iOS Debug vs Release Framework

Question

I have couple of queries on frameworks:

• What is the difference between Debug and Release framework?
• Is provisioning profile required when creating release framework?
• Can we use Debug framework in archiving distribution ipa?

Thank you.

Answer 1

1. Difference between debug build and release builds are that debug builds build debug info also, so the debug build might be slower and the built product's size may be larger. See this. Also, if you build with release, debugging is much more harder. Released are compiled with optimisation turned on for gcc, see this for more about release optimisation.
2. Frameworks don't need to be codesigned, Xcode takes care of it when you add a framework to your project. Just remember to check the "code sign on copy" next to the framework in the "embed framework" section of your project.
3. Why not? But I would recommend using release framework, it is faster. Harder to debug what happened if framework has bugs if you use release though.