iOS Build Instructions

Note: Upstreaming of iOS code is still a work in progress. In particular, note that it is not currently possible to build an actual Chromium app. Currently, the buildable binaries are ios_web_shell (a minimal wrapper around the web layer), and various unit tests.

Prerequisites

A Mac with a version of OS X capable of running the latest version of Xcode.
The latest version of Xcode, including the current iOS SDK.
The current version of the JDK (required for the closure compiler).
depot_tools.

Setting Up

With GYP

In the directory where you are going to check out the code, create a chromium.gyp_env to set the build to use iOS targets (and to use hybrid builds; see Building below):

cat > chromium.gyp_env <<EOF
{
  "GYP_DEFINES": "OS=ios",
  "GYP_GENERATORS": "ninja,xcode-ninja",
}
EOF

If you aren't set up to sign iOS build products via a developer account, you should instead use:

cat > chromium.gyp_env <<EOF
{
  "GYP_DEFINES": "OS=ios chromium_ios_signing=0",
  "GYP_GENERATORS": "ninja,xcode-ninja",
}
EOF

With GN

Use gn args out/Debug-iphonesimulator (or replace out/Debug-iphonesimulator with your chosen out/ directory) to open up an editor to set the following gn variables and regenerate:

# Set to true if you have a valid code signing key.
ios_enable_code_signing = false
target_os = "ios"
# Set to "x86", "x64", "arm", "armv7", "arm64". "x86" and "x64" will create a
# build to run on the iOS simulator (and set use_ios_simulator = true), all
# others are for an iOS device.
target_cpu = "x64"
# Release vs debug build.
is_debug = true

API Keys

Before you build, you may want to install API keys so that Chrome-integrated Google services work. This step is optional if you aren't testing those features.

Getting the Code

Next, check out the code, with:

fetch ios

Building

Build the target you are interested in. The instructions above select the ninja/Xcode hybrid mode, which uses ninja to do the actual build, but provides a wrapper Xcode project that can be used to build targets and navigate the source. (The Xcode project just shells out to ninja to do the builds, so you can't actually inspect/change target-level settings from within Xcode; this mode avoids generating a large tree of Xcode projects, which leads to performance issues in Xcode). To build with ninja (simulator and device, respectively):

ninja -C out/Debug-iphonesimulator All
ninja -C out/Debug-iphoneos All

To build with Xcode, open build/all.ninja.xcworkspace, and choose the target you want to build.

You should always be able to build All, since targets are added there for iOS only when they compile.

Running

Any target that is built and runs on the bots (see below) should run successfully in a local build. As of the time of writing, this is only ios_web_shell and unit test targets—see the note at the top of this page. Check the bots periodically for updates; more targets (new components) will come on line over time.

To run in the simulator from the command line, you can use iossim. For example, to run a debug build of ios_web_shell:

out/Debug-iphonesimulator/iossim out/Debug-iphonesimulator/ios_web_shell.app

Converting an existing Mac checkout into an iOS checkout

If you want to convert your Mac checkout into an iOS checkout, follow the steps below:

Add target_os = [ "ios" ] to the bottom of your chromium/.gclient file.
For gyp, make sure you have the following in your chromium/chromium.gyp_env file (removing the chromium_ios_signing=0 if you want to make developer-signed builds):
```
{
  "GYP_DEFINES" : "OS=ios chromium_ios_signing=0",
  "GYP_GENERATORS" : "ninja,xcode-ninja",
}
```
For gn, add the arguments specified above to your gn setup.
Make sure to sync again to fetch the iOS specific dependencies and regenerate build rules using:
```
gclient sync
```

Troubleshooting

If your build fails, check the iOS columns of the Mac waterfall (the last two) to see if the bots are green. In general they should be, since failures on those bots will close the tree.