Sergio Carlos

Unable to use CLI tools for Xcode

 Hard learned lessons  2 mins

Trying to use GNU Make in my Mac, I was stuck:

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% make test
xcrun: error: active developer path ("/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer") does not exist
Use `sudo xcode-select --switch path/to/Xcode.app` to specify the Xcode that you wish to use for command line developer tools, or use `xcode-select --install` to install the standalone command line developer tools.

The error message made it sound like I didn’t had Xcode nor the CLI tools installed (I had CLI tools installed). When I tried the command suggested by the error: I already had CLI tools installed.

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% xcode-select --install
xcode-select: error: command line tools are already installed, use "Software Update" to install updates

I confirmed there was no ‘Software Update’ pending, so I hit a wall.

I tried a couple of times uninstalling the CLI tools and installing again, but ended up in the same place.

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% sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools
Password:
% xcode-select --install
xcode-select: note: install requested for command line developer tools

What sucks is that I could see working binaries in /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/ but the default binary being used was pointing somewhere else (confirmed via which make).

What ultimately resolved it was:

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% sudo xcode-select --reset

Nothing like copy-pasting lines from Stack Overflow into the CLI in sudo.

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