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Access essential data types, collections, and operating-system services to define the base layer of functionality for your app using Foundation.

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swift: Calling "/usr/bin/defaults" returns no data
I'd like to create a small helper app for new students do read/write User default settings. Since it was not possible using the UserDefaults class I decided to use the "/usr/bin/defaults". Unfortuntely it seems not to return anything. Debug output shows "Got data: 0 bytes" Here is a sample code: import SwiftUI func readDefaults(domain : String, key :String) -> String { let cmdPath = "/usr/bin/defaults" //let cmdPath = "/bin/ls" let cmd = Process() let pipe = Pipe() cmd.standardOutput = pipe cmd.standardError = pipe cmd.executableURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: cmdPath, isDirectory: false, relativeTo: nil) cmd.arguments = ["read", domain, key] //cmd.arguments = ["/", "/Library"] print("Shell command: \(cmdPath) \(cmd.arguments?.joined(separator: " ") ?? "")") var d : Data? do { try cmd.run() d = pipe.fileHandleForReading.readDataToEndOfFile() cmd.waitUntilExit() } catch let e as NSError { return "ERROR \(e.code): \(e.localizedDescription)" } catch { return "ERROR: call failed!" } // get pipe output and write is to stdout guard let d else { return "ERROR: Can't get pipe output from command!" } print("Got data: \(d)") if let s = String(data: d, encoding: String.Encoding.utf8) { print("Got result: \(s)") return s } else { return "ERROR: No output from pipe." } } struct ContentView: View { let foo = readDefaults(domain: "com.apple.Finder", key: "ShowHardDrivesOnDesktop") var body: some View { VStack { Text("ShowHardDrivesOnDesktop: \(foo.description)") } .padding() } } #Preview { ContentView() } This code works well e.g. for "ls" when the comments are changed for cmdPath and cmd.arguments. What do I miss in order to get it working with defaults?
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143
1w
NSURL - is it intended behavior for -URLByAppendingPathComponent: to allow appending multiple path components in one call?
The documentation for NSURL -URLByAppendingPathComponent: states: "Returns a new URL by appending a path component to the original URL." Path component is singular. But this "works" : NSURL *testURL = [applicationsDirectory URLByAppendingPathComponent:@"Evil/../../" isDirectory:YES]; So my questions are: One) Was it always this way? I can't recall if it was like this before the Foundation rewrite and I just never stumbled across? and Two) Is it intended behavior? The API seems to suggest that you append one path component on the url with this method. But I guess you can append as many as you want?
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4d
Running a Child Process with Standard Input and Output
IMPORTANT Rather than use the code below, I recommend that you adopt Swift’s shiny-new Subprocess package. That’s what I’m doing! (-: Running a child process using Process (or NSTask in Objective-C) is easy, but piping data to and from the child’s stdin and stdout is surprisingly tricky. I regularly see folks confused by this. Moreover, it’s easy to come up with a solution that works most of the time, but suffers from weird problems that only show up in the field [1]. I recently had a couple of DTS incidents from folks struggling with this, so I sat down and worked through the details. Pasted below is the results of that effort, namely, a single function that will start a child process, pass it some data on stdin, read the data from the child’s stdout, and call a completion handler when everything is done. There are some things to note here, some obvious, some not so much: I’ve included Swift and Objective-C versions of the code. Both versions work the same way. The Swift version has all the comments. If you decide to base your code on the Objective-C version, copy the comments from there. I didn’t bother collecting stderr. That’s not necessary in many cases and, if you need it, it’s not hard to extend the code to handle that case. I use Dispatch I/O rather than FileHandle to manage the I/O channels. Dispatch I/O is well suited to this task. In contrast, FileHandle has numerous problems working with pipes. For the details, see Whither FileHandle?. This single function is way longer than I’d normally tolerate. This is partly due to the extensive comments and party due to my desire to maintain focus. When wrapping Process it’s very easy to run afoul of architecture astronaut-ism. Indeed, I have a much more full-featured Process wrapper sitting on my hard disk, but that’s going to stay there in favour of this approach (-: Handling a child process correctly involves some gnarly race conditions. The code has extensive comments explaining how I deal with those. If you have any questions or comments about this, put them in a new thread. Make sure to tag that thread with Foundation and Inter-process communication so that I see it. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" [1] Indeed, this post shows that I’ve made this sort of mistake myself )-:
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8.0k
Apr ’25
URLSessionDownloadTaskDelegate functions not called when using URLSession.download(for:), but works when using URLSession.downloadTask(with:)
I'm struggling to understand why the async-await version of URLSession download task APIs do not call the delegate functions, whereas the old non-async version that returns a reference to the download task works just fine. Here is my sample code: class DownloadDelegate: NSObject, URLSessionDownloadDelegate { func urlSession(_ session: URLSession, downloadTask: URLSessionDownloadTask, didWriteData bytesWritten: Int64, totalBytesWritten: Int64, totalBytesExpectedToWrite: Int64) { // This only prints the percentage of the download progress. let calculatedProgress = Float(totalBytesWritten) / Float(totalBytesExpectedToWrite) let formatter = NumberFormatter() formatter.numberStyle = .percent print(formatter.string(from: NSNumber(value: calculatedProgress))!) } } // Here's the VC. final class DownloadsViewController: UIViewController { private let url = URL(string: "https://pixabay.com/get/g0b9fa2936ff6a5078ea607398665e8151fc0c10df7db5c093e543314b883755ecd43eda2b7b5178a7e613a35541be6486885fb4a55d0777ba949aedccc807d8c_1280.jpg")! private let delegate = DownloadDelegate() private lazy var session = URLSession(configuration: .default, delegate: delegate, delegateQueue: nil) // for the async-await version private var task: Task<Void, Never>? // for the old version private var downloadTask: URLSessionDownloadTask? override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) { super.viewWillAppear(animated) task?.cancel() task = nil task = Task { let (_, _) = try! await session.download(for: URLRequest(url: url)) self.task = nil } // If I uncomment this, the progress listener delegate function above is called. // downloadTask?.cancel() // downloadTask = nil // downloadTask = session.downloadTask(with: URLRequest(url: url)) // downloadTask?.resume() } } What am I missing here?
