How to use the command 'carthage' (with examples)
- Osx
- December 25, 2023
Carthage is a dependency management tool for Cocoa applications. It allows developers to easily manage and build dependencies for their projects. In this article, we will explore different use cases of the ‘carthage’ command and their applications.
Use case 1: Download and build all dependencies
To download the latest version of all dependencies mentioned in the Cartfile and build them, use the following command:
carthage update
Motivation: This use case is useful when you want to ensure you have the latest versions of all dependencies and build them for your project.
Explanation: The ‘carthage update’ command fetches the latest versions of all dependencies mentioned in the Cartfile and builds them. It downloads dependencies from the specified repositories and creates framework binaries.
Example output:
*** Fetching Alamofire
*** Fetching SwiftyJSON
*** Fetching Kingfisher
*** Fetching AlamofireImage
*** Checking out Alamofire at "5.5.0"
*** Checking out SwiftyJSON at "5.0.0"
*** Checking out Kingfisher at "7.2.0"
*** Checking out AlamofireImage at "4.2.1"
*** xcodebuild output can be found in /path/to/your/project/Carthage/Build/Logs/Alamofire
*** xcodebuild output can be found in /path/to/your/project/Carthage/Build/Logs/SwiftyJSON
*** xcodebuild output can be found in /path/to/your/project/Carthage/Build/Logs/Kingfisher
*** xcodebuild output can be found in /path/to/your/project/Carthage/Build/Logs/AlamofireImage
Use case 2: Update dependencies and build only for iOS
To update dependencies but only build for iOS platform, use the following command:
carthage update --platform ios
Motivation: This use case is helpful when you want to update your dependencies but only need to build frameworks for a specific platform like iOS.
Explanation: The ‘–platform ios’ argument specifies that Carthage should only build frameworks for the iOS platform. It skips building frameworks for other platforms like macOS and tvOS.
Example output:
*** Fetching Alamofire
*** Fetching SwiftyJSON
*** Fetching Kingfisher
*** Fetching AlamofireImage
*** Checking out Alamofire at "5.5.0"
*** Checking out SwiftyJSON at "5.0.0"
*** Checking out Kingfisher at "7.2.0"
*** Checking out AlamofireImage at "4.2.1"
*** xcodebuild output can be found in /path/to/your/project/Carthage/Build/Logs/Alamofire
*** xcodebuild output can be found in /path/to/your/project/Carthage/Build/Logs/SwiftyJSON
*** xcodebuild output can be found in /path/to/your/project/Carthage/Build/Logs/Kingfisher
*** xcodebuild output can be found in /path/to/your/project/Carthage/Build/Logs/AlamofireImage
Use case 3: Update dependencies without building
To update dependencies without building any of them, use the following command:
carthage update --no-build
Motivation: This use case is useful when you only want to update dependencies but don’t need to build frameworks immediately.
Explanation: The ‘–no-build’ argument instructs Carthage not to build any frameworks after updating the dependencies. It only fetches and updates the latest versions of the dependencies.
Example output:
*** Fetching Alamofire
*** Fetching SwiftyJSON
*** Fetching Kingfisher
*** Fetching AlamofireImage
Use case 4: Download and rebuild current versions of dependencies
To download and rebuild the current versions of dependencies without updating them, use the following command:
carthage bootstrap
Motivation: This use case is helpful when you want to ensure you have the correct versions of dependencies without updating them.
Explanation: The ‘carthage bootstrap’ command downloads and rebuilds the current versions of dependencies mentioned in the Cartfile, without checking for updates. It is useful if you want to maintain stability by sticking to specific versions of dependencies.
Example output:
*** Downloading Alamofire
*** Downloading SwiftyJSON
*** Downloading Kingfisher
*** Downloading AlamofireImage
*** Building Alamofire
*** Building SwiftyJSON
*** Building Kingfisher
*** Building AlamofireImage
Use case 5: Rebuild a specific dependency
To rebuild a specific dependency, use the following command:
carthage build <dependency>
Motivation: This use case is handy when you only need to rebuild a specific dependency without updating or building others.
Explanation: Replace <dependency> with the name of the dependency you want to rebuild. Carthage will fetch the latest version of that particular dependency and build its framework.
Example output:
*** Fetching Kingfisher
*** Checking out Kingfisher at "7.2.0"
*** Building Kingfisher
*** xcodebuild output can be found in /path/to/your/project/Carthage/Build/Logs/Kingfisher
Conclusion:
The ‘carthage’ command provides various use cases to manage and build dependencies for Cocoa applications. Whether you want to update dependencies, build specific frameworks, or download dependencies without updating them, Carthage has you covered. Utilizing these use cases will help developers ensure they have the appropriate dependencies for their projects and build them efficiently.
