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Add clarification for --enable-framework in macOS build instructions #1646

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ea39a90
Update setup-building.rst
minikids Aug 29, 2025
b2aa3f7
Merge branch 'main' into patch-1
minikids Sep 12, 2025
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19 changes: 19 additions & 0 deletions getting-started/setup-building.rst
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Expand Up @@ -699,6 +699,25 @@ wrap the invocation of the Xcode :program:`xcrun` tool, removing user- and
version-specific paths from the values encoded in the :py:mod:`sysconfig`
module. Copies of these scripts are included in the final build products.


.. note::

The ``--enable-framework`` option installs Python as a macOS Framework.
This changes the install location to
``/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/X.Y/`` and integrates
Python with macOS’s native framework system.

Framework builds are required for some GUI libraries (such as ``tkinter`` or
``PyObjC``) and allow Python to be embedded in Cocoa applications via
``NSBundle``.

Without ``--enable-framework``, you still get a working command-line
``python3``, but certain macOS-specific integrations (GUI event loops,
app embedding, etc.) will not work.
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@hugovk hugovk Aug 29, 2025

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Suggested change
Without ``--enable-framework``, you still get a working command-line
``python3``, but certain macOS-specific integrations (GUI event loops,
app embedding, etc.) will not work.
Without ``--enable-framework``, you still get a working command-line
``python3``, but certain macOS-specific integrations (such as GUI event
loops and app embedding) will not work.





Once this build completes, the ``iOS/Frameworks`` folder will contain a
``Python.framework`` that can be used for testing.

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