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The Information Property List and .plc Files

Any packaged Mac OS X software, including applications, bundles, plug-ins, and frameworks, requires an information property list file named Info.plist. That file contains key-value pairs that specify various information that is used at runtime, such as the version number for the software. This information is used by the application and by Launch Services (an API for launching applications in Mac OS X) as well.

In CodeWarrior, projects that create packaged Mac OS X software use a .plc file to specify information for the Info.plist file. For example, if you use CodeWarrior project stationery to create a project for a Mach-O based Mac OS X application or a bundled Carbon application, the project includes a default .plc file. CodeWarrior reads the .plc file at build time, follows any included header files or prefix file chains, and creates a property list from it, according to settings you specify in the Property List pane of the target settings window.

An advantage of this approach is that you can define symbols in header files and include them into both your code and your .plc file. As a result, you can be confident you are using the same data in both your code and your Info.plist file.

Xcode provides a user interface for directly specifying property list settings, but it does not support conversion of a .plc file into an information property list, so you cannot share symbols between your code and your property list file. However, Xcode does obtain information for the property list from your CodeWarrior project during the import process.

You supply or modify property list information by opening an Inspector window for a target, and making changes in the Properties pane. Xcode also supports preprocessing of the Info.plist file using the GNU C preprocessor; you can include headers, use conditional statements, and define preprocessor macros for use when preprocessing the file. You can also reference any build settings in effect for the target; Xcode evaluates those build settings and replaces them with the appropriate value at build time. For more information on editing property lists in Xcode, see Xcode User Guide. For details, see “Move Settings From the .plc File to an Info.plist File.”

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