Improve the error if plugins require CocoaPods but CocoaPods is not installed #163284
Description
Steps to reproduce
Start the simulator
flutter create
paste in this gist: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/MaherSafadii/5bcd5848cd24442c8c91b1ef173ba73d/raw/0507e4fdfcdb2fc7136edd6c327ae20765b601ab/flutter_cupertino_example.dart
Add in the missing packages to your pubspec.yaml (native_ios_dialog and pull_down_button)
flutter run
Expected results
Assuming I don't need any cocoapods installs, then I would expect this to run on my simulator.
If my project does contain a plugin (which I would then assume I need cocoapods), then the expected results would be something like:
"Unable to launch application on iPhone 16 Pro. Reason: CocoaPods not installed. Your project requires CocoaPods because of packages X and Y. Please follow instructions x.y to install CocoaPods and try again."
What is a bit surprising about the current Actual results is that it leads with a "Warning: " which often means "Just to let you know...". However, the flutter run fails (errors) , which seems to not match the "Warning". Also, it would be awesome if we can point the user to which package(s) require CocoaPods.
It's not 100% clear to me given the Actual Results... do I need to go get CocoaPods to run my app? If so, why?
Actual results
sethladd@LexicalM4 flutter_cupertino % flutter run
Launching lib/main.dart on iPhone 16 Pro in debug mode...
Warning: CocoaPods not installed. Skipping pod install.
CocoaPods is a package manager for iOS or macOS platform code.
Without CocoaPods, plugins will not work on iOS or macOS.
For more info, see https://flutter.dev/to/platform-plugins
For installation instructions, see
https://guides.cocoapods.org/using/getting-started.html#installation
CocoaPods not installed or not in valid state.
Error launching application on iPhone 16 Pro.
Code sample
See steps to repro
Screenshots or Video
See Actual Results
Logs
N/A (the Actual Results is everything)
Flutter Doctor output
Doctor output
sethladd@LexicalM4 flutter_cupertino % flutter doctor
Doctor summary (to see all details, run flutter doctor -v):
[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, 3.27.4, on macOS 15.3 24D60 darwin-arm64, locale
en-US)
[✗] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices
✗ Unable to locate Android SDK.
Install Android Studio from:
https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html
On first launch it will assist you in installing the Android SDK
components.
(or visit https://flutter.dev/to/macos-android-setup for detailed
instructions).
If the Android SDK has been installed to a custom location, please use
`flutter config --android-sdk` to update to that location.
[!] Xcode - develop for iOS and macOS (Xcode 16.2)
✗ CocoaPods not installed.
CocoaPods is a package manager for iOS or macOS platform code.
Without CocoaPods, plugins will not work on iOS or macOS.
For more info, see https://flutter.dev/to/platform-plugins
For installation instructions, see
https://guides.cocoapods.org/using/getting-started.html#installation
[✓] Chrome - develop for the web
[!] Android Studio (not installed)
[✓] Connected device (4 available)
[✓] Network resources
! Doctor found issues in 3 categories.