This topic area is about the programming languages themselves, not about any specific API or tool. If you have an API question, go to the top level and look for a subtopic for that API. If you have a question about Apple developer tools, start in the Developer Tools & Services topic. For Swift questions: If your question is about the SwiftUI framework, start in UI Frameworks > SwiftUI. If your question is specific to the Swift Playground app, ask over in Developer Tools & Services > Swift Playground If you’re interested in the Swift open source effort — that includes the evolution of the language, the open source tools and libraries, and Swift on non-Apple platforms — check out Swift Forums If your question is about the Swift language, that’s on topic for Programming Languages > Swift, but you might have more luck asking it in Swift Forums > Using Swift. General: Forums topic: Programming Languages Swift: Forums subtopic: Programming Languages > Swift Forums tags: Swift Developer > Swift website Swift Programming Language website The Swift Programming Language documentation Swift Forums website, and specifically Swift Forums > Using Swift Swift Package Index website Concurrency Resources, which covers Swift concurrency How to think properly about binding memory Swift Forums thread Other: Forums subtopic: Programming Languages > Generic Forums tags: Objective-C Programming with Objective-C archived documentation Objective-C Runtime documentation Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

Will Apple continue to support it, or will we wake up one day to find that Swift is the only viable language?It's a serious question. Careers depend on it. I don't accept the "No comment" approach that Apple usually takes. It's cruel.I'm willing to put the time into learning Swift if I have to. I'm not going to do it if I don't. I want to know.Frank

The man page of copyfile sates the following: COPYFILE_CLONE [..] Note also that there is no support for cloning directories" COPYFILE_CLONE_FORCE [...] Note also that there is no support for cloning directories: if a directory is provided as the source, an error will be returned. Now the man page for clonefile: > Cloning directories with these functions is strongly discouraged. Use copyfile(3) to clone directories instead. -- So am I to enumerate the content of a directory build subfolders along the way in the target destination and clone each file inside individually? If I recall NSFileManager seems to clone a large directory instantly (edit actually I remembered wrong NSFileManager does not do this. Finder seems to copy instead of clone as well). On further inspection, clonefile states that it can do this, but it is discouraged. Interesting. I wonder why. If src names a directory, the directory hierarchy is cloned as if each item was cloned individually. However, the use of clonefile(2) to clone directory hierarchies is strongly discouraged. Use copyfile(3) instead for copying directories. P.S. - Forgive me if I posting this in the wrong category, I couldn't find a "category" in the list of available categories on these forums that seems appropriate for this question.

To establish a privileged helper daemon from a command line app to handle actions requiring root privileges I still use the old way of SMJobBless. But this is deprecated since OSX 10.13 and I want to finally update it to the new way using SMAppService. As I'm concerned with securing it against malicious exploits, do you have a recommended up-to-date implementation in Objective-C establishing a privileged helper and verifying it is only used by my signed app? I've seen the suggestion in the documentation to use SMAppService, but couldn't find a good implementation covering security aspects. My old implementation in brief is as follows: bool runJobBless () { // check if already installed NSFileManager* filemgr = [NSFileManager defaultManager]; if ([filemgr fileExistsAtPath:@"/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.company.Helper"] && [filemgr fileExistsAtPath:@"/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.company.Helper.plist"]) { // check helper version to match the client // ... return true; } // create authorization reference AuthorizationRef authRef; OSStatus status = AuthorizationCreate (NULL, kAuthorizationEmptyEnvironment, kAuthorizationFlagDefaults, &authRef); if (status != errAuthorizationSuccess) return false; // obtain rights to install privileged helper AuthorizationItem authItem = { kSMRightBlessPrivilegedHelper, 0, NULL, 0 }; AuthorizationRights authRights = { 1, &authItem }; AuthorizationFlags flags = kAuthorizationFlagDefaults | kAuthorizationFlagInteractionAllowed | kAuthorizationFlagPreAuthorize | kAuthorizationFlagExtendRights; status = AuthorizationCopyRights (authRef, &authRights, kAuthorizationEmptyEnvironment, flags, NULL); if (status != errAuthorizationSuccess) return false; // SMJobBless does it all: verify helper against app and vice-versa, place and load embedded launchd.plist in /Library/LaunchDaemons, place executable in /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools CFErrorRef cfError; if (!SMJobBless (kSMDomainSystemLaunchd, (CFStringRef)@"com.company.Helper", authRef, &cfError)) { // check helper version to match the client // ... return true; } else { CFBridgingRelease (cfError); return false; } } void connectToHelper () { // connect to helper via XPC NSXPCConnection* c = [[NSXPCConnection alloc] initWithMachServiceName:@"com.company.Helper.mach" options:NSXPCConnectionPrivileged]; c.remoteObjectInterface = [NSXPCInterface interfaceWithProtocol:@protocol (SilentInstallHelperProtocol)]; [c resume]; // call function on helper and wait for completion dispatch_semaphore_t semaphore = dispatch_semaphore_create (0); [[c remoteObjectProxy] callFunction:^() { dispatch_semaphore_signal (semaphore); }]; dispatch_semaphore_wait (semaphore, dispatch_time (DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, 10 * NSEC_PER_SEC)); dispatch_release (semaphore); [c invalidate]; [c release]; }

