What are Embedded Binaries in Xcode?

I'm using Alamofire in a Swift project, and part of their manual installation instructions are to add Alamofire under Embedded Binaries in the General tab for my application target.

What are Embedded Binaries?

Embedded binaries are binary files that are copied to your application bundle when you build the project. Use embedded binaries when your application relies on third-party frameworks so people can use your application without needing those frameworks installed on their machine. Embedded binaries keep users from having to manually install third-party frameworks. Your application uses the framework you embedded.

In your Alamofire example your application relies on Alamofire. If you didn't embed the Alamofire framework, nobody would be able to use your application unless they installed Alamofire manually. By embedding Alamofire with your application everyone can run your application.

• "Binary" means: compiled code — as opposed to "source code", which is what you are working with when you write code as text.

  They could have given you source code and let you compile it, but they didn't; they are keeping the source code secret, so they've given it all to you after compilation, so that you can't read it.

• "Embedded" means: to be included inside your app bundle, by copying them into it at build time.

  So, they are handing you some compiled code (frameworks) and telling you how to include them inside your app bundle. These frameworks, unlike Cocoa's frameworks, do not already exist on the device, so if you don't include them inside the app, they won't be present and your app would be unable to call into them.

  Contrast this to Cocoa's frameworks. They, too, are compiled code. But they do already exist on the device. Therefore they are not embedded inside your app; they are merely linked (and, if they appeared, would appear in the next group, Linked Frameworks and Libraries).

##Embedding binaries copies the entire framework to the target.

> A framework is a hierarchical directory that encapsulates a dynamic > library, header files, and resources, such as storyboards, image > files, and localized strings, into a single package. Apps using > frameworks need to embed the framework in the app's bundle.

So, when you embed a framework in your app, it increases the size of your app because it is copied to you app bundle. In most of the scenarios we will be using this sections when we are using third party framework.

When we add a framework to Embedded Binaries it automatically adds that framework to Linked Frameworks and Libraries also.

Refer to apple documentation for more details: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/technotes/tn2435/_index.html