post_install hook doesn't respect adding GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS to a specific target.

[yas375]

In continuation of the discussion started on SO.

I'm using MTDates in my project and would like to add a preprocessor macros MTDATES_NO_PREFIX=1 to enable short method names.

I've added a post_install hook (thanks for the proposal @alloy) to my Podfile:

post_install do |installer_representation|
  installer_representation.project.targets.each do |target|
    if target.name == 'Pods-MTDates'
      target.build_configurations.each do |config|
        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] ||= ['$(inherited)']
        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] << 'MTDATES_NO_PREFIX=1'
      end
    end
  end
end

And I've noticed that it adds MTDATES_NO_PREFIX=1 to Debug configuration of all my Pods-* targets.

I've created a test project to demonstrate the issue.

It has Podfile with the contents:

platform :ios, :deployment_target => '6.0'

pod 'MTDates'
pod 'SVProgressHUD'
pod 'TransformerKit'

post_install do |installer_representation|
  installer_representation.project.targets.each do |target|
    if target.name == 'Pods-MTDates'
      target.build_configurations.each do |config|
        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] ||= ['$(inherited)']
        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] << 'MTDATES_NO_PREFIX=1'
      end
    elsif target.name == 'Pods-SVProgressHUD'
      target.build_configurations.each do |config|
        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] ||= ['$(inherited)']
        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] << 'SOMETHING_SPECAIL_FOR_SVPROGRESS=1'
      end
    end
  end
end

As you can see I've added some special preprocessor macroses for two of three libraries. So I expect that Pods-TransformerKit target has only default preprocessor macros, but it has all of them. Including MTDATES_NO_PREFIX=1 which is specific for Pods-MTDates target and SOMETHING_SPECAIL_FOR_SVPROGRESS=1 which is specific for Pods-SVProgressHUD target.

And please notice that Release configurations have expected preprocessor macros.

Is this a bug?

Thanks in advance.

[fabiopelosin]

Can you try to print the objects id to see whether they are the same instance (they shouldn't)?

puts config.object_id
puts config.build_settings.object_id

[yas375]

@irrationalfab I've modified post_install hook in my Podfile to:

post_install do |installer_representation|
  installer_representation.project.targets.each do |target|
    if target.name == 'Pods-MTDates'
      puts 'Pods-MTDates'
      target.build_configurations.each do |config|
        puts "  config.name: #{config.name}"
        puts "    config.object_id: #{config.object_id}"
        puts "    config.build_settings.object_id: #{config.build_settings.object_id}"

        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] ||= ['$(inherited)']
        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] << 'MTDATES_NO_PREFIX=1'
      end
    elsif target.name == 'Pods-SVProgressHUD'
      puts 'Pods-SVProgressHUD'
      target.build_configurations.each do |config|
        puts "  config.name: #{config.name}"
        puts "    config.object_id: #{config.object_id}"
        puts "    config.build_settings.object_id: #{config.build_settings.object_id}"

        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] ||= ['$(inherited)']
        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] << 'SOMETHING_SPECAIL_FOR_SVPROGRESS=1'
      end
    end
  end
end

And here it the output:

➜  TestApp git:(master) ✗ pod --version
0.23.0
➜  TestApp git:(master) ✗ pod install
Analyzing dependencies
Downloading dependencies
Using MTDates (0.9.3)
Using SVProgressHUD (0.9)
Using TransformerKit (0.2.4)
Generating Pods project
Pods-MTDates
  config.name: Release
    config.object_id: 70205035659800
    config.build_settings.object_id: 70205035674720
  config.name: Debug
    config.object_id: 70205035673960
    config.build_settings.object_id: 70205035672520
Pods-SVProgressHUD
  config.name: Release
    config.object_id: 70205040374920
    config.build_settings.object_id: 70205040373480
  config.name: Debug
    config.object_id: 70205040372740
    config.build_settings.object_id: 70205040371300
Integrating client project
➜  TestApp git:(master) ✗ 

[fabiopelosin]

can you print the object id of the config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] string. I think that we forgot to dup it! If this is the case using the + method instead of << should produce the desired result.

        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] = config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] + 'SOMETHING_SPECAIL_FOR_SVPROGRESS=1'

[yas375]

can you print the object id of the config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] string

@irrationalfab but it's not a string. It's an array or nil...
I've added both object_id and inspect before and after hooking so you see what it was and what it becomes after adding a macros.

