Preparing a Mac machine for Bilder¶

If all you need is python and sphinx (e.g., for builds of documentation), then you need only

• XCode with command line tools
• Latex installed as noted below

and then you can add the arguments, -W python, and your installed Python and CMake will be used if your path is correct.

Bilder on Darwin¶

Darwin comes with bash, so it is Bilder ready for the most part.

OS X Versions¶

XCode that supports C++ 11 and OpenMP. This has been true for several year.

Case insensitive file system¶

We have noted and filed bugs for CMake errors on OS X when using the case-sensitive file system. To fix we use the case-insensitive file system. There may be problems with various packages and the case-insensitive file system.

C and C++ compilers and Xcode command line tools¶

Install at least Xcode 14.2 (14.2 has been tested as of 2024 Jun 5, but later versions might work as well). We are currently using 15.4.

To obtain Xcode visit https://developer.apple.com/download/all/. or older versions also download the Command Line Tools to match the version of Xcode that you are getting. The Xcode.app directory that is unpacked by opening the .xip file should be moved to the /Applications/ folder. The Command Line Tools is a DMG that has a PKG installer, so just run that. One must additionally execute this command before using any command line tools:

sudo xcodebuild -license

If you are upgrading from a previous installation you will want/need to run the following command

sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app

One can check the version of Xcode from the command-line with

xcodebuild -version
/usr/bin/clang --version

The clang should be version 14.0.0 with Xcode 14.2.

HomeBrew¶

One must select a non-OSX package manager for some additional packages. The candidates are HomeBrew, MacPorts, and Fink, with the HomeBrew being our recommendation at this time, as it is active, and it has the philosophy of not building extraneous stuff that is already present on OSX, which MacPorts tends to do, thus using up more disk space. HomeBrew also installs packages in their own subdirs with links to other places in $HOMEBREWDIR with $HOMEBREWDIR being either /usr/local/homebrew if on Intel Mac, or /opt/homebrew if on Apple ARM architecture (M1, M2, etc.). Thus removal of a package a matter removing a directory and then removing broken links in $HOMEBREWDIR.

To install homebrew, go to https://brew.sh and follow the installation directions. Our approach (as of Oct 9, 2024) is

cd /opt
sudo mkdir homebrew
sudo chown $USER homebrew
sudo chmod 2775
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Get various packages...

brew install subversion gnupg libpng freetype gd ghostscript ninja wget imagemagick bison flex gperf libcapn pkg-config curl

git large file support (for VisIt)

brew install git-lfs
git lfs install --force --skip-smudge

Compilers

brew install llvm
brew install gcc

The homebrew gcc compiler includes gfortran.

Perhaps no longer needed:

brew install qt@5 # ARM only. Qt is version 5.15.10 as of 7/3/2023

OPTIONAL:

If you receive an error regarding ruby version:

brew install ruby@2.3

may help.

LaTeX¶

Those with sufficient hard drive space (3.4GB after install) may wish to download the full MacTeX package from http://www.tug.org/mactex/downloading.html. After installing, one can see the 'README ME FIRST.pdf' in /Applications/Tex. You will likely need to add /usr/texbin to your path:

setenv PATH /usr/texbin:${PATH}  # For tcsh
export PATH=/usr/texbin:${PATH}  # For bash

For those who like GUIs, the !TeXworks in /Applications/TeX/TeXworks should work fine.

For those with limited space, install BasicTeX from https://tug.org/mactex/morepackages.html. Add to your PATH:

    /usr/local/texlive/2017/bin/universal-darwin/

and then install the packages noted at

LaTeX packages needed by Bilder

You may need to use sudo.

sudo tlmgr update --self
sudo tlmgr install <needed packages>

and then used the autoupdate feature to get any additionally needed packages. This minimal installation is 230 M instead of the usual 2GB.

Disable spindump¶

for faster compilations via

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.spindump.plist

Java¶

You will need to install java by invoking the executable in any way such as...

java -version

Follow the instructions in the dialog that takes you to the Oracle website and choose the latest version to download. (As of March 2021 this is 16.)

Chose the macOS installer from
https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase-jdk16-downloads.html

HostName¶

For bilder to properly send emails the fully qualified hostname must set on the machine. To check this try...

hostname -f

this should return machinename.domainname.com rather than just machinename. If it does not, then set the hostname of the machine by typing the following commands.

sudo scutil --set ComputerName "machinename"
sudo scutil --set LocalHostName "machinename"
sudo scutil --set HostName "machinename.domainname.com"
dscacheutil -flushcache

Restart your Mac after this.

Power Saving Modes¶

For build machines that are not personal machines, disabling certain options will help in connectivity and responsiveness:

Under Spotlight
 - disabled the main HD. (multiple mdworkers taking up a lot of cpu.)

Under Energy Saver
 - Computer sleep: Set to never
 - Unchecked Put hard disks to sleep when possible
 - Unchecked Wake for network access

Python¶

For some older packages the "python" binary might be needed. Homebrew no longer supports installing Python2. Individual packages may expect "python" to be from Python2 or Python3, so it not clear if Python2 is needed to be installed or if one can link the python executable to the python3 one. One can install Python2, in any case from https://python.org/downloads.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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DEPRECATED INSTRUCTIONS¶

X11¶

X11 should not be needed, but if it is needed:

Install XQuartz X11.

Create a symbolic link so that the X11 headers can be found by the compiler:

sudo ln -s /opt/X11/include/X11 /usr/local/include/X11

Other gfortran options (besides HomeBrew)¶

Option 2: HPC¶

Install gfortran from SourceForge HPC. (Do not also install the other gcc compilers.)

As of March 29, 2015, the version is 4.9.0.

Install via

$ tar xzf gfortran-4.9-bin.tar.gz -C /

Option 3: GNU¶

Install gfortran using the installer from http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/GFortranBinaries.

As of March 29, 2015, the version is 4.9.0.

The binaries will end up being installed in /usr/local/bin

Git¶

If any repository package requires Git protocol, then for Lion and earlier you may need Git from http://git-scm.com/download/mac and add /usr/local/git/bin to your path.

Macports ###¶

This provides wget, freetype, and other utilities. Get macports from http://www.macports.org/install.php and install.

Note: Before proceeding with the installation of various macports packages noted below on Lion machines with Xcode 4.3, one needs to run

sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app

Otherwise, there will be an error installing zlib during the wget installation below.

After the macports installation, do

sudo port install wget
sudo port install ImageMagick +no_x11
sudo port install f2c

XCode¶

Lion¶

On Lion, the command line compilers are not installed automatically. After installing Xcode, navigate to the
Preferences->Download dialog
and install the Command Line Tools. The dialog is..

!screenShotCommandLineTools.png!

or from the command line do

sudo xcode-select --switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/
xcodebuild
      (hit agree)

You may subsequently need to build your first package with sudo in order to accept the Xcode licenses.

Mountain Lion ###¶

Same as Mavericks?

Mavericks¶

sudo xcode-select --install

Java¶

(The below does not apply to yosemite.)

The cmake build may fail due to missing java headers linked to in /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Headers. To fix:

cd /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Headers
sudo mv jni.h jni.h.missing