Essential Swift Package Manager Commands

Swift Package Manager provides essential commands beyond basic building for managing Swift packages efficiently.

Build Commands

# Build debug configuration
swift build

# Output
> Build complete! (5.23s)

# Build optimized release
swift build -c release

# Show binary location
swift build --show-bin-path

# Output
> /Users/user/project/.build/debug

Run Commands

# Build and run executable
swift run

# Run specific target
swift run MyTargetName

# Output
> Building for debugging...
> Build complete! (1.45s)
> [Program output]

Testing Commands

# Run all tests
swift test

# Output
> Test Suite 'All tests' passed at 2026-01-07 02:45:00.000.
> Executed 12 tests, with 0 failures (0 unexpected) in 2.341 (2.345) seconds

# Run specific test case
swift test -s TestModule.TestCase

# Run specific test method
swift test -s TestModule.TestCase/test1

Clean Commands

# Delete .build directory
swift package clean

# Remove .build and Packages
swift package clean --clean=dist

Package Management

# Create new executable package
swift package init --type executable

# Create new library package
swift package init --type library

# Update dependencies
swift package update

# Resolve dependencies
swift package resolve

# Show dependency tree
swift package show-dependencies

# Output
> MyPackage
> └── Alamofire<https://github.com/Alamofire/Alamofire.git@5.8.1>

Useful Options

# Change working directory
swift build --chdir /path/to/project
swift build -C /path/to/project

# Custom build directory
swift build --build-path /custom/path

Common Workflows

Fresh build after dependency changes:

swift package clean && swift build

Release build with binary location:

swift build -c release --show-bin-path

Run specific target with clean build:

swift package clean && swift run TargetName

When to Use Each Command

• swift build: Daily development builds
• swift build -c release: Production binaries, performance testing
• swift package clean: Resolve build cache issues
• swift package clean --clean=dist: Fix dependency resolution problems
• swift test: Pre-commit validation
• swift package show-dependencies: Audit dependency tree

Important Notes

• swift build --clean removed in Swift 4, use swift package clean
• --show-bin-path useful for CI/CD scripts
• -c release enables optimizations (-O flag)
• swift run combines build and execution