XcodeGen/docs/ProjectSpec.md

Project Spec

The project spec can be written in either YAML or JSON. All the examples below use YAML.

Some of the examples below don't show all the required properties when trying to explain something. For example not all target examples will have a platform or type, even though they are required.

Required properties are marked 🔵 and optional properties with ⚪️.

Index

• Project
  • Options
  • Configs
  • Setting Groups
• Settings
• Target
  • Product Type
  • Platform
  • Sources
  • Config Files
  • Settings
  • Build Script
  • Dependency
  • Target Scheme

Project

• 🔵 name: String - Name of the generated project
• ⚪️ include: [String] - The paths to other specs. They will be merged in order and then the current spec will be merged on top
• ⚪️ options: Options - Various options to override default behaviour
• ⚪️ attributes: map - The PBXProject attributes. This is for advanced use. Defaults to {"LastUpgradeCheck": "0830"}
• ⚪️ configs: Configs - Project build configurations. Defaults to Debug and Release configs
• ⚪️ settings: Settings - Project specific settings. Default base and config type settings will be applied first before any settings defined here
• ⚪️ settingGroups: Setting Groups - Setting groups mapped by name
• ⚪️ targets: [Target] - The list of targets in the project

Options

• ⚪️ carthageBuildPath: String - The path to the carthage build directory. Defaults to Carthage/Build. This is used when specifying target carthage dependencies

Configs

Each config maps to a build type of either debug or release which will then apply default build settings. Any value other than debug or release (for example "none"), will mean no default build settings will be applied.

configs:
  Debug: debug
  Release: release

If no configs are specified, default Debug and Release configs will be created automatically.

Setting Groups

Setting groups are named groups of build settings that can be reused elsewhere. Each preset is a Settings schema, so can include other groups

settingGroups:
  preset1:
    BUILD_SETTING: value
  preset2:
    base:
      BUILD_SETTING: value
    groups:
      - preset
  preset3:
     configs:
        debug:
        	groups:
            - preset

Settings

Settings can either be a simple map of build settings [String: String], or can be more advanced with the following properties:

• ⚪️ groups: [String] - List of setting groups to include and merge
• ⚪️ configs: [String: Settings] - Mapping of config name to a settings spec. These settings will only be applied for that config
• ⚪️ base: [String: String] - Used to specify default settings that apply to any config

settings:
  BUILD_SETTING_1: value 1
  BUILD_SETTING_2: value 2

settings:
  base:
    BUILD_SETTING_1: value 1
  configs:
    my_config:
      BUILD_SETTING_2: value 2
  groups:
    - my_settings

Settings are merged in the following order: groups, base, configs.

Target

• 🔵 name: String - Name of the target
• 🔵 type: Product Type - Product type of the target
• 🔵 platform: Platform - Platform of the target
• ⚪️ sources: Sources - Source directories of the target
• ⚪️ configFiles: Config Files - .xcconfig files per config
• ⚪️ settings: Settings - Target specific build settings. Default platform and product type settings will be applied first before any custom settings defined here. Other context dependant settings will be set automatically as well:
  • INFOPLIST_FILE: If it doesn't exist your sources will be searched for Info.plist files and the first one found will be used for this setting
  • FRAMEWORK_SEARCH_PATHS: If carthage dependencies are used, the platform build path will be added to this setting
• ⚪️ prebuildScripts: [Build Script] - Build scripts that run before any other build phases
• ⚪️ postbuildScripts: [Build Script] - Build scripts that run after any other build phases
• ⚪️ dependencies: [Dependency] - Dependencies for the target
• ⚪️ scheme: Target Scheme - Generated scheme with tests or config variants

Product Type

This will provide default build settings for a certain product type. It can be any of the following:

• application
• framework
• library.dynamic
• library.static
• bundle
• bundle.unit-test
• bundle.ui-testing
• app-extension
• tool
• application.watchapp
• application.watchapp2
• watchkit-extension
• watchkit2-extension
• tv-app-extension
• application.messages
• app-extension.messages
• app-extension.messages-sticker-pack
• xpc-service

Platform

This will provide default build settings for a certain platform. It can be any of the following:

• iOS
• tvOS
• macOS
• watchOS

Multi Platform targets

You can also specify an array of platforms. This will generate a target for each platform. If you reference the string $platform anywhere within the target spec, that will be replaced with the platform.

The generated targets by default will have a suffix of _$platform applied, you can change this by specifying a platformSuffix or platformPrefix.