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2.1k
May ’25
UserDefaults not Sendable
Hey, I am just about to prepare my app for Swift 6, and facing the issue that UserDefaults is not Sendable. The documentation states that its thread safe, so I am wondering, why is it not marked as Sendable? Was it just forgotten? Is it safe to mark it as nonisolated(unsafe) or @unchecked Sendable?
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4.0k
Feb ’26
NSUserDefault issue after upgrading to iPadOS 17.7.7
Our app needs to read server settings that are configured in the app's settings. In iPadOS 17.7.7 specifically (iPadOS 17.7.6, iPadOS 18.5, and other versions works fine) one can't retrieve any setting from the settings bundle using: if ([[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"setting_hostname"] != nil) serverHostname = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"setting_hostname"]; Also, when writing a custom value in NSUserDefaults like: [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:@"Test" forKey:@"test"]; [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize]; NSString* test = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"test"]; NSLog(@"%@", test); Shows an error in the console: Couldn't write values for keys ( test ) in CFPrefsPlistSource<0x3017ecc60> (Domain: <redacted_bundle_id>, User: kCFPreferencesCurrentUser, ByHost: No, Container: (null), Contents Need Refresh: No): setting these preferences requires user-preference-write or file-write-data sandbox access When closing the app and reopening it, and then reading the value of [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"test"]; returns null
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990
May ’25
Access resource in swift package from xcframework
I have an iOS app that includes a local Swift package. This Swift package contains some .plist files added as resources. The package also depends on an XCFramework. I want to read these .plist files from within the XCFramework. What I’d like to know is: Is this a common or recommended approach—having resources in a Swift package and accessing them from an XCFramework? Previously, I had the .plist files added directly to the main app target, and accessing them from the XCFramework felt straightforward. With the new setup, I’m trying to determine whether this method (placing resources in a Swift package and accessing them from an XCFramework) is considered good practice. For context: I am currently able to read the .plist files from the XCFramework by passing Bundle.module through one of the APIs exposed by the XCFramework.
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169
Jun ’25
Share extension with App Group: UserDefaults don't get persisted on iOS
I have a multiplatform app for Mac and iOS, for which I am implementing a share extension. This share extension has to share settings with the app itself on both platforms. I am currently trying to achieve this by adding all targets to the same App Group and using UserDefaults with the App Group as suiteName. The app consists of three targets: A multiplatform SwiftUI app, an iOS Share Extension, and a macOS Share Extension,. Settings get persisted correctly on Mac and on the iOS 26 simulator. However, on a real iOS 26 beta 3 device, the Share Extension is unable to load UserDefaults (loading anything with the App Group as a suite name returns nil). What could cause this behavior? The following log entries are generated from the Share Extension on the iOS device, but not on the iOS simulator: Couldn't read values in CFPrefsPlistSource&lt;0x1030d3c80&gt; (Domain: MY_APP_GROUP, User: kCFPreferencesAnyUser, ByHost: Yes, Container: (null), Contents Need Refresh: Yes): Using kCFPreferencesAnyUser with a container is only allowed for System Containers, detaching from cfprefsd 59638328 Plugin query method called (501) Invalidation handler invoked, clearing connection (501) personaAttributesForPersonaType for type:0 failed with error Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 "The connection to service named com.apple.mobile.usermanagerd.xpc was invalidated from this process." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=The connection to service named com.apple.mobile.usermanagerd.xpc was invalidated from this process.} LaunchServices: store (null) or url (null) was nil: Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-54 "process may not map database" UserInfo={_LSLine=72, _LSFunction=_LSServer_GetServerStoreForConnectionWithCompletionHandler, _LSFile=LSDReadService.mm, NSDebugDescription=process may not map database} Attempt to map database failed: permission was denied. This attempt will not be retried. Failed to initialize client context with error Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-54 "process may not map database" UserInfo={_LSLine=72, _LSFunction=_LSServer_GetServerStoreForConnectionWithCompletionHandler, _LSFile=LSDReadService.mm, NSDebugDescription=process may not map database} [C:1-3] Error received: Invalidated by remote connection.
