Feature Request: Support `rules_ios` static framework bundling

[luispadron]

Summary

Currently rules_ios support is limited. There are some assumptions both rules_xcodeproj and rules_ios make.

At the moment I'm attempting to generate a project with a single static framework target. This currently fails due to the way rules_ios builds the AppleBundleInfo provider: see here.

From the brief look I've had it looks like rules_ios needs to provide:

• [ ] executable_name: https://github.com/bazel-ios/rules_ios/pull/513
• [ ] minimum_deployment_os_version: https://github.com/bazel-ios/rules_ios/pull/514
• [ ] archive
• [ ] archive_root

I'm opening a feature request in this repository in case we don't need to require these fields for project generation which would make it easier to support other rules. If we do require the fields, we can work to add them to rules_ios and close this request once we have supported static frameworks from rules_ios.

I'll work on creating a reproducible example (without proprietary code) and follow up in this issue.

[luispadron]

After fixing executable_name a new errors surfaces:

ERROR: /Users/lpadron/Development/cash-ios-bazel/Pods/StringTemplate/BUILD.bazel:11:15: in @com_github_buildbuddy_io_rules_xcodeproj//xcodeproj/internal:default_automatic_target_processing_aspect.bzl%default_automatic_target_processing_aspect,@com_github_buildbuddy_io_rules_xcodeproj//xcodeproj/internal:xcodeproj_aspect.bzl%xcodeproj_aspect aspect on apple_framework_packaging rule //Pods/StringTemplate:StringTemplate: 
Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "/private/var/tmp/_bazel_lpadron/fb0c661113a61963d843063c755533c2/external/com_github_buildbuddy_io_rules_xcodeproj/xcodeproj/internal/xcodeproj_aspect.bzl", line 48, column 33, in _xcodeproj_aspect_impl
                create_xcodeprojinfo(
        File "/private/var/tmp/_bazel_lpadron/fb0c661113a61963d843063c755533c2/external/com_github_buildbuddy_io_rules_xcodeproj/xcodeproj/internal/xcodeprojinfo.bzl", line 365, column 44, in create_xcodeprojinfo
                info_fields = _create_xcodeprojinfo(
        File "/private/var/tmp/_bazel_lpadron/fb0c661113a61963d843063c755533c2/external/com_github_buildbuddy_io_rules_xcodeproj/xcodeproj/internal/xcodeprojinfo.bzl", line 237, column 52, in _create_xcodeprojinfo
                processed_target = process_top_level_target(
        File "/private/var/tmp/_bazel_lpadron/fb0c661113a61963d843063c755533c2/external/com_github_buildbuddy_io_rules_xcodeproj/xcodeproj/internal/top_level_targets.bzl", line 266, column 41, in process_top_level_target
                props = process_top_level_properties(
        File "/private/var/tmp/_bazel_lpadron/fb0c661113a61963d843063c755533c2/external/com_github_buildbuddy_io_rules_xcodeproj/xcodeproj/internal/top_level_targets.bzl", line 90, column 49, in process_top_level_properties
                minimum_deployment_version = bundle_info.minimum_deployment_os_version
Error: 'AppleBundleInfo' value has no field or method 'minimum_deployment_os_version'
Available attributes: archive, archive_root, binary, bundle_extension, bundle_id, bundle_name, entitlements, executable_name, infoplist, minimum_os_version, platform_type, product_type, uses_swift

Adding this field as another required property to the list above.

[brentleyjones]

We can for sure not require executable_name (as long as the executable name matches the bundle name). I'm not sure we can work without archive/archive_root.

I think we can work around minimum_deployment_os_version missing, by defaulting to minimum_os_version.

[luispadron]

Those defaults make sense, I think though rules_ios should probably provide these if it's as trivial as the PRs I've put up for executable_name and minimum_deployment_os_version.

I might need some help understanding archive and archive_root however 😅

[brentleyjones]

archive is the File.path to the framework. At least for rules_apple, when --define=apple.experimental.tree_artifact_outputs=1 it's the .framework, otherwise it's a .zip containing it (if it's always one or the other for rules_ios we can adjust our check).

We use archive_root to create a fake path when --define=apple.experimental.tree_artifact_outputs=0:

The file system path (relative to the workspace root) where the signed bundle was constructed (before archiving). Other rules should not depend on this field; it is intended to support IDEs that want to read that path from the provider to avoid unzipping the output archive.

[luispadron]

Thanks for the context, thats super helpful!

I'm noticing this field is provided in rules_ios when bundling dynamic frameworks (see here) but not for static frameworks.

I tried to quickly copy the dynamic framework logic but then I get stuff like:

ERROR: /Users/lpadron/Development/cash-ios-bazel/Pods/SwiftGen/BUILD.bazel:11:15: in apple_framework_packaging rule //Pods/SwiftGen:SwiftGen: 
/private/var/tmp/_bazel_lpadron/fb0c661113a61963d843063c755533c2/external/build_bazel_rules_ios/rules/framework.bzl:836:5: The following files have no generating action:
Pods/SwiftGen/SwiftGen.framework.zip
Pods/SwiftGen/SwiftGenframework

[luispadron]

In my case I've got define=apple.experimental.tree_artifact_outputs=1 but we should support the other case as well in theory

[brentleyjones]

#781 resolved the need for executable_name to be set. #1206 resolved the need for archive/archive_root to be set.

The only remaining issue is handling the VFS overlay. I'm thinking about how to tackle that. BwX support is currently getting in the way.

Looking like a duplicate of #715.

[brentleyjones]

I believe this is now addressed in main, at least for BwB mode (we have a error at generation in BwX mode for VFS overlays, since we can't support them). Let me know if that's not the case!