viewDidLoad is in fact called every time there is a segue transition

I have seen a lot of posts on stack overflow stating that the viewDidLoad method of controllers is only called the first time the controller is accessed and not necessarily every time but always at least once.

This is not what I am seeing at all! I put together a simple test to highlight this: https://github.com/imuz/ViewDidLoadTest

It seems for navigation controller segues and modal views viewDidLoad is always called. The only time it is not called is when switching between tabs.

Every explanation of viewDidLoad I can find contradicts this:

• When is viewDidLoad called?
• UIViewController viewDidLoad vs. viewWillAppear: What is the proper division of labor?
• http://www.manning-sandbox.com/thread.jspa?threadID=41506

And apples own documentation indicate that a view is only unloaded when memory is low.

I am currently doing initialisation in viewDidLoad making the assumption that it is called with every segue transition.

Am I missing something here?