3rd party xPack with a standalone Python

[mmomtchev]

https://www.npmjs.com/package/@mmomtchev/python-xpack

xpm install @mmomtchev/python-xpack

Supports Linux x64, Windows x64, macOS x64 and macOS arm64

Includes pip for installing additional modules (xpacks/.bin/python -m pip list) and it is fully statically compiled - including the ctypes and ssl modules which use libffi and OpenSSL.

[mmomtchev]

@ilg-ul, I will take any suggestions how should look a xPack that contains a Python module - I will be adding meson Node-API and conan

Maybe it should have a top-level executable that sets PYTHONPATH and launches the Python module - a bash/cmd script

[ilg-ul]

I installed your package locally in an empty project, added a simple action and tried to invoke it:

* Executing task: xpm run py-ver 

> which python
/Users/ilg/tmp/py/xpacks/.bin/python
> python --version
dyld[28312]: Library not loaded: /usr/local/opt/gettext/lib/libintl.8.dylib
  Referenced from: <F0FCBC82-267A-3782-A0EE-31AFD2D463C9> /Users/ilg/Library/xPacks/@mmomtchev/python-xpack/3.12.3-1/.content/bin/python3.12
  Reason: tried: '/usr/local/opt/gettext/lib/libintl.8.dylib' (no such file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/usr/local/opt/gettext/lib/libintl.8.dylib' (no such file), '/usr/local/opt/gettext/lib/libintl.8.dylib' (no such file), '/usr/local/lib/libintl.8.dylib' (no such file), '/usr/lib/libintl.8.dylib' (no such file, not in dyld cache)
error: running 'python --version' failed

* The terminal process "/bin/zsh '-l', '-c', 'xpm run py-ver'" terminated with exit code: 2. 

Your package is not standalone... :-(

[mmomtchev]

While I could have believed that you ran otool -L on the python executable, I find it hard to believe that you do not have homebrew installed.
This is a problem with the way the macOS linker picks up libraries, I did for gettext what I was already doing for OpenSSL.

[ilg-ul]

I find it hard to believe that you do not have homebrew installed.

Well, I do have homebrew installed. Actually I have multiple instances of homebrew installed, for different use cases. But they are installed in custom locations, and I activate them by adjusting the PATH only when needed.

This is a problem with the way the macOS linker picks up libraries, I did for gettext what I was already doing for OpenSSL.

The macOS linker/loader is ok, the strategy for picking up libraries is probably better than the Linux strategy, not to mention the Windows strategy.

The xPack binaries I distribute are truly standalone, they include all libraries, the only prerequisite is to have Command Line Tools installed, and a macOS 10.13 or older. (11.0 for arm64)

However, for your projects, feel free to choose any solutions that you consider appropriate.