Cocoapods: Unable to find a specification for [PrivateSpec] depended upon by [PrivateClientSpec]

Question

I am trying to use private repositories to break up a larger application. I have followed the guides at:

• http://www.objectpartners.com/2014/06/25/developing-private-in-house-libraries-with-cocoapods/
• http://guides.cocoapods.org/making/private-cocoapods.html
• How to add a private CocoaPod as a dependency in another pod .podspec (similar but a different problem)

I have created a local repository to contain the specs, published to cocoapods via

pod remote add MySpecs ~/local/path/to/MySpecs.git,

verified that cocoapods sees them by looking at the contents of ~/.cocoapods/repos/MySpecs

I have referenced PrivateSpec within PrivateClientSpec as follows:

s.dependency 'PrivateSpec' '~> 0.1.0'

The problem is that when I try to lint this PrivateClientSpec, I get the titular error:

Unable to find a specification for [PrivateSpec] depended upon by [PrivateClientSpec]

Am I missing something? From what I understand, this is supported behavior. I am using cocoapods v0.35.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The reason is that the pod spec linter is only checking the master specs, so it can't find your private one.

You'll need to use the --sources option, like this:

pod spec lint --sources='git@our-private-spec-repo:iOS/Specs.git,https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs'

Two things two note:

• Your private specs need to be online, can't check on a local one
• If you depend on other pods you'll need to add the URL for their Spec repo too, that's why in the example we have https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs too.

By running pod spec lint --help you can read more about this option:

--sources=https://github.com/artsy/Specs   The sources from which to pull
                                           dependant pods (defaults to
                                           https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git).
                                           Multiple sources must be
                                           comma-delimited.

More on this here and here

Answer 2

In order for pod install to work properly I still had to add:

source '<Prive specs lib URL>'
source 'https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git'

..to the pod file (not podspec).

To get rid of:

Unable to find a specification for [PrivateSpec] depended upon by [PrivateClientSpec]

Then If you also failed to install with error like this

pod install --verbose

  Preparing

Re-creating CocoaPods due to major version update.
  - Running source provider hooks
https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git
<Prive specs lib URL>
source_url <Prive specs lib URL>

Analyzing dependencies

Inspecting targets to integrate
  Using `ARCHS` setting to build architectures of target `Pods-YourTarget`: (``)

Finding Podfile changes
  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Resolving dependencies of `Podfile`

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### Command

```
/usr/local/bin/pod install --verbose
```

### Report

* What did you do?

* What did you expect to happen?

* What happened instead?


### Stack

```
   CocoaPods : 1.1.1
        Ruby : ruby 2.0.0p648 (2015-12-16 revision 53162) [universal.x86_64-darwin16]
    RubyGems : 2.6.10
        Host : Mac OS X 10.12.4 (16E195)
       Xcode : 8.3.2 (8E2002)
         Git : git version 2.11.0 (Apple Git-81)
Ruby lib dir : /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib
Repositories : alibaba-specs -  @ fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
               aliyun - git@github.com:aliyun/aliyun-specs.git @ 7406176b51b4d4f8f323a39f4d96a3857229805d
               aliyun-1 - <Prive specs lib URL> @ 7406176b51b4d4f8f323a39f4d96a3857229805d
               master - https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git @ 86c330635113e7fc290fdebad4ba3ed0dca2daee
               taobao-baichuansdk-alibcspecs - http://repo.baichuan-ios.taobao.com/baichuanSDK/AliBCSpecs.git @ e8cb2ae2ee7f44582923e4fae29243d6225fa8ee
```

### Plugins

```
cocoapods-deintegrate   : 1.0.1
cocoapods-plugins       : 1.0.0
cocoapods-repo-alirsync : 1.0.4
cocoapods-repo-rsync    : 1.0.4
cocoapods-search        : 1.0.0
cocoapods-stats         : 1.0.0
cocoapods-trunk         : 1.2.0
cocoapods-try           : 1.1.0
```