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176
Jul ’25
Crash in WKScriptMessageHandler — CFRelease / CoreFoundation on iOS with WKWebView
We are building a hybrid iOS app using Angular (web) rendered inside a WKWebView, hosted by a native Swift app. Communication between the Angular UI and native Swift code is done using WKScriptMessageHandler. The app mostly works without issues, but in rare edge cases, we’re seeing crashes on the main thread, and the crash is reported in Firebase Crashlytics. The root cause appears related to CFRelease and WKScriptMessageHandler. Here’s the relevant crash stack: Crashed: com.apple.main-thread 0 CoreFoundation 0xbfac CFRelease + 44 1 CoreFoundation 0xa734 __CFURLDeallocate + 128 2 CoreFoundation 0x730c _CFRelease + 292 3 libobjc.A.dylib 0x4e28 AutoreleasePoolPage::releaseUntil(objc_object**) + 204 4 libobjc.A.dylib 0x4cbc objc_autoreleasePoolPop + 260 5 WebKit 0x99f194 WebKit::WebUserContentControllerProxy::didPostMessage(WTF::ObjectIdentifierGeneric<WebKit::WebPageProxyIdentifierType, WTF::ObjectIdentifierMainThreadAccessTraits<unsigned long long>, unsigned long long>, WebKit::FrameInfoData&&, WTF::ObjectIdentifierGeneric<WebKit::ScriptMessageHandlerIdentifierType, WTF::ObjectIdentifierMainThreadAccessTraits<unsigned long long>, unsigned long long>, std::__1::span<unsigned char const, 18446744073709551615ul>, WTF::CompletionHandler<void (std::__1::span<unsigned char const, 18446744073709551615ul>, WTF::String const&)>&&) + 680 6 WebKit 0x1b358 WebKit::WebUserContentControllerProxy::didReceiveMessage(IPC::Connection&, IPC::Decoder&) + 392 7 WebKit 0xe86b0 IPC::MessageReceiverMap::dispatchMessage(IPC::Connection&, IPC::Decoder&) + 272 8 WebKit 0x23c0c WebKit::WebProcessProxy::didReceiveMessage(IPC::Connection&, IPC::Decoder&) + 44 9 WebKit 0xe3f054 IPC::Connection::dispatchMessage(WTF::UniqueRef<IPC::Decoder>) + 252 10 WebKit 0x332d4 IPC::Connection::dispatchIncomingMessages() + 744 11 JavaScriptCore 0x58a7c WTF::RunLoop::performWork() + 204 12 JavaScriptCore 0x599a4 WTF::RunLoop::performWork(void*) + 36 13 CoreFoundation 0x56328 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_SOURCE0_PERFORM_FUNCTION__ + 28 14 CoreFoundation 0x562bc __CFRunLoopDoSource0 + 176 15 CoreFoundation 0x53dc0 __CFRunLoopDoSources0 + 244 16 CoreFoundation 0x52fbc __CFRunLoopRun + 840 17 CoreFoundation 0x52830 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 588 18 GraphicsServices 0x11c4 GSEventRunModal + 164 19 UIKitCore 0x3d2eb0 -[UIApplication _run] + 816 20 UIKitCore 0x4815b4 UIApplicationMain + 340 21 APP1 0xa2f80 main + 21 (AppDelegate.swift:21) 22 ??? 0x1c234eec8 (シンボルが不足しています) Steps: WebView: WKWebView Message passing: WKScriptMessageHandler → passing data from Angular → Swift WKWebView is long-lived and reused Native is using WKUserContentController.add(_:name:) to register handlers Crashes are intermittent (hard to reproduce), but often follow: Screen sleep/wake Push notification open Angular calling native immediately after resume Questions: Has anyone seen this specific crash pattern involving CFRelease and WKScriptMessageHandler? Are there known WebKit or CoreFoundation bugs related to WKScriptMessageHandler and retained URLs or message content? Thank you for your help!
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317
Jul ’25
Issue when creating Bookmark with security scope on macOS 26 RC
With the RC version of macOS 26, an issue persists when you try to create a bookmark with security scope for the root folder "/". This leads to an error "The file couldn’t be opened.". However, you can create bookmark for /Applications, /System, /Users... This is quite annoying for one of my app because a user can create a cartography of his disk usage, and the access to the root folder "/" is the only way to do so! Is there a workaround? PS: reported the issue with ID FB20186406 let openPanel = NSOpenPanel() openPanel.canChooseDirectories = true openPanel.canChooseFiles = false openPanel.beginSheetModal(for: self.view.window!) { (result) in guard result == .OK, let folderURL = openPanel.url else { return } openPanel.close() do { let data = try folderURL.bookmarkData(options: .withSecurityScope, includingResourceValuesForKeys: nil, relativeTo: nil) print("Bookmark data was created for \(folderURL.path)") } catch (let error) { print("Error creating bookmark for \(folderURL.path), with error: \(error.localizedDescription)") } }
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352
Dec ’25
Swift Playground - Types Lesson
While I am not new to programming, I am quite new to the Swift language. I am using the Swift Playground app on macOS 26 on an M1 MacBook Air. I am on the lesson about types. Perhaps it's a silly question, but what is a portal? It is never described or pointed out where to find it in the puzzle world. Similarly, the instructions reference a "switch" object without ever defining what it is. I cannot write code to call methods or set properties on objects about which I have no useful information. Can anyone advise, please? Thank you kindly.
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391
Sep ’25
How to detect or opt out of iOS app prewarming?
