dlopen() dynamic library for iOS Simulator, in macOS application - ios

I have a "fat" framework built for iOS, which is being used in a debugging tool built for macOS. Previously I was linking this framework statically, which worked, even though XCode complains about it being built for the simulator (since the architecture is the same). But now, newer versions of the library are dynamic, so that route doesn't work, as the tool is a command line application, which doesn't support embedding frameworks.
I could turn it into an application bundle, it seems, in order to solve that, but I'm not sure what this entails (creating a new project?). I can certainly figure it out but ..
In the meantime, I thought I'd load the library dynamically using dlopen() etc and retrieve the classes/methods I need (I already have some code for this which at least compiles). However, that call fails with the following message:
no suitable image found. Did find:
/<path to library file>: mach-o, but built for simulator (not macOS)
Since linking statically is only a warning and actually works, is there a way to make dlopen work as well?
Recompiling the framework itself is not an option for me in this situation.

Are you considering editing the binary of the dylib framework? If so in the Macho-O header you could try changing LC_VERSION_MIN_IPHONEOS to LC_VERSION_MIN_MACOSX.Probably it won't be enough,but it's a simple change for a quick test. Here's a screenshot comparison of those load commands in MachOView
Also covered the other way round here

Related

Is there a way to fix an xcframework so it works on M1 and Intel simulators?

Edit: Selecting Xcode in Finder, getting info, and ticking the box for Open using Rosetta makes things work, but surely there is a better way…
I have an iOS project with a static framework containing three variants in it; ios-armv7_armv7s_arm64, ios-i386_x86_64-simulator, and ios-x86_64-maccatalyst. I do not have any access to the source code for this framework and asking for a new build of the framework is not a practical option. As a result I need to work with the xcframework that I have in hand.
The framework works just fine on my colleagues machines as they are using Intel based Macs. As a new addition to the team I have been given an M1 machine. While I can build to a physical device, building to the simulator fails with missing symbols. This makes complete sense given that the simulator variant doesn't have arm64 in it.
Simply adding a new definition to the info.plist to cover the M1 chip doesn't work as that means there are two simulator definitions. (There are also other issues with this route)
If I duplicate the ios-armv7_armv7s_arm64 folder, add -simulator to the copies name, and replace the existing definition for the simulator framework with info from the ios-armv7_armv7s_arm64 definition I get an error about building for the simulator but linking in a file built for iOS. This means that no matter what I can't simply copy the existing M1 framework to get things going.
The only things I can think of both involve the need to somehow edit the M1 copy of the compiled framework so that it will work on the simulator, and I rather doubt there is a way to do that. If it is possible to do though I would then need to either come up with some nested framework trick that allowed me to have two definitions for the simulator but for two different architectures; or I would need to write a script that used uname -m to decide how to edit the framework's info.plist file (This feels very hacky, but would be the simplest way of making the project 'just work' on both Intel and M1 machines without the need to make manual adjustments and remember not to commit them.
Anyone have any brilliant ideas on how to get this framework working in the simulator without having a new copy built? (I haven't even found a clear method for how it would need to be built to work on both architectures.)
Xcode: 13.3.1

Lexical or preprocessor issue in react native while building ios app <React/RCTUtils.h> not found

When I am trying to build my ios app in xcode, the build is failing due to lexical or preprocessor issue the error shows up like this
This was a problem specific to the react-native-device-info module.
For your specific case you may try v1.6.1 or higher (currently at 2.0 as of May 21, 2019) of the library and that should fix things for you.
For others interested more generally in the problem, this is a react-native library that uses native code, so it has an XCode project embedded within it for use in react-native after you run react-native link react-native-device-info. Unfortunately, the library was not including any directories in it's header search path, so it was of course unable to find the header files for the react-native objects it was using locally.
A library user proposed a change that fixed that problem for tvOS, and I extended the change to cover iOS as well, and now the library no longer generates errors like this for iOS or tvOS targets.
Perhaps someone with a similar issue may find the specific changes required for the fix useful in their projects

BitCode and unexported_symbols_list cannot be used together?

For an iOS Framework, I'd like to be able to hide the symbols inside of it, in order to prevent collisions when the framework, and the application that uses the framework, include different versions of the same 3rd party library.
Until now this has been possible by specifying -unexported_symbols_list in the options.
However, in Xcode 7 Beta 5, the following error message...
-unexported_symbols_list and -bitcode_bundle (Xcode
setting ENABLE_BITCODE=YES) cannot be used together
...occurs when trying to compile the BitCode version of the framework.
So, I have three (3) questions:
1) Is there a straightforward way to hide your symbols when compiling BitCode?
2) If not, is there anything else that can be done to keep the Framework's 3rd-party libraries from colliding with the Application's 3rd-party libraries when they are the same lib, but different versions?
3) Why can't -unexported_symbols_list and -bitcode_bundle be used together?
Partial answer (since I am also looking for the complete answer)
When using -exported_symbols_list or -unexported_symbols_list in the options, the various functions symbols are turned into local symbols.
For some reason, the linker is unable use bitcode option with local symbols.
Hence the two cannot be used together.
Also note, strip keyword which is used for symbol hiding can hide global symbols but the library has to be dynamic.
This is an option I haven't explored completely yet. If a dynamic library works for you, then you should explore it.
If this helps someone get a different perspective as to how to resolve this issue, that would be awesome.

Is it bad to enable Dead Code Stripping?

My iOS project uses dlsym to dynamically point to an optional C library. Optional as-in the project can run with our without it, it just adds features.
For background info: Detect and use optional external C library at runtime in Objective-C
The problem is, XCode cleans up libraries that are "not used". Using dlsym means there are no direct references to my 3rd party library and XCode removes it.
I thought I found a solution, in "Other Linker Flags" I added
-force_load "$(SRCROOT)/my_external.a" which worked great in the simulator. (-all_load works fine too but seemed overkill to me).
The problem is when I moved to a real device, this workaround failed and the library is not loaded (same thing with -all_load).
The only thing that worked was to disable in XCode the feature called Dead Code Stripping.
Question is: is it really bad to disable or recommend my customers to disable this feature? If so, is there a better alternative?

NEON assembly fail to build for iOS in Xcode 4.3.2

I have a code base which compiles fine in all other NEON compilers, ndk-build, RVDS, etc, but under Xcode I get the error "bad instruction" for every NEON instruction I call. It basically seems like NEON is not detected.
I am attempting to build a static library, I went to New Project, selected Cocoa Touch Static Library, then added my existing files.
Everything I'm reading indicates that NEON should be already enabled. I removed all references to armv6, and am targeting iOS 5.1
Also the code in question is all contained as routines defined in ".s" files -- pure assembly. I am not using the intrinsics method calls.
It seems like the compiler is barfing on the whole file...
Unknown pseudo-op: .cpu
It lists all of the other settings, like .fpu, etc
Here are my current settings:
(source: wasteonline.net)
(source: wasteonline.net)
(source: wasteonline.net)
After the as tool I mentioned in my last answer turned out to be choking on my syntax as well, I realized there must be something else going on.
I followed the guidelines on the bottom of this post http://www.shervinemami.info/armAssembly.html#template
The changes I needed to make were:
converted my instructions to all lower case
use the naming directives to be compatible with mach-o (solved linker problems)
Try to use GCC4.2. I solved a very similar problem switching to the old, good GCC.
In Build Settings -> Compiler for C/C++/Objective-C, select GCC
Actually, if you check the LLVM ARM status page, you'll see that it cannot yet parse .S files.

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