Creating one static library for iOS and simulator for distribution

Question

If you create a static library for iOS do you have to distribute the header file(s) with it or is there another way to get it to work?

Currently I have a single my_lib.a file for both device and simulator but when I drag it into another test app to use it, it says it can't find the header and that all the places I'm using it in the code are undeclared. So I figure I'm either doing something wrong, or I have to also send the appropriate header files with it.

Background to my process:

I've seen two guides for creating a static library for both device and simulator. One on this site: Build fat static library (device + simulator) using Xcode and SDK 4+

and one here: http://mark.aufflick.com/blog/2010/11/19/making-a-fat-static-library-for-ios-device-and-simulator

I used the second site to just try it out. I'm also a bit curious if I did it correctly. I just went into the Release-iphone(os|simulator) folders and found the .a in the ios one and the .o in the simulator one.

Answer 1

The short answer is yes, you have to package header files with your static library. You have to package header files with any library in fact, dynamic or static. The library itself contains the compiled code, but you still have to tell the compiler about the identifiers in the library so when it's compiling your code it knows that they exist.

If you care, you can package your static library into a static framework with a little care. You simply create the same directory structure that a dynamic framework has, with your .a file in place of the .dylib (or .so) file. Frameworks contain a directory for headers, so you can distribute the binary and headers as a single package, and you can easily import headers from a framework without messing with the Additional Header Search Paths build setting.