### Podfile

```ruby
# Uncomment this line to define a global platform for your project
# platform :ios, '8.0'
# Uncomment this line if you're using Swift
# use_frameworks!


source 'https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git'
source '<Prive specs lib URL>'


target 'YourTarget' do
  pod 'AlicloudFeedback', ‘~> 3.0.1’
end
```

### Error

```
RuntimeError - Cannot initialize an aggregate with a nil source: ([nil])
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-core-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods-core/source/aggregate.rb:13:in `initialize'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/resolver.rb:356:in `new'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/resolver.rb:356:in `aggregate_for_dependency'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/resolver.rb:347:in `create_set_from_sources'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/resolver.rb:317:in `find_cached_set'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/resolver.rb:290:in `specifications_for_dependency'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/resolver.rb:108:in `search_for'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/resolver.rb:206:in `block in sort_dependencies'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/resolver.rb:200:in `each'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/resolver.rb:200:in `sort_by'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/resolver.rb:200:in `sort_dependencies'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/molinillo-0.5.7/lib/molinillo/delegates/specification_provider.rb:52:in `block in sort_dependencies'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/molinillo-0.5.7/lib/molinillo/delegates/specification_provider.rb:69:in `with_no_such_dependency_error_handling'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/molinillo-0.5.7/lib/molinillo/delegates/specification_provider.rb:51:in `sort_dependencies'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/molinillo-0.5.7/lib/molinillo/resolution.rb:165:in `initial_state'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/molinillo-0.5.7/lib/molinillo/resolution.rb:106:in `start_resolution'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/molinillo-0.5.7/lib/molinillo/resolution.rb:64:in `resolve'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/molinillo-0.5.7/lib/molinillo/resolver.rb:42:in `resolve'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/resolver.rb:62:in `resolve'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/installer/analyzer.rb:723:in `block in resolve_dependencies'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/user_interface.rb:64:in `section'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/installer/analyzer.rb:721:in `resolve_dependencies'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/installer/analyzer.rb:76:in `analyze'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:236:in `analyze'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:150:in `block in resolve_dependencies'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/user_interface.rb:64:in `section'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:149:in `resolve_dependencies'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:110:in `install!'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/command/install.rb:37:in `run'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/claide-1.0.1/lib/claide/command.rb:334:in `run'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/lib/cocoapods/command.rb:50:in `run'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/cocoapods-1.1.1/bin/pod:55:in `<top (required)>'
/usr/local/bin/pod:22:in `load'
/usr/local/bin/pod:22:in `<main>'
```

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[!] Oh no, an error occurred.

Search for existing GitHub issues similar to yours:
https://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods/search?q=Cannot+initialize+an+aggregate+with+a+nil+source%3A+%28%5Bnil%5D%29&type=Issues

If none exists, create a ticket, with the template displayed above, on:
https://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods/issues/new

Be sure to first read the contributing guide for details on how to properly submit a ticket:
https://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

Don't forget to anonymize any private data!

Looking for related issues on cocoapods/cocoapods...
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   https://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods/pull/4249 [closed] [33 comments]
   28 Oct 2015


[!] Your Podfile has had smart quotes sanitised. To avoid issues in the future, you should not use TextEdit for editing it. If you are not using TextEdit, you should turn off smart quotes in your editor of choice.

Then you should try to update your CocoaPods version. This may help you: https://stackoverflow.com/a/39973232/3395008

Answer 3

In order for pod install to work properly I still had to add:

source '<Prive specs lib URL>'
source 'https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git'

..to the pod file (not podspec).

To get rid of:

Unable to find a specification for [PrivateSpec] depended upon by [PrivateClientSpec]

Answer 4

In case mokagio's answer doesn't work for anyone, here is what worked for me:

Just change private repo url to https://

pod spec lint --sources='https://our-private-spec-repo:iOS/Specs.git,https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs'

Answer 5

For me the error persisted even after cleaning the cache. The solve was to match the latest tag and latest podspec version. My local podspec version was pointing to an old tag. It worked immediately after those matched.