SQLCipher conflict with Firebase

[ppamorim]

I have read all your documentation, also the documentation from SQLCipher, also searched for possible solutions in the issues tab. I couldn't find a proper solution to automatically move the SQLCipher to the top of the list of OTHER_LDFLAGS. The issue is that our application uses Firebase and it includes sqlite3 that causes conflict with SQLCipher.

I can do it manually by dragging the flags manually to the top of the list using Xcode. Like this:

The project compiles fine.

But it's unsustainable to keep doing it manually. The issue is that we have +100 targets, any change to the OTHER_LDFLAGS needs to be done through the podfile. Also modifying it manually overwrites the xcconfig data, similar to what we can find in this StackOverflow response: https://stackoverflow.com/a/34320394/2430555

I tried multiple solutions to do that on the podfile (based on the link above), but none could yield a solution were the SQLCipher is on top of everything. It always gets ordered by the name.

Maybe I could move -l"sqlite3" to the bottom, but I couldn't make it work yet since it keeps ordering by name.

Is there any suggestion of how to fix it? If we find something I believe this should be included in the project's README.md.

Thank you.

Edit: Moving -l"sqlite3" to the bottom doesn't fix the issue. The project fails to link GRDB to SQLCipher.

Fix:

I kinda sorted the issue, I wrote this workaround to fix the order in all the .xcconfig files:

post_install do |installer|
  # Other config above, keep this function as the last one.
  find_pod_target_files()
end

def find_pod_target_files
  pod_target_dir = 'Pods/Target Support Files'
  pod_target_pattern = 'Pods-*'
  ldflags_prefix = 'OTHER_LDFLAGS = '
  sqlcipher_flag = ' -framework "SQLCipher" '
  sqlcipher_flag_strip = sqlcipher_flag.strip
  pod_target_paths = Dir.glob(File.join(pod_target_dir, pod_target_pattern))

  pod_target_paths.each do |dir|
    
    files = Dir.glob(File.join(dir, '*'))
    files.each do |file|
      next unless file.end_with?('.xcconfig')

      content = File.read(file)
      lines = content.split("\n")
      modified_lines = lines.map do |line|
        if line.start_with?(ldflags_prefix) && line.include?(sqlcipher_flag_strip)
          flags = line.gsub(sqlcipher_flag, ' ').gsub(ldflags_prefix, '')
          ldflags_prefix + sqlcipher_flag_strip + ' ' + flags
        else
          line
        end
      end

      File.write(file, modified_lines.join("\n"))
    end
  end
end

This script finds -framework "SQLCipher" and moves it to the start of the OTHER_LDFLAGS.

For the developers, please let me know if there is a non workaround solution to sort this issue, thank you.

[groue]

@ppamorim I have converted the original issue into a discussion. since it is an opportunity to share experience.

[ppamorim]

Thank you. I hope we find another solution or ditch Cocoapods at all.