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"

I'll try to ask a question that makes sense this time :) . I'm using the following method on NSFileManager: (BOOL) getRelationship:(NSURLRelationship *) outRelationship ofDirectoryAtURL:(NSURL *) directoryURL toItemAtURL:(NSURL *) otherURL error:(NSError * *) error; Sets 'outRelationship' to NSURLRelationshipContains if the directory at 'directoryURL' directly or indirectly contains the item at 'otherURL', meaning 'directoryURL' is found while enumerating parent URLs starting from 'otherURL'. Sets 'outRelationship' to NSURLRelationshipSame if 'directoryURL' and 'otherURL' locate the same item, meaning they have the same NSURLFileResourceIdentifierKey value. If 'directoryURL' is not a directory, or does not contain 'otherURL' and they do not locate the same file, then sets 'outRelationship' to NSURLRelationshipOther. If an error occurs, returns NO and sets 'error'. So this method falsely returns NSURLRelationshipSame for different directories. One is empty, one is not. Really weird behavior. Two file path urls pointing to two different file paths have the same NSURLFileResourceIdentifierKey? Could it be related to https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/813641 ? One url in the check lived at the same file path as the other url at one time (but no longer does). No symlinks or anything going on. Just plain directory urls. And YES calling -removeCachedResourceValueForKey: with NSURLFileResourceIdentifierKey causes proper result of NSURLRelationshipOther to be returned. And I'm doing the check on a background queue.

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

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) { }];

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?

The documentation says: The caching behavior of the NSURL and CFURL APIs differ. For NSURL, all cached values (not temporary values) are automatically removed after each pass through the run loop. You only need to call the removeCachedResourceValueForKey: method when you want to clear the cache within a single execution of the run loop. The CFURL functions, on the other hand, do not automatically clear cached resource values. The client has complete control over the cache lifetimes, and you must use CFURLClearResourcePropertyCacheForKey or CFURLClearResourcePropertyCache to clear cached resource values. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/nsurl/removeallcachedresourcevalues()?language=objc Is this really true? In my experience I've had to explicitly remove cached resource values via -removeAllCachedResourceValues or removeCachedResourceValueForKey: otherwise the URL contains stale values. For example on a URL that no longer exists I attempted to read NSURLIsHiddenKey and the last value was already cached. Instead of getting a NSFileNoSuchFileError I get the old cache value unless explicitly call -removeCachedResourceValueForKey: first and I'm fairly certain the value was cached on a previous run loop churn.

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.

I'm trying to launch a command line app from my objective C application (sandboxed) using NSTask and I keep getting "launch path not accessible" Here is the path: [task setLaunchPath:@"/usr/local/bin/codeview"]; I have set the appropriate attributes for codeview and it is working perfectly when I use it from the command line and /usr/local/bin IS in the $PATH I know I have NSTask configured correctly because this WILL work: [task setLaunchPath:@"/usr/bin/hexdump"]; With the exception being that I'm using a command already in /usr/bin. But I can't copy codeview into /usr/bin due to SIPS. I've tried moving codeview to various other non-SIPS protected locations all to no avail. Must all NSTask commands come from /usr/bin? Where might I put codeview so that it can be launched. Today I'm going to use an older computer and disable SIPS to put my command in /usr/bin and see if that works. If it does. I will do it on my main machine.

