iOS Rules for Bazel

⚠️ This is alpha software. We are developing these rules in the open so you should only use them if you know what you are doing and are willing to help develop them.

These rules provide some macros and rules that make it easier to build iOS application with Bazel. The heavy lifting of compiling, and packaging is still done by the existing objc_library rule in Bazel, and by the swift_library rule available from rules_swift.

The goal of rules_ios has always been to allow seamlessly transitioning a set of targets from being built in Xcode to being built in bazel, with minimal-to-no code changes. In that vein, it acts as glue between the underlying rules (rules_apple and rules_swift and the native objc rules), applying defaults that mirror what Xcode does. Additionally, rules_ios comes built-in with extension points that act as a quasi-toolchain, allowing users to customize things such as generated modulemaps.

Bazel version required by current rules is here

Xcode 12 and above supported, to find the last SHA with support for older versions see the list of git tags.

Reference documentation

Click here for the documentation.

Quick setup

Add the following lines to your WORKSPACE file. Note that since rules_swift and rules_apple no longer create releases, the versions are hardcoded to commit sha's that are known to work. You can see the particular commit sha's in repositories.bzl.

load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:git.bzl", "git_repository")

git_repository(
    name = "build_bazel_rules_ios",
    remote = "https://github.com/bazel-ios/rules_ios.git",
    branch = "master",
)

load(
    "@build_bazel_rules_ios//rules:repositories.bzl",
    "rules_ios_dependencies"
)

rules_ios_dependencies()

load(
    "@build_bazel_rules_apple//apple:repositories.bzl",
    "apple_rules_dependencies",
)

apple_rules_dependencies()

load(
    "@build_bazel_rules_swift//swift:repositories.bzl",
    "swift_rules_dependencies",
)

swift_rules_dependencies()

load(
    "@build_bazel_apple_support//lib:repositories.bzl",
    "apple_support_dependencies",
)

apple_support_dependencies()

load(
    "@com_google_protobuf//:protobuf_deps.bzl",
    "protobuf_deps",
)

protobuf_deps()

Examples

Minimal example:

load("@build_bazel_rules_ios//rules:app.bzl", "ios_application")

ios_application(
    name = "iOS-App",
    srcs = glob(["*.m"]),
    bundle_id = "com.example.ios-app",
    entitlements = "ios.entitlements",
    families = [
        "iphone",
        "ipad",
    ],
    launch_storyboard = "LaunchScreen.storyboard",
    minimum_os_version = "12.0",
    visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
)

See the tests directory for sample applications.

Special notes about debugging xcode projects

Debugging does not work in sandbox mode, due to issue #108. The workaround for now is to disable sandboxing in the .bazelrc file.