BazelPods +

One more way to build CocoaPods with Bazel. It generates Bazel's BUILD files for pods using awesome rules_ios.
Core idea, Podspec parser, Starlark compiler are forked from PodToBUILD

⚙️ Status and features

	iOS	macOS	watchOS	tvOS
static library	✅	✅	❓	❓
dynamic (`use_framework!`)	✅	🔜	❓	❓
vendored static libs	✅	❓	❓	❓
vendored frameworks	✅	❓	❓	❓
vendored xcframeworks	✅	❓	❓	❓
bundles and resources	✅	❓	❓	❓
rules_xcodeproj	✅	❓	❓	❓
tests specs	Beta	❓	❓	❓
app specs	Beta	❓	❓	❓

✅ - full support (report issues if no), 🔜 - not yet supported, ❓ - unknown, ❌ - not supported

Autodetect vendored frameworks and libs architectures and ignore unsupported
Local pods with custom paths, private pods (resolved by CocoaPods)
Test and app specs 🚀

🎸 Let's rock

Don't forget to setup rules_ios and rules_apple first.

Add BazelPods to your MODULE.bazel

bazel_dep(name = "bazelpods", version = "<version>")

Add BazelPods to your WORKSPACE

http_archive(
    name = "bazelpods",
    sha256 = "<sha256>",
    url = "https://github.com/sergeykhliustin/BazelPods/releases/download/<version>/release.tar.gz"
)

load("@bazelpods//:repositories.bzl", "bazelpods_dependencies")

bazelpods_dependencies()

Add post_install action to your Podfile and run pod install

post_install do |installer|
  puts "Generating Pods.json"
  development_pods = installer.sandbox.development_pods
  mapped_pods = installer.analysis_result.specifications.reduce({}) { |result, spec|
    result[spec.name] = {
      name: spec.name,
      podspec: "#{spec.defined_in_file.to_s}",
      development_path: development_pods[spec.name]
    }
    result
  }
  File.open('Pods/Pods.json', 'w') { |file|
    file.write(JSON.pretty_generate(mapped_pods))
  }
end

Run BazelPods

bazel run @bazelpods//:bazelpods -- --src $PWD

See full list of command line options below

Now you can add first level dependencies to your app as //Pods/<pod_name>
Note: if you have multiplatform setup (--platform with more than 1 option), use //Pods/<pod_name>:<pod_name>_<platform>
Enjoy :)

Patches

You can specify patches to use in order you want. Also you can use same patch several times.

bundle_deduplicate checks if final bundle will contain bundles with same name and avoids them.
For example, GoogleMaps contains GoogleMaps.bundle in resources and vendored GoogleMaps.xcframework also contains same bundle.
arm64_to_sim patches legacy frameworks and libraries to support arm64 simulator. Read more arm64-to-sim. By default will run only on arm64 host machine. Use arm64_to_sim_forced to override.
user_options applies options from --user-options. If not specified but --user-options not empty will be applied in the end.
missing_sdks scans all sources for import, @import and #import to find missing sdk frameworks and adds them to final configuration.

