'Executable path is a directory' Xcode popup error

Question

I have an iOS Xcode project with 3 targets - AppTarget, Lib1 and Lib2.

Hierarchy:

• AppTarget is dependent on Lib1 and Lib2. It has no code (SceneDelegate, AppDelegate etc. is moved to Lib1).
• Lib1 is a static library containing the AppDelegate and SceneDelegate (Lets not get into why they were moved here from the AppTarget).
• Lib2 is a static library, dependent on Lib1. It extends the SceneDelegate class using swift extensions.

In order to get the above structure, I had to add, remove file references and set dependencies.

When I run the AppTarget, I get the following popup after build succeeds,

Pasting the above error as a text,

Details

Executable Path is a Directory
Domain: DVTMachOErrorDomain
Code: 5
Recovery Suggestion: /Users/<user_name>/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/<project_name>-bnytgzvocmpwyuajjxxjivpkymui/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/<project_name>.app is not a valid path to an executable file.
User Info: {
    DVTErrorCreationDateKey = "2022-11-03 08:04:49 +0000";
}

I'm not sure why this happened. I didn't mess with the default executable path in Xcode->Preferences->Location tab.

There's an Apple forum post which describes a similar error (not the same). The solution was to check for references of old files, which are not present now. I have verified the Target->Build Phases->Compile Sources of all 3 targets and things are as expected....Didn't see any 'faint files'.

What am I missing here? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I'm using Xcode 14.0.1 and swift 5+.

Answer 1

One of the reasons for this can be if there are no sources in the app target. If there is no code, the executable does not get generated as expected. See if adding a dummy/sample source code works i.e. Just a swift file with an empty class should also do the trick.

Answer 2

What worked for me:

1. Delete app from simulator
2. Delete DerivedData folder -> ~/Xcode/DerivedData
3. Quit Xcode
4. Restart computer
5. Launch Xcode, clean project (command + k), clean build folder (shift+command+k)

From there I was able to run my app target successfully ✅

Answer 3

Exclude the arm64 arch when building for the Simulator. The reason is the Simulator is using X86 based architecture. When building for a real device, like an iPhone, you must remove the Architecture exclusion. The iPhone is using arm based arch. See the snapshot here:

Answer 4

Delete app from simulator Delete DerivedData folder -> ~/Xcode/DerivedData Quit Xcode Restart computer Launch Xcode, clean project (command + k), clean build folder (shift+command+k) From there I was able to run my app target successfully

Before this Please check the Compile sources in Build Phase if it's not there please add it or add the missing file for compile source. It will work 100%

Answer 5

In my case it was a pretty standard syntax error in the code and the compiler not being able to display correct error message. I suspect the binary could not be built and if it could not be built it could not be built and run. I just started doing the standard comment out code until I could find the problem which was a missing end brace "}". BTW, this is a common issue I run into with SwiftUI. The version of Xcode I was running is that latest as of this writing, 14.3.1.

Answer 6

I had the similar issue, I was able to resolve it by running the Emulator with Rosetta.

Here is the steps I followed

Open your project with Xcode, Click on Product menu, Click on Destination, Destination Architectures, and select Show Rosetta Destinations

Product > Destination > Destination Architectures > Show Rosetta Destinations

After the above steps, the Simulator was displayed with Rosetta label in brackets and that solved the problem