Open Radar

 
In Xcode 3, it was possible to easily copy and paste from the build pane to an xcconfig file. Only the modified fields were copied. In Xcode 4+, copying from the build pane is awkward and produces output like this:

//:configuration = Debug

//:configuration = Release

//:completeSettings = some
ADDITIONAL_SDKS
ARCHS
SDKROOT
ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH
SUPPORTED_PLATFORMS
VALID_ARCHS

Since all of the above settings are defined in the xcconfig file, and none are defined in the build pane, the correct output should be nothing.

The goal is to make it easy to convert build-pane settings into xcconfig files, which are much easier to document, version control, and share between projects. In large projects, it is not enough to see that a given flag is set in the build settings panel. It is important to be able to document why that setting was added (as you can do with xcconfig comments). Also in large projects, it is important that all parts of the system be compiled consistently. This is easy with an included xcconfig file. Rather than changing every project's compiler setting, a single line can be updated and the entire project upgrades.