OSX_build_notes.md

macOS (OS X) BUILD NOTES

These notes describe what had to be done on fresh installs of macOS 10.8 - 10.13 in order to compile Armory.

Requirements / Caveats

Armory is designed to run only on OS X 10.8 or later. Running on 10.7 may be possible with proper code editing. However, this isn't recommended due to issues with C++11 support under OS X 10.7. The latest versions of OS X and Xcode that can compile 10.7-compatible binaries are OS X 10.11 and Xcode 7.3.1. (The binaries are also compatible with macOS 10.12 and beyond.) An Apple developer account may be used to obtain Xcode 7.3.1.

If a bug is found, please consult the Bitcoin Forum or bitcoin-armory IRC channel on Freenode for further instructions.

Instructions

1. Install the latest version of Xcode. As a space-saving alternative, get an Apple developer account, log in, and download the latest version of Command Line Tools for Xcode.

2. Open a terminal and install the Xcode commandline tools. Follow any prompts that appear.

   xcode-select --install
   

3. Install and update Homebrew. Warnings can probably be ignored, although environment differences and changes Apple makes to the OS between major releases make it impossible to provide definitive guidance. Any instructions given by Homebrew must be followed. (Exact directions seem to change depending on which version of Xcode is installed.)

   /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
   touch ~/.bashrc
   echo "export CFLAGS=\"-arch x86_64\"" >> ~/.bashrc
   echo "export ARCHFLAGS=\"-arch x86_64\"" >> ~/.bashrc
   source ~/.bashrc
   brew update
   brew doctor
   

4. Install and link dependencies required by the Armory build process but not by included Armory binaries.

   brew install python xz swig gettext openssl automake libtool homebrew/dupes/zlib
   brew link gettext --force
   

5. Restart your Mac. (This is necessary due to issues related to the Python install.)

6. Create a symbolic link for glibtoolize. (This requires sudo access and is probably not strictly necessary. It make Autotools much happier, though, and should be harmless otherwise.)

   sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/glibtoolize /usr/local/bin/libtoolize
   

7. Download Armory here, either as a static zip file or via Git version control. If downloading a zip file, unzip the zip file.

8. (OPTIONAL) If compiling on a pre-10.12 macOS version, change the minimum version to 10.7 from 10.8 in osxbuild/build-app.py, osxbuild/objc_armory/ArmoryMac.pro, and osxbuild/qmake_LFLAGS.patch by searching for instances of 10.8 and changing them to 10.7.

9. Compile Armory.

   cd \*Location of Armory\*  (An example would be **~/Projects/BitcoinArmory**)
   git submodule init  (Required only if using Git version control, as discussed in Step 7.)
   git submodule update  (Required only if using Git version control, as discussed in Step 7.)
   cd osxbuild
   python build-app.py > /dev/null
   

The "> /dev/null" line in step 9 is optional. All this does is prevent the command line from being overwhelmed with build output. The output will automatically be saved to osxbuild/build-app.log.txt no matter what.

Armory.app will be found under the "workspace" subdirectory. It can be moved anywhere on the system, including under /Applications.

To avoid runtime issues (e.g. "ImportError: No module named pkg_resources") when attempting to run builds on other machines/VMs, make sure $PYTHONPATH is empty. In addition, try not to have any "brew"ed libpng, Python or Qt modules installed. Any of the above could lead to unpredictable behavior.

If you're running a beta version of Xcode, the build tools will need to point to the beta. Open a terminal and run

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

Command line tools should be updated automatically whenever a new version of Xcode is used. However, due to Apple constantly changing requirements for running command line tools, the following command should be run after every Xcode upgrade.

xcode-select --install