We use Xcode to develop for Apple platforms and there are many versions (includes beta versions) of Xcode to choice for different purposes. So we need to manage the versions of Xcode and it’s not that easy.

Let’s take about how Xcode::Install can help us to manage the versions of Xcode.

The Ways Without Xcode::Install

App Store

It may be the most common place to download Xcode, but we cannot keep more than one version. So we have to turn off Automatic Updates for App Store to “manage” the version.

Downloads for Apple Developers

We can download the version we want from it and there is no need to turn off Automatic Updates for App Store. However, if we want to keep more than one version of Xcode, we need to change to the name of Xcode according to its version like Xcode-11.3.1.app. The download may fail and need to retry from the beginning if we download by the browser, so we may rely on something like wget --load-cookies to download and resume the download from the point it failed.

Xcode::Install

Xcode::Install use the way of Downloads for Apple Developers and handle all trivial things for us.

Preparation

Install Xcode::Install

gem install xcode-install

Setup Apple ID

Xcode::Install needs our Apple ID to access Downloads for Apple Developers.

Add our Apple ID to our shell configuration file.

export XCODE_INSTALL_USER="name@example.com"

Then Xcode::Install will use this Apple ID when it needs without asking an Apple ID every time.

Usage

List of Available Xcode Versions

xcversion list

This list is cached. To update the list of available versions, run:

xcversion update

Install Xcode

xcversion install "11.3.1"

This line will install Xcode to /Applications/Xcode-11.3.1.app, link /Applications/Xcode.app to it and do xcode-select --switch.

We also can only do the installation with the option —-no-switch.

Command Line Tools for Xcode

Install Command Line Tools for Xcode

xcversion install-cli-tools

Show the version of selected Command Line Tools for Xcode

xcversion selected

Select the version of Command Line Tools for Xcode ( xcode-select --switch )

xcversion select 11.3

Select the version of Command Line Tools for Xcode and link the Xcode.app to Xcode-11.3.app.

xcversion select 11.3 —-symlink

Note

I have encountered some issues when I have an Xcode installed from the App Store. I thought it may be caused by the symlink, so I try to install with --no-switch, but it didn’t work. If you are in the same situation, trying to remove the Xcode installed from the App Store may help.

What do you think?

Thanks to xcode-install, it’s easy to manage the versions of Xcode. And we may also use it in some scripts or CI since it’s a command-line tool.

References