a shell script for the install and then an Ant task for the build, ignoring built-in VCS altogether. Feels hacky, though.
Two solutions come to mind:
Have a persistent install of the main system in the build directory, which the plugin is added to at the start of the build, and removed from at the end. I didi this ith Jenkins and it worked OK, but we are now using TeamCity.
Have some sort of parent-chid relationship between two CI projects, so that the main one is built and then triggers the plugin one, which is built within it. This would allow the main one to be rebuilt whenever it needs to be and avoids the awkwardness of keeping an install of the main system clean between builds.
However, I don't know enough about TeamCity to know if this is possible. Has anyone ever done something like this before?
For your solution number 2 you can try to use the "Build Triggers" configuration, the "Finish Build Trigger" option should resolve your parent-child relationship very well.
In TC, go to your plugin's build configuration, in "Configuration Steps" section select "Build Triggers" (number 5), then select "Add New Build Trigger" and configure "Finish Build Trigger" selecting your main system's build configuration.
To use parent directory in child one, you'll need to use the "Artifact Dependency" (see "Dependencies" section in "Configuration Steps", maybe setting some snapshots between the build configurations too.
Artifact Dependencies:
artifact Dependencies provide you with a convenient means to use the
output (artifacts) of one build in another build. When an artifact
dependency is configured, the necessary artifacts are downloaded to
the agent before the build starts.
Snapshot Dependencies: by setting a dependency of a build (e.g. build B) on other build's (build A's) sources, you can ensure that build B will start only after the one it depends on (build A) is run and finished
Configuring Finish Build Trigger:
finish build trigger triggers a build of current build configuration if a build of selected build configuration is finished
Overview
I'm using static libraries and Xcode 4 workspaces to effect modularity in iOS development, an increasingly common technique. For example, I might have a workspace which contains an App project, and a Library project, like so1:
You would then have a scheme to build these that looked something like this:
What I would like to do is have the "App build" control the "Library build" it initiates, in at least a couple of ways:
Map App configurations (e.g. Debug, AdHoc) to arbitrary Library configurations
Passing through some subset of -D defines, and/or specifying these for the library build.
I'll deal with each of these in their own section, but it's worth making a few clarifications.
Clarifications
I'm using App/Library here as an easy proxy for any Superproject/Subproject relationship you may have.
From what I've seen, Xcode 3 style embedded subprojects don't seem to work any differently in Xcode 4 than workspace "peers". I'd love to be wrong about this.
I know I could do almost anything with a "Run Build Script" build phase, and xcodebuild. But I'm trying to work within the system here, where the dependencies are specified in the scheme, and otherwise somewhat loosely coupled.
The Library exists to be used in more than just this project, and so you cannot arbitrarily load it up with junk specific to this App's build, or reference anything particular to the App or Workspace. For the general case, this rules out including static .xcconfig from the App project as a way to convey build information from the App to the Library.
Building the Library outside the workspace sacrifices too much, not an option.
Configuration Mapping
As I understand it, building a particular App configuration will:
If a configuration exists in the Library of the same name, it will build the Library using that.
Otherwise, it will build the active configuration of the Library, as specified in the Library's project file.
To my knowledge, without resorting to the aforementioned run-build-script hack, that is the extent of the control one has over subproject build configurations. Please tell me different.
Ideally, I would be able to specify (in the scheme, presumably):
AppConfigA -> LibConfig1
AppConfigB -> LibConfig2
While Debug, AdHoc, & Release may be the only configurations some ever use, complex projects often outgrow that.
Defines
I've not yet found way to pass -D defines from the App build to the Library, without resorting to xcodebuild, which can take, e.g., an .xcconfig file.
The App's build settings can be accessed in Library build run-build-script phase. However, doing that introduces a dependency in the Library on the App project, which for good reason is verboten (cf. Clarifications). But even then, I haven't found a way to use those settings to directly control the Library's build (much2).
So crazy it just might...
One scheme I came up with while writing this would be:
The Library bases it's build configurations on an empty (dummy) LibraryExternals.xcconfig file within it's own project.
A clean of Library deletes that file. A standalone build of the Library will create an empty one if it does not already exist.
That file is overwritten by an App Build run-build-script phase, and contains anything the app wants to communicate to the Library build.
Seems kind of complicated, but I'm looking for anything right now. I'll push this to an answer if nothing better comes along.
1 Apps shown are Max OS X. I find command line apps make for simpler tests. Same applies.
2 Cf. Info.plist preprocessing, which I learned about during this investigation.
If you modify your project structure to use a single project with multiple targets then each target's build settings will automatically inherit from the project. From there, you can modify ones that you want to be different, or select an individual setting and press the delete key to set it to the default specified by the project.
I need to assemble resources for an application depeding on XCode build settings. The easiest way to achieve this, is through a build script phase. Although this works, this somehow always builds my target with resources one version lagging (a second build is needed to get things really up-to-date).
The Resources folder is a reference to a folder in which my script (or rather, custom built command line tool called from script) copies the appropriate resources. The run script build phase is the first (topmost) phase in my target.
A solution I've found on the web somewhere, is to create an "External Target" and add that to the original target's build phases (by dragging the External target onto the original target). This does indeed seem to fix the "one version behind" issue, but I cannot seem to get the current target's environment variables to be passed to this "External target".
Why is XCode not including the just updated resources? What other alternatives are there?
You could try to define an internal target (say, "ResourceTarget") and make the main target dependent on ResourceTarget. Then let your script run in the script build phase of ResourceTarget, so the resources are all updated when the second target is build.
