Cocoapods - Swift framework with internal static library dependency - ios

Question

I'm implementing an iOS framework written on Swift. This framework has an internal dependency on a C based static library. To make it work and based on some tutorials I've made a module map similar to this:
framework module Module {
umbrella header "Module.h"
explicit module ModuleDep {
private header "header1.h"
}
export *
}
Based on that I can include C code in Swift like this:
import Module.ModuleDep
When export framework manually everything seems to work just fine. It is a sure thing, I want to have Cocoapods support for my framework with code visibility (easier to debug). The podspec, that make it work was this (some parts are omitted):
Pod::Spec.new do |s|
s.platform = :ios
s.ios.deployment_target = '12.0'
s.module_map = "Module.modulemap"
s.source_files = "Module/*.{h,swift}", "ModuleDep/*.h"
s.vendored_libraries = "ModuleDep/*.a"
s.swift_version = "5.1"
end
From my understanding, vendored_libraries is used when this is the artifact you are providing to your users and that is why I don't like this solution.
I've also tried this spec variant:
Pod::Spec.new do |s|
s.platform = :ios
s.ios.deployment_target = '12.0'
s.module_map = "Module.modulemap"
s.source_files = "Module/*.{h,swift}", "ModuleDep/*.h", "ModuleDep/*.a"
s.swift_version = "5.1"
end
but it doesn't compile.
So what is the correct way to do this? Or what have I done wrong?

Answer 1

Since you are using a static library as a dependency then you must specify it as a library in your podspec file. Which is why your second approach is not working because it's a library not a source file.
As mentioned in the docs vendored_libraries are for libraries that come shipped with the Pod. Also in your case that C based static library is a dependency which must be shipped with the Pod. Thus using vendored_libraries should be ok in your case.