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XCODE-SELECT(1) BSD General Commands Manual XCODE-SELECT(1)

xcode-select - Manages the active developer directory for Xcode and BSD tools.

xcode-select [-h|--help] [-s|--switch <path>] [-p|--print-path] [-v|--version]

xcode-select controls the location of the developer directory used by xcrun(1), xcodebuild(1), cc(1), and other Xcode and BSD development tools. This also controls the locations that are searched for by man(1) for developer tool manpages.

This allows you to easily switch between different versions of the Xcode tools and can be used to update the path to the Xcode if it is moved after installation.

When multiple Xcode applications are installed on a system (e.g. /Applications/Xcode.app, containing the latest Xcode, and /Applications/Xcode-beta.app containing a beta) use xcode-select --switch path/to/Xcode.app to specify the Xcode that you wish to use for command line developer tools.

After setting a developer directory, all of the xcode-select provided developer tool shims (see FILES) will automatically invoke the version of the tool inside the selected developer directory. Your own scripts, makefiles, and other tools can also use xcrun(1) to easily lookup tools inside the active developer directory, making it easy to switch them between different versions of the Xcode tools and allowing them to function properly on systems where the Xcode application has been installed to a non-default location.

Prints the usage message.

Sets the active developer directory to the given path, for example /Applications/Xcode-beta.app. This command must be run with superuser permissions (see sudo(8)), and will affect all users on the system. To set the path without superuser permissions or only for the current shell session, use the DEVELOPER_DIR environment variable instead (see ENVIRONMENT).

Prints the path to the currently selected developer directory. This is useful for inspection, but scripts and other tools should use xcrun(1) to locate tool inside the active developer directory.

Unsets any user-specified developer directory, so that the developer directory will be found via the default search mechanism. This command must be run with superuser permissions (see sudo(8)), and will affect all users on the system.

Prints xcode-select version information.

Opens a user interface dialog to request automatic installation of the command line developer tools.

DEVELOPER_DIR

Overrides the active developer directory. When DEVELOPER_DIR is set, its value will be used instead of the system-wide active developer directory.

Note that for historical reason, the developer directory is considered to be the Developer content directory inside the Xcode application (for example /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer). You can set the environment variable to either the actual Developer contents directory, or the Xcode application directory -- the xcode-select provided shims will automatically convert the environment variable into the full Developer content path.



xcode-select --switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

Select /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer as the active developer directory.


xcode-select --switch /Applications/Xcode.app

As above, selects /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer as the active developer directory. The Developer content directory is automatically inferred by xcode-select.


/usr/bin/xcodebuild

Runs xcodebuild out of the active developer directory.


/usr/bin/xcrun --find xcodebuild

Use xcrun to locate xcodebuild inside the active developer directory.


env DEVELOPER_DIR="/Applications/Xcode-beta.app" /usr/bin/xcodebuild

Execute xcodebuild using an alternate developer directory.


/usr/bin/xcrun

Used to find or run arbitrary commands from the active developer directory. See xcrun(1) for more information.


/usr/bin/actool /usr/bin/agvtool /usr/bin/desdp /usr/bin/genstrings /usr/bin/ibtool /usr/bin/ictool /usr/bin/opendiff /usr/bin/pip3 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/sdef /usr/bin/sdp /usr/bin/stapler /usr/bin/xcodebuild /usr/bin/xcscontrol /usr/bin/xcsdiagnose /usr/bin/xctrace /usr/bin/xed

Runs the matching Xcode tool from with the active developer directory.


/usr/bin/DeRez /usr/bin/GetFileInfo /usr/bin/ResMerger /usr/bin/Rez /usr/bin/SetFile /usr/bin/SplitForks /usr/bin/ar /usr/bin/as /usr/bin/asa /usr/bin/bison /usr/bin/c89 /usr/bin/c99 /usr/bin/clang++ /usr/bin/clang /usr/bin/clangd /usr/bin/cmpdylib /usr/bin/codesign_allocate /usr/bin/cpp /usr/bin/ctags /usr/bin/ctf_insert /usr/bin/dsymutil /usr/bin/dwarfdump /usr/bin/flex++ /usr/bin/flex /usr/bin/g++ /usr/bin/gatherheaderdoc /usr/bin/gcc /usr/bin/gcov /usr/bin/git-receive-pack /usr/bin/git-shell /usr/bin/git-upload-archive /usr/bin/git-upload-pack /usr/bin/git /usr/bin/gm4 /usr/bin/gnumake /usr/bin/gperf /usr/bin/hdxml2manxml /usr/bin/headerdoc2html /usr/bin/indent /usr/bin/install_name_tool /usr/bin/ld /usr/bin/lex /usr/bin/libtool /usr/bin/lipo /usr/bin/lldb /usr/bin/lorder /usr/bin/m4 /usr/bin/make /usr/bin/mig /usr/bin/nm /usr/bin/nmedit /usr/bin/objdump /usr/bin/otool /usr/bin/pagestuff /usr/bin/ranlib /usr/bin/resolveLinks /usr/bin/rpcgen /usr/bin/segedit /usr/bin/size /usr/bin/strings /usr/bin/strip /usr/bin/swift /usr/bin/swiftc /usr/bin/unifdef /usr/bin/unifdefall /usr/bin/vtool /usr/bin/xml2man /usr/bin/yacc

Runs the matching BSD tool from with the active developer directory.


xcrun(1), xcodebuild(1)

The xcode-select command first appeared in Xcode 3.0.

June 24, 2019 Mac OS X