Xcode Concepts

Xcode Concepts

Xcode Concepts

Xcode Target

A target specifies a product to build and contains the instructions for building the product from a set of files in a project or workspace. A target defines a single product; it organizes the inputs into the build system—the source files and instructions for processing those source files—required to build that product. Projects can contain one or more targets, each of which produces one product.

A target inherits the project build settings, but you can override any of the project settings by specifying different settings at the target level.

Xcode Project

An Xcode project is a repository for all the files, resources, and information required to build one or more software products. A project contains all the elements used to build your products and maintains the relationships between those elements. It contains one or more targets, which specify how to build products. A project defines default build settings for all the targets in the project (each target can also specify its own build settings, which override the project build settings).

A project can stand alone or can be included in a workspace.

Build Settings

A build setting is a variable that contains information about how a particular aspect of a product’s build process should be performed. For example, the information in a build setting can specify which options Xcode passes to the compiler.

You can specify build settings at the project or target level. Each project-level build setting applies to all targets in the project unless explicitly overridden by the build settings for a specific target.

Xcode Workspace

A workspace is an Xcode document that groups projects and other documents so you can work on them together. A workspace can contain any number of Xcode projects, plus any other files you want to include. In addition to organizing all the files in each Xcode project, a workspace provides implicit and explicit relationships among the included projects and their targets.

Xcode Scheme

An Xcode scheme defines a collection of targets to build, a configuration to use when building, and a collection of tests to execute.