How to add custom project configurations to Xcode when using CocoaPods?

Question

I have an iOS/OS X Xcode projects, where I'm using CocoaPods, and I can't seem to figure out how to add my own project configurations (In addition to Debug and Release) without completely blowing up the build.

In the project, I have a number of targets, for apps on both platforms and its app extensions. The Xcode workspace of course also has the Pods project.

Because the project builds targets for iOS and Mac, I use CocoaPods "targets" to group their pods together. My Podfile looks something like this:

source 'https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git'

target :iOS do
  platform :ios, '7.1'
  link_with 'iOS', 'NozbeToday', 'NozbeShare', 'NozbeWatch'

  # pods...
end

target :Mac do
  platform :osx, '10.9'
  link_with 'Mac'

  # pods...
end

Now here's where I have a problem. So far I've had only the default "Debug" and "Release" configurations in my project. I wanted to change them and add some new ones for different provisioning profile/bundle ID combination.

… and I'm stuck. I can't figure out how to do this.

First sign of the problem was a warning pod install spewed out for every target/configuration combination:

[!] CocoaPods did not set the base configuration of your project because your project already has a custom config set. In order for CocoaPods integration to work at all, please either set the base configurations of the target NozbeToday to Pods/Target Support Files/Pods-iOS/Pods-iOS.dev debug.xcconfig or include the Pods/Target Support Files/Pods-iOS/Pods-iOS.dev debug.xcconfig in your build configuration.

I couldn't figure out what it means and how to fix this. Either way, the project wouldn't build — in the best case scenario I would get a linker error saying that it can't find Pods-something.a…

radex radex · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-07T13:45:17

OK, so half-way through writing this question I figured it out myself (yay rubber ducking). Here's the solution for next generations:

Essentially, you have to add an explicit dependency on the Pods target to your application scheme.

The way you do it, is: edit your application scheme, go to the Build section, and add the Pods target above your application target. You should see something like this:

enter image description here

And it will just work.

As for the CocoaPods warnings on pod install, you need to use the xcconfig files generated by CP for each of your Xcode configurations. The way you do it is:

find the .xcconfig files in Pods/Target Support Files
drag and drop them to "Pods" group in your Xcode project (add reference only. Don't copy to target or add to the build)
Click on the project in project navigator, and select the project itself (not one of targets). Go to Info, and under Configurations set the right .xcconfigs to each configuration and target in the "Based on Configuration file" column.

You'll also need something like this in your Podfile to let CocoaPods know which of your Xcode configurations are "debug" (unoptimized), which are "release":

project '1Nozbe', {
  'iOS 1 Dev Debug' => :debug,
  'iOS 2 Dev AdHoc' => :release,
  'iOS 3 Release Debug' => :debug,
  'iOS 4 Release AdHoc' => :release,
  'iOS 5 Release AppStore' => :release,
}

Not exactly related to CocoaPods, but if you happen to have some other (sub-project) dependencies other than CP, you'll also need to do two things:

add explicit dependencies on the sub-project target (like on the screenshot above)
rename/add configurations in your sub-project so that they are the same as your main project. (Otherwise, Xcode just doesn't know which configuration to use with your sub-project)

How to add custom project configurations to Xcode when using CocoaPods?

3 Answers