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[Share] Swift. Static and Dynamic Libraries. Frameworks
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Jan 15, 2024
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swift-static-and-dynamic-libraries-frameworks
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Public
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#ios
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In this article, I tried to visualize the process of compiling, linking, and simply working with libraries and frameworks. I hope this work will be a good extension of materials you can find all over the Internet and in the Apple documentation
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Post
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š± Mobile
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Feb 18, 2024 08:59 AM
Static libraries are fully embedded into the result executable binary
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Dynamic ones behave differently. The result executable binary has just references to the functions of that libraries. And the code of the functions is loaded at runtime
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Letās take a look at what Xcode and iPhone do under the hood:
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And now letās see what frameworks are:
To summarize everything above, letās say that inĀ iOS/macOS development, there are two types of modules:
- library, and its synonyms like a static library, static framework
- framework, and its synonyms like a dynamic framework
Telling aboutĀ librariesĀ or static frameworks, people assumeĀ staticĀ libraries ā modules, that are fully embedded into the result executable binary
And speaking aboutĀ frameworks, they refer toĀ dynamicĀ libraries that are wrapped by frameworks and linked to the executable binary via references to their functions
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There are several helpful terminal commands that allow you to determine the type of binary and get some useful information:
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In our project, we use cocoapods as Swift dependency manager. As a bonus, letās see how Xcode treats its dependencies and how they are transformed into static libraries or dynamic frameworks:
I hope it will help you to get closer to the Swift and iOS development and to have a better understanding of not so simple topic.
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Original post: https://maxim-kryloff.medium.com/swift-static-and-dynamic-libraries-frameworks-343952d3011e
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