I am encountering a critical issue where a custom background image on a UIToolbar fails to display when the app is built with Xcode 26 and run on iOS 26 beta. The exact same implementation works perfectly on iOS 18 and earlier versions. We first attempted to use the legacy setBackgroundImage method, which fails to render the image on iOS 26: // 1. Get Navigation Bar and set basic properties UINavigationBar* navBar = self.navigationBar; navBar.hidden = NO; navBar.translucent = NO; // 2. Setup the UIToolbar instance UIToolbar *toolBar = [[UIToolbar alloc] initWithFrame:navBar.bounds]; toolBar.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth; // 3. Set the resizable image (This image does not appear on iOS 26) UIImage* imagePortrait = [UIImage imageNamed:@"nav_bg"]; UIEdgeInsets insets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0.f, 6.f, 0.f, 6.f); [toolBar setBackgroundImage:[imagePortrait resizableImageWithCapInsets:insets] forToolbarPosition:UIToolbarPositionAny barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault]; We then migrated to the recommended modern UIToolbarAppearance to solve this, but the issue persists: // 1. Prepare Image UIImage* imagePortrait = [UIImage imageNamed:@"nav_bg"]; // Insets are applied via resizableImageWithCapInsets: (not shown in this snippet but implied) // 2. Configure UIToolbarAppearance UIToolbarAppearance *appearance = [[UIToolbarAppearance alloc] init]; appearance.backgroundImage = imagePortrait; // The image is correctly loaded (not nil) // 3. Apply the Appearance toolBar.standardAppearance = appearance; // We also applied to scrollEdgeAppearance and compactAppearance. Any information or recommended workarounds for displaying a custom background image on UIToolbar in the latest iOS 26 would be highly appreciated.

Hello, I have a question about data deserialization using NSKeyedUnarchiver in iOS SDK development. Current Situation: Previously, we were using the NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchiveObject(with: Data) function We have changed to using the NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchivedObject(ofClasses:from:) method to deserialize complex objects stored in UserDefaults We need to include all types in the ofClasses parameter, including Swift primitive types as well as various custom classes and structs within the project Questions: Implementation Approach: Is it correct pattern to include all classes defined in the project in the ofClasses array? Is this approach recommended? Runtime Stability: When using this approach, is there a possibility of runtime crashes? Are there any performance issues? Alternative Methods: If the current approach is not the correct pattern, what alternatives should we consider? Current Code Structure: All model classes conform to the NSSecureCoding protocol We use the requiringSecureCoding: true parameter We use a whitelist approach, explicitly listing only allowed classes I would like to know if this structure is appropriate, or if we should consider a different approach. Thank you.

Hello, I'm trying to make a white-Label sort of thing for my app, that is: a script runs before the app launches, sets a certain LaunchAgent command that sets and environment variable, and based on that variable's value tha main app's icon changes to a certain logo (change only happens in the dock because changing the icon on disk breaks the signature) When the app launches it takes a noticeable time until the dock icon changes to what I want, so I worked around that by setting the app's plist property to hide the dock icon and then when the app is launched I call an objc++ function to display the icon in the dock again (this time it displays as the new icon) The showing happens through [NSApp setActivationPolicy:NSApplicationActivationPolicyRegular]; The problem happens when I try to close the app, it returns back to the old logo before closing which is what I want to prevent. I tried hiding the app dock icon before closing but even the hiding itself changes the icon before hiding The hiding happens through [NSApp setActivationPolicy:NSApplicationActivationPolicyProhibited]; My goal is that the main app icon doesn't appear to the user through the dock, and that the icon that is only visible is the other one that changes during runtime The reason for this is that I have an app that should be visible differently depending on an environment variable that I set using an installer app. The app is the same for all users with very minor UI adjustments depending on that env variable's value. So instead of creating different versions of the app I'd like to have just 1 version that adjusts differently depending on the env variable's value. Somehow this is the only step left to have a smooth experience Feel free to ask more clarification questions I'd be happy to help Thank you

