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Improve flutter build latency on iOS #9199

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Improve flutter build latency on iOS#9199
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P2Important issues not at the top of the work listc: performanceRelates to speed or footprint issues (see "perf:" labels)platform-iosiOS applications specificallyplatform-macosBuilding on or for macOS specificallyt: xcode"xcodebuild" on iOS and general Xcode project managementteam-iosOwned by iOS platform teamtoolAffects the "flutter" command-line tool. See also t: labels.triaged-iosTriaged by iOS platform team

Description

@xster
xster
opened on Apr 4, 2017

flutter build ios takes 30+s on my monster mac pro. Would be nice to get it faster.

Some candidates:
100+ms to read the CFBundleIdentifier from the project
1000+ms to print the build settings to do some variable substitution. Maybe we can cache this.
400+ms to check cocoapods version. Maybe we can ask for forgiveness instead of permission
1900+ms to check cocoapods dependencies. Don't know if there's any caching we can use
22000+ms to run /usr/bin/env xcrun xcodebuild clean build -configuration Release ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH=YES -workspace Runner.xcworkspace -scheme Runner BUILD_DIR=build/ios -sdk iphoneos -arch arm64. Do we really need to clean first?

Activity

  1. xster
    added
    toolAffects the "flutter" command-line tool. See also t: labels.
    c: performanceRelates to speed or footprint issues (see "perf:" labels)
    platform-macosBuilding on or for macOS specifically
    platform-iosiOS applications specifically
    on Apr 4, 2017
  2. xster
    added this to the milestone on Apr 4, 2017

  3. xster commented on Apr 4, 2017

    @xster
    xster
    on Apr 4, 2017
    MemberAuthor

    Actually the 22000+ms has a 13000+ms snapshot build component. Removing clean doesn't make much of a difference. Would be worth looking deeper into the xcodebuild's outputs and timings

  4. Hixie
    modified the milestones: 3: Current Milestone, on Dec 6, 2017

  5. Hixie commented on Dec 6, 2017

    @Hixie
    Hixie
    on Dec 6, 2017
    Contributor

    This is not on our immediate list of priorities, moving to next milestone.

  6. xster
    added
    t: xcode"xcodebuild" on iOS and general Xcode project management
    and removed
    toolAffects the "flutter" command-line tool. See also t: labels.
    on Jan 5, 2019
  7. zoechi
    added
    toolAffects the "flutter" command-line tool. See also t: labels.
    and removed
    toolAffects the "flutter" command-line tool. See also t: labels.
    on Jan 8, 2019

  8. jmagman commented on Aug 16, 2019

    @jmagman
    jmagman
    on Aug 16, 2019
    Member

    You can run with -showBuildTimingSummary:

    /usr/bin/env xcrun xcodebuild -configuration Release -workspace Runner.xcworkspace -scheme Runner -sdk iphoneos COMPILER_INDEX_STORE_ENABLE=NO -showBuildTimingSummary

    Build Timing Summary

PhaseScriptExecution (2 tasks) | 22.193 seconds

CompileC (8 tasks) | 2.454 seconds

CodeSign (3 tasks) | 0.820 seconds

CompileAssetCatalog (1 task) | 0.667 seconds

CompileStoryboard (2 tasks) | 0.510 seconds

Ld (2 tasks) | 0.198 seconds

GenerateDSYMFile (1 task) | 0.079 seconds

LinkStoryboards (1 task) | 0.014 seconds

Touch (1 task) | 0.002 seconds

CreateUniversalBinary (1 task) | 0.002 seconds

    Dominated by the xcode_backend script run.

  9. kf6gpe
    added
    P2Important issues not at the top of the work list
    on May 29, 2020
  10. kf6gpe
    removed this from the milestone on Jun 2, 2020
  11. Hixie
    removed this from the milestone on Jun 2, 2020
  12. Hixie
    removed this from the milestone on Aug 17, 2020
  13. flutter-triage-bot
    added
    multiteam-retriage-candidate
    team-iosOwned by iOS platform team
    triaged-iosTriaged by iOS platform team
    on Jul 8, 2023
  14. Hixie
    removed
    multiteam-retriage-candidate
    on Mar 6, 2024

  15. ezamagni-tg commented on Aug 22, 2025

    @ezamagni-tg
    ezamagni-tg
    on Aug 22, 2025

    We have a large project in which xcode_backend script occupies a pretty large time during iOS builds (~1 min out of 4+ min of build time).
    I was wondering how can we profile it to better inspect why it takes so long to execute.
    I was also wondering if it could be possible to parallelize it in any way with other steps of the build process.

  16. vashworth
    added a parent issue on Mar 13, 2026
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    P2Important issues not at the top of the work listc: performanceRelates to speed or footprint issues (see "perf:" labels)platform-iosiOS applications specificallyplatform-macosBuilding on or for macOS specificallyt: xcode"xcodebuild" on iOS and general Xcode project managementteam-iosOwned by iOS platform teamtoolAffects the "flutter" command-line tool. See also t: labels.triaged-iosTriaged by iOS platform team

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