Provide dummy wheel distributions for installing on Apple Silicon #866

CHANGELOG.rst

@@ -9,6 +9,9 @@ v34.10.1 (unreleased)
   Resolving requirements.txt files will now return proper license data.
   https://github.com/aboutcode-org/scancode.io/issues/1598
 
+- Add support for installing on Apple Silicon (macOS ARM64) in dev mode.
+  https://github.com/aboutcode-org/scancode.io/pull/1646
+
 v34.10.0 (2025-03-21)
 ---------------------
 

Makefile

@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ VENV_LOCATION=.venv
 ACTIVATE?=. ${VENV_LOCATION}/bin/activate;
 MANAGE=${VENV_LOCATION}/bin/python manage.py
 VIRTUALENV_PYZ=etc/thirdparty/virtualenv.pyz
+PIP_ARGS=--find-links=./etc/thirdparty/dummy_dist
 # Do not depend on Python to generate the SECRET_KEY
 GET_SECRET_KEY=`head -c50 /dev/urandom | base64 | head -c50`
 # Customize with `$ make envfile ENV_FILE=/etc/scancodeio/.env`
@@ -51,11 +52,11 @@ virtualenv:
 
 conf: virtualenv
 	@echo "-> Install dependencies"
-	@${ACTIVATE} pip install -e .
+	@${ACTIVATE} pip install ${PIP_ARGS} --editable .
 
 dev: virtualenv
 	@echo "-> Configure and install development dependencies"
-	@${ACTIVATE} pip install -e .[dev]
+	@${ACTIVATE} pip install ${PIP_ARGS} --editable .[dev]
 
 envfile:
 	@echo "-> Create the .env file and generate a secret key"

etc/thirdparty/dummy_dist/README.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+Dummy Wheel Distributions for Apple Silicon (macOS ARM64)
+=========================================================
+
+Overview
+--------
+This directory provides **empty wheel distributions** designed as a workaround to
+allow the installation of `ScanCode.io` on **Apple Silicon (macOS ARM64)** platforms.
+
+The issue arises because certain required packages, such as `extractcode-7z`, do not
+offer pre-built wheels compatible with Apple Silicon.
+Consequently, `pip` encounters dependency resolution errors during installation.
+
+Purpose
+-------
+The dummy wheels in this project serve as placeholders. These wheels:
+- **Contain no functionality** and are completely empty.
+- Allow `pip` to resolve dependencies correctly by tricking it into treating the
+  required package as already installed.
+
+Caution
+-------
+These dummy wheels **do not provide any actual functionality**.
+They only exist to bypass `pip` dependency resolution issues and allow `ScanCode.io`
+to be installed on Apple Silicon.