Can't run fresh cordova app on ios simulator

I made a new cordova app with the following commands:

$ cordova create ct
Creating a new cordova project.
$ cd ct/
$ cordova platform add ios
Using cordova-fetch for cordova-ios@~4.5.4
Adding ios project...
Creating Cordova project for the iOS platform:
	Path: platforms/ios
	Package: io.cordova.hellocordova
	Name: HelloCordova
iOS project created with cordova-ios@4.5.5
Discovered plugin "cordova-plugin-whitelist" in config.xml. Adding it to the project
Installing "cordova-plugin-whitelist" for ios
Adding cordova-plugin-whitelist to package.json
Saved plugin info for "cordova-plugin-whitelist" to config.xml
--save flag or autosave detected
Saving ios@~4.5.5 into config.xml file ...

Then started an iOS Simulator and waited for it to finish loading and be fully ready. Then:

$ cordova run ios
Building for iPhone X Simulator
Building project: /Users/shawn/git/shawninder/ct/platforms/ios/HelloCordova.xcworkspace
	Configuration: Debug
	Platform: emulator
Build settings from command line:
    CONFIGURATION_BUILD_DIR = /Users/shawn/git/shawninder/ct/platforms/ios/build/emulator
    SDKROOT = iphonesimulator12.1
    SHARED_PRECOMPS_DIR = /Users/shawn/git/shawninder/ct/platforms/ios/build/sharedpch

Build settings from configuration file '/Users/shawn/git/shawninder/ct/platforms/ios/cordova/build-debug.xcconfig':
    CLANG_ALLOW_NON_MODULAR_INCLUDES_IN_FRAMEWORK_MODULES = YES
    CODE_SIGN_ENTITLEMENTS = $(PROJECT_DIR)/$(PROJECT_NAME)/Entitlements-$(CONFIGURATION).plist
    CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY = iPhone Developer
    ENABLE_BITCODE = NO
    GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS = DEBUG=1
    HEADER_SEARCH_PATHS = "$(TARGET_BUILD_DIR)/usr/local/lib/include" "$(OBJROOT)/UninstalledProducts/include" "$(OBJROOT)/UninstalledProducts/$(PLATFORM_NAME)/include" "$(BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR)"
    OTHER_LDFLAGS = -ObjC
    SWIFT_OBJC_BRIDGING_HEADER = $(PROJECT_DIR)/$(PROJECT_NAME)/Bridging-Header.h

No target specified for emulator. Deploying to iPhone-X, 12.1 simulator
/Users/shawn/git/shawninder/ct/platforms/ios/build/emulator/HelloCordova.app/Info.plist file not found.

And nothing happens in the simulator. Also perplexing is the fact that the /Users/shawn/git/shawninder/ct/platform/ios/build directory doesn’t exist.

$ ls -la platforms/ios/
total 32
drwxr-xr-x  13 shawn  staff  416 31 Oct 16:25 .
drwxr-xr-x   3 shawn  staff   96 31 Oct 16:25 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 shawn  staff   53 31 Oct 16:25 .gitignore
drwxr-xr-x   7 shawn  staff  224 31 Oct 16:25 CordovaLib
drwxr-xr-x  14 shawn  staff  448 31 Oct 16:25 HelloCordova
drwxr-xr-x   3 shawn  staff   96 31 Oct 16:25 HelloCordova.xcodeproj
drwxr-xr-x   4 shawn  staff  128 31 Oct 16:25 HelloCordova.xcworkspace
drwxr-xr-x  26 shawn  staff  832 31 Oct 16:25 cordova
-rw-r--r--   1 shawn  staff  342 31 Oct 16:25 ios.json
drwxr-xr-x   5 shawn  staff  160 31 Oct 16:25 platform_www
-rw-r--r--   1 shawn  staff  860 31 Oct 16:25 pods-debug.xcconfig
-rw-r--r--   1 shawn  staff  859 31 Oct 16:25 pods-release.xcconfig
drwxr-xr-x   9 shawn  staff  288 31 Oct 16:25 www

Any idea what’s going on?

About my setup:

$ cordova -v
8.1.2 (cordova-lib@8.1.1)
$ node -v
v8.10.0
$ npm -v
6.0.0

iOS Simulator version: Version 10.1 (SimulatorApp-877 CoreSimulator-572.2 xcode version: Version 10.1 (10B61)

[shawninder]

Aha, thanks @dpogue, using cordova run ios --buildFlag='-UseModernBuildSystem=0' solved my issue.

Follow-up questions:

• Should I be worried about not using the new build system?
• Is cordova going to support it eventually?
• Could this perhaps be done automatically by cordova or at least be documented somewhere in the Get Started page?

(Thanks for the quickest github issue reply I’ve ever seen by the way)

[dpogue]

My guess is that the build is failing due to known incompatibilities with Xcode 10. Does it work if you build with the Modern Build System turned off (see instructions in that linked issue)?