Dozens of “profiling:invalid arc tag” when running code coverage in Xcode 5

Question

When running my Test target with code coverage enabled in Xcode 5, I get dozens of the following message in the build output:

profiling:invalid arc tag (0x..         


        

Answer 1

Old question, but now Xcode 7 GM is out, and this behavior hasn't changed, I took a deeper look. The issue, I believe is that code coverage of the test app target is conflicting with code coverage of the main target.

Assuming you don't actually care about code coverage of your test target these settings stop the errors for me, with no need for extra scripts or deleting files:

In your main target (be it a framework, or an app) set:

 Enable Code Coverage Support to YES
 Generage Legacy Test Coverage Files to YES
 Instrument Program Flow to YES

For my purposes I only did this for Debug builds, but your needs may vary.

Then in your Tests target set:

 Enable Code Coverage Support to NO
 Generage Legacy Test Coverage Files to NO
 Instrument Program Flow to NO

This has resolved the error messages, and still allowed the code coverage files to be created appropriately.

Again, the question is old, but as the error still is issued in XCode 7, I found this solution works better than deleting files with special scripts.