What is CocoaPods
CocoaPods manages library dependencies for your Xcode projects.
The dependencies for your projects are specified in a single text file called a Podfile. CocoaPods will resolve dependencies between libraries, fetch the resulting source code, then link it together in an Xcode workspace to build your project.
Ultimately the goal is to improve discoverability of, and engagement in, third party open-source libraries by creating a more centralised ecosystem.
Prefer video?
Google have created a great overview for Route 85 video series going through this entire guide and more.
Getting Started
Installation
CocoaPods is built with Ruby and it will be installable with the default Ruby
available on macOS. You can use a Ruby Version manager, however we recommend that
you use the standard Ruby available on macOS unless you know what you're doing.
Using the default Ruby install will require you to use
sudo
when installing
gems. (This is only an issue for the duration of the gem installation, though.)
$
sudo
gem
install
cocoapods
If you encounter any problems during installation, please visit
this
guide.
Sudo-less installation
If you do
not
want to grant RubyGems admin privileges for this process, you can
tell RubyGems to install into your user directory by passing either the
--user-install
flag to
gem install
or by configuring the RubyGems environment.
The latter is in our opinion the best solution. To do this open up terminal and create or edit your
.bash_profile
with your preferred editor. Then enter these lines into the file:
export
GEM_HOME
=
$HOME
/.gem
export
PATH
=
$GEM_HOME
/bin:
$PATH
Note that if you choose to use the
--user-install
option, you will still have
to configure your
.bash_profile
file to set the
PATH
or use the command prepended by
the full path. You can find out where a gem is installed with
gem which
cocoapods
. E.g.
$
gem
install
cocoapods
--user-install
$
gem which cocoapods
/Users/eloy/.gem/ruby/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-0.29.0/lib/cocoapods.rb
$
/Users/eloy/.gem/ruby/2.0.0/bin/pod
install
Updating CocoaPods
To update CocoaPods you simply install the gem again
$
[
sudo
]
gem
install
cocoapods
Or for a pre-release version
$
[
sudo
]
gem
install
cocoapods
--pre
If you originally installed the cocoapods gem using
sudo
, you should use that command again.
Later on, when you're actively using CocoaPods by installing pods, you will be notified when new versions become available with a
CocoaPods X.X.X is now available, please update
message.
Using a CocoaPods Fork
There are two ways to do this,
using a Gemfile
(recommended) or using a
development build
that are in discussion or in implementation stage.
Using CocoaPods
Head over to
Using CocoaPods
for details on the usage of CocoaPods.
