Disabling some files in Xcode project from compilation

Question

I have started a new project in Xcode by duplicating an existing folder, because my new app will have a lot of common features with the old one.

The problem is that the new app won't be using a framework I used in the old app. When I deleted the framework, of course all files including that framework raised errors.

Basically I want to disable all syntax checks, dependency checks, etc. on many files. I want Xcode to ignore these files, although they are in the project tree. Later when I revise them I will manually enable them again. This way I can compile and test my small changes for errors without fixing all errors it causes in the "not revised" files, which I will be fixing in the future anyway.

I could delete them from the project tree and then add them again one by one when my job's done, but I don't want to do this because my project tree might get messed up and there should really be another way to accomplish this.

I tried removing those files from all target memberships, but it didn't help.

Answer 1

If you need to remove a lot of files, you could create User-Defined Build Setting which should be called EXCLUDED_SOURCE_FILE_NAMES. And add file names or patterns.

In my case I selected the target I wanted to omit some files, Editor -> Add Build Setting -> Add User-Defined Setting (at first this is greyed out somehow. I selected the project file (just above TARGETS) then reselected target file and was able to create User-Defined Setting) -> name it EXCLUDED_SOURCE_FILE_NAMES -> value something like PREFIX*

Of course you can create User-Defined Setting for whole project that way all targets will have it.

Example how it may look:

Original answer: http://lists.apple.com/archives/xcode-users/2009/Jun/msg00153.html