I am developing an iOS application that supports screen mirroring to Google TV (or Chromecast with Google TV). My goal is to mirror the iPhone/iPad screen in real time to a Google TV device. What I Have Tried So Far I have explored multiple approaches but haven't found a direct way to achieve low-latency screen mirroring. Here are some of my findings: Google Cast SDK: Google Cast SDK is primarily designed for casting media (videos, images, audio) rather than real-time mirroring. It supports custom receiver applications, but there are no direct APIs for full screen mirroring. Casting a recorded video is possible, but it introduces latency and is not real-time. ReplayKit for Screen Capture: RPScreenRecorder.shared().startCapture(handler: ...) allows capturing the iPhone screen as a video stream. However, sending this stream to Google TV in real time is a challenge. I could potentially encode the video as HLS and stream it, but the delay is significant. RTSP/UDP Streaming: Some third-party libraries support RTSP/UDP streaming for real-time screen sharing. Google TV does not natively support RTSP, making this approach difficult. My Questions: Is it possible to achieve real-time screen mirroring on Google TV using Google Cast SDK? Does Google TV support WebRTC or any low-latency streaming protocol that can be used from iOS? Are there any alternative approaches to mirror an iOS screen to Google TV with minimal latency? I would appreciate any guidance, code examples, or references to relevant documentation.

I have a standard Mac project created using Xcode templates with Storyboard. I manually removed the window from the Storyboard file and use ViewController.h as the base class for other ViewControllers. I create new windows and ViewControllers programmatically, implementing the UI entirely through code. However, I've discovered that on all macOS versions prior to macOS 26 beta, the application would trigger automatic termination due to App Nap under certain circumstances. The specific steps are: Close the application window (the application doesn't exit immediately at this point) Click on other windows or the desktop, causing the application to lose focus (though this description might not be entirely accurate - the app might have already lost focus when the window closed, but the top menu bar still shows the current application immediately after window closure) The application automatically terminates In previous versions, I worked around this issue by manually executing [[NSApplication sharedApplication] run]; to create an additional main event loop, keeping the application active (although I understand this isn't an ideal approach). However, in macOS 26 beta, I've found that calling [[NSApplication sharedApplication] run]; causes all NSButton controls I created in the window to become unresponsive to click events, though they still respond to mouse enter events. Through recent research, I've learned that the best practice for preventing App Nap automatic termination is to use [[NSProcessInfo processInfo] disableAutomaticTermination:@"User interaction required"]; to increment the automatic termination reference count. My questions are: Why did calling [[NSApplication sharedApplication] run]; work properly on macOS versions prior to 15.6.1? Why does calling [[NSApplication sharedApplication] run]; in macOS 26 beta cause buttons to become unresponsive to click events?

I can compile this #import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h> @interface AppDelegate : NSObject <NSApplicationDelegate> @property (strong) NSWindow *window; @property (strong) NSSlider *slider; @end @implementation AppDelegate - (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)notification { // Window size NSRect frame = NSMakeRect(0, 0, 400, 300); NSUInteger style = NSWindowStyleMaskTitled | NSWindowStyleMaskClosable | NSWindowStyleMaskResizable; self.window = [[NSWindow alloc] initWithContentRect:frame styleMask:style backing:NSBackingStoreBuffered defer:NO]; [self.window setTitle:@"Centered Slider Example"]; [self.window makeKeyAndOrderFront:nil]; // Slider size CGFloat sliderWidth = 200; CGFloat sliderHeight = 32; CGFloat windowWidth = self.window.frame.size.width; CGFloat windowHeight = self.window.frame.size.height; CGFloat sliderX = (windowWidth - sliderWidth) / 2; CGFloat sliderY = (windowHeight - sliderHeight) / 2; self.slider = [[NSSlider alloc] initWithFrame:NSMakeRect(sliderX, sliderY, sliderWidth, sliderHeight)]; [self.slider setMinValue:0]; [self.slider setMaxValue:100]; [self.slider setDoubleValue:50]; [self.window.contentView addSubview:self.slider]; } @end int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) { @autoreleasepool { NSApplication *app = [NSApplication sharedApplication]; AppDelegate *delegate = [[AppDelegate alloc] init]; [app setDelegate:delegate]; [app run]; } return 0; } with (base) johnzhou@Johns-MacBook-Pro liquidglasstest % clang -framework Foundation -framework AppKit testobjc.m and get this neat liquid glass effect: https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4199493b-6011-4ad0-9c9f-25db8585e547 However if I use pyobjc to make an equivalent import sys from Cocoa import ( NSApplication, NSApp, NSWindow, NSSlider, NSMakeRect, NSWindowStyleMaskTitled, NSWindowStyleMaskClosable, NSWindowStyleMaskResizable, NSBackingStoreBuffered, NSObject ) class AppDelegate(NSObject): def applicationDidFinishLaunching_(self, notification): # Create the main window window_size = NSMakeRect(0, 0, 400, 300) style = NSWindowStyleMaskTitled | NSWindowStyleMaskClosable | NSWindowStyleMaskResizable self.window = NSWindow.alloc().initWithContentRect_styleMask_backing_defer_( window_size, style, NSBackingStoreBuffered, False ) self.window.setTitle_("Centered Slider Example") self.window.makeKeyAndOrderFront_(None) # Slider size and positioning slider_width = 200 slider_height = 32 window_width = self.window.frame().size.width window_height = self.window.frame().size.height slider_x = (window_width - slider_width) / 2 slider_y = (window_height - slider_height) / 2 self.slider = NSSlider.alloc().initWithFrame_(NSMakeRect(slider_x, slider_y, slider_width, slider_height)) self.slider.setMinValue_(0) self.slider.setMaxValue_(100) self.slider.setDoubleValue_(50) self.window.contentView().addSubview_(self.slider) if __name__ == "__main__": app = NSApplication.sharedApplication() delegate = AppDelegate.alloc().init() app.setDelegate_(delegate) app.run() I get a result shown at https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7da022bc-122b-491d-9e08-030dcb9337c3 which does not have the new liquid glass effect. Why is this? Is this perhaps related to the requirement that you must compile on latest Xcode as indicated in the docs? Why, is the compiler doing some magic?

