# Building for Apple Platforms

build_xcframework.py creates an xcframework supporting a variety of Apple platforms.

You'll need the following to run these steps:
- MacOS 10.15 or later
- Python 3.6 or later
- CMake 3.18.5/3.19.0 or later (make sure the `cmake` command is available on your PATH)
- Xcode 12.2 or later (and its command line tools)

You can then run build_xcframework.py, as below:
```
cd ~/<my_working_directory>
python opencv/platforms/apple/build_xcframework.py ./build_xcframework
```

Grab a coffee, because you'll be here for a while. By default this builds OpenCV for 8 architectures across 4 platforms:

- iOS (`--iphoneos_archs`): arm64, armv7
- iOS Simulator (`--iphonesimulator_archs`): x86_64, arm64
- macOS (`--macos_archs`): x86_64, arm64
- Mac Catalyst (`--catalyst_archs`): x86_64, arm64

If everything's fine, you will eventually get `opencv2.xcframework` in the output directory.

The script has some configuration options to exclude platforms and architectures you don't want to build for. Use the `--help` flag for more information.

## Examples

You may override the defaults by specifying a value for any of the `*_archs` flags. For example, if you want to build for arm64 on every platform, you can do this:

```
python build_xcframework.py somedir --iphoneos_archs arm64 --iphonesimulator_archs arm64 --macos_archs arm64 --catalyst_archs arm64
```

If you want to build only for certain platforms, you can supply the `--build_only_specified_archs` flag, which makes the script build only the archs you directly ask for. For example, to build only for Catalyst, you can do this:

```
python build_xcframework.py somedir --catalyst_archs x86_64,arm64 --build_only_specified_archs
```