Xcode Archive debug strip errors

Question

I am trying to integrate a large legacy C++ library with an iOS app. We are able to build and run on device but we are not able to archive the app. Archiving fails with the following error.

Command /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/strip failed with exit code 1

I did a "-v" on the strip and get a series of warnings similar to

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/strip: symbols referenced by relocation entries that can't be stripped in: /MyApp/DerivedData/SmartMusic_iPad/Build/Intermediates/ArchiveIntermediates/MyApp/IntermediateBuildFilesPath/UninstalledProducts/libMyLib-iOS.a(MyWhatever.o)

It is not clear if this message is a warning or the reason for the failure. There are no other indications of problems in the strip output. Any clues?

Answer 1

Under build settings for the static library target, select NO for 'deployment postprocessing' and 'strip debug symbols during copy'. It is compiled code so it doesn't need symbols stripped. I was experiencing the same error ('usr/bin/strip failed with exit code 1') and this fixed it for me.

Answer 2

In my case I added the following to my library Target build settings and started working fine:

• Dead Code Stripping: NO

• Strip Debug Symbols During Copy: NO for all configurations

• Strip Style: Non-Global Symbols

Answer 3

The default Strip Style in Xcode is All Symbols, which is okay for an executable but for a library you need to set this to Non-Global Symbols as global symbols must be be preserved.

Since stripping is only done as part of the deployment post processing, debug builds are usually not affected by this option as for them the setting DEPLOYMENT_POSTPROCESSING is usually set to NO. But when archiving, though, you create a release build and here DEPLOYMENT_POSTPROCESSING is set to YES by default and thus you need to have the correct strip style set.