Although Swift was announced in WWDC 2014, Swift wasn’t released as open source until December 2015. Swift is built on the LLVM compiler, and is completely interoperable with C and Objective-C. The LLVM compiler is a very unique compiler and can support new languages without little to no modifications. This is a stark contrast to other compilers like GCC that must be forked to support new platforms and features. LLVM itself does not compile Swift nor C, it only accepts LLVM IR (Low Level Virtual Machine Intermediate Representation), an intermediary byte code, hence its name. Despite the use of virtual machine in its name, and only accepting byte code, LLVM uses Ahead of Time Compilation instead of Just in Time Compilation like the Java Virtual Machine (Java) and Common Language Infrastructure (C#) use. This results in LLVM supporting multiple languages and optimizations, but still being able to export machine assembly code like traditional compilers. In order to generate the intermediary byte code LLVM needs, a compiler front end is needed to compile a specific programming language into LLVM IR.
Because Swift is interoperable with C, it requires Clang, the LLVM front end for the C family of languages. Clang, coupled with LLVM as its back end, is a full stack replacement for GCC. Clang’s command-line interface is similar to and shares many flags and options with GCC. Clang is the default compiler for the PS4 SDK, and has recently replaced GCC for the Android SDK. For server-side purposes, a Debian-based Linux operating system is recommended, namely Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. You can install the dependencies for the Swift compiler with the following command:
sudo apt-get install clang libicu-dev git
Clang is required for the Swift compiler to interact with C and Objective-C, and will automatically install LLVM as a dependency. The International Components for Unicode library is required for the Swift Standard Library to properly perform operations with unicode text in its String type. Finally, git is required for the Swift Package Manager (which we will discuss in detail later in this chapter) to fetch dependencies.
You can fetch the official releases of Swift at swift.org. In this book all of our code uses the Swift 3.0 release. The official releases of Swift for Ubuntu contain the Swift Compiler (an LLVM front end) and Standard Library as well as other base libraries familiar to iOS developers: Foundation, XCTest and Grand Central Dispatch. Swift also has its own dependency manager called the Swift Package Manager, which relies on git to fetch dependencies. You can download a copy of the Swift 3.0 compiler suite for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with the following command:
wget https://swift.org/builds/swift-3.0-release/ubuntu1404/swift-3.0-RELEASE/swift-3.0-RELEASE-ubuntu14.04.tar.gz
Once you have the release, you must decompress it.
tar -zxvf swift-3.0-RELEASE-ubuntu14.04.tar.gz
Finally, you must add the compiler’s executables path to the current command line session path in order to use it call them by name.
export PATH=/path/to/swift-3.0-RELEASE-ubuntu14.04/usr/bin/:"${PATH}"
Note that this final step needs to be repeated every time want to use Swift in a new command line session, no matter whether you are using the Terminal app on Ubuntu, or remotely connecting to a server with SSH. Verify installation of Swift with the following command:
swift —version
Which should print the following:
Swift version 3.0.0 (swift-3.0.0-RELEASE)
Target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
Now that you are all setup to using Swift on Linux, lets build an executable. We will use the Swift Package Manager to define a package. A package consists of multiple modules. A module in Swift is both a target and a namespace, and can be an executable, or a library. To build an executable just include main.swift in the module’s folder, and for libraries do not include such file. Let’s build a helloworld executable using the Swift Package Manager by creating main.swift in the following directory layout:
helloworld/sources/main.swift
And set main.swift to the following:
print("Hello, Swift!")
Now build the package with swift build. Make sure to execute this command while in the helloworld directory and not in sources. Now execute the built binary with .build/debug/helloworld, you should see the following:
Hello, Swift!
Now lets build a bit more complex setup. We will build a package that builds both an executable, and a library that the executable will link against. In addition, that library will consume a third partly library from Github, and include its set of unit tests. Create a folder called SecureData which will be the root folder for our Swift package. Declare the package’s contents by creating a Package.swift file.