Introduction: I’m encountering a consistent crash in production on iOS 26.2 (build 23C55). The crash occurs deep within libicucore when calling [NSDateFormatter dateFromString:]. Crash Summary: Exception Type: SIGSEGV (SEGV_ACCERR) Fault Address: 0xffffffff Thread: Crashed on Main Thread (Thread 0) Library: libicucore.A.dylib Code Snippet: The crash is triggered by the following method. It converts a string to an NSDate using a specific format and locale: // 获取日期date - (NSDate *)getDateWithTime:(NSString *)time formatter:(NSString *)formatterStr { NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init]; [formatter setDateFormat:formatterStr]; formatter.timeZone = [NSTimeZone timeZoneWithName:@"Asia/Shanghai"]; formatter.locale = [[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_US_POSIX"]; return [formatter dateFromString:time]; } Backtrace: Here is the relevant part of the crash report: Incident Identifier: E24485B6-C53E-4115-A6CF-A7E4A952AD50 CrashReporter Key: 21FAC1CF-F56B-409A-98AA-351D3D2EB06C Hardware Model: iPhone18,2 Code Type: ARM-64 Parent Process: [1] Date/Time: 2026-01-12T01:32:25Z OS Version: iPhone OS 26.2 (23C55) Report Version: 105 SDK Version: 0.0.4 Exception Type: SIGSEGV Exception Codes: SEGV_ACCERR at 0xffffffff Crashed Thread: 0 Thread 0 Crashed: 0 libicucore.A.dylib 0x000000019b81def8 0x19b74a000 + 868088 1 libicucore.A.dylib 0x000000019b7da91c 0x19b74a000 + 592156 2 libicucore.A.dylib 0x000000019b8d8340 0x19b74a000 + 1631040 3 libicucore.A.dylib 0x000000019b8eae18 0x19b74a000 + 1707544 4 libicucore.A.dylib 0x000000019b8eb600 0x19b74a000 + 1709568 5 libicucore.A.dylib 0x000000019b878be4 0x19b74a000 + 1240036 6 libicucore.A.dylib 0x000000019b87ae84 0x19b74a000 + 1248900 7 libicucore.A.dylib 0x000000019b87b2dc 0x19b74a000 + 1250012 8 libicucore.A.dylib 0x000000019b9564ac 0x19b74a000 + 2147500 9 libicucore.A.dylib 0x000000019b954afc 0x19b74a000 + 2140924 10 libicucore.A.dylib 0x000000019b952794 0x19b74a000 + 2131860 11 libicucore.A.dylib 0x000000019b98689c 0x19b74a000 + 2345116 12 CoreFoundation 0x00000001895dbfe0 0x18953d000 + 651232 13 CoreFoundation 0x00000001895dbaa0 0x18953d000 + 649888 14 Foundation 0x0000000186d2029c 0x186b88000 + 1671836 15 Foundation 0x00000001874a62dc 0x186b88000 + 9560796 16 Foundation 0x00000001874a6384 0x186b88000 + 9560964 17 xxxx 0x0000000105ea6e30 -[xxxxx getDateWithTime:formatter:] + 168 and Thread 0 crashed with ARM-64 Thread State: pc: 0x000000019b81def8 fp: 0x000000016f96bc10 sp: 0x000000016f96bbd0 x0: 0x00000000ffffffff x1: 0x000000019ba1e8e0 x2: 0x0000000000000002 x3: 0x000000000000000b x4: 0x0000000000000074 x5: 0x0000000000000069 x6: 0x0000000000000000 x7: 0xfffff0003ffff800 x8: 0x000000009ba18014 x9: 0x00000001148dffd0 x10: 0x0000000000000002 x11: 0x0000000000000004 x12: 0x0000000000000220 x13: 0x0000000000000030 x14: 0x000000015b6f36b8 x15: 0x000000015cfe0000 x16: 0x00000002a19d0ff0 x17: 0x00000001f5590a70 x18: 0x0000000000000000 x19: 0x000000016f96bc30 x20: 0x0000000000000000 x21: 0x000000015cfe3200 x22: 0x000000019ba18014 x23: 0x0000000000000000 x24: 0x000000015cfe32a0 x25: 0x0000000000000003 x26: 0x0000000000000000 x27: 0x0000000000000000 x28: 0x000000015cfe3200 lr: 0x000000019b7da958 cpsr: 0x00000000a0000000

Testing copyfile on a folder on an external volume (which takes a bit a of time) I'm running into an issue where copyfile gets to the end of the operation and then just fails. In the callback I can see that the failure occurs on a .DS_Store file inside the folder. So for a .DS_Store it is simple enough for me to just ignore the error and return COPYFILE_SKIP but the somewhat more concerning issue here is that the true error reason is seemingly not reported? In the callback if I read errno it is 0. When copyfile returns it returns -1 after I return COPYFILE_QUIT (and errno is 0) so I don't know what the error is or the appropriate way to handle it. For .DS_Store just skipping seems reasonable but when copying a folder it may be appropriate to get the true failure reason. But checking the last path component of source path seems like a hack way to handle errors. If a file in the copying folder with important user data I can't just silently skip it - it isn't clear to me how I should properly proceed in a situation where I can't get the actual reason for the failure.

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 just noticed that when you check the online documentation for Foundation using the delicious Objective-C flavor, some values are no more the expected ones: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/filemanager/copyitem(at:to:)?language=objc#return-value true if the item was copied successfully or the file manager’s delegate stopped the operation deliberately. Returns false if an error occurred. Considering that a BOOL used to be YES or NO for the last quarter of a century, I have the following question: [Q] What is the idea behind the disturbing changes of the Objective-C documentation?

