How to gradually adopt swift 6?

Asked on 06/16/2025

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To gradually adopt Swift 6, you can follow a step-by-step process that allows you to incrementally enable the new language features and data race safety guarantees. Here are some key steps to consider:

  1. Enable Warnings for Upcoming Features: Start by enabling warnings for upcoming Swift 6 features in Xcode 16. This can be done by navigating to the Swift compiler's upcoming features section in the build settings. You can enable these features one at a time to prepare your codebase for Swift 6 (What’s new in Xcode 16).

  2. Module-by-Module Migration: You can migrate to Swift 6 incrementally, one module at a time. This approach allows you to address data race safety and other changes without having to update your entire codebase at once (Platforms State of the Union).

  3. Enable Complete Concurrency Checking: Before fully switching to Swift 6, enable complete concurrency checking in your modules. This will provide warnings for code that would fail under Swift 6's data isolation rules, allowing you to fix these issues before enabling the new language mode (Migrate your app to Swift 6).

  4. Adopt Swift 6 Language Mode: Once you have resolved the warnings and are confident in your code's concurrency safety, enable the Swift 6 language mode. This will enforce data isolation and prevent future regressions (Migrate your app to Swift 6).

  5. Update Dependencies: While you can migrate your code independently, it's beneficial to update any dependencies to Swift 6 as well. This helps ensure that your entire project benefits from the new safety guarantees (Platforms State of the Union).

By following these steps, you can gradually adopt Swift 6 in a controlled manner, ensuring that your codebase remains stable and benefits from the latest language improvements.