Open Radar

 
Summary:
Xcode 8 beta 6 is 12.04 GB, up from 10.51 GB for 7.3.1, up from 5.85 GB for 6.4, etc. It is great that Xcode has such a wide variety of features, and the ongoing work to reduce component file sizes has also been very helpful, but it’s hard to miss that Xcode has still doubled in size.

This is quickly becoming an issue – SSDs are becoming cheaper, but not everyone will be upgrading one they’ve used for several years. A computer with 120 GB of storage, running macOS Sierra, with the latest stable and beta Xcode (as might be needed to work on a released project and an in-production project), ends up using almost 30 GB on the OS and Xcode – a quarter of the disk. 

Xcode should allow users to alleviate this issue by removing components from the base Xcode app download and managing them independently. An easy example is simulators – Xcode 8’s app bundle being protected by System Integrity Protection means that for my security I can’t delete the Apple TV simulator (I have a physical Apple TV). Presumably the protection also means downloaded simulators are now stored outside of the app, so the infrastructure is already there to allow simulators to be delivered independently.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Download Xcode from developer center
2. Open Xcode_8_beta_6.xip
3. Wait for archive to be verified 
4. Wait for extraction
5. Open Xcode.app
6. Wait for app to be verified

Expected Results:
Archive and app are a tolerable size, even if a little big. Download, extract, and verify stages take a few minutes (assuming an SSD) at maximum.

Actual Results:
Archive is a 4.39 GB download – takes 45 minutes on a decent Australian internet connection. Extraction/verifications take about 15 minutes on an SSD; much longer on an HDD. An hour of productivity has potentially been lost, for instance if upgrading due to an Xcode bug that makes something hard/impossible.

Version:
Xcode 8 (8S201h)

Notes:


Configuration:


Attachments: