xcode-defaults
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Awesome and useful Xcode defaults
Xcode defaults
Backup Xcode defaults
defaults read com.apple.dt.Xcode > ~/Desktop/XcodeDefaults.plist
Restore Xcode vanilla defaults
If you delete/move the current plist, Xcode will write a fresh one next time you run it.
killall Xcode
mv ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dt.Xcode.plist ~/Desktop/XcodeDefaults.plist
open -b com.apple.dt.Xcode
New Swift build system mode
With Xcode 13.3 the build system and Swift compiler have a new mode that better utilizes available cores, resulting in faster builds for Swift projects. The mode is opt-in, and you can enable globally with the following user default:
defaults write com.apple.dt.XCBuild EnableSwiftBuildSystemIntegration 1
Source @BenchR
Enable project build time
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode ShowBuildOperationDuration -bool YES
Enable parallel builds for Swift
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode BuildSystemScheduleInherentlyParallelCommandsExclusively -bool YES
Disable parallel builds for Swift
Xcode 9.3 now runs more Swift build tasks in parallel with other commands. This may improve build times for Swift projects, but may also increase memory use during the build. This feature can be disabled from Terminal by setting a user default with
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode BuildSystemScheduleInherentlyParallelCommandsSerially -bool YES
Enable multi-cursor editing
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode PegasusMultipleCursorsEnabled -bool YES
Set maximum number of concurrent compile tasks
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEBuildOperationMaxNumberOfConcurrentCompileTasks `sysctl -n hw.ncpu`
Where sysctl -n hw.ncpu
gives you the number of CPU threads.
Set maximum number of parallel build subtasks
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode PBXNumberOfParallelBuildSubtasks `sysctl -n hw.ncpu`
Where sysctl -n hw.ncpu
gives you the number of CPU threads.
Enable/Disable indexing
Keep in mind that disabling indexing will disable refactor
code action so you probably won't be able to generate protocol conformances or memberwise initializers
Enable indexing
defaults delete com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEIndexDisable
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEIndexEnable -bool YES
Disable indexing
defaults delete com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEIndexEnable
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEIndexDisable -bool YES
Show Indexing numeric progress
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEIndexerActivityShowNumericProgress -bool YES
Show Indexing logging
This will show you why a particular file is having trouble being compiled for indexing.
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEIndexShowLog -bool YES
Show prebuild step logs
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEShowPrebuildLogs -bool YES
Set SourceKit log level
If set to SourceKit will write a log to /tmp with all the details of what it is doing while indexing. A lot of people find they have header hygiene problems or module problems that happen to work while building in certain configurations but aren't actually correct, resulting in missing modules or broken headers from the indexer's point of view. May not work anymore.
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDESourceKitServiceLogLevel -int 3
Also you can do this temporarily by pre-pending this environment variable when starting Xcode:
SOURCEKIT_LOGGING=3 /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/MacOS/Xcode
Source AppCode under the hood - Aydar Mukhametzyanov - NSSpain 2021
Disable Main Thread Checker
Deactivates the Main Thread Checker. Found in Xcode 12 release notes
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode DVTDisableMainThreadChecker 1
Enable internal Xcode (debug) menu
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode ShowDVTDebugMenu -bool YES
Disable automatic reopening of last project
Prevents Xcode from automatically restoring the last open project. This enables running multiple Xcode versions for different projects.
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode ApplePersistenceIgnoreState -bool YES
Some minimal additional logging
defaults write com.apple.dt.XCBuild EnableDebugActivityLogs -bool YES
Enable build debugging mode
This slows down the build system & litters DerivedData/
defaults write com.apple.dt.XCBuild EnableBuildDebugging -bool YES
Make Assistant aware of more companion files
Make Xcode's Assistant aware of your ViewModels, Views, etc. Found by @peterfriese
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEAdditionalCounterpartSuffixes -array-add "ViewModel" "View" "Screen"
Disable move files on restructure
Do not move files when you restructure things in an Xcode project. Found by @steinpete
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEDisableStructureEditingCoordinator -bool YES
Disable state restoration
Stop Xcode from reopening files on launch. Found by @SmileyKeith
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEDisableStateRestoration -bool YES
Homebrew prefix path
Homebrew's default prefix/install path can point to different locations depending on your system.
Xcode by default only looks for /opt/brew
and /usr/local
.
You can adjust that location by writing the following default.
To get your Homebrew prefix call brew --prefix
.
Source @NeoNacho
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEHomebrewPrefixPath -string <BREW_PREFIX>
Swift package remote source path
Specify the directory to which remote source packages are fetch or expected to be found.
xcodebuild
has the same option as clonedSourcePackagesDirPath
.
Source @bguidolim
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEClonedSourcePackagesDirPathOverride -string <PATH>
📱 Simulator
Enable Simulator fullscreen mode
defaults write com.apple.iphonesimulator AllowFullscreenMode -bool YES
🏗️ XCBuild
Enable Build Debugging
Creates an XCBuildData folder in ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/<your target>/Build/Intermediates.noindex/
which contains debugging info for xcodebuild.
defaults write com.apple.dt.XCBuild -bool YES
🗑️ Xcode Cleanups
Remove all Xcode DerivedData
... provided Xcode is set to default folder locations. This is a quick win and helps to get back gigabytes of storage space. Do this regularly.
rm -rdf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/*
Remove all Xcode DeveloperTools cache files
... provided Xcode is set to default folder locations.
CACHE=$(getconf DARWIN_USER_CACHE_DIR)
rm -rdf ${CACHE}com.apple.DeveloperTools
rm -rdf ${CACHE}org.llvm.clang.$(whoami)/ModuleCache
rm -rdf ${CACHE}org.llvm.clang/ModuleCache
rm -rdf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.dt.*/*
Remove all Xcode / Swift temporary files.
TMP=$(getconf DARWIN_USER_TEMP_DIR)
rm -rdf ${TMP}*.swift
rm -rdf ${TMP}ibtool*
rm -rdf ${TMP}*IBTOOLD*
rm -rdf ${TMP}supplementaryOutputs-*
rm -rdf ${TMP}xcrun_db
rm -rdf ${TMP}sources-*
rm -rdf ${TMP}com.apple.dt.*
rm -rdf ${TMP}com.apple.test.*
🧰 Tools
- DevCleaner If you want to reclaim tens of gigabytes of your storage used for various Xcode caches - this tool is for you!
- Kintsugi A tool to automatically resolve Git conflicts that occur in Xcode project files
- BuildTimeAnalyzer A build time analyzer for Xcode
- XCLogParser A tool to parse Xcode and xcodebuild logs stored in the xcactivitylog format
- XCMetrics A tool to collect Xcode build metrics and improve developer productivity