// SecureData/Package.swift
import PackageDescription
let package = Package(
name: "SecureData",
targets: [
Target(
name: "noncegen",
dependencies: [.Target(name: "SecureData")]
),
Target(
name: "SecureData"
)
],
dependencies: [
.Package(url: "https://github.com/krzyzanowskim/CryptoSwift", majorVersion: 0)
]
)
In this file we are declaring a package called SecureData. It requires the CryptoSwift library at 0.x.x. This package will build a SecureData target (which will be a library) and a noncegen target (an executable). The Swift Package Manager will first fetch and compile the external dependencies, then compile SecureData, as it is a requirement for noncegen. Next lets define our SecureData library. We will need to create the following folders:
SecureData/Sources
SecureData/Sources/SecureData
The subfolders in Sources must match the names of the targets we declared in our Package.swift definition. Next lets create a SecureData.swift file that will define the main protocol we use in out library.
// SecureData/Sources/SecureData/SecureData.swift
import Foundation
import CryptoSwift
/// Secure Data Protocol.
public protocol SecureData: Equatable, CustomStringConvertible {
/// The data length.
static var length: Int { get }
/// The data.
var data: Data { get }
/// Initialize with data.
init?(data: Data)
/// Initialize with random value.
init()
}
public extension SecureData {
/// Generate random data with the specified size.
public static func random() -> Data {
let bytes = CryptoSwift.AES.randomIV(Self.length)
return Data(bytes: bytes)
}
}
// MARK: - CustomStringConvertible
extension SecureData {
public var description: String {
return data.toHexString()
}
}
// MARK: - Equatable
public func == <T: SecureData> (lhs: T, rhs: T) -> Bool {
return lhs.data == rhs.data
}
Our SecureData protocol defines its requirements, as well as shared implementations of ==, Self.random() and self.description. Lets define a Nonce type that conforms to SecureData.
// SecureData/Sources/SecureData/Nonce.swift
import Foundation
/// Cryptographic nonce
public struct Nonce: SecureData {
public static let length = 16
public let data: Data
public init?(data: Data) {
guard data.count == type(of: self).length
else { return nil }
self.data = data
}
public init() {
self.data = Nonce.random()
}
}
Nonce will contain 16 bytes of randomly generated data, and does not have to worry about how to generate that data, the SecureData protocol extension takes care of that. Also note that Nonce conforms to Equatable and CustomStringConvertible without providing its own implementation, an example of inheritance without classes with Protocol Oriented Programming. Lets build unit tests to make sure our code is working correctly. Create the following folders:
SecureData/Tests
SecureData/Tests/SecureDataTests
And add a LinuxMain.swift file in the Tests folder. This file will define the unit test suites that will run. Because XCTest is an Objective-C framework on OS X, it uses dynamic reflection to deduce your unit test suites and does not need this file.
// SecureData/Tests/LinuxMain.swift
import XCTest
@testable import SecureDataTests
XCTMain([testCase(NonceTests.allTests)])
Next lets implement a unit test suite with various tests. Add NonceTests.swift in the SecureDataTests subfolder of Tests. A package can define many test modules, in our case we only define one test module (SecureDataTests), with one test case (NonceTests).
// SecureData/Tests/SecureDataTests/NonceTests.swift
import XCTest
import Foundation
@testable import SecureData
final class NonceTests: XCTestCase {
static var allTests = [
("testLength", testLength),
("testInitWithData", testInitWithData),
("testEquatable", testEquatable)
]
func testLength() {
let nonce = Nonce()
XCTAssert(nonce.data.isEmpty == false, "Generated nonce data must not be empty")
XCTAssert(nonce.data.count == Nonce.length, "Generated nonce data must equal the size of nonce data")
}
func testInitWithData() {
XCTAssert(Nonce(data: Data()) == nil, "Cannot initialize nonce with empty data")
XCTAssert(Nonce(data: Data(bytes: [0x01, 0x02, 0x03])) == nil, "Cannot initialize nonce with invalid length of data")
}
func testEquatable() {
XCTAssert(Nonce() != Nonce(), "Two randomly generated nonces cannot be the same")
let nonce = Nonce()
let nonceCopy = Nonce(data: nonce.data)
XCTAssert(nonce == nonceCopy, "Nonces with same data must be equal")
}
}
Before running the unit test, lets implement a simple command line tool to use our library from the command line. Create a main.swift file in the noncegen folder, so the Swift package manager will compile that target as an executable and not a library.
