How do I flag a function as being deprecated in an iOS Objective-C header file?

Question

How do I flag a function as being deprecated in an iOS Objective-C header file?

I'm guessing there's just some keyword I can stick after the function somewhere?

I would like for a compiler warning to be generated should anyone try and use the deprecated function, similar to the behavior seen in Apple's APIs.

Answer 1

Try appending an attribute to your method declaration:

- (void)fooBar __attribute__ ((deprecated));

Taken from here.

Answer 2

Instead of __attribute__((deprecated)), you can use use the macros defined in <cdefs.h>:

- (void)fooBar __deprecated; // Or better: - (void)fooBar __deprecated_msg("Use barFoo instead."); 

Or you can use the macros defined in <AvailabilityMacros.h>:

- (void)fooBar DEPRECATED_ATTRIBUTE; // Or better: - (void)fooBar DEPRECATED_MSG_ATTRIBUTE("Use barFoo instead."); 

If you use Objective-C, it makes no difference as you are going to use a modern compiler, so you can go for Apple short syntax __deprecated_msg(). But if you use C for cross-platform, then DEPRECATED_MSG_ATTRIBUTE() uses the optimal availability definitions (for instance, it supports GCC3.1).