I work on an SDK, and one of the ways we distribute it is as a pre-compiled static XCFramework.
As far as I know, it’s the nature of a static framework to not contain symbols since the framework will be embedded in the final app binary, and the symbols should then be generated.
However, when testing the "Validate" function of the Xcode 16 deployment process, our users are receiving a warning that says the framework does not contain symbols.
Is my assumption about static frameworks and symbols incorrect? Could this be a bug in Xcode 16? Should we modify something in our framework to inform Xcode that symbols are not needed?
As far as I know, it’s the nature of a static framework to not contain symbols since the framework will be embedded in the final app binary, and the symbols should then be generated.
The heart of a static framework is a static library, which essentially is a bag of unlinked object files. It's your choice whether or not to include symbols, but if you do, they will be part of the object files, and not a dSYM. When the final app links a static library, this information is then extracted and combined into the dSYM file for the app as if those object files were their own.
However, when testing the "Validate" function of the Xcode 16 deployment process, our users are receiving a warning that says the framework does not contain symbols.
Can you be specific about the exact text in the warning message? A screenshot of the message is welcome too.
— Ed Ford, DTS Engineer