// SecureData/Sources/noncegen/main.swift
import Foundation
import SecureData
let nonce = Nonce()
print(nonce)
Now lets run our unit tests to make sure our code is working properly.
swift test
You should output similar to the following:
Test Suite 'All tests' started at 03:46:54.729
Test Suite 'debug.xctest' started at 03:46:54.731
Test Suite 'NonceTests' started at 03:46:54.731
Test Case 'NonceTests.testLength' started at 03:46:54.731
Test Case 'NonceTests.testLength' passed (0.0 seconds).
Test Case 'NonceTests.testInitWithData' started at 03:46:54.732
Test Case 'NonceTests.testInitWithData' passed (0.0 seconds).
Test Case 'NonceTests.testEquatable' started at 03:46:54.732
Test Case 'NonceTests.testEquatable' passed (0.0 seconds).
Test Suite 'NonceTests' passed at 03:46:54.732
Executed 3 tests, with 0 failures (0 unexpected) in 0.0 (0.0) seconds
Test Suite 'debug.xctest' passed at 03:46:54.732
Executed 3 tests, with 0 failures (0 unexpected) in 0.0 (0.0) seconds
Test Suite 'All tests' passed at 03:46:54.732
Executed 3 tests, with 0 failures (0 unexpected) in 0.0 (0.0) seconds
Lets clean our current build artifacts and build our command line tool. You should see some randomly generated hexadecimal in your console.
swift build ——clean
swift build
.build/debug/noncegen
You can also build and run an optimized version of your code.
swift build ——configuration release
.build/release/noncegen
On OS X you can generate an Xcode project file with swift package generate-xcodeproj. This allows you to use Apple’s IDE for debugging and development, and not worry about manually managing which files and targets you want to compile.
When developing cross-platform Swift code, be aware of the differences between Apple’s platforms (macOS, iOS, watchOS, tvOS) and Linux. For starters, the C standard library on Linux is Glibc, while on Apple platforms its Darwin.C module.
// Import standard C library
#if os(macOS) || os(iOS)
import Darwin.C
#else
import Glibc
#endif
let string = "TestString"
let cStringLength = strlen(string)
print("String length is", cStringLength)
Some functions from the C standard library on Darwin (the kernel used in Apple’s platforms) are not available on Linux. arc4random_uniform() being an example. SwiftShims module provides portable C functions for extended POSIX functionality.
// Import standard C library
#if os(macOS) || os(iOS)
import Darwin.C
#else
import SwiftShims
import Glibc
#endif
let upperBound: UInt32 = 10
let randomValue: UInt32
#if os(Linux)
randomValue = _swift_stdlib_cxx11_mt19937_uniform(upperBound)
#else
randomValue = arc4random_uniform(upperBound)
#endif
print("Random number:", randomValue)
Likewise, there are some C functions like system() that can only run on Linux.
#if os(Linux)
import Glibc
system("uname")
#else
print("Cannot access the command line")
#endif
The Foundation library is the base library that comes bundled with builds of Swift to complement the Standard Library. Foundation includes basic types such as Date, Data, UUID, URL RegularExpression, and JSONSerialization, which are needed for most applications but don’t belong the in the Standard Library, thus they are not a part of the language per-se.
