Archify

It gets rid of mach-o universal binaries to save some space

Installation

• python3 required for archify.py
  • brew install python via https://brew.sh
  • or use a binary from releases
• ldid can also be found in releases

  git clone https://github.com/Oct4Pie/archify.git
  cd archify

Usage

To start

  python3 archify.py [-h] -app APP_DIR [APP_DIR ...] [-o OUTPUT_DIR] [-arch ARCH]
                  [-ld LDID] [-Ns] [-Ne]

• -app and --app_dir support one or more apps
• -arch, --arch is the target architecture. I use arm64 on a m1 device.
• Intel 32-bit should be i386 and 64-bit x86_64 for macs.
• arch command is another way to find out
• -ld, --ldid the path to ldid binary. ()
• ldid is not required but may be needed for some apps
• if ldid is found:
  • -Ne does not sign with the original binary signature
  • -Ns does not sign at all (might be helpful for some apps that have self-check)

Usage Example

• To have a fully native apple silicon Adobe Illustrator packaged in /Users/oct4pie/apps/ptest:

python3 archify.py -app /Applications/Adobe\ Illustrator\ 2022/Adobe\ Illustrator.app
-o /Users/oct4pie/apps/ptest -arch arm64

• To have a 64-bit intel version of Excel and OneNote:

python3 archify.py -app /Applications/Microsoft\ Excel.app 
/Applications/Microsoft\ OneNote.app -o /Users/oct4pie/apps/ptest -arch -arch x86_64

Why?

I was tired of downloading bloated universal apps and managing the space became a hassle. I don't think people should lose storage space because of that. I just wrote this script to help me.

Hopefully it will be useful to others as well. I was able to free up ~34GB after using the script on large apps (such as Adobe apps, Unity, 3D Engines, Microsoft Office, etc). Some apps were already native, so the size change isn't as impressive.

First attempt:

