A CMake toolchain file for iOS (+ Catalyst), watchOS, tvOS and macOS development with full simulator support and toggleable options!

ios-cmake

Platform flag options (-DPLATFORM=flag)

• OS - to build for iOS (armv7, armv7s, arm64) DEPRECATED in favour of OS64
• OS64 - to build for iOS (arm64 only)
• OS64COMBINED - to build for iOS & iOS Simulator (FAT lib) (arm64, x86_64)
• SIMULATOR - to build for iOS simulator 32 bit (i386) DEPRECATED
• SIMULATOR64 - to build for iOS simulator 64 bit (x86_64)
• SIMULATORARM64 - to build for iOS simulator 64 bit (arm64)
• TVOS - to build for tvOS (arm64)
• TVOSCOMBINED - to build for tvOS & tvOS Simulator (arm64, x86_64)
• _SIMULATORTVOS - to build for tvOS Simulator (x86_64)
• _SIMULATORARM64TVOS = to build for tvOS Simulator (arm64)
• WATCHOS - to build for watchOS (armv7k, arm64_32)
• WATCHOSCOMBINED - to build for watchOS & Simulator (armv7k, arm64_32, i386)
• _SIMULATORWATCHOS - to build for watchOS Simulator (i386)
• _SIMULATORARM64WATCHOS = to build for watchOS Simulator (arm64)
• MAC - to build for macOS (x86_64)
• _MACARM64 - to build for macOS on Apple Silicon (arm64)
• _MACUNIVERSAL - to build for macOS on x86_64 and Apple Silicon (arm64) combined
• _MACCATALYST - to build iOS for Mac (Catalyst, x86_64)
• _MAC_CATALYSTARM64 - to build iOS for Mac on Apple Silicon (Catalyst, arm64)

Example usage

NOTE: Change the -DPLATFORM to an applicable value if targeting another platform.

cd example/example-lib
cmake -B build -G Xcode -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../../ios.toolchain.cmake -DPLATFORM=OS64
cmake --build build --config Release

This will build the library for the given PLATFORM. In this case, iOS with the arm64 architecture.

COMBINED Options

The options called *COMBINED (OS64COMBINED, TVOSCOMBINED and WATCHOSCOMBINED) will build complete FAT-libraries for the given platform. These FAT-libraries include slices for both device and simulator, making the distribution and usage of the library much more simple!

Example:

cmake . -G Xcode -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../../ios.toolchain.cmake -DPLATFORM=OS64COMBINED
cmake --build . --config Release
cmake --install . --config Release # Necessary to build combined library

NOTE: The COMBINED options ONLY work with the Xcode generator (-G Xcode) on CMake versions 3.14+!

Exposed Variables

XCODE_VERSION - Version number (not including Build version) of Xcode detected.

SDK_VERSION - Version of SDK being used.

CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES - Architectures being compiled for (generated from PLATFORM).

APPLE_TARGET_TRIPLE - Used by autoconf build systems.

Additional Options

-DENABLE_BITCODE=(BOOL) - Disabled by default, specify TRUE or 1 to enable bitcode

-DENABLE_ARC=(BOOL) - Enabled by default, specify FALSE or 0 to disable ARC

-DENABLE_VISIBILITY=(BOOL) - Disabled by default, specify TRUE or 1 to enable symbol visibility support

-DENABLE_STRICT_TRY_COMPILE=(BOOL) - Disabled by default, specify TRUE or 1 to enable strict compiler checks (will run linker on all compiler checks whenever needed)

-DARCHS=(STRING) - Valid values are: armv7, armv7s, arm64, i386, x86_64, armv7k, arm64_32. By default it will build for all valid architectures based on -DPLATFORM (see above)

To combine all platforms into the same FAT-library, either build any of the "COMBINED" platform types OR use the LIPO tool. More information on how to combine libraries with LIPO is readily available on the net.

Thanks To

• natbro for adding tvOS support
• MSNexploder for adding OS64 and arm64e support
• garryyan for adding watchOS support