Here is a simple example of how you would represent requests to a server using Foundation in Swift.
import Foundation
enum Environment: String {
case Staging = "https://staging.myserver.com/api"
case Production = "https://myserver.com/api"
}
protocol Request: CustomStringConvertible {
var environment: Environment { get set }
func toRequest() -> URLRequest
}
extension Request {
var description: String {
let request = self.toRequest()
let method = request.httpMethod!
let url = request.url!.absoluteString
var description = method + " " + url
if let body = request.httpBody,
let string = String(data: body, encoding: .utf8) {
description += " " + string
}
return description
}
}
/// Example GET request.
struct GetUserProfileRequest: Request {
var environment: Environment
var username: String
func toRequest() -> URLRequest {
let url = URL(string: environment.rawValue + "/user/" + username)!
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.httpMethod = "GET"
return request
}
}
/// Example PUT request.
struct UpdateUserProfile: Request {
var environment: Environment
var username: String
var firstName: String
var lastName: String
var email: String
enum JSONKey: String {
case firstName, lastName, email
}
func toRequest() -> URLRequest {
let url = URL(string: environment.rawValue + "/user/" + username)!
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.httpMethod = "PUT"
// JSON
var jsonBody = [String: String]()
jsonBody[JSONKey.firstName.rawValue] = firstName
jsonBody[JSONKey.lastName.rawValue] = lastName
jsonBody[JSONKey.email.rawValue] = email
request.httpBody = try! JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: jsonBody, options: .prettyPrinted)
return request
}
}
let environment: Environment = .Staging
let username = "johnapple1995"
let getRequest = GetUserProfileRequest(environment: environment, username: username)
print(getRequest)
let putRequest = UpdateUserProfile(environment: environment, username: username, firstName: "John", lastName: "Apple", email: "johnapple1995@icloud.com")
print(putRequest)
Optimizing your code for concurrency and multithreaded environments is a common practice in modern application programming, from server-side to mobile software. In modern POSIX operating systems, threads allow concurrent processing within a process, which is absolutely vital for highly performant and scalable applications. The efficiency of creating multiple threads for concurrent operations will vary based on the amount of CPUs on the computer. For example, an image processing application optimized and coded to use two threads, will be highly performant on a dual-core CPU. On the other hand, the performance will decrease on a CPU with a single CPU, and on a CPU with 3 or 4 cores, it will not be taking advantage of the other cores on the CPU. Because of this issue, Apple created a library called libdispatch or Grand Central Dispatch. It abstracts away the concept of threads and deals with queues. A DispatchQueue represents a queue of tasks, and depending on the CPU resources available (e.g. number of cores), schedules the queue’s pending tasks for execution. A queue can be serial or concurrent. The advantage of working with GCD vs POSIX threads, is twofold: a simpler programming and concurrency model, and better performance. Grand Central Dispatch implements algorithms to decide how many threads should be created for a concurrent queue, so the programmer does not need to know how many threads to create or how to optimize a program for a certain number of CPUs.
import Foundation
import Dispatch
// get number of CPU cores for informational purposes
print("Running on \(sysconf(Int32(_SC_NPROCESSORS_ONLN))) CPU cores")
enum Response {
case error(Error)
case data(Data)
}
let start = Date()
var responses = [Response]()
let numberOfOperations = 100
let serialQueue = DispatchQueue(label: "Serial Queue")
let concurrentQueue = DispatchQueue(label: "Concurrent Queue", attributes: .concurrent)
let url = URL(string: "http://httpbin.org/image/png")!
let urlSession = URLSession(configuration: URLSessionConfiguration.default)
for _ in 0 ..< numberOfOperations {
// perform work in background
concurrentQueue.async {
let task = urlSession.dataTask(with: url, completionHandler: { (data, urlResponse, error) in
let response: Response
if let error = error {
response = .error(error)
} else {
response = .data(data!)
}
// for thread safety, we need to modify variables on a single thread / serial queue
serialQueue.async {
responses.append(response)
print("Processed \(responses.count) operations")
// check if last response
guard responses.count < numberOfOperations else {
let now = Date()
print("Operations took \(now.timeIntervalSince(start)) seconds")
exit(0)
}
}
})
task.resume()
}
}
while true { sleep(10) } // sleep main thread forever