I would like to compile libical and add it to my Xcode project.
I have read the README file and run the following commands in Terminal.app:
./configure
and
./configure --prefix=/proj/local/
Am I supposed to get compiled .a files somewhere that I can drag and drop into my project?
What you do is compile your libraries for both simulator and phone.
1.Make 2 new targets one for iphone one for simulator
2.compile
3.Take them and combine them with lipo.
This link will give you all the specific details. How to make universal static libraries
This question came up already a year ago, and it was solved. See Help on installing a library like libical into Xcode with hints for cross-compile and further link.
I am the person who originally created those build scripts located here...
http://code.google.com/p/mwiphonesdk/source/browse/trunk/iMADE/PrepTasks/05+Event+Calendar/Packers+Schedule/libical/build+scripts/
I have now updated the scripts to work with the latest iOS 6/Xcode 4.5 toolset. It is quite different and I have set it to use Clang. I did what I could to make this script adapt to new SDK releases.
http://www.smallsharptools.com/downloads/libical/
The scripts should be placed in the root of the libical folder and run from there. The main script runs the other 2 scripts to build the armv7 and armv7s binaries and then uses xcrun to run lipo for iphoneos to combine these binaries into a fat binary which can be used for an iOS project.
There are some refactorings which could easily be done but I have already spent a ton of time on it already. I hope this helps you make use of the library.
Other answers to this question aren't helpful for specifically libical, because its configure script is finicky. You need to have a ton of environment variables right. These scripts have figured all them out for libical.
http://code.google.com/p/mwiphonesdk/source/browse/trunk/iMADE/PrepTasks/05+Event+Calendar/Packers+Schedule/libical/build+scripts/
Download the above scripts, and tweak the build_(platform).sh to find the right compilers and SDK folders. This will change depending on what you are targeting and how recent your Xcode developer tools are. Finding the right values should be pretty easy, just look in the same locations for what they are called on your system.
The output will be a fat ".a" files with binaries for the simulator and device.
In the case these files disappear, I've collected the truly important one (build_arm.sh, the cross-compile) below: