What does the --deep flag do? [duplicate]

Question

I'm using the --deep flag on a cocoa project that uses 3rd party frameworks. The aggregated content needs to be signed and this flag does the trick when added on "Other Code Signing Flags" in build settings.

I'm unable to find documentation on what the flag actually does. Can someone tell me or point me in the right direction ?

Answer 1

When Xcode 5 shipped, it installed a new version of codesign(1) in /usr/bin, one that includes --deep as a compiler option. --deep allows all bundles that are compiled and linked after the flag is passed to recursively be code signed with the options sent to codesign. It is important to note that --deep must be placed strategically, as applying the same flags to every bundle won't work in some cases, and once --deep is passed, all subsequent options are used recursively.

As it is a code signing tool, move the --deep flag to Other Code Signing Flags in order for it to work properly (as a compilation flag, I assume it is ignored, as it is undocumented)