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Every iOS and Mac Developer Needs a Watchdog
Today, Cerebral Gardens introduces Watchdog for Xcode. Watchdog is a helpful utility for iOS and Mac OS X developers that monitors Xcode cache files (DerivedData) and cleans out stale files before they interfere with your builds.
If you’ve been building apps in Xcode for a while, you will see the value in Watchdog instantly as you are familiar with the weird errors that can happen with Xcode. If you’re new to using Xcode, you may not have run into these issues yet, but eventually you will and that’s when Watchdog will save immense time and frustration.
A Watchdog user will no longer see these weird issues:
- Old images that you've replaced, still showing up in your app.
- The DerivedData folder growing continuously over time, often taking up 10+ gigabytes of space.
- Constants/Defines not updating in the app after you've changed them in the code.
- Localization file changes not being seen.
- Phantom breakpoints and/or breakpoints stopping on the wrong line.
- Xcode refusing to run a build on your device, only reporting something obscure like: "Error launching remote program: No such file or directory"
Sometimes the cause is related to your version control system updating files without Xcode noticing. Sometimes it’s random. Regardless, the result is the same: a bad build, time wasted, a frustrated developer, or even worse, an annoyed customer.
These errors can be mind numbing. Let Watchdog be your guard against these errors so you never again have your time wasted.
Watchdog gives you truly clean builds, saves time, and your sanity. It guards, protects and, most importantly, prevents.
