Swift and iOS/Xcode .gitignore Configuration

Xcode and Swift projects generate substantial build caches and user-specific workspace data. A proper .gitignore is essential for teams to avoid constant merge conflicts in IDE-generated files.

Xcode build artifacts:

• DerivedData/ — Xcode's primary build cache. Contains compiled object files, linked binaries, index data, and module caches. This directory can easily reach several gigabytes per project. Located by default at ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/, but some configurations place it within the project directory. Always ignore it.
• build/ — Legacy Xcode build directory (pre-derived data era). Still used by some configurations and CI systems.
• *.xcarchive — Xcode archives created for App Store submission or ad-hoc distribution.

User-specific Xcode files:

• *.xcuserdata/ and xcuserdata/ — Contains per-user breakpoints, UI layout preferences, and scheme settings. This is the number one source of merge conflicts in iOS projects. Always ignore.
• IDEWorkspaceChecks.plist — First-launch workspace trust dialog state.
• *.xccheckout — Source control metadata in Xcode workspaces.

Dependency management:

• Pods/ — CocoaPods dependency directory. Like node_modules/, it is reproducible from Podfile.lock. Always commit Podfile.lock.
• .build/ — Swift Package Manager (SPM) build directory containing fetched dependencies and compiled products.
• Carthage/Build/ — Pre-built frameworks from Carthage. Carthage/Checkouts/ is sometimes committed for reproducibility, but ignoring both is cleaner.

Other patterns:

• *.dSYM and *.dSYM.zip — Debug symbol files. Important for crash symbolication but should be archived separately, not committed.
• *.ipa — iOS application packages. These are deployment artifacts meant for distribution.
• *.moved-aside — Xcode conflict resolution backup files created during merge resolution.
• *.hmap — Header map files used during C/Objective-C compilation.

What to commit: *.xcodeproj (the project file), *.xcworkspace (if using workspaces or CocoaPods), Podfile, Podfile.lock, Package.swift, and Package.resolved (for applications).