Application	Original Size	Stripped Size	Percentage Shrinked	Space Saved
Adobe Premiere Pro 2022.app/:	6.55GB	4.09GB	37.5%	2.46GB
Adobe Media Encoder 2022.app/:	5.38GB	3.12GB	41.96%	2.26GB
Adobe Photoshop 2022.app/:	4.73GB	3.6GB	23.97%	1.13GB
Adobe Illustrator.app/:	2.51GB	1.59GB	36.5%	936.93MB
Google Chrome.app/:	939.3MB	552.75MB	41.15%	386.55MB
Microsoft Excel.app/:	1.95GB	1.62GB	17.02%	340.12MB
Microsoft Word.app/:	2.23GB	1.92GB	14.0%	319.26MB
Microsoft PowerPoint.app/:	1.7GB	1.4GB	17.59%	306.47MB
Microsoft OneNote.app/:	1.07GB	894.02MB	18.69%	205.47MB
Visual Studio Code.app/:	504.7MB	331.2MB	34.38%	173.5MB
Element.app/:	420.65MB	248.03MB	41.04%	172.62MB
Discord.app/:	369.58MB	205.3MB	44.45%	164.29MB
Parallels Desktop.app/:	678.22MB	522.76MB	22.92%	155.46MB
Microsoft Remote Desktop.app/:	263.64MB	121.17MB	54.04%	142.47MB
Pages.app/:	517.74MB	377.25MB	27.13%	140.49MB
Numbers.app/:	462.44MB	330.96MB	28.43%	131.48MB
Android Studio Preview.app/:	1.91GB	1.79GB	6.14%	120.13MB
Elmedia Player.app/:	207.09MB	121.28MB	41.44%	85.82MB
CMake.app/:	194.92MB	117.59MB	39.67%	77.33MB
Wine Stable.app/:	960.44MB	900.48MB	6.24%	59.96MB
VN.app/:	347.47MB	290.14MB	16.5%	57.34MB
Books.app/:	132.59MB	77.91MB	41.24%	54.69MB
Cloudflare WARP.app/:	116.24MB	70.95MB	38.97%	45.3MB
HMA VPN.app/:	100.66MB	66.41MB	34.02%	34.25MB
Music.app/:	105.35MB	71.74MB	31.9%	33.61MB
Hopper Disassembler v4.app/:	91.11MB	59.82MB	34.35%	31.3MB
Parallels Toolbox.app/:	154.1MB	124.91MB	18.94%	29.19MB
qbittorrent.app/:	62.35MB	33.7MB	45.95%	28.65MB
iTerm.app/:	72.6MB	44.71MB	38.42%	27.89MB
Maps.app/:	82.09MB	57.85MB	29.54%	24.25MB
Photos.app/:	64.4MB	44.61MB	30.72%	19.79MB
Descript.app/:	359.64MB	340.0MB	5.46%	19.64MB
TV.app/:	75.76MB	56.93MB	24.86%	18.83MB
Podcasts.app/:	46.27MB	27.63MB	40.27%	18.63MB
TeamViewer.app/:	133.97MB	115.76MB	13.59%	18.2MB
Tunnelblick.app/:	43.75MB	30.16MB	31.06%	13.59MB
Notes.app/:	38.75MB	28.13MB	27.4%	10.62MB
Speedtest.app/:	47.03MB	38.54MB	18.06%	8.49MB
FindMy.app/:	37.04MB	29.94MB	19.16%	7.1MB
WhatsApp.app/:	301.25MB	294.71MB	2.17%	6.54MB
Reminders.app/:	17.68MB	11.28MB	36.18%	6.4MB
AltServer.app/:	12.72MB	6.44MB	49.35%	6.28MB
Mail.app/:	28.17MB	22.13MB	21.42%	6.03MB
App Store.app/:	26.49MB	20.55MB	22.42%	5.94MB
LuLu.app/:	20.86MB	14.97MB	28.25%	5.89MB
News.app/:	11.07MB	6.05MB	45.33%	5.02MB
FaceTime.app/:	15.8MB	11.2MB	29.08%	4.59MB
iMazing.app/:	347.53MB	343.32MB	1.21%	4.21MB
Calendar.app/:	16.13MB	12.05MB	25.28%	4.08MB
Preview.app/:	11.06MB	8.17MB	26.12%	2.89MB
Cyberduck.app/:	208.18MB	205.34MB	1.37%	2.85MB
Hex Fiend.app/:	8.17MB	5.41MB	33.79%	2.76MB
Grammarly for Safari.app/:	83.14MB	80.5MB	3.17%	2.64MB
Transparent Note.app/:	27.02MB	24.64MB	8.82%	2.38MB
Color Picker.app/:	5.98MB	3.67MB	38.74%	2.32MB
QuickTime Player.app/:	7.48MB	5.63MB	24.8%	1.86MB
VoiceMemos.app/:	5.62MB	3.81MB	32.15%	1.81MB
Messages.app/:	5.83MB	4.03MB	30.85%	1.8MB
Contacts.app/:	15.12MB	13.55MB	10.38%	1.57MB
Shortcuts.app/:	3.76MB	2.42MB	35.61%	1.34MB
Stocks.app/:	4.25MB	3.01MB	29.2%	1.24MB
Font Book.app/:	7.17MB	5.95MB	17.0%	1.22MB
Safari.app/:	14.41MB	13.32MB	7.52%	1.08MB
Home.app/:	4.21MB	3.24MB	23.03%	993.53KB
Photo Booth.app/:	4.66MB	3.81MB	18.26%	872.29KB
System Preferences.app/:	2.89MB	2.13MB	26.21%	775.73KB
Calculator.app/:	5.77MB	5.1MB	11.64%	687.75KB
Cutter.app/:	612.99MB	612.33MB	0.11%	672.73KB
Chess.app/:	7.45MB	6.84MB	8.1%	618.01KB
Keynote.app/:	449.24MB	448.69MB	0.12%	554.71KB
Automator.app/:	5.39MB	4.86MB	9.97%	550.41KB
Userscripts.app/:	3.06MB	2.56MB	16.52%	518.23KB
Dictionary.app/:	15.16MB	14.7MB	2.97%	461.36KB
Telegram.app/:	113.06MB	112.7MB	0.31%	363.72KB
Stickies.app/:	1.9MB	1.55MB	18.54%	361.58KB
TextEdit.app/:	2.7MB	2.44MB	9.47%	261.8KB
Image Capture.app/:	3.31MB	3.18MB	4.05%	137.34KB
Time Machine.app/:	1.25MB	1.13MB	9.46%	121.24KB
Siri.app/:	2.54MB	2.43MB	4.61%	120.17KB

Note

The apps I have generated so far work without any issues. If the app crashes, try ldid or use different flags for signing. -Ns should work most of the time because of fake-signing. I am publishing the project for educational purposes. Although the script does not alter the original apps, use it with caution. I am not responsible for any harm done.

License

Licensed under GPLv3