Create custom Platform and SDK for Xcode 8.3+

Question

I'm trying to create a custom .platform and SDK in Xcode 8.3 and higher.
I am ultimately attempting to update the old DarwinBuild build system so that I can compile a few of the Apple open source components. DarwinBuild used to use this technique in order to be able to compile against a different set of headers and libraries without having to chroot.

DarwinBuild includes a setup script, installXcode32, that creates a new .platform under Xcode's Developer/Platforms directory, and a new sdk under the platform's Developer/SDKs directory. It also creates an Info.plist and SDKSettings.plist in the right spots. This script needs some updating to work with Xcode 8.3.

I know this is unsupported, but that doesn't matter in this case. After all, Apple published the original script...
I updated the original installXcode32 script to work with the new Xcode paths (/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/...), and it produces the new .platform, Info.plist, and SDKSettings.plist, and they're all symlinked to the right spots. However, xcodebuild -showsdks now produces this error:

xcodebuild: error: Initialization failed. Reason: Required content for platform darwin is missing.

I know it's an issue with the Info.plist and SDKSettings.plist files. I have tried copying the entire MacOSX.platform directory, and changing the names in the .plist, and I get the same error.

Does anyone know enough about Xcode and platforms to know what is required to get Xcode 8.3+ to recognize a "new" Platform and sdk?

Many thanks!

Answer 1

I have successfully done this with Xcode 9.4, pretty much like you did. I changed:

• CanonicalName
• PLATFORM_NAME
• DisplayName