NanoVNASaver.app — Mac build recipe

NanoVNA-Saver ships official binaries for Windows and Raspberry Pi only. This repo builds a self-contained .app bundle for macOS (Apple Silicon), then slims it from the default ~1.3 GB pip install down to ~250 MB by stripping unused Qt modules and the x86_64 universal-binary slices.

Usage

./build.sh                 # builds v0.7.3 → ~/Applications/NanoVNASaver.app
./build.sh v0.7.3          # explicit version
./build.sh v0.7.3 /Applications/NanoVNASaver.app   # custom destination

Requires Python 3.10+ at /opt/homebrew/bin/python3.12 (override with PYTHON=...). Apple Silicon assumed — the lipo thinning step is skipped on Intel.

What the script does

1. Creates a fresh .app bundle with Contents/{MacOS,Resources} layout.
2. Builds an isolated Python venv inside Contents/Resources/venv/.
3. Adds a python symlink (the upstream setup.py calls bare python and breaks without it).
4. pip installs NanoVNASaver from the GitHub tag.
5. Compiles .ui and .qrc files manually with pyside6-uic / pyside6-rcc — the wheel install skips this step.
6. Patches the generated about.py to fix a broken import main_rc (changes it to from . import main_rc).
   • macOS UI sizing fixes — upstream hard-codes control sizes (setFixedHeight(20), setFixedWidth(60)) tuned for Windows/Linux. On macOS the native control chrome (taller fields, focus-ring margins, larger system font) needs more room, so Qt clips text (50kHz→50kH, Sweep→Sweer, Rescan→Rescar). The script relaxes the fixed sizes to minimums and widens the control column slightly.
7. Writes a bash launcher at Contents/MacOS/NanoVNASaver that execs the bundled venv Python; logs go to ~/Library/Logs/NanoVNASaver/nanovnasaver.log.
8. Generates Info.plist and a multi-resolution .icns from the committed assets/AppIcon.png — a 1024px macOS-style icon (rounded square + the NanoVNASaver Smith-chart logo). Regenerate it with assets/make_icon.py. Falls back to the upstream 128px logo if the asset is missing.
9. Slim Qt — keeps only the frameworks NanoVNASaver actually imports (QtCore, QtGui, QtWidgets) plus safe runtime deps (QtNetwork, QtDBus, QtPrintSupport, QtSvg, QtSvgWidgets). Deletes everything else, including QtWebEngineCore (~590 MB of Chromium), all 3D/Qml/Multimedia/Charts/etc., plus Qt/qml, Qt/translations, Qt/metatypes, Qt/libexec.
10. Slim plugins — keeps platforms, imageformats, styles, iconengines, tls, networkinformation, platforminputcontexts, generic. Drops the rest.
11. Thin — runs lipo -thin arm64 over every universal Mach-O in the bundle, since Python itself is arm64-only and the x86_64 slices are dead weight.

Result

Stage	Size
Raw pip install	~1.3 GB
After Qt slim	~360 MB
After arm64 thin	~250 MB

App runs natively on Apple Silicon (no Rosetta).

TODO

• Universal2 build (Intel + Apple Silicon in one bundle). Requires installing python.org's universal2 Python 3.12 (one-time sudo installer -pkg), then rebuilding with the lipo -thin step skipped. Result is a single .app that runs natively on both architectures. Alternative: separate arm64 and x86_64 zips on the release page (build the Intel one with arch -x86_64 + lipo -thin x86_64).
• Proper Developer ID codesigning + notarization, so the xattr quarantine workaround is no longer needed.
• CI: GitHub Actions on macos-14 (arm64) and macos-13 (Intel) runners to auto-build on tag push.

License

Licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later (GPL-3.0-or-later), matching the upstream NanoVNA-Saver license. The bundled .app redistributes the upstream Python source and PySide6 (LGPL-3.0); both are compatible with GPL-3.0.

Why each fix is needed

These are upstream quirks that make a vanilla pip install non-functional on macOS:

• python symlink — setuptools_wrapper.py calls subprocess.call(['python', ...]). A fresh venv only has python3, so the wheel build aborts with FileNotFoundError.
• Manual UI compile — the wheel-build hook tries to invoke pyside6-uic but the generated files don't end up in the installed package. Importing NanoVNASaver fails with ModuleNotFoundError: NanoVNASaver.Windows.ui.about.
• main_rc import — pyside6-uic writes import main_rc (top-level) but the file lives inside the package. Python 3 raises ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'main_rc'.