Link error attempting to build app with Cocoapods using xcodebuild on Jenkins

Question

I'm trying to set up a Jenkins CI instance for our app development project. I have jobs working that run logic and application tests using the Debug configuration but I'm struggling to build the IPA as I get a linkage error during compilation.

ld: library not found for -lPods
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

The app uses Cocoapods and I'm building with the Jenkins XCode plugin.

I searched for similar problems and tried/verified a bunch of things:

• I am using a workspace.
• I'm running pod install before the xcodebuild step.
• I've checked that architectures on the project itself, the target and Pods are the same – standard (armv7, armv7s) – as suggested by this answer
• I tried various solutions from this GitHub thread
• I tried various settings for Derived Data locations as per this answer and similar ones
• The Podfile specifies platform :ios, :deployment_target => "6.0"

At that point I'm at a loss for what more to try.

Answer 1

I can't speak to the XCode plugin, so my answer may be considered somewhat unresponsive, but here is how I got it working.

I added a build step that looks like this:

export DEVELOPER_DIR=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/
echo $WORKSPACE
cd "/Users/[jenkins-accountname]/.jenkins/jobs/[jobname]/workspace/[xcode project name]"
pod install
xcrun xcodebuild -workspace [your workspace (not project) name] -scheme [the build scheme to build] clean build -destination "platform=iOS,name=CurtsiPhone" -destination-timeout 120

The -destination and -destination-timeout were key build arguments for success. My project will only build on the phone since it uses specialized libraries, so my phone has to be plugged in so the XCode can find it. You may not need this if your project will build in the simulator, however I only got it working when I explicitly specified a destination.

If the XCode plugin allows you to state extra compile arguments, you should try these.

Answer 2

The 'Build Output Directory' setting can also cause this.

Changing the value of the 'Build Output Directory' from a relative path to a fully specified path fixed it for me.

E.g. instead of 'MyOutputDirectory' use '/Users/Shared/Jenkins/home/jobs/JenkinsProject/workspace/MyOutputDirectory'

Answer 3

You can try choose your Pods project and set Build Settings->Build Active Architectures Only->NO for Release and Debug, repeat this action for each target in Pods.

Answer 4

The problem might be because you have different (custom) build configurations.

Take a look at this:

https://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods/issues/121

Try adding following search path to "Library Search Paths" (For all configs)

$(SYMROOT)/Release$(EFFECTIVE_PLATFORM_NAME)

Answer 5

If you're using XCode 5 then I think this should help

basically update your Gemfile (or create one if it doesn't exist) and add:

gem 'cocoapods', :git => 'http://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods', :branch => 'xcode-5-support'
gem 'xcodeproj', :git => 'http://github.com/CocoaPods/Xcodeproj', :branch => 'redacted-support'

Also if you have things like config.build_settings['ARCHS'] = 'armv7' in your Podfile, don't forget to get rid of it, you'll need to have armv7s too.

Hope this helps, cause it saved me a few days of nightmare.