Question

For an iPad application I need to transform some CoffeeScript files into JavaScript files before bundling them with the application.

I tried to add a Makefile to my XCode project with the following code:

MANUAL_ROOT=IOS12BSH/manual
SCRIPTS_ROOT=$(MANUAL_ROOT)/scripts

COFFEE_SOURCES=$(SCRIPTS_ROOT)/*.coffee $(SCRIPTS_ROOT)/guides/*.coffee
JAVASCRIPT_TARGETS=$(COFFEE_SOURCES:.coffee=.js)

all: build

build: coffeescript

clean: clean_coffeescript

coffeescript: $(JAVASCRIPT_TARGETS)

clean_coffeescript:
    rm -f $(JAVASCRIPT_TARGETS)

$(JAVASCRIPT_TARGETS): $(COFFEE_SOURCES)
    coffee -c $(COFFEE_SOURCES)

Running this Makefile from the shell works without problems. However, after I added the Makefile as a target in XCode, I ran into problems.

The following error was produced by the Makefile:

coffee -c IOS12BSH/manual/scripts/*.coffee IOS12BSH/manual/scripts/guides/*.coffee
/bin/sh: coffee: command not found
make: *** [IOS12BSH/manual/scripts/*.js] Error 127
Command /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/make failed with exit code 2

That is strange, as the coffee command is installed on my machine (it is installed under /opt/local/bin/coffee and /opt/local/bin is added to my $PATH in ~/.profile).

So I added an echo $(PATH) to my Makefile and it seems that the $PATH is different, when the Makefile is executed by XCode. XCode does not seem to read the settings from ~/.profile and therefore /opt/local/bin is not in $PATH.

What is the reason for this and how can I fix this, so that the coffee command is found?

Answer 1

Well, it seems that programs started via the Dock or Spotlight do not execute .profile and therefore $PATH is not set correctly.

So one way would be to set the $PATH in ~/.MacOSX/environments.plist. That works then apparently, but you will need a restart before it works.

Another way is to start XCode always from the command line with open projectfile.