Azure Pipelines Build Xamarin Forms iOS target newer Xamarin version?

Question

I'm using Azure Pipelines to build my Xamarin Forms app.

Am I only able to target Xamarin iOS 14.4 max?

https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/blob/main/images/macos/macos-10.15-Readme.md#xamarin

Would it not be possible to target Xamarin iOS 14.6?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/release-notes/14/14.6

Here is what my Pipeline currently looks like:

Mono + Restore Script Step:

#wget https://dist.nuget.org/win-x86-commandline/v5.10.0/nuget.exe
#ln -s /Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/Current/Commands/nuget nuget

# 6.12.0.148 https://www.mono-project.com/download/preview/#download-mac
wget https://download.mono-project.com/archive/6.12.0/macos-10-universal/MonoFramework-MDK-6.12.0.148.macos10.xamarin.universal.pkg
sudo chmod +x MonoFramework-MDK-6.12.0.148.macos10.xamarin.universal.pkg
sudo installer -pkg MonoFramework-MDK-6.12.0.148.macos10.xamarin.universal.pkg -target /  


echo "MSBuild restore start"
MSBuild /Users/runner/work/1/s/Cellar/Cellar.iOS/Cellar.iOS.csproj -t:restore
echo "MSBuild restore finish"

Answer 1

Am I only able to target Xamarin iOS 14.4 max?

I am afraid the answer is yes (As of posting).

Accordig to that document the latest Installed IOS SDKs version is 14.4:

To resolve this issue, you could create your private agent:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/v2-windows?view=azure-devops&viewFallbackFrom=vsts

Answer 2

Microsoft provides a script for setting different versions of mono, the xamarin sdk and the version of Xcode.

The docs are here -> https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.componentmodel.browsableattribute?view=net-5.0 and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/hosted?view=azure-devops&tabs=yaml#xamarin

You can also see what versions of the tools are available on the hosted images here https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/blob/main/images/macos/macos-10.15-Readme.md#xcode