Updated post_install hook:

post_install do |installer_representation|
  installer_representation.project.targets.each do |target|
    if target.name == 'Pods-MTDates'
      puts 'Pods-MTDates'
      target.build_configurations.each do |config|
        puts "  config.name: #{config.name}"
        puts "    config.object_id: #{config.object_id}"
        puts "    config.build_settings.object_id: #{config.build_settings.object_id}"
        puts "    config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS']"
        puts "      before hooking:"
        puts "        object_id: #{config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'].object_id}"
        puts "        inspect: #{config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'].inspect}"

        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] ||= ['$(inherited)']
        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] << 'MTDATES_NO_PREFIX=1'

        puts "      after hooking:"
        puts "        object_id: #{config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'].object_id}"
        puts "        inspect: #{config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'].inspect}"
      end
    elsif target.name == 'Pods-SVProgressHUD'
      puts 'Pods-SVProgressHUD'
      target.build_configurations.each do |config|
        puts "  config.name: #{config.name}"
        puts "    config.object_id: #{config.object_id}"
        puts "    config.build_settings.object_id: #{config.build_settings.object_id}"
        puts "    config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS']"
        puts "      before hooking:"
        puts "        object_id: #{config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'].object_id}"
        puts "        inspect: #{config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'].inspect}"

        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] ||= ['$(inherited)']
        config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] << 'SOMETHING_SPECAIL_FOR_SVPROGRESS=1'

        puts "      after hooking:"
        puts "        object_id: #{config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'].object_id}"
        puts "        inspect: #{config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'].inspect}"
      end
    end
  end
end

Output:

➜  TestApp git:(master) ✗ pod install
Analyzing dependencies
Downloading dependencies
Using MTDates (0.9.3)
Using SVProgressHUD (0.9)
Using TransformerKit (0.2.4)
Generating Pods project
Pods-MTDates
  config.name: Release
    config.object_id: 70328443134080
    config.build_settings.object_id: 70328443149000
    config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS']
      before hooking:
        object_id: 4
        inspect: nil
      after hooking:
        object_id: 70328448388180
        inspect: ["$(inherited)", "MTDATES_NO_PREFIX=1"]
  config.name: Debug
    config.object_id: 70328443148240
    config.build_settings.object_id: 70328443146800
    config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS']
      before hooking:
        object_id: 70328438561320
        inspect: ["DEBUG=1", "$(inherited)"]
      after hooking:
        object_id: 70328438561320
        inspect: ["DEBUG=1", "$(inherited)", "MTDATES_NO_PREFIX=1"]
Pods-SVProgressHUD
  config.name: Release
    config.object_id: 70328447816400
    config.build_settings.object_id: 70328447814960
    config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS']
      before hooking:
        object_id: 4
        inspect: nil
      after hooking:
        object_id: 70328448408920
        inspect: ["$(inherited)", "SOMETHING_SPECAIL_FOR_SVPROGRESS=1"]
  config.name: Debug
    config.object_id: 70328447814220
    config.build_settings.object_id: 70328447812780
    config.build_settings['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS']
      before hooking:
        object_id: 70328438561320
        inspect: ["DEBUG=1", "$(inherited)", "MTDATES_NO_PREFIX=1"]
      after hooking:
        object_id: 70328438561320
        inspect: ["DEBUG=1", "$(inherited)", "MTDATES_NO_PREFIX=1", "SOMETHING_SPECAIL_FOR_SVPROGRESS=1"]
Integrating client project
➜  TestApp git:(master) ✗ 

[fabiopelosin]

So the issue is that it is the same array.

[fabiopelosin]

I have added a fix, today the new version of CocoaPods should be out but the fix will not be included. However you should be able to test it easily by cloning xcodeproj and running $ rake gem:install

[yas375]

@irrationalfab thank you! I also was just looking how it can be fixed. But I was much slower than you in this :) I've just found that in settings.merge!... also should be passed duplicated objects and that just dup is not enough here and we need to make a deep dup so Constants::COMMON_BUILD_SETTINGS[:debug]['GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS'] would be copied as well :)
You was much more faster than I 👍
Thanks a lot! I'll test it now :)

[yas375]

@irrationalfab works good! Thanks! 👍

[fabiopelosin]

🍻