Re: DEPRECATION NOTICE - Calling `pod install` directly is deprecated in React Native

[Voxar]

I was met with this notice today and while I applaud the continuous efforts to simplify I am immediately worried about not being able to manually build xcarchive/aab's in the future. Hopefully this is just a too simplified message but I feel I need to make it known that there will always be a need for build-only alternatives without side effects such as starting the app in a simulator.

build, build:ios, build:android commands with --debug, --release and --archive-path options would be amazing additions to simplify the build process.

==================== DEPRECATION NOTICE =====================
Calling `pod install` directly is deprecated in React Native
because we are moving away from Cocoapods toward alternative
solutions to build the project.
* If you are using Expo, please run:
`npx expo run:ios`
* If you are using the Community CLI, please run:
`yarn ios`
=============================================================

[cortinico]

The community CLI already has a build-android and build-ios command: https://github.com/react-native-community/cli/blob/main/packages/cli-platform-ios/README.md#build-ios

The need to add a yarn ios is not for the sake of simplicity but because we're moving away from cocoapods to SPM and that steps is necessary as part of this migration.

@cipolleschi can share more insights on this

[cipolleschi]

Yeah, that was a simplified message. The bottom line here is stop using pod install directly but prefer to use the framework specific commands, the ones provided by expo and by the cli.

Perhaps we can reword the message linking to the React Native frameworks docs.

[jvenene]

A few questions:

1. Do the recommended commands now call pod install under the hood? If so, it may be helpful to state that they now take care of linking. As the message current reads, it seems to suggest that in order to link a new library, you need to call a command that the docs say does something different (i.e. "re-build[s] the app binary").
2. Will the recommended commands eventually handle both SPM and CocoaPods setup under the hood until CocoaPods is removed?
3. Is Yarn more popular than NPM for RN users outside Meta? When following the docs to get started without a framework, the default appears to be NPM (I'm assuming to avoid requiring another package manager). Perhaps, NPM should replace Yarn in the message.

A possible improvement to the message if my understanding is correct:

==================== DEPRECATION NOTICE =====================
Calling the CocoaPods command `pod install` is deprecated
in React Native because we are migrating away from CocoaPods
as the iOS dependency manager.

Instead, use the following dependency-manager-agnostic 
command from your tooling to both link and build.

* If you are using Expo:
`npx expo run:ios`
* If you are using the Community CLI:
`npm run ios`
=============================================================

[cipolleschi]

yeah, the recommended commands uses cocopods for now under the hoods, taking care of everything, including linking the libraries.

These recommended commands are updated by the community and by Expo regularly. We collaborate closely with them to make sure that they consider all the use cases. So yeah, those commands will take care of running Cocoapods or SPM under the hoods for the user, hopefully abstracting all the complexity away.

For Yarn vs NPM... we generally always use yarn and prefer to use yarn. I'm not aware of any formal recommendation, honestly. We can go for a more package manager agnostic message.

[fabiendem]

Hi there,

In the future, is there any chance that the command which will run the pod-install (later spm) could be made public in the CLI?

Some of us need to be able to build an xcarchive rather than a full .ipa to apply extra protections before building the .ipa, so we're not using the React Native CLI to have more control over the build process.

This way, we could call the RN CLI "pod install" (forward compatible with SPM), and then create our build our own way.

Let me know if you need more details.
Thanks

[Voxar]

+1 on adding a dedicated "pod install" replacement to recommend instead of run commands.

[cipolleschi]

the replacement will be technology agnostic. Imagine something like yarn prepare-ios-dependencies (actual naming still TBD) so that if we, in the future, have to change the DMS once again, users' flow won't be disrupted.

for adding that to the CLI, you can open a feature request in the CLI repository. The React team does not control those repository, the community does and that a choice of the who implements a React Native framework.

FWIW, I personally support the idea of having separate commands for all the operations as well as one generic command that orchestrates everything.

[fabiendem]

the replacement will be technology agnostic. Imagine something like yarn prepare-ios-dependencies (actual naming still TBD) so that if we, in the future, have to change the DMS once again, users' flow won't be disrupted.

for adding that to the CLI, you can open a feature request in the CLI repository. The React team does not control those repository, the community does and that a choice of the who implements a React Native framework.

FWIW, I personally support the idea of having separate commands for all the operations as well as one generic command that orchestrates everything.

OK thanks, I went ahead and opened an issue at react-native-community/cli#2702
I am not super familiar with the cli source code, so feel free to comment and correct me over there 👍