Hi, We are running into issues with iOS app prewarming, where the system launches our app before the user has entered their passcode. In our case, the app stores flags, counters, and session data in UserDefaults and the Keychain. During prewarm launches: UserDefaults only returns default values (nil, 0, false). We have no way of knowing whether this information is valid or just a placeholder caused by prewarming. Keychain items with kSecAttrAccessibleAfterFirstUnlockThisDeviceOnly are inaccessible, which can lead to broken business logic (the app can assume no session exists). No special launch options or environment variables appear to be set. We can reproduce this 100% of the time by starting a Live Activity in the app before reboot. Here’s an example of the workaround we tried, following older recommendations: __attribute__((constructor)) static void ModuleInitializer(void) { char* isPrewarm = getenv("ActivePrewarm"); if (isPrewarm != NULL && isPrewarm[0] == '1') { exit(0); // prevent prewarm launch from proceeding } } On iOS 16+, the ActivePrewarm environment variable doesn’t seem to exist anymore (though older docs and SDKs such as Sentry reference it). We also tried listening for UIApplication.protectedDataDidBecomeAvailableNotification, but this is not specific to prewarming (it also fires when the device gets unlocked) and can cause watchdog termination if we delay work too long. Questions: Is there a supported way to opt out of app prewarming? What is the correct way to detect when an app is being prewarmed? Is the ActivePrewarm environment variable still supported in iOS 16+? Ideally, the UserDefaults API itself should indicate whether it is returning valid stored values or defaults due to the app being launched in a prewarm session. We understand opting out may impact performance, but data security and integrity are our priority. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
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218
Oct ’25
Recursively walk a directory using File Coordination
What’s the recommended way to recursively walk through a directory tree using File Coordination? From what I understand, coordinating a read of a directory only performs a “shallow” lock; this would mean that I’d need to implement the recursive walk myself rather than use FileManager.enumerator(at:includingPropertiesForKeys:options:errorHandler:) plus a single NSFileCoordinator.coordinate(with:queue:byAccessor:) call. I’m trying to extract information from all files of a particular type, so I think using NSFileCoordinator.ReadingOptions.immediatelyAvailableMetadataOnly on each file before acquiring a full read lock on it (if it’s the right file type) would make sense. Am I on the right track?
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156
Oct ’25
ExtensionFoundation on iOS 26
Hi, I'm trying to add an extension to my app on iOS 26. I've followed the instructions on https://developer.apple.com/documentation/extensionfoundation/adding-support-for-app-extensions-to-your-app and made it as far as being able to launch the extension: let monitor = try await AppExtensionPoint.Monitor(appExtensionPoint: .localWebServerExtension) currentIdentity = monitor.identities.first if let currentIdentity = currentIdentity { let myConfig = AppExtensionProcess.Configuration(appExtensionIdentity: currentIdentity, onInterruption: { NSLog("extension was terminated") }) myProcess = try await AppExtensionProcess(configuration: myConfig) myConnection = try myProcess?.makeXPCConnection() } None of these calls throw, and when I examine myProcess from inside that code, it seems to be normal (there's a pid, for example). Yet the code inside my extension seems to not be executed: breakpoints are not triggered, NSLog() calls do not appear on the console. The onInterruption() callback is also not triggered, or at least it does not appear on the console either. I've probably missed something obvious, but what could it be?
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175
Oct ’25
Balancing implicit startAccessingSecurityScopedResource
If I'm reading this guide correctly, macOS will automatically/implicitly startAccessingSecurityScopedResource for files opened via drag to Dock icon or NSOpenPanel. And I'm expected to call stopAccessingSecurityScopedResource to balance it once I'm done. Does that mean that if I don't, I'm leaking kernel resources as per the docs? If you fail to relinquish your access to file-system resources when you no longer need them, your app leaks kernel resources. If sufficient kernel resources leak, your app loses its ability to add file-system locations to its sandbox, such as with Powerbox or security-scoped bookmarks, until relaunched. What is this limit in practice for macOS and iOS? I've seen number ranging from 1000-2500. From my testing, iOS does not provide the same implicit startAccessingSecurityScopedResource when using UIDocumentPickerViewController. Is this a correct observation/per design? Now, in the cases where I'm creating an NSURL by resolving a saved bookmark, I'm expected to explicitly startAccessingSecurityScopedResource. Based on this, from what I can tell, this means that I can't universally call startAccessingSecurityScopedResource whenever I access a resource by URL, balanced with a stopAccessingSecurityScopedResource when done, as depending on how I got the URL it might already be implicitly started. Is this a correct observation? Do I need to explicitly check whether I'm on iOS (never implicit?), or macOS (sometimes implicit?), and selectively startAccessingSecurityScopedResource based on every call site that may give me a security-scoped file? If so, is there a complete list of the entrypoints that may give me such files (file dialog, drag and drop, etc)? Thanks!
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259
Nov ’25
checkResourceIsReachableAndReturnError or fileExistsAtPath for security scoped resources
A security scoped bookmark can only be created for URLs that point to resources that exist. What is the preferred/correct API to use to determine if the resource exists? [NSFileManager fileExistsAtPath:] is more explicitly about existence, but might return NO if the app hasn't established access to the resource via an implicit or explicit startAccessingSecurityScopedResource? [NSURL checkResourceIsReachableAndReturnError] might explicitly deal with the latter issue (?), but might also return an error for other reasons than the resource not existing (?). Thanks!
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163
Nov ’25
iOS 26 fails to automatically switch to [system settings - personal hotspot ] directly from application ]
The API we used: NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"App-Prefs:INTERNET_TETHERING"]; The link provided by Apple engineer: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/761314 I did not find any URL in the link that leads to the secondary menu of system settings. Does this suggest that iOS 26 does not support this functionality? Moreover, is it possible that versions of iOS 18 and earlier may also not support this behavior in the future?