When trying to open an encrypted CoreML model file on a system with SIP disabled, the error message is Failed to generate key request for <...> with error: -42187 This should state that SIP is disabled and needs to be enabled.

So I'm reworking couple things in my app. And I noticed I had this old code that does the following: Creates a temporary directory. Writes a file in the temporary directory. After the file is written moves the file out of the temporary location and places it in its final destination. Okay so I was not creating the temporary directory using the recommended API. I was simply doing something like this: NSURL *tempDirectory = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:[NSTemporaryDirectory() stringByAppendingPathComponent:[NSProcessInfo processInfo].globallyUniqueString]]; // Create tempDirectory and write files inside it. Now I just changed the code to use the recommended API which takes the the volume of the target destination into account: -URLForDirectory:inDomain:appropriateForURL:create:error:) and I pass in NSItemReplacementDirectory and a url to appropriateForURL so the destination volume is taken into account. Now I have external storage mounted and I use the recommended approach. I discovered NSFileManager simply writes a directory right in a user facing location titled: **(A Document Being Saved By App Name) ** and the folder is not hidden. Is this intended behavior for this API? Are temporary files supposed to be user facing? I know it is good practice to clean up temporary stuff when you are done but in crashes or just forgetting to clean up will leave these behind which isn't the behavior I expect for "temporary files." Also if the user is viewing the folder in Finder they'll see these A Document Being Saved By App Name folders appear and disappear in the window as my app does this work.

I would like to avoid the middle man and call Objective C directly from C Currently I do this This is called from a dispatch table in a pure C file _ctx->mt_render_funcs.mtlEnd(_ctx); Which calls this routine in a obj c file .m void mtlEnd(MTRenderContext mt_ctx) { // Call the Objective-C method using Objective-C syntax [(__bridge id) mt_ctx->mt_render_funcs.mtlObj mtlEnd]; } Which ends up here... in ObjC #pragma mark mtlEnd (void)mtlEnd { // vertex buffer size_t size; size = sizeof(Vertex4ColorNormalTex) * _ctx->vert_eng.current_vertex; [_currentRenderEncoder setVertexBytes:_ctx->vert_eng.vertices length: size atIndex: VertexInputIndexVertices]; [_currentRenderEncoder drawPrimitives:(MTLPrimitiveType)_ctx->vert_eng.prim_type vertexStart:0 vertexCount:_ctx->vert_eng.current_vertex]; } It would simplify this to get rid of one call and call ObjC directly. The other idea is I want to use GCD and put a lock / unlock on the call from C to ensure thread safety so I can use GCD to dispatch a thread to do the ObjC routines. I want to stick with C as the foundation so it can be used directly from C or a FFI interface from other languages. But Metal works well in ObjC and I would prefer to use that. Thanks ahead of time.

