Separate build directory using xcodebuild

Question

The man page for xcodebuild reads:

Run xcodebuild from the directory containing your project (i.e. the directory containing the projectname.xcodeproj package).

I would like to keep my source directory (which is a Subversion external) clean and unmodified, and build my object files and executables to a location completely outside of the source directory.

Is there any way to build into a separate build directory from a terminal using xcodebuild like you can do with make tools or even msbuild on Windows?

Answer 1

You can set build settings from the command line. The CONFIGURATION_BUILD_DIR will set the build directory. For example:

xcodebuild -project YourProject.xcodeproj -configuration Debug -target All ARCHS=x86_64 ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH=YES CONFIGURATION_BUILD_DIR=../some/other/dir

A reference is found on Apple's site:

• Build Setting Reference

Answer 2

To achieve complete separation the following build settings have to be changed (more than just CONFIGURATION_BUILD_DIR like accepted answer suggests), otherwise Xcode still builds some of its artifacts under its default build folder.

On my machine Xcode normally builds everything to ./Build and ./DerivedData where current directory is one of my project.

I wanted xcodebuild to build everything under Build-command-line folder so I used xcodebuild -scheme MyScheme -showBuildSettings | grep Build\/ to find all build settings that correspond to all build paths and by trial-end-error I found "the generative" build settings that are enough to redirect all build artefacts produced by xcodebuild to custom folder.

I ended up using the following command:

BUILD_DIR=./Build-command-line
DERIVED_DATA_DIR=$(BUILD_DIR)/DerivedData

xcodebuild -project MyProject.xcodeproj \
         -IDEBuildOperationMaxNumberOfConcurrentCompileTasks=`sysctl -n hw.ncpu` \
         -scheme MyScheme \
         -sdk iphonesimulator \
         -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 6S Plus,OS=latest' \
         -xcconfig command-line-build.xcconfig \
         -derivedDataPath $(DERIVED_DATA_DIR) \
         test

Where command-line-build.xcconfig is:

HERE_BUILD=$(SRCROOT)/Build-command-line
HERE_INTERMEDIATES=$(HERE_BUILD)/Intermediates

// Paths
// the following paths are enough to redirect everything to $HERE_BUILD
MODULE_CACHE_DIR    = $(HERE_BUILD)/DerivedData/ModuleCache
OBJROOT             = $(HERE_INTERMEDIATES)
SHARED_PRECOMPS_DIR = $(HERE_INTERMEDIATES)/PrecompiledHeaders
SYMROOT

Note: Make sure you use absolute paths in your xcconfig, otherwise you may have error: Xcode crashing on startup “parentPath must be nil but it is not.

I have written a post about this solution with a bit of background: xcodebuild: how to really change its build path.

P.S. Of course this information is subject to change but as of Xcode Version 7.3.1 (7D1014) it works perfectly for me.