Source: https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/Doc/library/importlib.rst

A specialization of :class:importlib.machinery.ExtensionFileLoader that is able to load extension modules in Framework format.

For compatibility with the iOS App Store, all binary modules in an iOS app must be dynamic libraries, contained in a framework with appropriate metadata, stored in the Frameworks folder of the packaged app. There can be only a single binary per framework, and there can be no executable binary material outside the Frameworks folder.

To accomodate this requirement, when running on iOS, extension module binaries are not packaged as .so files on sys.path, but as individual standalone frameworks. To discover those frameworks, this loader is be registered against the .fwork file extension, with a .fwork file acting as a placeholder in the original location of the binary on sys.path. The .fwork file contains the path of the actual binary in the Frameworks folder, relative to the app bundle. To allow for resolving a framework-packaged binary back to the original location, the framework is expected to contain a .origin file that contains the location of the .fwork file, relative to the app bundle.

For example, consider the case of an import from foo.bar import _whiz, where _whiz is implemented with the binary module sources/foo/bar/_whiz.abi3.so, with sources being the location registered on sys.path, relative to the application bundle. This module must be distributed as Frameworks/foo.bar._whiz.framework/foo.bar._whiz (creating the framework name from the full import path of the module), with an Info.plist file in the .framework directory identifying the binary as a framework. The foo.bar._whiz module would be represented in the original location with a sources/foo/bar/_whiz.abi3.fwork marker file, containing the path Frameworks/foo.bar._whiz/foo.bar._whiz. The framework would also contain Frameworks/foo.bar._whiz.framework/foo.bar._whiz.origin, containing the path to the .fwork file.

When a module is loaded with this loader, the __file__ for the module will report as the location of the .fwork file. This allows code to use the __file__ of a module as an anchor for file system traveral. However, the spec origin will reference the location of the actual binary in the .framework folder.

The Xcode project building the app is responsible for converting any .so files from wherever they exist in the PYTHONPATH into frameworks in the Frameworks folder (including stripping extensions from the module file, the addition of framework metadata, and signing the resulting framework), and creating the .fwork and .origin files. This will usually be done with a build step in the Xcode project; see the iOS documentation for details on how to construct this build step.