So I'm in the middle of an asynchronous file operation. I publish an NSProgress and it displays wonderfully in Finder. But it is a folder and while the operation is in progress the user should not be allowed to enter it, modify it, etc, while the work is being done. I want to do this to protect the user from doing something silly. But Finder does not prevent the selection with the published progress. And while it would be kind of dumb to do - the user can just go about adding/removing contents to the folder while it has progress. If I remember correctly publishing an NSProgress did use to prevent the file from being selectable in Finder until either the progress finished or my app is quit (or maybe not)? But now the user is free to select, edit, modify during progress which could cause problems if the user does something unexpectedly silly. Is there a way to mark the file 'unselectable' with the published progress? Thanks in advance.

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?

I have a project that need to get serial number and network SSID. I have looking anywhere to get those 2 value but no luck to find it. is there anyway i can get those information from the device?

When my app enter to background, I start a background task, and when Expiration happens, I end my background task. The code likes below: backgroundTask = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler:^{ dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{ if (backgroundTask != UIBackgroundTaskInvalid) { [[UIApplication sharedApplication] endBackgroundTask:backgroundTask]; backgroundTask = UIBackgroundTaskInvalid; [self cancel]; } }); }]; When the breakpoint is triggered at the endBackgroundTask line, I also get the following log: [BackgroundTask] Background task still not ended after expiration handlers were called: <UIBackgroundTaskInfo: 0x282d7ab40>: taskID = 36, taskName = Called by MyApp, from MyMethod, creationTime = 892832 (elapsed = 26). This app will likely be terminated by the system. Call UIApplication.endBackgroundTask(:) to avoid this. The log don't appear every time, so why is that? Is there something wrong with my code?

We're trying to implement a backup/restore data feature in our business productivity iPad app using UIDocumentPickerViewController and AppleArchive, but discovered odd behavior of [UIDocumentPickerViewController initForOpeningContentTypes: asCopy:YES] when reading large archive files from a USB drive. We've duplicated this behavior with iPadOS 16.6.1 and 17.7 when building our app with Xcode 15.4 targeting minimum deployment of iPadOS 16. We haven't tested this with bleeding edge iPadOS 18. Here's our Objective-C code which presents the picker: NSArray* contentTypeArray = @[UTTypeAppleArchive]; UIDocumentPickerViewController* docPickerVC = [[UIDocumentPickerViewController alloc] initForOpeningContentTypes:contentTypeArray asCopy:YES]; docPickerVC.delegate = self; docPickerVC.allowsMultipleSelection = NO; docPickerVC.shouldShowFileExtensions = YES; docPickerVC.modalPresentationStyle = UIModalPresentationPopover; docPickerVC.popoverPresentationController.sourceView = self.view; [self presentViewController:docPickerVC animated:YES completion:nil]; The UIDocumentPickerViewController remains visible until the selected external archive file has been copied from the USB drive to the app's local tmp sandbox. This may take several seconds due to the slow access speed of the USB drive. During this time the UIDocumentPickerViewController does NOT disable its tableview rows displaying files found on the USB drive. Even the most patient user will tap the desired filename a second (or third or fourth) time since the user's initial tap appears to have been ignored by UIDocumentPickerViewController, which lacks sufficient UI feedback showing it's busy copying the selected file. When the user taps the file a second time, UIDocumentPickerViewController apparently begins to copy the archive file once again. The end result is a truncated copy of the selected file based on the time between taps. For instance, a 788 MB source archive may be copied as a 56 MB file. Here, the UIDocumentPickerDelegate receives a 56 MB file instead of the original 788 MB of data. Not surprisingly, AppleArchive fails to decrypt the local copy of the archive because it's missing data. Instead of failing gracefully, AppleArchive crashes in AAArchiveStreamClose() (see forums post 765102 for details). Does anyone know if there's a workaround for this strange behavior of UIDocumentPickerViewController?

hi everybody, When I use the following code to connect to WiFi network, an error message of "error=null" or "error='Error Domain=NEHotspotConfigurationErrorDomain Code=11 "" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=}' " will occur. It has been uploaded to Feedback. Feedback ID： FB16819345 (WiFi-无法加入网络) NEHotspotConfiguration *hotspotConfig = [[NEHotspotConfiguration alloc] initWithSSID:ssid passphrase:psk isWEP:NO]; [[NEHotspotConfigurationManager sharedManager] applyConfiguration:hotspotConfig completionHandler:^(NSError * _Nullable error) { }];

I tried to build the project with Xcode 16.3 and I initially got an error that TARGET_IPHONE_SIMULATOR does not exist, then I changed this flag to TARGET_OS_SIMULATOR, but it did not solve the problem

I want decoded my base64 string and want to create image from it. NSData *data = [NSData dataWithBytes:bpData.rt_wav.data length:sizeof(bpData.rt_wav.data)]; NSMutableString *baseString = [data base64Encoding]; UIImage *image = [UIImage imageWithData:data];