Hi all, when I launch my macOS app from Xcode 16 on ARM64, appKit logs me this error on the debug console: It's not legal to call -layoutSubtreeIfNeeded on a view which is already being laid out. If you are implementing the view's -layout method, you can call -[super layout] instead. Break on _NSDetectedLayoutRecursion(void) to debug. This will be logged only once. This may break in the future. _NSDetectedLayoutRecursion doesn't help a lot, giving me these assembly codes from a call to a subclassed window method that looks like this: -(void) setFrame:(NSRect)frameRect display:(BOOL)flag { if (!_frameLocked) [super setFrame:frameRect display:flag]; } I have no direct call to -layoutSubtreeIfNeeded from a -layout implementation in my codes. I have a few calls to this method from update methods, however even if I comment all of them, the error is still logged... Finally, apart from that log, I cannot observe any layout error when running the program. So I wonder if this error can be safely ignored? Thanks!

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

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.

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.

Running print operation on WKWebView I hit EXC_BREAKPOINT and there is all kinds of console spew that looks concerning: ERROR: The NSPrintOperation view's frame was not initialized properly before knowsPageRange: returned. (WKPrintingView) ** CGContextClipToRect: invalid context 0x0. If you want to see the backtrace, please set CG_CONTEXT_SHOW_BACKTRACE environmental variable.** WebContent[7743] networkd_settings_read_from_file Sandbox is preventing this process from reading networkd settings file at "/Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkd.plist", please add an exception. CRASHSTRING: XPC_ERROR_CONNECTION_INVALID from launchservicesd CRASHSTRING: rdar://problem/28724618 Process unable to create connection because the sandbox denied the right to lookup com.apple.coreservices.launchservicesd and so this process cannot talk to launchservicesd. WebContent[7921] The sandbox in this process does not allow access to RunningBoard. Safe to ignore all this?

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?

I have an objective-c watch app and have added a swift widget style compilation to it and am having problems. The complication works fine but the name in the iPhone watch app complication picker stubbornly remains as the watchkit app name despite me trying various ways of changing it. Here are the various CF bundle name and display name values I am using: phone app values CFBundleIdentifier - com.Distribution-Systems-Associates.Tennis-Watch-v1 CFBundleName - $(PRODUCT_NAME) CFBundleDisplayName - Tennis Scorekeeper watchkit app CFBundleIdentifier - com.Distribution-Systems-Associates.Tennis-Watch-v1.watchkitapp CFBundleName - Tennis Scorekeeper CFBundleDisplayName - Tennis Scorekeeper WatchKit extension CFBundleIdentifier - com.Distribution-Systems-Associates.Tennis-Watch-v1.watchkitapp.watchkitextension CFBundleName - Tennis Scorekeeper CFBundleDisplayName - Tennis Scorekeeper __Watchkit complication __ CFBundleIdentifier - com.Distribution-Systems-Associates.Tennis-Watch-v1.watchkitapp.watchkitextension.Tennis-Watch-V1-Complication Changing the values in the complication doesn't seem to matter. Every other name in both my iPhone and watch apps are as expected. ChatGPT suggested that I try adding a localized name in the watchkit app but that didn't seem to do much of anything useful. I have run this though Chat quite a bit to see if I could get any accidental insights that way and while it has been interesting, it has also been not terribly helpful. I didn't post any of the complication code because that seems to be fine. However, I can do that if needed. The complication works as intended (starts the app). The various names everywhere else show up as intended. It's just that this one name refuses to be overridden. Thoughts?

When I add a simple menu to the dock via the NSApplicationDelegate method -applicationDockMenu: and run the app from Xcode it doesn't work. -(NSMenu*)applicationDockMenu:(NSApplication*)sender { NSMenu *dockMenu = [self buildDockMenu]; if (dockMenu != nil) { NSLog(@"Returning dock menu."); return dockMenu; } else { NSLog(@"Not ready to build dock menu"); return nil; } } When I run the app, my main app window shows up but nothing logs out in -applicationDockMenu: until I click outside my app's window (so if I click the desktop background, or a Finder window, or whatever). Then after I click outside my app's main window this logs out: Returning dock menu. The "Not ready to build dock menu" message does not log out. But...when I right click on the dock icon, the menu doesn't show up. But if I stop the app from Xcode and just run it not attached to the debugger, the dock menu does show up. But this makes the debugging/testing situation not ideal.