Issues Using GIT with Xcode projects

Question

I know git and use it to manage a lot of my Repos on other projects. However I run into issues when it comes to xcode projects.

I start a project on Machine 'A' - when I push up to a repo and pull to let say machine 'B' I always receive compiling errors. Normally the errors have to do with files not being found. Literally "no such file or directory" followed by a path.

I'm working with the same version of Xcode on both mac's A and B. I also use the threetwenty framework.

When I zip the project up and send via email - the same results occur.

Many times these files that xcode can't find and that fail the build, are media files, like a image or video. Sometimes I see the three20 framework too.

My question is - how in xcode should I set a project up to play nice with git and or code sharing in general. Let me know if you need more information, I know the above is a little vague.

Answer 1

The first thing I always do is set up the .gitignore file before adding any other files from the project. Problems can occur when loading project settings for two different machines that may have the same User account name. You have to make sure some settings aren't added to the repo whilst others are.

I set up my .gitignore by adding the following:

.DS_Store
*/.DS_Store
*.swp
*~.nib

build/

*.pbxuser
*.perspective
*.perspectivev3

*.mode1v3
*.mode2v3

Documentation/Generated
doxygenWarnings.txt
*.xcodeproj/xcuserdata/*.xcuserdatad
*.xcodeproj/project.xcworkspace/xcuserdata/*.xcuserdatad
*/*.xcodeproj/xcuserdata/*.xcuserdatad
*/*.xcodeproj/project.xcworkspace/xcuserdata/*.xcuserdatad

If you create the repos from scratch or run git rm --cached <filethatshouldbeignore> to each file that should be ignored and then commit, see if the problem still occurs.

Problems will occur in the .pbxproj file, so make sure all conflicts are corrected too.

Regarding files that cannot be found, remember to import the libraries etc. into the project folders and reference them from there. Apple's own iOS libraries should be fine, but others won't be. For example, in your project folder, copy your images from there and reference them only within the project folder.