Is it currently possible to use SPM plugins with Xcode?

Using Swift
,
#1

I'm wondering if anyone had successfully used SPM plugins with Xcode. It seems there is some support to it, since I've managed to apply a plugin before building a macOS target, however, when trying to do the same for iOS, the plugin fails.
I also can't find any example in the wild, it seems not even SwiftGen is using plugins, although I was hoping they do, since the example in the proposal was targeting SwiftGen directly.

So, bottom line would be, does anyone know if this is fully implemented and I should invest more time in it making it work or should I just focus on distributing my tools via homebrew + Xcode scripts like in the past?

#2

I had a issue where the executable products where built for iOS.

I managed to work around it by splitting out the plugins dependencies (in my case only executable targets) into a separate repository/package, that only provides a artifact-bundle introduce with swift-evolution/0305-swiftpm-binary-target-improvements.md at main · apple/swift-evolution · GitHub

that repository provides a github release from which the artifact bundle can be downloaded.

Here the plugin adds a dependency on a binaryTarget swift-dependency-injection/Package.swift at b458e6db36ee74a5277139d1a25ddad77d005476 · anreitersimon/swift-dependency-injection · GitHub

Hope this helps,

Simon

#3

Also here is a command plugin that helps with creating the artifact bundle

#4

Yeah, that's one problem for sure. I'll try the .binaryTarget path too. Thanks for the input.

#5

I can confirm this works. It's way less convenient than referencing other executable targets, but hopefully Xcode will fix this soon.

#6

Yeah agree its a bit inconvenient.

But i think i will stick with that setup anyways, even if this problem is solved.

It has some advantages IMO:

  • It reduces buildtime because consumers dont have to build my cli tools dependencies
  • it avoid some dependency conflicts (I for instance use SwiftSyntax if a consumer of the plugin wants to use a different version SwiftPM would currently not be able to do that)
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