Xcode: how to build a static library project correctly?

Question

This question will be easy for Xcode pros but for a MonoTouch developer it seems to be impossible to resolve. :-)

I'm using Xcode 4.5 and I want to target iOS 5.1 and above and iOS Simulator 5.1 and above.

I have a a library project here and it is coming with a prebuilt binary named "DemoLib" (no extension and it is 11MB in size). The library is a fat lib for Simulator and iOS 5.1+. I can use that library without any problem. However if I try to build the library myself, I end up with a "DemoLib.a" file (notice the extension and the size of 30MB). How can I get the same build result? What is a .a file compared to the file without extension? I tried to build the project "for running", and "for archiving" in Xcode. Both results in the same 30MB .a file. I was expecting some dropdown in Xcode where one could select "DEBUG" or "RELEASE" build and the latter one would create the smaller lib.

Answer 1

Of course I could never tell without seeing the framework's project file. Having said that, there is an excellent guide to creating and compiling iOS frameworks here: https://github.com/jverkoey/iOS-Framework

Using the above guide, you should be able to recreate your framework's project from scratch, add the files you have to it, and properly compile it.

Hope this helps! :)