Big Sur no longer has a libc library, so ttfautohint.memory fails

[simoncozens]

ttfautohint.memory does this:

    libc_path = find_library("c")
    if libc_path is None:
        raise OSError("Could not find the libc shared library")

On Big Sur there is no libc(!) I know there are efforts to fix ctypes loading on Python 3.8 and 3.9 but I'm not clear if that includes a workaround to the missing libc issue.

See fonttools/fontbakery#3107 for more context.

[anthrotype]

Ouch. Which python version? I hear it should be fixed with the latest python 3.9.1.
Less than 3.9, I don't think Bug Sur is even supported upstream.

[anthrotype]

oh maybe I misunderstood and it's only fixed on cpython master. Well, I don't think we can do much, besides monkeypatching ctypes.find_library maybe. Not sure it's worth the hassle. Let's just wait until next python bugfix is released

[simoncozens]

FWIW, python 3.9.5 in homebrew seems to have this fixed.

[m4rc1e]

This is still an issue for me.

If I do a fresh env and install the latest ttfa, I still get

>>> import ttfautohint
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Users/marcfoley/Desktop/ttfa/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/ttfautohint/__init__.py", line 13, in <module>
    from ttfautohint import memory
  File "/Users/marcfoley/Desktop/ttfa/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/ttfautohint/memory.py", line 18, in <module>
    raise OSError("Could not find the libc shared library")
OSError: Could not find the libc shared library

I'm running Python 3.9.5 (non homebrew). Shall we try and fix this so it works on other versions of Python which are not from homebrew?

I'll test 3.9.6 as well since the release notes seem to cover this issue.

[anthrotype]

If it works with 3.9.6 I would consider this a wontfix, given it is an upstream Apple/Python issue. Also Python 3.10 is in release candidate and about to launch. People with relatively new macOS versions should be willing to also upgrade their Pythons accordingly.

[m4rc1e]

Auch, I just downloaded 3.6.9 and got the following:

(venv) Marcs-Air:ttfa marcfoley$ pip freeze
ttfautohint-py==0.4.3.post1

(venv) Marcs-Air:ttfa marcfoley$ python 
Python 3.9.6 (v3.9.6:db3ff76da1, Jun 28 2021, 11:49:53) 
[Clang 6.0 (clang-600.0.57)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>> from ttfautohint import ttfautohint
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Users/marcfoley/Desktop/ttfa/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/ttfautohint/__init__.py", line 13, in <module>
    from ttfautohint import memory
  File "/Users/marcfoley/Desktop/ttfa/venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/ttfautohint/memory.py", line 18, in <module>
    raise OSError("Could not find the libc shared library")
OSError: Could not find the libc shared library

No joy for 3.9.6. I have a patch which works but I wrote this a while back so I need to retrace my steps so I can explain how it works.

[sursly]

Just checking in, I'm still getting hung up on this same issue. Would love any help, as I can't build much without a workaround.