If no PRODUCT_NAME build setting is specified for a target, this will be set to the target name, so that this target can be imported under a single name.

name: MyFramework
sources: MyFramework
platform: [iOS, tvOS]
type: framework
settings:
  base:
    INFOPLIST_FILE: MyApp/Info.plist
    PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER: com.myapp
    MY_SETTING: platform $platform
  groups:
    - $platform

The above will generate 2 targets named MyFramework_iOS and MyFramework_tvOS, with all the relevant platform build settings. They will both have a PRODUCT_NAME of MyFramework

Sources

Specifies the source directories for a target. This can either be a single path or a list of paths. Applicable source files, resources, headers, and lproj files will be parsed appropriately

targets:
  - name: MyTarget
    sources: MyTargetSource
  - name: MyOtherTarget
    sources:
      - MyOtherTargetSource1
      - MyOtherTargetSource2

Dependency

A dependency can be one of a 3 types:

• target: name - links to another target
• framework: path - links to a framework
• carthage: name - helper for linking to a carthage framework

Embed options:

These only applied to target and framework dependencies.

• ⚪️ embed: Bool - Whether to embed the dependency. Defaults to true for application target and false for non application targets.
• ⚪️ codeSign: Bool - Whether the codeSignOnCopy setting is applied when embedding framework. Defaults to true
• ⚪️ removeHeaders: Bool - Whether the removeHeadersOnCopy setting is applied when embedding the framework. Defaults to true

Carthage Dependency

Carthage frameworks are expected to be in CARTHAGE_BUILD_PATH/PLATFORM/FRAMEWORK.framework where:

• CARTHAGE_BUILD_PATH = options.carthageBuildPath or Carthage/Build by default
• PLATFORM = the target's platform
• FRAMEWORK = the specified name.

If any applications contain carthage dependencies within itself or any dependent targets, a carthage copy files script is automatically added to the application containing all the relevant frameworks. A FRAMEWORK_SEARCH_PATHS setting is also automatically added

targets:
  - name: MyTarget
    dependencies:
      - target: MyFramework
      - framework: path/to/framework.framework
      - carthage: Result  
  - name: MyFramework

Config Files

Specifies .xcconfig files for each configuration.

targets:
  - name: MyTarget
    configFiles:
      Debug: config_files/debug.xcconfig
      Release: config_files/release.xcconfig

Build Script

Run script build phases added via prebuildScripts or postBuildScripts. They run before or after any other build phases respectively and in the order defined. Each script can contain:

• 🔵 path: String - a relative or absolute path to a shell script
• 🔵 script: String - an inline shell script
• ⚪️ name: String - name of a script. Defaults to Run Script
• ⚪️ inputFiles: [String] - list of input files
• ⚪️ outputFiles: [String] - list of output files
• ⚪️ shell: String - shell used for the script. Defaults to /bin/sh
• ⚪️ runOnlyWhenInstalling: Bool - whether the script is only run when installing (runOnlyForDeploymentPostprocessing). Defaults to no

Either a path or script must be defined, the rest are optional.

A multiline script can be written using the various YAML multiline methods, for example with | as below:

targets:
  - name: MyTarget
    prebuildScripts:
      - path: myscripts/my_script.sh
        name: My Script
        inputFiles:
          - $(SRCROOT)/file1
          - $(SRCROOT)/file2
        outputFiles:
          - $(DERIVED_FILE_DIR)/file1
          - $(DERIVED_FILE_DIR)/file2
    postbuildScripts:
      - script: swiftlint
        name: Swiftlint
      - script: |
      		command do
      		othercommand

Target Scheme

This is a convenience used to automatically generate schemes for a target based on different configs or included tests.

• 🔵 configVariants: [String] - This generates a scheme for each entry, using configs that contain the name with debug and release variants. This is useful for having different environment schemes.
• ⚪️ testTargets: [String] - a list of test targets that should be included in the scheme. These will be added to the build targets and the test entries

For example, the spec below would create 3 schemes called:

• MyApp Test
• MyApp Staging
• MyApp Production

Each scheme would use different build configuration for the different build types, specifically debug configs for run, test, and anaylze, and release configs for profile and archive. The MyUnitTests target would also be linked.

configs:
  Test Debug: debug
  Staging Debug: debug
  Production Debug: debug
  Test Release: release
  Staging Release: release
  Production Release: release
targets
  - name: MyApp
    scheme:
      testTargets:
        - MyUnitTests
      configVariants:
        - Test
        - Staging
        - Production
  - name: MyUnitTests