XCodeBuild is not picking a configuration from my workspace - ios

Question

This is my build command
xcodebuild -workspace MyApp.xcworkspace \
-scheme MySchemeName \
-configuration AdHoc \
clean archive
It works but its uses the default configuration for the archive scheme (which is release) instead of AdHoc which I specified. In fact if you specify -scheme ASchemeNameThatDosnNotExist it still works and silently ignores the configuration name.
The project is setup like this:
xcodebuild -list
Targets:
MyApp
MyAppTests
Build Configurations:
Debug
AdHoc
Release
If no build configuration is specified and -scheme is not passed then "Release" is used.
This project contains no schemes.
And the workspace like this:
xcodebuild -workspace MyApp.xcworkspace -list
Schemes:
MyApp
Pods
Pods-AFNetworking
.. More pods
I.e. There are no targets and no configurations in the workspace.
How do I make a target visible to the workspace? Or is there another way?

Answer 1

It's impossible to configure target for workspace. You can create a scheme based on a particular target and then build a project passing scheme name. Setting configuration via '-configuration' switch works fine for me. I use xcode v. 5.0.2.
In general a configuration is set via action. You can create multiple schemes for archiving (with different configurations) and there's no need to pass configuration at all. Default configuration will be taken.

Answer 2

Thank you #Opal for your answer. I was initially mislead by your statement that '-configuration' was working. In fact, this does not work, and the specified configuration is silently ignored when performing an xcodebuild via the workspace:
xcodebuild -workspace $WORKSPACE.xcworkspace \
-scheme $SCHEME \
-configuration QA \
clean archive -archivePath archives/$APP_NAME
xcodebuild -exportArchive \
-archivePath archives/$APP_NAME.xcarchive \
-exportPath . \
-exportOptionsPlist $WORKSPACE/ExportOptions.plist
mv $APP_NAME.ipa $APP_NAME.$VERSION.$BUILD_NUMBER.ipa
However, after creating a custom shared scheme for that configuration, "myapp-QA", the build completes correctly:
xcodebuild -workspace $WORKSPACE.xcworkspace \
-scheme $SCHEME-QA \
clean archive -archivePath archives/$APP_NAME-QA
xcodebuild -exportArchive \
-archivePath archives/$APP_NAME-QA.xcarchive \
-exportPath . \
-exportOptionsPlist $WORKSPACE/ExportOptions.plist
mv $APP_NAME-QA.ipa $APP_NAME.$VERSION.$BUILD_NUMBER.qa.ipa

Answer 3

There is an issue with using configuration & scheme arguments. A scheme has its own configuration and most probably it overrides configuration specified via xcodebuild -configuration.
You can solve it by using configuration & target:
xcodebuild -project <project>.xcodeproj \
-configuration <configuration> \
-target <target> \
-sdk iphonesimulator \
clean build