Test Apple targets don't find Sentry framework when using SPM

[thomasflad]

Platform

Apple, Android

Installed

Swift Package Manager

Version

0.4.0

Steps to Reproduce

1. Add Sentry KMP dependency to commonMain
2. Add a simple test to commenTest
3. Run linkDebugTestIosSimulatorArm64 Gradle task or run test on iOS simulator target

See fork from my co-worker: PaulWoitaschek@4e856fc

Expected Result

Test also runs on Apple targets as expected

Actual Result

Gradle task linkDebugTestIosSimulatorArm64 fails with error message:
ld: framework 'Sentry' not found

[buenaflor]

Hi, I'm not 100% how to tackle this since SPM support on KMP is generally not well documented / supported currently but it is on the roadmap: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-64571

I'll take a look regardless

[thomasflad]

Hi @buenaflor, thanks for taking a look. My title is a little bit misleading. We besically generate a regular xcframework and use it on iOS/watchOS in combination with the Sentry SPM library.

[PaulWoitaschek]

Hey @buenaflor !

Were you able to already take a look at this issue?

It would be great if it was documented https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/kotlin-multiplatform/#swift-package-manager-spm that if you're using that option it's no longer possible to run tests.

[msasikanth]

@thomasflad were you able to find a workaround or solution for the issue, I am getting a similar issue on my project

msasikanth/twine#196

[thomasflad]

@msasikanth No, not yet. Since we already have a working solution by using the native libraries on each platform separately we've investigated not further and blocking the integration of the KMP version until there is a fix from Sentry

[PaulWoitaschek]

The main thing we're trying to solve here is to get proper stack traces in sentry for iOS crashes. Am I correct in the assumption that this is not possible without sentry kmp? Or is there a way to set the stack trace addresses by implementing a callback from swift and keep using the native sdks?

[buenaflor]

Sorry no update here yet.

sentry for iOS crashes. Am I correct in the assumption that this is not possible without sentry kmp

If you only care about iOS crashes then you can also use https://github.com/rickclephas/NSExceptionKt which also works well. But then you'll still have the same problems where you can't use SPM in combination with tests

Or is there a way to set the stack trace addresses by implementing a callback from swift and keep using the native sdks?

Unfortunately not yet. getsentry/sentry-cocoa#1999

[buenaflor]

In addition this is not a Sentry specific problem but I assume a problem with SPM dependency usage in KMP in general (at least specific to libraries that have ingested other cocoa dependencies)

[buenaflor]

Just a hunch but I imagine it is connected with this issue: #108 (linker stuff)

[PaulWoitaschek]

And would it be possible to do this manually until we have official sentry support?

Crashkios has solved this by basically telling the linker to treat the listed symbols as undefined. That means the linker will not try to find these symbols during the linking process and assumes these symbols will be provided by other means.

If yes, could you give a hint how?

@rickclephas is deprecating the sentry integration and point to using this SDK. We would really benefit from proper stacktraces at this point 🙏
https://github.com/rickclephas/NSExceptionKt/pull/24/files

[rickclephas]

Crashkios has solved this by basically telling the linker to treat the listed symbols as undefined. That means the linker will not try to find these symbols during the linking process and assumes these symbols will be provided by other means.

I would like to mention that tricking the linker like that results in issues when you distribute your app with app thinning enabled.

Besides that, last I heard, the CrashKiOS approach hasn't been working for tests in recent Kotlin versions either.

@rickclephas is deprecating the sentry integration and point to using this SDK.

Yeah, like @buenaflor already mentioned, NSExceptionKt currently suffers from the same issue. I have been working on a new API that will decouple the implementations from the Kotlin code.
The Sentry implementation requires a lot of private APIs, and is no longer needed since there is this official SDK, so I indeed decided to deprecate it.

[PaulWoitaschek]

Hm and what about making the sentry iOS stuff public so that we don't need reflection?
Then we could just have something in kotlin exposing the addresses and map them in iOS?

[rickclephas]

Then we could just have something in kotlin exposing the addresses and map them in iOS?

Yeah correct. That is more or less how the new API for NSExceptionKt works.

I created getsentry/sentry-cocoa#1999 a while ago to request some public APIs.
What is currently missing is a simple entry point into the native SDK. Which, in theory, could even be private.
The current approach is just way too dependent on internal Sentry logic.

[PaulWoitaschek]

That linked proposal makes very much sense to me.
@buenaflor could you prioritize this? This would be really great to have 🙏

[PaulWoitaschek]

Turns out someone raised this in the past too 😂
getsentry/sentry-cocoa#1623

[buenaflor]

could you prioritize this

The cocoa team prio'ed this as p4 and their backlog is pretty full so tbh not sure if I can give more hope here that it will be implemented anytime soon.

@thomasflad @PaulWoitaschek here's a workaround for working tests although a bit annoying

1. Choose a release and download the Sentry.xcframework.zip and unzip somewhere
2. Add the linker opts -F/your/unzipped/path/Carthage/Build/Sentry.xcframework/ios-arm64_x86_64-simulator/
3. Create a Frameworks folder in the folder where the test.exe resides and insert the Sentry.framework folder (this folder can be found inside of ios-arm64_x86_64-simulator):

Here the short code snippet for build.gradle.kts that worked for me

    listOf(
        iosX64(),
        iosArm64(),
        iosSimulatorArm64(),
    ).forEach {
        it.binaries.framework {
            baseName = "shared"
            isStatic = true
        }
        it.compilations.all {
            if (compilationName == "test" && target.platformType == KotlinPlatformType.native) {
                compilerOptions.configure {
                    freeCompilerArgs.add("-linker-options")
                    freeCompilerArgs.add("-F/Users/giancarlobuenaflor/Downloads/Carthage/Build/Sentry.xcframework/ios-arm64_x86_64-simulator/")
                }
            }
        }
    }

Now it should run

You can prolly make the config a bit more cleaner, optimized but that's the gist of it

lmk if that works

[thomasflad]

Hi @buenaflor,

Thanks for the workaround. Unfortunately, this is not a satisfactory solution, as we no longer notice when the library is updated. I think it would be a good idea to mention this issue in the README because you can't use the library like that in an enterprise context.

[buenaflor]

Got it, yea, will definitely add it to our docs. If that doesn't work in your use case we'd prolly have to wait until the kotlin folks deliver a proper swiftpm solution similar to their cocoapods plugin.

The other option would be to create a gradle plugin and add this workaround automatically

[buenaflor]

I added the docs, I'll close this issue for now but feel free to reopen for any more questions

[ataulm]

A colleague shared this, a template for publishing libraries to SPM and CocoaPods: https://touchlab.co/kmmbridge-quick-start

You can publish to either or both with the same project, and the initial setup for both is very similar, but CocoaPods has several extra steps. If you want to publish to CocoaPods, make sure to do both.

[buenaflor]

@ataulm unfortunately this doesn't solve our problem, they're actually quite unrelated

We have few solutions to this problem and are currently discussing them

[buenaflor]

Just wanted to give a quick update that we are working on a gradle plugin that helps solve this issue