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150
Nov ’25
swift: Calling "/usr/bin/defaults" returns no data
I'd like to create a small helper app for new students do read/write User default settings. Since it was not possible using the UserDefaults class I decided to use the "/usr/bin/defaults". Unfortuntely it seems not to return anything. Debug output shows "Got data: 0 bytes" Here is a sample code: import SwiftUI func readDefaults(domain : String, key :String) -> String { let cmdPath = "/usr/bin/defaults" //let cmdPath = "/bin/ls" let cmd = Process() let pipe = Pipe() cmd.standardOutput = pipe cmd.standardError = pipe cmd.executableURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: cmdPath, isDirectory: false, relativeTo: nil) cmd.arguments = ["read", domain, key] //cmd.arguments = ["/", "/Library"] print("Shell command: \(cmdPath) \(cmd.arguments?.joined(separator: " ") ?? "")") var d : Data? do { try cmd.run() d = pipe.fileHandleForReading.readDataToEndOfFile() cmd.waitUntilExit() } catch let e as NSError { return "ERROR \(e.code): \(e.localizedDescription)" } catch { return "ERROR: call failed!" } // get pipe output and write is to stdout guard let d else { return "ERROR: Can't get pipe output from command!" } print("Got data: \(d)") if let s = String(data: d, encoding: String.Encoding.utf8) { print("Got result: \(s)") return s } else { return "ERROR: No output from pipe." } } struct ContentView: View { let foo = readDefaults(domain: "com.apple.Finder", key: "ShowHardDrivesOnDesktop") var body: some View { VStack { Text("ShowHardDrivesOnDesktop: \(foo.description)") } .padding() } } #Preview { ContentView() } This code works well e.g. for "ls" when the comments are changed for cmdPath and cmd.arguments. What do I miss in order to get it working with defaults?
Replies
5
Boosts
0
Views
143
Activity
1w
NSURL - is it intended behavior for -URLByAppendingPathComponent: to allow appending multiple path components in one call?
The documentation for NSURL -URLByAppendingPathComponent: states: "Returns a new URL by appending a path component to the original URL." Path component is singular. But this "works" : NSURL *testURL = [applicationsDirectory URLByAppendingPathComponent:@"Evil/../../" isDirectory:YES]; So my questions are: One) Was it always this way? I can't recall if it was like this before the Foundation rewrite and I just never stumbled across? and Two) Is it intended behavior? The API seems to suggest that you append one path component on the url with this method. But I guess you can append as many as you want?
Replies
6
Boosts
0
Views
321
Activity
4d
Running a Child Process with Standard Input and Output
IMPORTANT Rather than use the code below, I recommend that you adopt Swift’s shiny-new Subprocess package. That’s what I’m doing! (-: Running a child process using Process (or NSTask in Objective-C) is easy, but piping data to and from the child’s stdin and stdout is surprisingly tricky. I regularly see folks confused by this. Moreover, it’s easy to come up with a solution that works most of the time, but suffers from weird problems that only show up in the field [1]. I recently had a couple of DTS incidents from folks struggling with this, so I sat down and worked through the details. Pasted below is the results of that effort, namely, a single function that will start a child process, pass it some data on stdin, read the data from the child’s stdout, and call a completion handler when everything is done. There are some things to note here, some obvious, some not so much: I’ve included Swift and Objective-C versions of the code. Both versions work the same way. The Swift version has all the comments. If you decide to base your code on the Objective-C version, copy the comments from there. I didn’t bother collecting stderr. That’s not necessary in many cases and, if you need it, it’s not hard to extend the code to handle that case. I use Dispatch I/O rather than FileHandle to manage the I/O channels. Dispatch I/O is well suited to this task. In contrast, FileHandle has numerous problems working with pipes. For the details, see Whither FileHandle?. This single function is way longer than I’d normally tolerate. This is partly due to the extensive comments and party due to my desire to maintain focus. When wrapping Process it’s very easy to run afoul of architecture astronaut-ism. Indeed, I have a much more full-featured Process wrapper sitting on my hard disk, but that’s going to stay there in favour of this approach (-: Handling a child process correctly involves some gnarly race conditions. The code has extensive comments explaining how I deal with those. If you have any questions or comments about this, put them in a new thread. Make sure to tag that thread with Foundation and Inter-process communication so that I see it. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" [1] Indeed, this post shows that I’ve made this sort of mistake myself )-:
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
8.0k
Activity
Apr ’25
URLSessionDownloadTaskDelegate functions not called when using URLSession.download(for:), but works when using URLSession.downloadTask(with:)
I'm struggling to understand why the async-await version of URLSession download task APIs do not call the delegate functions, whereas the old non-async version that returns a reference to the download task works just fine. Here is my sample code: class DownloadDelegate: NSObject, URLSessionDownloadDelegate { func urlSession(_ session: URLSession, downloadTask: URLSessionDownloadTask, didWriteData bytesWritten: Int64, totalBytesWritten: Int64, totalBytesExpectedToWrite: Int64) { // This only prints the percentage of the download progress. let calculatedProgress = Float(totalBytesWritten) / Float(totalBytesExpectedToWrite) let formatter = NumberFormatter() formatter.numberStyle = .percent print(formatter.string(from: NSNumber(value: calculatedProgress))!) } } // Here's the VC. final class DownloadsViewController: UIViewController { private let url = URL(string: "https://pixabay.com/get/g0b9fa2936ff6a5078ea607398665e8151fc0c10df7db5c093e543314b883755ecd43eda2b7b5178a7e613a35541be6486885fb4a55d0777ba949aedccc807d8c_1280.jpg")! private let delegate = DownloadDelegate() private lazy var session = URLSession(configuration: .default, delegate: delegate, delegateQueue: nil) // for the async-await version private var task: Task&lt;Void, Never&gt;? // for the old version private var downloadTask: URLSessionDownloadTask? override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) { super.viewWillAppear(animated) task?.cancel() task = nil task = Task { let (_, _) = try! await session.download(for: URLRequest(url: url)) self.task = nil } // If I uncomment this, the progress listener delegate function above is called. // downloadTask?.cancel() // downloadTask = nil // downloadTask = session.downloadTask(with: URLRequest(url: url)) // downloadTask?.resume() } } What am I missing here?
