[🐛] @react-native-firebase/firestore fails to build on Xcode 16 - BoringSSL-GRPC issue unsupported option '-G'

[alfjesus]

Issue

Getting the following "unsupported option -G" build error when trying to build with Expo 51 and Xcode 16.
I'm guessing that the dependency for pod BoringSSL-GRPC needs an update.

---

Project Files

Javascript

Click To Expand

package.json:

# N/A

firebase.json for react-native-firebase v6:

# N/A

iOS

Click To Expand

ios/Podfile:

• I'm not using Pods
• I'm using Pods and my Podfile looks like:

# N/A

AppDelegate.m:

// N/A

---

Android

Click To Expand

Have you converted to AndroidX?

• my application is an AndroidX application?
• I am using android/gradle.settings jetifier=true for Android compatibility?
• I am using the NPM package jetifier for react-native compatibility?

android/build.gradle:

// N/A

android/app/build.gradle:

// N/A

android/settings.gradle:

// N/A

MainApplication.java:

// N/A

AndroidManifest.xml:

<!-- N/A -->

---

Environment

Click To Expand

react-native info output:

 System:
  OS: macOS 15.0
  CPU: (12) arm64 Apple M2 Pro
  Memory: 465.64 MB / 32.00 GB
  Shell:
    version: "5.9"
    path: /bin/zsh
Binaries:
  Node:
    version: 20.17.0
    path: /var/folders/jn/92972fv55qdc10m6nk8nps3w0000gn/T/yarn--1726562737749-0.4741444639345749/node
  Yarn:
    version: 1.22.21
    path: /var/folders/jn/92972fv55qdc10m6nk8nps3w0000gn/T/yarn--1726562737749-0.4741444639345749/yarn
  npm:
    version: 10.8.2
    path: /opt/homebrew/opt/node@20/bin/npm
  Watchman:
    version: 2024.07.08.00
    path: /opt/homebrew/bin/watchman
Managers:
  CocoaPods:
    version: 1.15.2
    path: /opt/homebrew/bin/pod
SDKs:
  iOS SDK:
    Platforms:
      - DriverKit 24.0
      - iOS 18.0
      - macOS 15.0
      - tvOS 18.0
      - visionOS 2.0
      - watchOS 11.0
  Android SDK: Not Found
IDEs:
  Android Studio: 2023.2 AI-232.10300.40.2321.11567975
  Xcode:
    version: 16.0/16A242d
    path: /usr/bin/xcodebuild
Languages:
  Java:
    version: 17.0.10
    path: /usr/bin/javac
  Ruby:
    version: 2.6.10
    path: /usr/bin/ruby
npmPackages:
  "@react-native-community/cli": Not Found
  react:
    installed: 18.2.0
    wanted: 18.2.0
  react-native:
    installed: 0.74.5
    wanted: 0.74.5
  react-native-macos: Not Found
npmGlobalPackages:
  "*react-native*": Not Found
Android:
  hermesEnabled: true
  newArchEnabled: false
iOS:
  hermesEnabled: true
  newArchEnabled: false

• Platform that you're experiencing the issue on:
  • iOS
  • Android
  • iOS but have not tested behavior on Android
  • Android but have not tested behavior on iOS
  • Both
• react-native-firebase version you're using that has this issue:
  • 20.5.0
• Firebase module(s) you're using that has the issue:
  • firestore
• Are you using TypeScript?
  • Y & 5.3.3

---

• 👉 Check out React Native Firebase and Invertase on Twitter for updates on the library.

[joaqo]

Same here.

[itsjustjo96]

Same for me. Apparently this issue was fixed in BoringSSL 0.36.

grpc/grpc#36904

[itsjustjo96]

This fix indeed seems to work. Adding this code piece to the podfile and then reinstalling the pods is a temporary fix.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/78633109

[alfjesus]

This fix indeed seems to work. Adding this code piece to the podfile and then reinstalling the pods is a temporary fix.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/78633109

@itsjustjo96 Yes, that fix works. However, when using Expo Prebuild i.e CNG (Continuous Native Generation ), the podfile gets overwritten every time.

[russellwheatley]

Thank you for the workaround, @itsjustjo96 🙏 . Unfortunately, I'll be away for a week. If there is someone who is able to raise a PR in the meanwhile, I can take a look when I get back. Otherwise, I can get a fix up next week 👍

[mikehardy]

Upstream firebase-ios-sdk specifies a version range for the transitive gRPC dependency with the problem:

https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk/blob/b5e2c182c83db543829f2a712f5cff7e6ad1ce1e/FirebaseFirestoreInternal.podspec#L107-L108

Here's the upstream issue firebase/firebase-ios-sdk#13115

When I do a fresh install using firebase-ios-sdk 11.2.0 it works to bring in a version of gRPC with the fix, that is a gRPC with version >= 1.65.2:

run pod install and check output, here's a snippet:

Installing gRPC-C++ (1.65.5)
Installing gRPC-Core (1.65.5)

gRPC and Firestore compile fine for me

So I do not believe this is an issue. You may need to remove your Podfile.lock and reinstall Pods to get the updated transitive dependency?

[mikehardy]

Note that if you are using the pre-compiled / binary Firebase from firestore-ios-sdk-frameworks they do not appear to have the fix but that is not a bug in react-native-firebase, it should be logged tracked over there.

Appears they are still on gRPC 1.65.1 which does not have the fix: https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Ainvertase%2Ffirestore-ios-sdk-frameworks+gRPC&type=code

A workaround would be to deintegrate the pre-compiled version and build firestore from current source with current transitive deps, and if compile speed is an issue you might try ccache

[alfjesus]

@mikehardy If I spawn up a new Expo project and add @react-native-firebase/firestore the same build failure is happening so I think this is still an issue?

[mikehardy]

@alfjesus I don't use Expo so I cannot comment.
I build things from scratch in order to make my assertions though, and I cannot reproduce - my build rig: https://github.com/mikehardy/rnfbdemo/blob/main/make-demo.sh

(I have local changes in that one to do the test, but it shows what I'm doing - init of bare react-native project, scripted integration of react-native-firebase, build test)

[alfjesus]

@mikehardy Okay I see. It's just that my Expo project was building fine on Xcode 15.4 and as soon I upgraded to Xcode 16 this build issue started to happen.

[mikehardy]

I believe I see the problem - just noticed that react-native-firebase hasn't adopted firebase-ios-sdk v11+ yet

It is only in firebase-ios-sdk v11+ that the gRPC version was updated, you can see the commit that did the bump and expand the tag list to see it is only SDK v11+ tags: firebase/firebase-ios-sdk@89a0ab3

My build rig specifically overrides firebase-ios-sdk in order to compile test with newer versions in order to find problems before users do, but that means it doesn't always see problems with interop in older versions

Unfortunately if you use firebase-ios-sdk v11+ via an override, you'll have a new problem which is that the crashlytics init provider API signature upstream changed and is not compatible across the firebase-ios-sdk v10 / v11 boundary

react-native-firebase/packages/crashlytics/ios/RNFBCrashlytics/RNFBCrashlyticsInitProvider.m

Line 137 in 480947e

dependencies:@[] // note this will go away in firebase-ios-sdk v11+

(with a local patch that implements #8025, and a patch that implements #8021 which I just posted, firebase-ios-sdk v11.2.0 appears to work fine with gRPC and crashlytics in build testing at least)