Add option to always have a version named "Xcode.app" on activate

[Jeehut]

Tell us how we can improve Xcodes
This app is amazing and I use it all the time. The only thing I need to do manually right now is after upgrading to a new stable release and making it the active one, to rename it so it does not have the version in its name, which I don't want to have for the latest stable release.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I know that "make active" is the right approach, but some tools expect to have a path just called Xcode.app and therefore it's safer to have the latest stable just called that. See FlineDev/BartyCrouch#179 for example.

What would you like to see? How would you like it to work?
Besides the existing "Active" button, there could also be a "Default name" button. Or alternatively, there could be an option in the preferences stating something like "Remove version suffix from currently active Xcode apps name".

[ptrkstr]

This is an excellent idea. I also would feel more comfortable if the selected Xcode was renamed to Xcode.app (though I have no tangible evidence right now for why).

[Jeehut]

@ptrkstr It's not just about "feeling comfortable", it is a real issue because there's many tools etc. that depend on the exact path Xcode.app, see for example this issue users of my command line tool reported and the workaround which clearly indicates that Apples swift-syntax library depends on that path. And while I don't remember all the specifics, I did encounter other issues without an Xcode named exactly Xcode.app as well, so it's definitely a good idea to always have a current Xcode named without a version suffix.

[Jeehut]

And here's another reason why keeping the name Xcode.app is important (basically, for Xcode Extensions to work):
https://stackoverflow.com/a/60431819/3451975

[MattKiazyk]

Thanks for the suggestion and the conversation.

I know even personally I've hit issues where we use a naming convention different then say Github Action environments. We call it Xcode-13.2.0 where Github names it Xcode-13.2. Using any tool inside those environments that require Xcode.app would run into the same issue since Github doesn't have a single Xcode.app

I would suggest that any tools shouldn't be looking at exactly for xcode.app. In the instance of Library not loaded: @rpath/lib_InternalSwiftSyntaxParser.dylib I would suggest building the tool with that library baked in.

You can see examples of how other tools have done it - uber/needle#367

As far as Xcode extensions, I'd have to look into how they are looking to see where the app is or where they store the extension files.

[Jeehut]

@MattKiazyk Thank you for the suggestion, I will try to have a look into it for BartyCrouch. And that's probably what all tools should do. But I would like to keep the name Xcode.app anyway, even if it's just for the Xcode Extensions to work.

[muescha]

i also have the problem that it shows my xcodes as outdated in MAS - but i already have installed the new version with xcodes

[federicopolesello]

Yeah, it would be great if the active version could be rename with a default name Xcode.app

[Jeehut]

@MattKiazyk As much as I like the addition of the option to create a symbolic link named Xcode.app, it still doesn't solve all problems. For example, when I want to have always the active Xcode version in my dock, I can't put the symbolic link there, macOS doesn't support that. Instead, I have to always change the docked Xcode icon each time Apple makes a new stable release. Also, when I download a release candidate like I just did with Xcode 13.4, then Apple makes this release candidate the official release, the app in my Application folder still has the name Xcode-13.4.0-Release.Candidate which is ugly, so I have to manually rename it and make it the active one again, that's annoying.

Both of these issues would be fixed if we just had an option named "Remove version suffix from currently active Xcode" like I suggested in my original post. Please, reopen this issue as the closing PR is not solving my request fully, just partly.

[MattKiazyk]

Cheers @Jeehut - Thanks for the example of what you're wanting to do.