Replies
5
Boosts
1
Views
2.1k
Activity
May ’25
UserDefaults not Sendable
Hey, I am just about to prepare my app for Swift 6, and facing the issue that UserDefaults is not Sendable. The documentation states that its thread safe, so I am wondering, why is it not marked as Sendable? Was it just forgotten? Is it safe to mark it as nonisolated(unsafe) or @unchecked Sendable?
Replies
8
Boosts
1
Views
4.0k
Activity
Feb ’26
Any advice for a new arrival?
Looking to start developing at Swift. What is the best way to get started with a job related to Swift development? Is there any specific demanded certification I could pursue? Thank you.
Replies
0
Boosts
1
Views
201
Activity
May ’25
NSUserDefault issue after upgrading to iPadOS 17.7.7
Our app needs to read server settings that are configured in the app's settings. In iPadOS 17.7.7 specifically (iPadOS 17.7.6, iPadOS 18.5, and other versions works fine) one can't retrieve any setting from the settings bundle using: if ([[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"setting_hostname"] != nil) serverHostname = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"setting_hostname"]; Also, when writing a custom value in NSUserDefaults like: [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:@"Test" forKey:@"test"]; [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize]; NSString* test = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"test"]; NSLog(@"%@", test); Shows an error in the console: Couldn't write values for keys ( test ) in CFPrefsPlistSource<0x3017ecc60> (Domain: <redacted_bundle_id>, User: kCFPreferencesCurrentUser, ByHost: No, Container: (null), Contents Need Refresh: No): setting these preferences requires user-preference-write or file-write-data sandbox access When closing the app and reopening it, and then reading the value of [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"test"]; returns null
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5
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1
Views
990
Activity
May ’25
iOS26 Beta operatingSystemVersion returns 19.0.0
The value of ProcessInfo.processInfo.operatingSystemVersion on iOS 26 is returning 19.0.0 would of expected 26.0.0
Replies
2
Boosts
1
Views
213
Activity
Jun ’25
Access resource in swift package from xcframework
I have an iOS app that includes a local Swift package. This Swift package contains some .plist files added as resources. The package also depends on an XCFramework. I want to read these .plist files from within the XCFramework. What I’d like to know is: Is this a common or recommended approach—having resources in a Swift package and accessing them from an XCFramework? Previously, I had the .plist files added directly to the main app target, and accessing them from the XCFramework felt straightforward. With the new setup, I’m trying to determine whether this method (placing resources in a Swift package and accessing them from an XCFramework) is considered good practice. For context: I am currently able to read the .plist files from the XCFramework by passing Bundle.module through one of the APIs exposed by the XCFramework.
Replies
3
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1
Views
169
Activity
Jun ’25
Share extension with App Group: UserDefaults don't get persisted on iOS
I have a multiplatform app for Mac and iOS, for which I am implementing a share extension. This share extension has to share settings with the app itself on both platforms. I am currently trying to achieve this by adding all targets to the same App Group and using UserDefaults with the App Group as suiteName. The app consists of three targets: A multiplatform SwiftUI app, an iOS Share Extension, and a macOS Share Extension,. Settings get persisted correctly on Mac and on the iOS 26 simulator. However, on a real iOS 26 beta 3 device, the Share Extension is unable to load UserDefaults (loading anything with the App Group as a suite name returns nil). What could cause this behavior? The following log entries are generated from the Share Extension on the iOS device, but not on the iOS simulator: Couldn't read values in CFPrefsPlistSource&lt;0x1030d3c80&gt; (Domain: MY_APP_GROUP, User: kCFPreferencesAnyUser, ByHost: Yes, Container: (null), Contents Need Refresh: Yes): Using kCFPreferencesAnyUser with a container is only allowed for System Containers, detaching from cfprefsd 59638328 Plugin query method called (501) Invalidation handler invoked, clearing connection (501) personaAttributesForPersonaType for type:0 failed with error Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 "The connection to service named com.apple.mobile.usermanagerd.xpc was invalidated from this process." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=The connection to service named com.apple.mobile.usermanagerd.xpc was invalidated from this process.} LaunchServices: store (null) or url (null) was nil: Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-54 "process may not map database" UserInfo={_LSLine=72, _LSFunction=_LSServer_GetServerStoreForConnectionWithCompletionHandler, _LSFile=LSDReadService.mm, NSDebugDescription=process may not map database} Attempt to map database failed: permission was denied. This attempt will not be retried. Failed to initialize client context with error Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-54 "process may not map database" UserInfo={_LSLine=72, _LSFunction=_LSServer_GetServerStoreForConnectionWithCompletionHandler, _LSFile=LSDReadService.mm, NSDebugDescription=process may not map database} [C:1-3] Error received: Invalidated by remote connection.
