Debug macos build

Author: richardkoehler

.github/workflows/release.yml

@@ -203,19 +203,50 @@ jobs:
           PIP_EXTRA_INDEX_URL: ""
           PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR: "1"
         run: |
-          set -euo pipefail
-          uv run briefcase create -v || {
-            status=$?
-            echo "Briefcase create failed; dumping saved create log if present..."
-            ls -la logs || true
+          set -uo pipefail
+
+          probe_support_python() {
+            echo "---- Probing Briefcase macOS support-package Python ----"
+            # Briefcase unpacks the support package BEFORE running pip install, so even
+            # when `briefcase create` fails the interpreter should already be on disk.
+            support_python=$(find build -type f \( -name 'python3' -o -name 'python3.12' -o -name 'python3.13' -o -name 'python3.14' \) -path '*Support*' 2>/dev/null | head -n 1 || true)
+            if [ -z "${support_python}" ]; then
+              echo "No support-package Python found under build/ (searching more broadly)..."
+              find build -maxdepth 8 -type f -name 'python3*' 2>/dev/null | head -n 20 || true
+              return 0
+            fi
+            echo "Support python: ${support_python}"
+            "${support_python}" -V || true
+            "${support_python}" -c "import sys, sysconfig; print('sys.platform:', sys.platform); print('sysconfig.get_platform:', sysconfig.get_platform()); print('MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET:', sysconfig.get_config_var('MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET')); print('executable:', sys.executable); print('prefix:', sys.prefix)" || true
+            # Full list of platform tags the support-package pip will accept.
+            "${support_python}" -c "from pip._internal.utils.compatibility_tags import get_supported; [print(t) for t in get_supported()[:40]]" || true
+            echo "---- Support-package pip: index versions for PySide6 ----"
+            "${support_python}" -m pip index versions PySide6 -i https://pypi.org/simple || true
+            echo "---- Support-package pip: dry-run install PySide6==6.11.0 ----"
+            "${support_python}" -m pip install --dry-run --index-url https://pypi.org/simple "pyside6==6.11.0" -vvv 2>&1 | sed -n '1,80p' || true
+            echo "---- End support-package probe ----"
+          }
+
+          uv run briefcase create -v
+          status=$?
+          if [ "${status}" -ne 0 ]; then
+            echo "Briefcase create failed (exit ${status}); running support-package probe..."
+            probe_support_python
+            echo "Briefcase saved log (if any):"
+            ls -la logs 2>/dev/null || true
             latest_log=$(ls -1t logs/briefcase.*.create.log 2>/dev/null | head -n 1 || true)
             if [ -n "${latest_log}" ]; then
               echo "---- Begin ${latest_log} ----"
               sed -n '1,260p' "${latest_log}" || true
               echo "---- End ${latest_log} ----"
             fi
             exit "${status}"
-          }
+          fi
+
+          # Create succeeded: probe anyway (cheap) so we can confirm the fix landed.
+          probe_support_python
+
+          set -e
           uv run briefcase build -v
           uv run briefcase package -v -p dmg
 

pyproject.toml

@@ -169,14 +169,11 @@ requirement_installer_args = [
 
 [tool.briefcase.app.dbs_annotator.macOS]
 universal_build = false
-# Work around Briefcase macOS create-time resolver failures with constrained PySide6.
-# Keep global constraints for other platforms; on macOS rely on direct project requirements.
-requirement_installer_args = [
-    "--index-url",
-    "https://pypi.org/simple",
-    "--retries",
-    "5",
-    "--timeout",
-    "60",
-    "--no-cache-dir",
-]
+# PySide6 6.8+ publishes macOS wheels tagged `macosx_13_0_universal2`. The Briefcase
+# support-package Python on macOS advertises a lower platform tag by default, so its
+# embedded pip refuses all PySide6 versions newer than 6.7.3 with a misleading
+# "No matching distribution" error. Setting `min_os_version = "13.0"` tells Briefcase
+# (and the bundled interpreter/installer) to target macOS 13+, aligning platform tags
+# with the published wheels. If a compatible support package is not available, Briefcase
+# will select the closest one and raise the deployment target accordingly.
+min_os_version = "13.0"