Xcode 3 Change: Release is the Default Build Configuration
January-10-2008 Filed in: Xcode
In Xcode 3 Apple changed the default build configuration from Debug to Release. This decision does not make much sense. Unless you’re writing a simple program, you’re going to want to debug your program when you start writing it. Wanting to debug your program means that you want the Debug build configuration, not the Release configuration.
When you create a project with Xcode 3, the first thing you will want to do is change the active build configuration from Release to Debug.
2 Responses to “Xcode 3 Change: Release is the Default Build Configuration”
Leave a Reply
Powered by WordPress
Actually, this didn’t change in Xcode 3.0. This has been consistent since Xcode 2.1 in mid-2005.
The default configuration for an Xcode project – as set in the project inspector’s Configurations tab – is actually the configuration that will be used by the “xcodebuild” command-line tool when you don’t give it a “-configuration” argument.
As a convenience, when you open a project that you’ve never opened before (which includes a new project created from a template) the Active Configuration will be set to the default configuration since some developers may expect that meaning for “default.”
— Chris, who works on Xcode, but who always just speaks for himself and not his employer
Thanks for the clarification about when the change occurred, Chris. I had read posts on Apple’s Xcode mailing list where people were getting bitten by Release being the active build configuration in Xcode 3, and I figured it was an Xcode 3 change.