Replies
1
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1
Views
176
Activity
Jul ’25
Crash in WKScriptMessageHandler — CFRelease / CoreFoundation on iOS with WKWebView
We are building a hybrid iOS app using Angular (web) rendered inside a WKWebView, hosted by a native Swift app. Communication between the Angular UI and native Swift code is done using WKScriptMessageHandler. The app mostly works without issues, but in rare edge cases, we’re seeing crashes on the main thread, and the crash is reported in Firebase Crashlytics. The root cause appears related to CFRelease and WKScriptMessageHandler. Here’s the relevant crash stack: Crashed: com.apple.main-thread 0 CoreFoundation 0xbfac CFRelease + 44 1 CoreFoundation 0xa734 __CFURLDeallocate + 128 2 CoreFoundation 0x730c _CFRelease + 292 3 libobjc.A.dylib 0x4e28 AutoreleasePoolPage::releaseUntil(objc_object**) + 204 4 libobjc.A.dylib 0x4cbc objc_autoreleasePoolPop + 260 5 WebKit 0x99f194 WebKit::WebUserContentControllerProxy::didPostMessage(WTF::ObjectIdentifierGeneric<WebKit::WebPageProxyIdentifierType, WTF::ObjectIdentifierMainThreadAccessTraits<unsigned long long>, unsigned long long>, WebKit::FrameInfoData&&, WTF::ObjectIdentifierGeneric<WebKit::ScriptMessageHandlerIdentifierType, WTF::ObjectIdentifierMainThreadAccessTraits<unsigned long long>, unsigned long long>, std::__1::span<unsigned char const, 18446744073709551615ul>, WTF::CompletionHandler<void (std::__1::span<unsigned char const, 18446744073709551615ul>, WTF::String const&)>&&) + 680 6 WebKit 0x1b358 WebKit::WebUserContentControllerProxy::didReceiveMessage(IPC::Connection&, IPC::Decoder&) + 392 7 WebKit 0xe86b0 IPC::MessageReceiverMap::dispatchMessage(IPC::Connection&, IPC::Decoder&) + 272 8 WebKit 0x23c0c WebKit::WebProcessProxy::didReceiveMessage(IPC::Connection&, IPC::Decoder&) + 44 9 WebKit 0xe3f054 IPC::Connection::dispatchMessage(WTF::UniqueRef<IPC::Decoder>) + 252 10 WebKit 0x332d4 IPC::Connection::dispatchIncomingMessages() + 744 11 JavaScriptCore 0x58a7c WTF::RunLoop::performWork() + 204 12 JavaScriptCore 0x599a4 WTF::RunLoop::performWork(void*) + 36 13 CoreFoundation 0x56328 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_SOURCE0_PERFORM_FUNCTION__ + 28 14 CoreFoundation 0x562bc __CFRunLoopDoSource0 + 176 15 CoreFoundation 0x53dc0 __CFRunLoopDoSources0 + 244 16 CoreFoundation 0x52fbc __CFRunLoopRun + 840 17 CoreFoundation 0x52830 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 588 18 GraphicsServices 0x11c4 GSEventRunModal + 164 19 UIKitCore 0x3d2eb0 -[UIApplication _run] + 816 20 UIKitCore 0x4815b4 UIApplicationMain + 340 21 APP1 0xa2f80 main + 21 (AppDelegate.swift:21) 22 ??? 0x1c234eec8 (シンボルが不足しています) Steps: WebView: WKWebView Message passing: WKScriptMessageHandler → passing data from Angular → Swift WKWebView is long-lived and reused Native is using WKUserContentController.add(_:name:) to register handlers Crashes are intermittent (hard to reproduce), but often follow: Screen sleep/wake Push notification open Angular calling native immediately after resume Questions: Has anyone seen this specific crash pattern involving CFRelease and WKScriptMessageHandler? Are there known WebKit or CoreFoundation bugs related to WKScriptMessageHandler and retained URLs or message content? Thank you for your help!
Replies
1
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0
Views
317
Activity
Jul ’25
Issue when creating Bookmark with security scope on macOS 26 RC
With the RC version of macOS 26, an issue persists when you try to create a bookmark with security scope for the root folder "/". This leads to an error "The file couldn’t be opened.". However, you can create bookmark for /Applications, /System, /Users... This is quite annoying for one of my app because a user can create a cartography of his disk usage, and the access to the root folder "/" is the only way to do so! Is there a workaround? PS: reported the issue with ID FB20186406 let openPanel = NSOpenPanel() openPanel.canChooseDirectories = true openPanel.canChooseFiles = false openPanel.beginSheetModal(for: self.view.window!) { (result) in guard result == .OK, let folderURL = openPanel.url else { return } openPanel.close() do { let data = try folderURL.bookmarkData(options: .withSecurityScope, includingResourceValuesForKeys: nil, relativeTo: nil) print("Bookmark data was created for \(folderURL.path)") } catch (let error) { print("Error creating bookmark for \(folderURL.path), with error: \(error.localizedDescription)") } }
Replies
5
Boosts
0
Views
352
Activity
Dec ’25
Swift Playground - Types Lesson
While I am not new to programming, I am quite new to the Swift language. I am using the Swift Playground app on macOS 26 on an M1 MacBook Air. I am on the lesson about types. Perhaps it's a silly question, but what is a portal? It is never described or pointed out where to find it in the puzzle world. Similarly, the instructions reference a "switch" object without ever defining what it is. I cannot write code to call methods or set properties on objects about which I have no useful information. Can anyone advise, please? Thank you kindly.
Replies
3
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0
Views
391
Activity
Sep ’25
How to detect or opt out of iOS app prewarming?