That way, environment variables should be the same.
I'm working on an iOS app project, and add the json-framework project to the workspace. The project navigator on the left shows both projects, and the build scheme selector shows the schemes from both projects too. Now I want to add the libjson.a target from the json-framework project as a dependency on the iOS app target in the other project. The expected result is that whenever the app target is built, it builds (if necessary) the library target and links the app target against it. Here are the ways I've tried to do this:
Build both as part of the same scheme. The way I try this is to edit the scheme for my app, adding 'libjson.a' to the 'Build' portion of the scheme, and by the way "Find Implicit Dependencies" is checked. Then I go to the target editor for my app target, and in "Build Phases"->"Link Binary With Libraries", I choose 'libjson.a' from the list of workspace libraries.
When I subsequently try to build the scheme, I see it build the library target, but building the app target fails with linker error "Library not found for -ljson" - suggesting that it hasn't actually discovered that the library has been built. Indeed in the project navigator, the entry under the app project for the library is still red indicating that the file doesn't exist.
Add the json target as an explicit dependency. To try this, I don't modify the build scheme, but go to the target editor for my app target and click the add button under 'Target Dependencies'. No targets from other projects in the workspace show up, so this is a non-starter.
Drag the JSON project into the other project, then add the target as a dependency. This is what I would have done in Xcode 3. In the project navigator, I grab the library project and drag it over the app project. This brings up the usual 'add files' pane, which I just dismiss by clicking 'Finish'.
There are now two entries for the library project in the project navigator: one at the top level, and one under the app project. I can now add the library target as a dependency of the app target using the target editor, and can link against it without error in the link libraries phase. But it looks broken: there are multiple entries for the same project in the navigator. Is there a different way to do this?
What should be considered the "Xcode 4-ish" way of connecting these targets in different projects in the same workspace? It would seem lacking if multiple projects in the same workspace can't actually interact with each other.
Thanks,
Graham.
I’ve just set a test project up, pretty much as you describe in version 3, by creating a new workspace and dragging the two Xcode project into it, nested as shown.
You can delete the sibling project if you have it already.
Hitting build on this and it just works, as far as I can see.
I imagine there is internal path-confusion if you have two projects, and I’d be inclined to fiddle with location settings in "View"->"Utilities"->"File Inspector" and see what effect that has.
Another thing to try is to set your paths up in Xcode "Preferences…"->"Source Trees" and refer to them that way, as described here: Easy, Modular Code Sharing Across iPhone Apps: Static Libraries and Cross-Project References
HTH. Andy W.
I managed to get dependencies between projects in a workspace to work as I described here: http://blog.carbonfive.com/2011/04/04/using-open-source-static-libraries-in-xcode-4/.
Unfortunately I can't find a way to get Xcode to discover implicit dependencies or index everything in the build as advertised. I found workaround to both but I'm hoping that less manual configuration will be needed as Xcode 4 matures.
I was going to ask the same question, thinking that my own solution couldn't be right. But I don't see it mentioned here, and it does seem to work. Clearly XCode 4 is a work in progress. :)
I have a workspace with two projects: a static library and an app which uses the library. The projects are siblings. Each project has its own scheme, and each scheme is set to only build one target. In other words, I added two projects to the workspace and that's it.
To add the static library as a dependency of the app, I just drag the libsomething.a product from the library project (Project Navigator) into the "Link Binary with Libraries" list for the app target. That's it. Now when I build the app the library project is built first and then linked. Interestingly, when I modify the app's scheme to use a different configuration (eg, Release instead of Debug), the library is built using the same configuration.
So it works, and there is clearly some automatic dependency checking going on here. But it feels wrong. Then again, so does the modal scheme editor/manager and lack of a workspace object in the project navigator... I never thought I'd say it, but the Visual Studio UI (bleh) is a lot clearer.
My bullet-proof solution to do this :
Create "Per Debug-Release / Per Architecture" settings in Build Settings in the Main project (not the lib), to include either
../MyLibProject/build/Debug-iphoneos
or
../MyLibProject/build/Release-iphonesimulator
or
etc..
depending on the configuration (you can create those kind of configuration by clicking on the + next to Debug or Release and choose either "Any iOS Simulator SDK" or "any iOS SDK".
You need to do that for both "Header Search Path" (in case your library copy some headers files, which is more than likely) AND for "Library Search Paths". Which means that for each setting, you'll probably end-up with 4 different paths (debug sim , debug ios, release sim, release ios).
That would make sure the configuration of both projects match.
Now, to auto-compile the lib, that is to create the dependency, you can use the "Build Phase -> Link to Binary With Libraries -> + -> select the .a file" advice given above.
That's the only way I managed to have something that builds and link correctly for every environment on xcode 4.5
Note : I even added the -lmyLib flag in "other linker flags", but i'm not sure that's really necessary
I've had some success with creating framework-like static libraries, though it's not a perfect solution.
I see the next variants:
Explicit dependency in a project[About]
Implicit dependency in a workspace[About]
See the Xcode user guide: Xcode Concepts -> Xcode workspace under 'Projects in a Workspace Share a Build Directory'.
All projects in a single workspace share a build directory. Dependencies are discovered automatically and build if needed:
"Xcode examines the files in the build directory to discover implicit dependencies. For example, if one project included in a workspace builds a library that is linked against by another project in the same workspace, Xcode automatically builds the library before building the other project, even if the build configuration does not make this dependency explicit. You can override such implicit dependencies with explicit build settings if necessary. For explicit dependencies, you must create project references."