Feature Request: Skip Dependencies

[wjk]

Hi, I had an idea on how to ease the transition to Clang modules and dynamic frameworks (viz #2272). I would much rather submit a PR, except I don’t quite know how to go about making this change.

The technique is this: Add a new option to the pod method of the Podfile DSL called skip_dependencies. If it is present and has a value of true, CocoaPods will not link the dependencies of the named pod into this target. It is the up to the developer to make sure that all dependencies are provided.

This addition, combined with a “one framework per Pod” approach to project design and copying the Pod’s public headers into the framework’s Headers directory, makes it possible to move pods from being linked into the main binary and creates a situation wherein each binary links to the frameworks containing the Pods that concern it. (For example, an OS X or iOS extension would not need the Pods containing custom GUI controls, so it wouldn’t link against those frameworks.) Thanks to Xcode 6’s “Defines Module” build setting, the Pod sources can then be @imported for free. (If you’re running Xcode 5, you can create a module map file by hand — it isn’t too hard.)

What do you think?

[fabiopelosin]

Moving to CocoaPods/Core#150