What's the equivalent of "development pods" under Carthage?

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The teams developing frameworks for our iOS app are migrating from Cocoapods to Carthage.

Under Cocoapods, I could set up dependencies as "development pods". For example, instead of having the main app download a specific version of an xyzzy dependency, I could set up xyzzy as a development pod and point it to my local directory where I had checked out xyzzy from its Git repo. While I was working in the main app's project, any edits I'd do to xyzzy's files would be made in that directory. This let me build and test changes immediately, and when I was ready to check them in, Git would find them in the xyzzy project's directory.

Under Carthage I haven't found a way to do this. I see http://allocinit.io/ios/debugging-carthage-dependencies/ which explains how to create symbolic links so that I can see the dependency source files to make debugging easier, but any edits I make to them are under the main application's Carthage/Builds directory.

How do I set up the equivalent of development pods under Carthage?

carthage cocoapods ios
3 Answers

This answer is a summary of a successful implementation of the solution introduced here.

A cleaner solution is using local paths for dependencies in Cartfile.

Environment

  • Xcode 10.1
  • macOS 10.13.6

Step 1. Symbolic linking

1.1   Change $(SRCROOT_MAIN)/Carthage/Checkouts/$(DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK_NAME) directory to a symbolic link pointing to source root directory of your developing framework $(SRCROOT_DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK), where $(SRCROOT_MAIN) is source root directory of your main app. Backup existing directories before this change.

This linking enables version-controlled changes in your developing framework.

Syntax when using ln utility,

$ ln -s "$SRCROOT_DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK" "$SRCROOT_MAIN/Carthage/Checkouts/$DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK_NAME"

1.2   Change $(SRCROOT_DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK)/Carthage/Build directory in your framework to a symbolic link pointing to $(SRCROOT_MAIN)/Carthage/Build directory. Backup existing directories before this change.

This linking enables access to all frameworks built by Carthage from both your developing framework and your main app.

Syntax when using ln utility,

$ ln -s "$SRCROOT_MAIN/Carthage/Build" "$SRCROOT_DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK/Carthage/Build"

Step 2. Framework Replacement


2.1   Remove your developing framework in Xcode > YOUR_MAIN_APP > General > Linked Frameworks and Libraries (that is, the one located in $(SRCROOT_MAIN)/Carthage/Build/iOS).

2.2   Add $(DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK_NAME).xcodeproj (found in directory pointed by $(SRCROOT_MAIN)/Carthage/Checkouts/$(DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK_NAME) symbolic link) into your main app

2.3   Build the developing framework product for device and simulator

2.4   Add the new developing framework auto-detected by Xcode in Xcode > YOUR_MAIN_APP > General > Linked Frameworks and Libraries.

2.5   Add $(DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK_NAME).framework as a target dependency by adding $(DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK_NAME).framework in Xcode > YOUR_MAIN_APP > Build Phases > Target Dependencies.

2.6   Copy $(BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR)/$(DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK_NAME).framework to $(BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR)/$(FRAMEWORKS_FOLDER_PATH)/$(DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK_NAME).framework by adding a new input file $(BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR)/$(DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK_NAME).framework and a new output file $(BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR)/$(FRAMEWORKS_FOLDER_PATH)/$(DEVELOPING_FRAMEWORK_NAME).framework in Xcode > YOUR_MAIN_APP > Build Phases > Run Script of Carthage Embed Framework.

Reference

Debugging Carthage Dependencies
https://allocinit.io/ios/debugging-carthage-dependencies/

Build Setting Reference
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/DeveloperTools/Reference/XcodeBuildSettingRef/1-Build_Setting_Reference/build_setting_ref.html
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