Disable Automatic Reference Counting for Some Files

Question

I have downloaded the iOS 5 SDK and found that ARC is a great feature of the new Apple compiler. For the time being, many third party frameworks don't support ARC. Could I use ARC for my new code and keep the current retain/release code unchanged? The ARC converter doesn't work here, because some frameworks, such as JSONKit, cannot be converted to ARC by using the converter.

Edit:

The answer is to add -fno-objc-arc to the compiler flags for the files you don't want ARC. In Xcode 4, you can do this under your target -> Build Phases -> Compile Sources.

Answer 1

The public ARC docs, while not directly clear on this point, seem to suggest that as long as each class is either all ARC or all manually-managed, the classes can be integrated into a single program.

You only can't mix ARC and non-ARC in a single class; the document says that sending retain, release, autorelease, or retainCount messages by any means (including timers and delayed performs, which use @selector) is banned in ARC code. So you can't do non-ARC in an ARC class (because the necessary messages are banned) and you can't do ARC in a non-ARC class (because ARC adds syntax elements that are invalid without ARC).

The same document is a bit clearer on whether you can integrate non-ARC libraries/frameworks into an ARC program: Yes. It doesn't mention whether you can use ARC libraries/frameworks in a program where all your code is non-ARC, but given all of the above, the implication seems to be yes.

Answer 2

It is not very intuitive how to disable ARC on MULTIPLE files, for a while I was do it one by one until a figured out how to do that.

1. Select desired files at Target/Build Phases/Compile Sources in Xcode (CMD+click or Shift+click)
2. PRESS ENTER (double click will reset the selection, so it does't work)
3. Type -fno-objc-arc
4. Press Enter or Done

Answer 3

If you want to disable Automatic Reference Counting for some Files then its really simple to do just follow the steps.You add compiler flags in Targets -> Build Phases -> Compile Sources.

The flag used is -fno-objc-arc press enter after writing it.! You have to double click on the right column of the row under Compiler Flags. Hope it helps Thanks :)

Answer 4

It is possible to disable ARC for individual files by adding the -fno-objc-arc compiler flag for those files.

How can I disable ARC for a single file in a project?