Hi, We are running into issues with iOS app prewarming, where the system launches our app before the user has entered their passcode. In our case, the app stores flags, counters, and session data in UserDefaults and the Keychain. During prewarm launches: UserDefaults only returns default values (nil, 0, false). We have no way of knowing whether this information is valid or just a placeholder caused by prewarming. Keychain items with kSecAttrAccessibleAfterFirstUnlockThisDeviceOnly are inaccessible, which can lead to broken business logic (the app can assume no session exists). No special launch options or environment variables appear to be set. We can reproduce this 100% of the time by starting a Live Activity in the app before reboot. Here’s an example of the workaround we tried, following older recommendations: __attribute__((constructor)) static void ModuleInitializer(void) { char* isPrewarm = getenv("ActivePrewarm"); if (isPrewarm != NULL && isPrewarm[0] == '1') { exit(0); // prevent prewarm launch from proceeding } } On iOS 16+, the ActivePrewarm environment variable doesn’t seem to exist anymore (though older docs and SDKs such as Sentry reference it). We also tried listening for UIApplication.protectedDataDidBecomeAvailableNotification, but this is not specific to prewarming (it also fires when the device gets unlocked) and can cause watchdog termination if we delay work too long. Questions: Is there a supported way to opt out of app prewarming? What is the correct way to detect when an app is being prewarmed? Is the ActivePrewarm environment variable still supported in iOS 16+? Ideally, the UserDefaults API itself should indicate whether it is returning valid stored values or defaults due to the app being launched in a prewarm session. We understand opting out may impact performance, but data security and integrity are our priority. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Replies
1
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0
Views
218
Activity
Oct ’25
Recursively walk a directory using File Coordination
What’s the recommended way to recursively walk through a directory tree using File Coordination? From what I understand, coordinating a read of a directory only performs a “shallow” lock; this would mean that I’d need to implement the recursive walk myself rather than use FileManager.enumerator(at:includingPropertiesForKeys:options:errorHandler:) plus a single NSFileCoordinator.coordinate(with:queue:byAccessor:) call. I’m trying to extract information from all files of a particular type, so I think using NSFileCoordinator.ReadingOptions.immediatelyAvailableMetadataOnly on each file before acquiring a full read lock on it (if it’s the right file type) would make sense. Am I on the right track?
Replies
5
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0
Views
156
Activity
Oct ’25
ExtensionFoundation on iOS 26
Hi, I'm trying to add an extension to my app on iOS 26. I've followed the instructions on https://developer.apple.com/documentation/extensionfoundation/adding-support-for-app-extensions-to-your-app and made it as far as being able to launch the extension: let monitor = try await AppExtensionPoint.Monitor(appExtensionPoint: .localWebServerExtension) currentIdentity = monitor.identities.first if let currentIdentity = currentIdentity { let myConfig = AppExtensionProcess.Configuration(appExtensionIdentity: currentIdentity, onInterruption: { NSLog("extension was terminated") }) myProcess = try await AppExtensionProcess(configuration: myConfig) myConnection = try myProcess?.makeXPCConnection() } None of these calls throw, and when I examine myProcess from inside that code, it seems to be normal (there's a pid, for example). Yet the code inside my extension seems to not be executed: breakpoints are not triggered, NSLog() calls do not appear on the console. The onInterruption() callback is also not triggered, or at least it does not appear on the console either. I've probably missed something obvious, but what could it be?
Replies
4
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0
Views
175
Activity
Oct ’25
Balancing implicit startAccessingSecurityScopedResource
If I'm reading this guide correctly, macOS will automatically/implicitly startAccessingSecurityScopedResource for files opened via drag to Dock icon or NSOpenPanel. And I'm expected to call stopAccessingSecurityScopedResource to balance it once I'm done. Does that mean that if I don't, I'm leaking kernel resources as per the docs? If you fail to relinquish your access to file-system resources when you no longer need them, your app leaks kernel resources. If sufficient kernel resources leak, your app loses its ability to add file-system locations to its sandbox, such as with Powerbox or security-scoped bookmarks, until relaunched. What is this limit in practice for macOS and iOS? I've seen number ranging from 1000-2500. From my testing, iOS does not provide the same implicit startAccessingSecurityScopedResource when using UIDocumentPickerViewController. Is this a correct observation/per design? Now, in the cases where I'm creating an NSURL by resolving a saved bookmark, I'm expected to explicitly startAccessingSecurityScopedResource. Based on this, from what I can tell, this means that I can't universally call startAccessingSecurityScopedResource whenever I access a resource by URL, balanced with a stopAccessingSecurityScopedResource when done, as depending on how I got the URL it might already be implicitly started. Is this a correct observation? Do I need to explicitly check whether I'm on iOS (never implicit?), or macOS (sometimes implicit?), and selectively startAccessingSecurityScopedResource based on every call site that may give me a security-scoped file? If so, is there a complete list of the entrypoints that may give me such files (file dialog, drag and drop, etc)? Thanks!
Replies
4
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0
Views
259
Activity
Nov ’25
checkResourceIsReachableAndReturnError or fileExistsAtPath for security scoped resources
A security scoped bookmark can only be created for URLs that point to resources that exist. What is the preferred/correct API to use to determine if the resource exists? [NSFileManager fileExistsAtPath:] is more explicitly about existence, but might return NO if the app hasn't established access to the resource via an implicit or explicit startAccessingSecurityScopedResource? [NSURL checkResourceIsReachableAndReturnError] might explicitly deal with the latter issue (?), but might also return an error for other reasons than the resource not existing (?). Thanks!
Replies
4
Boosts
0
Views
163
Activity
Nov ’25
Which thread is the main thread?
As far as I understand, the main thread has a run loop. When an iOS app launches, the process must keep the run loop running to stay alive. Does that mean the main thread is the very first thread created when the process starts?
Replies
1
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0
Views
105
Activity
Nov ’25
iOS 26 fails to automatically switch to [system settings - personal hotspot ] directly from application ]
The API we used: NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"App-Prefs:INTERNET_TETHERING"]; The link provided by Apple engineer: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/761314 I did not find any URL in the link that leads to the secondary menu of system settings. Does this suggest that iOS 26 does not support this functionality? Moreover, is it possible that versions of iOS 18 and earlier may also not support this behavior in the future?
Replies
1
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0
Views
150
Activity
Nov ’25