React Native Link for React Native .60 +

Question

This is still something that is required, I see this message all the time, but it's completely invalid from what I have experienced. Almost every package I work with, I still have to run the react-native link.

Can anyone tell me what's up with this? Is it just particular packages, or why do I still need to run react-native link all the time, when it tells me I shouldn't run it. I mean, it's really just adding it to the pod file for iOS and gradle for Android.

Anyone else experiencing this?

To show this further, look at this, just ran the npm install for lottie, it will not work unless I run the link, should I add to my pod file manually? I don't get why React Native (Facebook) team is saying that it's no longer required, out of our team of 4 people, we have had it required always.

Answer 1

Starting with version 0.60 React Native provides auto-linking.

That means if a library supports auto-linking all you have to do is install the library with yarn or npm, run pod install in the ios folder and build.

# install
yarn add <the-library-name>
cd ios && pod install && cd .. # CocoaPods on iOS needs this extra step
# run
yarn react-native run-ios
yarn react-native run-android

By example https://github.com/react-native-geolocation/react-native-geolocation supports auto-linking and you don't need it in the Podfile. (unless you have a very old version of it).

In your case all the libraries listed in the print-screen as manually linked were added manually using react-native link <libraryName> or manually inside the Podfile or using a reference to a .xcodeproj file inside Xcode.

To remove those errors:

Make sure you have a library version that supports auto-linking and run react-native unlink <libraryname> and pod install

Note: to avoid some problems I found that sometimes its better to remove the podfile.lock and generate a new one with the pod install

If that doesn't work follow the steps from below:

1) Remove the lines in Podfile associated with those libraries (unless the library version that you have doesn't support auto-linking, in that case you should just run use manual linking as mentioned in the library docs).

You can check how a Podfile looks for a specific RN version by taking a look in the RN upgrade helper:

https://react-native-community.github.io/upgrade-helper/?from=0.59.5&to=0.63.3

2) You should not need now manual references in Xcode for libraries that support auto-linking (unless the library requires some special step mentioned in its docs).

This is how manual linking used to be done:

Source and more info here: https://reactnative.dev/docs/linking-libraries-ios

For the libraries that support auto-linking to avoid any errors you could remove the references(.xcodeproj and others) in Xcode associated with them (unless the associated library requires the modifications in Xcode)

Sources and some useful links:

https://github.com/react-native-community/cli/blob/master/docs/autolinking.md

https://medium.com/@srbkrishnan/react-native-auto-linking-on-android-65a850bb9ed9

Additional notes about the RN upgrade: I found that if there are too many things to modify in my project.pbxproj file at an upgrade, it was easier for me to start with a brand new project.pbxproj file taken directly from the RN upgrade helper. Then I replaced RnDiffApp with MyProjectName in that file and added the library modifications that I needed in Xcode one by one.

Answer 2

You will not need to link more libs anymore you just have to upgrade your React-native module and make sure you are also using the latest Xcode and all issues will be gone. thanks.