MacOS version of a-shell show error when installing rubicon-objc

[shield61]

I am developing scripts that are using rubicon-obj to access Apples PhotoKit on iOS and iPadOS. For faster development cycles I tried to install rubicon-obj i the MacOS version of a-shell (Testflightbuild 536). I encountered an error:
"ERROR: Could not install packages due to an OSError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/etc/apache2/mime.types'"

In a-shell on iPad and iPhone everything works as expected.

I googled this error in combination with sandboxed app development and found this very old link on StackOverflow:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34420174/app-sandboxing-python-wandering-out-of-the-sandbox
Not sure it is really related, but it sound so for me.

I have no idea how to work around this issue or wether it is possible to solve but would be very happy if it could be fixed.
Please tell me if I can help. This would make the really great app even more perfect for me.

[holzschu]

Hi, thanks for the report.
I've found "/etc/apache2/mime.types" in a file $APPDIR/Library/lib/python3.13/mimetypes.py. But that's where it becomes weird: I have already edited that file for compatibility:

# This fixes an issue when running on the Arm macs with iPad compatibility mode. No change on iOS (all these files are unreadable anyway)
if (sys.platform == "darwin"):
    knownfiles = []
else:
    knownfiles = [
        "/etc/mime.types",
        "/etc/httpd/mime.types",                    # Mac OS X
        "/etc/httpd/conf/mime.types",               # Apache
        "/etc/apache/mime.types",                   # Apache 1
        "/etc/apache2/mime.types",                  # Apache 2
        "/usr/local/etc/httpd/conf/mime.types",
        "/usr/local/lib/netscape/mime.types",
        "/usr/local/etc/httpd/conf/mime.types",     # Apache 1.2
        "/usr/local/etc/mime.types",                # Apache 1.3
        ]

So, in a normal mode of operation, on an Arm Mac, you should have (sys.platform == "darwin"), and thus knownfiles = [], and no test for /etc/apache2/mime.types.

It's possible that you don't have sys.platform == "darwin", but I'd have to know why and what is the value. Or it's possible that rubicon-obj introduces another place where it checks for mime.types.

I don't have an Arm Mac, so I'll need you to check:

import sys
print("sys.platform= ", sys.platform)
import mimetypes
print("knownfiles= ", mimetypes.knownfiles)

[shield61]

Thanks @holzschu for investigation.
In my terminal app (Warp, or terminal) executing the code above will lead to:
python3 checkos.py
sys.platform= darwin
knownfiles= ['/etc/mime.types', '/etc/httpd/mime.types', '/etc/httpd/conf/mime.types', '/etc/apache/mime.types', '/etc/apache2/mime.types', '/usr/local/etc/httpd/conf/mime.types', '/usr/local/lib/netscape/mime.types', '/usr/local/etc/httpd/conf/mime.types', '/usr/local/etc/mime.types']
Executing the same code in a-shell on my M3 Mac lead to:
python checkos.py
sys.platform= ios
knownfiles= ['/etc/mime.types', '/etc/httpd/mime.types', '/etc/httpd/conf/mime.types', '/etc/apache/mime.types', '/etc/apache2/mime.types', '/usr/local/etc/httpd/conf/mime.types', '/usr/local/lib/netscape/mime.types', '/usr/local/etc/httpd/conf/mime.types', '/usr/local/etc/mime.types']
[~/Documents]$

[shield61]

Update:
On Mac version of a-shell (Beta 538) also pip is not upgradable with the same issue:

[notice] A new release of pip is available: 25.0.1 -> 26.0.1
[notice] To update, run: pip3.13 install --upgrade pip
[~/Documents/Sources/pps/packages/core]$ pip3.13 install --upgrade pipDefaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable
Requirement already satisfied: pip in /Users/lars/Library/Containers/200CDFF5-4A2E-43F3-833A-ADD4B8D6CB62/Data/Library/lib/python3.13/site-packages (25.0.1)
Collecting pip
  Using cached pip-26.0.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.7 kB)
Using cached pip-26.0.1-py3-none-any.whl (1.8 MB)
ERROR: Could not install packages due to an OSError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/etc/apache2/mime.types'

Executing the code suggested by @holzschu show that Mac version of a-shell is platform Darwin, but knownfiles is not empty.

[shield61]

I found a workaround for now for the a-shell on MacOs
One can use a virtual environment and install the packages there. E.g.

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install typer
pip install rubicon-objc

Hopefully this can be avoided later.