Command Line Tools

The compilers and developer tools you need in Terminal, without the full Xcode.

Introduced

2012

Xcode 4.3

Kind

Tool

Runs on

macOS

Get it from

xcode-select --install, or Apple Developer downloads

Free

iOS

iPadOS

Mac Catalyst

macOS

tvOS

visionOS

watchOS

Overview

Command Line Tools give you clang, the Swift toolchain, git, make and other essentials. Homebrew and many open source projects rely on them.

With Xcode installed, the same tools come with it, and you can drive builds and tests from scripts with xcodebuild.

swift build, swift test and swift run for packages.

Compile C, C++ and Objective-C, with make, git and more.

Build, test and archive Xcode projects from scripts and CI.

Find and run any tool from the active developer directory.

Terminal

xcode-select --install

swift --version

xcodebuild test \
  -scheme MyApp \
  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 17'

History

2012

Xcode 4.3 makes the command-line tools a separate, optional install.

2013

OS X Mavericks installs the tools from Terminal, no Xcode required.

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