SwiftPM targets can now specify the upcoming language features they require. Package.swift manifest syntax has been expanded with an API to include setting enableUpcomingFeature and enableExperimentalFeature flags at the target level, as specified by SE-0362.
SwiftPM now allows exposing an executable product that consists solely of a binary target that is backed by an artifact bundle. This allows vending binary executables as their own separate package, independently of plugins that are using them.
In packages using tools version 5.8 or later, Foundation is no longer implicitly imported into package manifests. If Foundation APIs are used, the module needs to be imported explicitly.
SwiftPM now supports token authentication when interacting with a package registry. The swift package-registry command has two new subcommands login and logout as defined in SE-0378 for adding/removing registry credentials.
Improved handling of offline behavior when a compatible cached version of a dependency exists on disk in either the per-package or shared cache. SwiftPM will check for network availability status to determine if it should attempt to update a checked version of a dependency, and when offline will use the cached version without an update.
New --pkg-config-path option on build, test, and run commands has been introduced as an alternative to passing PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable. It allows specifying alternative path to search for .pc files used by pkg-config. Use the option multiple times to specify more than one path.
Added new --emit-extension-block-symbols and --omit-extension-block-symbols via swift package dump-symbol-graph. --emit-extension-block-symbols dumps symbol graph files that are extension block symbol format. The default behavior does not change. The --omit-extension-block-symbols flag will be used to explicitly disable the feature once the default behavior has been changed to --emit-extension-block-symbols in the future.