⌨️ Command line options

Generate

OVERVIEW: Generates BUILD files for pods

USAGE: bazelpods generate [<options>] --src <src>

OPTIONS:
  --src <src>             Sources root where Pods directory located (or renamed by podsRoot)
  --platforms <platforms> Space separated platforms.
                          Valid values are: ios, osx, tvos, watchos. (default: ios)
  --min-ios <min-ios>     Minimum iOS version (default: 13.0)
  --patches <patches>     Patches. It will be applied in the order listed here.
                          Available options: bundle_deduplicate, arm64_to_sim, arm64_to_sim_forced, missing_sdks, user_options.
                          user_options requires --user-options configured.
                          If 'user_options' not specified, but --user_options exist, user_options patch are applied automatically. (values: bundle_deduplicate, arm64_to_sim, arm64_to_sim_forced, missing_sdks, user_options)
  --user-options <user-options>
                          User extra options.
                          Supported fields: 'sdk_frameworks', 'sdk_dylibs', 'weak_sdk_frameworks', 'vendored_libraries', 'vendored_frameworks', 'vendored_xcframeworks', 'testonly', 'link_dynamic', 'data', 'objc_defines', 'runner', 'test_host', 'timeout',
                          'objc_copts', 'swift_copts', 'cc_copts', 'linkopts'.
                          Supported operators: '+=' (append), '-=' (delete), ':=' (replace).
                          Example:
                          'SomePod.sdk_dylibs += something,something'
                          'SomePod.testonly := true'
                          Platform specific:
                          'SomePod.platform_ios.sdk_dylibs += something,something'
                          For test specs:
                          'SomePod/UnitTests.runner := //:SomeTestsRunner'
                          'SomePod/UnitTests.test_host := //:SomeTestHostApp'
                          'SomePod/UnitTests.timeout := eternal'
  --deps-prefix <deps-prefix>
                          Dependencies prefix (default: //Pods)
  --pods-root <pods-root> Pods root relative to workspace. Used for headers search paths (default: Pods)
  -f, --frameworks        Packaging pods in dynamic frameworks if possible (same as `use_frameworks!`)
  --no-concurrency        Disable concurrency.
  --log-level <log-level> Log level (debug|info|warning|error|none) (values: debug, info, warning, error, none; default: info)
  --use-bundler           Option to use `bundle exec` for `pod` calls
  --tests-timeout <tests-timeout>
                          (Optional) Default timeout for test targets (short|moderate|long|eternal) (values: short, moderate, long, eternal)
  --pods-json <pods-json> Pods.json (default: Pods/Pods.json)
  --print-output          Print BUILD files contents to terminal output
  --dry-run               Dry run. Files will not be written
  -d, --diff              Print diff between previous and new generated BUILD files
  -a, --add-podspec       Will add podspec.json to the pod directory. Just for debugging purposes.
  --color <color>         Logs color (auto|yes|no) (default: auto)
  -h, --help              Show help information.

Compile

OVERVIEW: Compiles podspec.json to BUILD file

USAGE: bazelpods compile [<options>] --src <src> --podspec <podspec>

OPTIONS:
  --src <src>             Sources root where Pods directory located (or renamed by podsRoot)
  --platforms <platforms> Space separated platforms.
                          Valid values are: ios, osx, tvos, watchos. (default: ios)
  --min-ios <min-ios>     Minimum iOS version (default: 13.0)
  --patches <patches>     Patches. It will be applied in the order listed here.
                          Available options: bundle_deduplicate, arm64_to_sim, arm64_to_sim_forced, missing_sdks, user_options.
                          user_options requires --user-options configured.
                          If 'user_options' not specified, but --user_options exist, user_options patch are applied automatically. (values: bundle_deduplicate, arm64_to_sim, arm64_to_sim_forced, missing_sdks, user_options)
  --user-options <user-options>
                          User extra options.
                          Supported fields: 'sdk_frameworks', 'sdk_dylibs', 'weak_sdk_frameworks', 'vendored_libraries', 'vendored_frameworks', 'vendored_xcframeworks', 'testonly', 'link_dynamic', 'data', 'objc_defines', 'runner', 'test_host', 'timeout',
                          'objc_copts', 'swift_copts', 'cc_copts', 'linkopts'.
                          Supported operators: '+=' (append), '-=' (delete), ':=' (replace).
                          Example:
                          'SomePod.sdk_dylibs += something,something'
                          'SomePod.testonly := true'
                          Platform specific:
                          'SomePod.platform_ios.sdk_dylibs += something,something'
                          For test specs:
                          'SomePod/UnitTests.runner := //:SomeTestsRunner'
                          'SomePod/UnitTests.test_host := //:SomeTestHostApp'
                          'SomePod/UnitTests.timeout := eternal'
  --deps-prefix <deps-prefix>
                          Dependencies prefix (default: //Pods)
  --pods-root <pods-root> Pods root relative to workspace. Used for headers search paths (default: Pods)
  -f, --frameworks        Packaging pods in dynamic frameworks if possible (same as `use_frameworks!`)
  --no-concurrency        Disable concurrency.
  --log-level <log-level> Log level (debug|info|warning|error|none) (values: debug, info, warning, error, none; default: info)
  --use-bundler           Option to use `bundle exec` for `pod` calls
  --tests-timeout <tests-timeout>
                          (Optional) Default timeout for test targets (short|moderate|long|eternal) (values: short, moderate, long, eternal)
  --podspec <podspec>     podspec.json
  --subspecs <subspecs>   Subspecs list
  -h, --help              Show help information.

arm64sim. Parses all pods same way like generate and replaces frameworks and libraries with patched if required.

OVERVIEW: Converts existing frameworks and static libs to arm64 simulator

USAGE: bazelpods arm64sim [<options>] --src <src>

OPTIONS:
  --src <src>             Sources root where Pods directory located (or renamed by podsRoot)
  --platforms <platforms> Space separated platforms.
                          Valid values are: ios, osx, tvos, watchos. (default: ios)
  --min-ios <min-ios>     Minimum iOS version (default: 13.0)
  --patches <patches>     Patches. It will be applied in the order listed here.
                          Available options: bundle_deduplicate, arm64_to_sim, arm64_to_sim_forced, missing_sdks, user_options.
                          user_options requires --user-options configured.
                          If 'user_options' not specified, but --user_options exist, user_options patch are applied automatically.
  --user-options <user-options>
                          User extra options.
                          Supported fields: 'sdk_frameworks', 'sdk_dylibs', 'weak_sdk_frameworks', 'vendored_libraries', 'vendored_frameworks', 'vendored_xcframeworks', 'testonly', 'link_dynamic'.
                          Supported operators: '+=' (append), '-=' (delete), ':=' (replace).
                          Example:
                          'SomePod.sdk_dylibs += something,something'
                          'SomePod.testonly := true'
                          Platform specific:
                          'SomePod.platform_ios.sdk_dylibs += something,something'
  --deps-prefix <deps-prefix>
                          Dependencies prefix (default: //Pods)
  --pods-root <pods-root> Pods root relative to workspace. Used for headers search paths (default: Pods)
  -f, --frameworks        Packaging pods in dynamic frameworks if possible (same as `use_frameworks!`)
  --no-concurrency        Disable concurrency.
  --log-level <log-level> Log level (debug|info|warning|error|none) (default: info)
  --pods-json <pods-json> Pods.json (default: Pods/Pods.json)
  --subspecs <subspecs>   Subspecs list
  --force                 By default it will run only on arm64 host. Use this option to override.
  -h, --help              Show help information.

🤔 History and motivation

There are two existing wonderful alternatives to this project: cocoapods-bazel and PodToBUILD.

cocoapods-bazel generates BUILD files based on targets from Pods.xcodeproj.
As a result of this, we will have some aggregated targets needed for Xcode but redundant for Bazel.
These targets cause issues with resources and module name resolving.
For example, currently, it's not working out of the box for a custom Firebase setup.

PodToBUILD's main idea is to generate BUILD files directly from .podspec info and it's great!
Unfortunately, out of the box, it cannot resolve the whole dependency tree with private pods as Cocoapods do.
We can solve it by letting Cocoapods do its work and vendorise pods after. (something like this)
Another problem is "mixed code" (Swift + Objective-C). It's still in development, so you cannot resolve it with reasonable effort.
Meanwhile, rules_ios already supports it.

BazelPods uses best of all worlds.
Let Cocoapods download, resolve and setup everything for us. After that, BazelPods will generate BUILD files from .podspecs with only needed subspecs with rules from rules_ios. Written in Swift, so it will do it really fast.

Contributing and issues

make xcodeproj Just contribute and report your issues