Remote Caching and Execution of Apple Projects using Bazel

This repository contains a suite of example projects that use Apple Silicon and Bazel, such as visionOS, iOS, and MacOS.

Notice the difference in speed of the builds after NativeLink kicks in on the second run.

The NativeLink Difference

Using NativeLink to build these Apple projects can greatly benefit in efficiency and development cycles by using NativeLink for remote caching and execution. NativeLink is also more representative of a production environment.

We have also added the visionOS-example from Ivan Campos in order to highlight the value of the tool in building software that utilizes Apple's new custom AI chips.

Warning

The visionOS, iOS, and other simulators must be installed in the platforms section of your XCode settings before proceeding.

Platform Install Instructions

The client build request must be done from macOS or else it won't work.

Setting up Apple Projects with Bazel using Rules_Apple

These rules handle the linking and bundling of applications and extensions (that is, the formation of an .app with an executable and resources, archived in an .ipa). Compilation is still performed by the existing objc_library rule in Bazel, and by the swift_library rule available from rules_swift.

If you are looking for an easy way to build mixed language frameworks, check out rules_ios.

Reference documentation

Click here for the reference documentation for the rules and other definitions in this repository.

Quick setup

Copy the latest MODULE.bazel or WORKSPACE snippet from the releases page.

Examples

Minimal example:

load("@build_bazel_rules_apple//apple:ios.bzl", "ios_application")
load("@build_bazel_rules_swift//swift:swift.bzl", "swift_library")

swift_library(
    name = "MyLibrary",
    srcs = glob(["**/*.swift"]),
    data = [":Main.storyboard"],
)

# Links code from "deps" into an executable, collects and compiles resources
# from "deps" and places them with the executable in an .app bundle, and then
# outputs an .ipa with the bundle in its Payload directory.
ios_application(
    name = "App",
    bundle_id = "com.example.app",
    families = [
        "iphone",
        "ipad",
    ],
    infoplists = [":Info.plist"],
    minimum_os_version = "15.0",
    deps = [":MyLibrary"],
)

See the examples directory for sample applications.

Configuring your Bazel Project with Nativelink

Replace these with the .bazelrc config from NativeLink Cloud in the Quickstart to use NativeLink

build --remote_cache=grpcs://cas-[YOUR_NAME_HERE].build-faster.nativelink.net
build --remote_header=x-nativelink-api-key=[YOU_NATIVELINK_API_KEY]
build --remote_timeout=600

Supported bazel versions

rules_apple and rules_swift are often affected by changes in bazel itself. This means you generally need to update these rules as you update bazel.

You can also see the supported bazel versions in the notes for each release on the releases page.

Besides these constraints this repo follows semver as best as we can since the 1.0.0 release.

Bazel release	Minimum supported rules version	Final supported rules version	Supporting Branch
8.x (most recent rolling)	2.*	current	master
7.x	2.*	current	master
6.x	2.*	current	master
5.x	0.33.0	1.*	bazel/5.x
4.x	0.30.0	0.32.0	N/A
3.x	0.20.0	0.21.2	N/A