Building a Python Mac OS X distribution
=======================================
The ``build-install.py`` script creates Python distributions, including
certain third-party libraries as necessary. It builds a complete
framework-based Python out-of-tree, installs it in a funny place with
$DESTROOT, massages that installation to remove .pyc files and such, creates
an Installer package from the installation plus other files in ``resources``
and ``scripts`` and placed that on a ``.dmg`` disk image.
The installer package built on the dmg is a macOS bundle format installer
package. This format is deprecated and is no longer supported by modern
macOS systems; it is usable on macOS 10.6 and earlier systems.
To be usable on newer versions of macOS, the bits in the bundle package
must be assembled in a macOS flat installer package, using current
versions of the pkgbuild and productbuild utilities. To pass macoS
Gatekeeper download quarantine, the final package must be signed
with a valid Apple Developer ID certificate using productsign.
Starting with macOS 10.15 Catalina, Gatekeeper now also requires
that installer packages are submitted to and pass Apple's automated
notarization service using the altool command. To pass notarization,
the binaries included in the package must be built with at least
the macOS 10.9 SDK, mout now be signed with the codesign utility
and executables must opt in to the hardened run time option with
any necessary entitlements. Details of these processes are
available in the on-line Apple Developer Documentation and man pages.
As of 3.8.0 and 3.7.7, PSF practice is to build one installer variants
for each release. Note that as of this writing, no Pythons support
building on a newer version of macOS that will run on older versions
by setting MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET. This is because the various
Python C modules do not yet support runtime testing of macOS
feature availability (for example, by using macOS AvailabilityMacros.h
and weak-linking). To build a Python that is to be used on a
range of macOS releases, always build on the oldest release to be
supported; the necessary shared libraries for that release will
normally also be available on later systems, with the occasional
exception such as the removal of 32-bit libraries in macOS 10.15.
build-installer requires Apple Developer tools, either from the
Command Line Tools package or from a full Xcode installation.
You should use the most recent version of either for the operating
system version in use. (One notable exception: on macOS 10.6,
Snow Leopard, use Xcode 3, not Xcode 4 which was released later
in the 10.6 support cycle.)
1. 64-bit, x86_64, for OS X 10.9 (and later)::
/path/to/bootstrap/python2.7 build-installer.py \
--universal-archs=intel-64 \
--dep-target=10.9
- builds the following third-party libraries
* OpenSSL 1.1.1
* Tcl/Tk 8.6
* NCurses
* SQLite
* XZ
* libffi
- uses system-supplied versions of third-party libraries
* readline module links with Apple BSD editline (libedit)
* zlib
* bz2
- recommended build environment:
* Mac OS X 10.9.5
* Xcode Command Line Tools 6.2
* ``MacOSX10.9`` SDK
* ``MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.9``
* Apple ``clang``
General Prerequisites
---------------------
* No Fink (in ``/sw``) or MacPorts (in ``/opt/local``) or Homebrew or
other local libraries or utilities (in ``/usr/local``) as they could
interfere with the build.
* It is safest to start each variant build with an empty source directory
populated with a fresh copy of the untarred source or a source repo.
* It is recommended that you remove any existing installed version of the
Python being built::
sudo rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/n.n
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