This is a feature that's long been on my mind as well.

Random considerations...

Today, we target macOS 10.9 on x86-64 and 11.0 on aarch64 since we build each arch independently. This gives us maximum binary portability. If you pass -arch to the compiler multiple times to produce a universal binary natively, I believe you have to use the same Apple SDK and targeting settings for each architecture. Since you need the macOS 11 SDK to target aarch64, I believe this means the x86-64 binaries can only target 11.0+. That's somewhat undesirable.

Ideally we would build the x86-64 and aarch64 binaries separately and then join them into a universal binary. This should be theoretically possible. However, there are cases where you'd need to merge the Python stdlib. e.g. the sysconfig module would needs its compiler settings normalized to target multi-arch by default. This is doable, but added complexity.

Path of least resistance is passing -arch multiple times. It works. But I don't like sacrificing the macOS <11 compatibility, as people in the wild rely on that.

Any thought to providing a new, universal binary build that targets macOS 11 in addition to the aarch64 (macOS 11) and x86-64 (macOS <11)?

I did it the "poor man's" way by using the lipo tool, ie for any architecture specific files I could find (the python binary, dylibs, and .a files):

Download the same builds for aarch64 and x86-64
Find all architecture specific files
lipo <aarch64 file> <x86-64 file> -create -output <file>
Copy files above to one of the builds.

A diff of the two builds after doing this still shows some differences, for example some .pyc files and C headers. Not sure if this is the "right" way to do it, but it appears to work.

Uh oh!

Universal binaries for macOS #140

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