Can ipa file be created in debug mode?

Question

Two questions on ipa files.

• Can ipa file be created in debug mode? If so, how do you archive the file in debug mode?
• Our ipa file, after installed to a device, is outputting our logs to the console. Can we disable logging functionality to the console?

My environment Xcode 4.6 and iOS 5 & 6.

Answer 1

About the first question, yes, you can archive an app in Debug mode. From Xcode, browse the Product menu, Scheme, Manage Schemes, Edit. Select the Archive action on the left pane and choose Debug as Build Configuration in the drop down box.

If you want to restrict logging only to Debug configurations, you can add this to your ProjectName-Prefix.pch file:

#ifdef DEBUG
#define XYZLog(format, ...) NSLog(format, ## __VA_ARGS__)
#else
#define XYZLog(format, ...)
#endif

Where "XYZ" is the three letter prefix for your application (Cocoa naming convention).

Then you must use XYZLog instead of NSLog in your code and the output will only go to the console for Debug versions.

Answer 2

So to create a debuggable IPA, you will need to Archive it and save for Ad-Hoc or Enterprise.

As far as logging to the console in this ad-hoc build, there are several ways to do this, see this answer.