Build iOS Client

name	description
build_ios_client	Instructions for pairing with a Mac host, configuring provisioning profiles, and building the .NET MAUI iOS app on Windows.

👉 This skill outlines the process of building the GnollHack iOS client from Windows, utilizing a paired Mac for native compilation and deployment.

🍎 Prerequisites and Mac Setup

1. Mac Build Host

• A Mac computer running macOS with Xcode installed.
• The Mac must be accessible over the network from your Windows machine.
• Apple Developer account credentials added to Xcode.

2. Windows Setup

• Visual Studio with .NET MAUI workloads.
• Pair to Mac: In Visual Studio, use the Pair to Mac button in the toolbar to connect to your Mac build host.

3. Provisioning Profiles

• Create an Apple Developer account.
• Generate development and distribution provisioning profiles for the App ID com.soundmindgames.GnollHackM on the Apple Developer portal.
• In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools -> Options -> Xamarin -> Apple Accounts, add your account, and download all profiles.
• Configure GnollHackM.csproj to use your provisioning profiles for Debug and Release configurations.

📱 Building the Native iOS Library

1. Open the native solution win\win32\vs\GnollHack.sln in Visual Studio.
2. Ensure you are paired to the Mac.
3. Rebuild the solution.
   • Visual Studio delegates the compilation of the C core to the paired Mac, producing the static library libgnollhackios.a.
   • MSBuild targets (aftergnollhackios.proj) automatically copy libgnollhackios.a from the Mac output (C:\mac-out\) to the appropriate native references directory in win\win32\xpl\GnollHackM\Platforms\iOS\libs\.
   • Other necessary assets (nhdat, tilesets) are also copied over via MSBuild tasks.

🚀 Building the MAUI iOS Client

1. Open the MAUI solution win\win32\xpl\GnollHackM\GnollHackM.sln.
2. Connect your iOS device to the Mac via USB.
3. In Visual Studio (Windows), select your iOS device from the iOS Remote Devices dropdown.
4. Select the desired configuration (Debug or Release).
5. Rebuild the GnollHackM.sln solution.
6. Start debugging. The application will be deployed to the device connected to the Mac.

🔧 Troubleshooting

• If builds fail or hang, try cleaning the solution, or deleting the obj and bin directories in GnollHackM.
• On the Mac host, clearing the ~/Library/Caches/mtbs or ~/Library/Caches/XMA directories can resolve stale build states.