[theeket]

Summary:

Addresses the React Dependencies and Core framework symlink corruption reported in #55540.

Mac Catalyst frameworks use a versioned bundle layout (as macOS): the framework binary and Resources point into Versions/Current, which points to the actual version directory. These symlinks must survive packaging. Although the local build scripts (including local-generated .tar.gz) work correctly, all the maven publishing have broken Mac Catalyst slice.

The correct framework → artifact upload loses symlinks → download
→ compose XCFramework → tar.gz → Maven

Now, both iOS prebuild workflows upload raw Build/Products directories. GH's artifact ZIP writer explicitly resolves symlinks with realpath() and stores their targets as ordinary files. (See implementation) So, the final .tar.gz archives faithfully package that already-damaged layout, and Maven publishes those archives.

• Dependencies slice upload
• Core slice upload

The problem predates the reported 0.84: published dependency archives inspected from 0.79.2, 0.83.0, 0.84.0, and 0.88.1 all lack Catalyst symlinks. The inspected 0.88.1 React Core archive has the same problem.

Hermes already protects this handoff with a “Compress slices to preserve Symlinks” step. This PR follows the archive-before-upload approach to React Native's workflows.

---

Changes in prebuild-ios-core.yml and prebuild-ios-dependencies.yml:

• Archive slice products before upload, including products restored from cache; extract them before XCFramework composition.

Incorrect (Resolved to file)	Correct (Preserve symlinks)

Changelog:

[IOS] [FIXED] - Preserve Mac Catalyst framework symlinks in published React Native prebuild artifacts.

Test Plan:

(Update) Prebuilt frameworks test passed, and have correct symlinks

React Dependencies: Debug, Release
React Core: Debug, Release

Composed XCFramework: Debug, Release

[theeket]

Hi @cipolleschi 👋 (I hope you don’t mind the mention 😅) when you have some time, could you please take a look at this fix? So it could land in 0.90.

This fixes #55540 that symlinks breaks on Mac Catalyst (as stated above), similar to hermes#1883 that is already fixed, the RN main repo is not fixed yet. (Note that it breaks on every versions)

This PR follows Hermes approach that “Compress slices to preserve Symlinks” when uploading artifacts, then extract it to compose xcframework. All prebuilt artifacts now have correct symlinks. (See artifacts in checks)

Thanks 🙏

[cipolleschi]

Thanks for fixing this!

[cipolleschi]

@theeket Can you please rebase on top of main? I tried to rebase from github, but it says that there are conflicts.

[theeket]

@cipolleschi done. Is it available now ?

[github-actions]

Visual regression

2 visual difference(s) at 51a676fed1e1. Visual differences need maintainer approval. Review the report, then apply visual-change-approved.

ios button/default-styling/default: Changed, 38223 px (1.533%)

Expected and Captured

Expected	Captured

ios scroll-view/sticky-header/end: Changed, 113294 px (15.657%)

Expected and Captured

Expected	Captured

[meta-codesync]

@cipolleschi has imported this pull request. If you are a Meta employee, you can view this in D131815435.