bitcoin/doc/build-osx.md

Mac OS X Build Instructions and Notes

This guide will show you how to build bitcoind(headless client) for OSX.

Notes

• Tested on OS X 10.5 through 10.8 on Intel processors only. PPC is not supported because it is big-endian.
• All of the commands should be executed in a Terminal application. The built-in one is located in /Applications/Utilities.

Preparation

You need to install XCode with all the options checked so that the compiler and everything is available in /usr not just /Developer. XCode should be available on your OS X installation media, but if not, you can get the current version from https://developer.apple.com/xcode/. If you install Xcode 4.3 or later, you'll need to install its command line tools. This can be done in Xcode > Preferences > Downloads > Components and generally must be re-done or updated every time Xcode is updated.

There's an assumption that you already have git installed, as well. If not, it's the path of least resistance to install Github for Mac (OS X 10.7+) or Git for OS X. It is also available via Homebrew or MacPorts.

You will also need to install Homebrew or MacPorts in order to install library dependencies. It's largely a religious decision which to choose, but, as of December 2012, MacPorts is a little easier because you can just install the dependencies immediately - no other work required. If you're unsure, read the instructions through first in order to assess what you want to do. Homebrew is a little more popular among those newer to OS X.

The installation of the actual dependencies is covered in the Instructions sections below.

Instructions: MacPorts

Install dependencies

Installing the dependencies using MacPorts is very straightforward.

sudo port install boost db48@+no_java openssl miniupnpc

Building bitcoind

1. Clone the github tree to get the source code and go into the directory.

    git clone git@github.com:bitcoin/bitcoin.git bitcoin
    cd bitcoin
   

2. Build bitcoind:

   cd src
   make -f makefile.osx
   

3. It is a good idea to build and run the unit tests, too:

   make -f makefile.osx test
   

Instructions: HomeBrew

Install dependencies using Homebrew

    brew install boost miniupnpc openssl berkeley-db4

Note: After you have installed the dependencies, you should check that the Brew installed version of OpenSSL is the one available for compilation. You can check this by typing

    openssl version

into Terminal. You should see OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013.

If not, you can ensure that the Brew OpenSSL is correctly linked by running

    brew link openssl --force

Rerunning "openssl version" should now return the correct version.

Building bitcoind

1. Clone the github tree to get the source code and go into the directory.

    git clone git@github.com:bitcoin/bitcoin.git bitcoin
    cd bitcoin
   

2. Modify source in order to pick up the openssl library.

   Edit makefile.osx to account for library location differences. There's a diff in contrib/homebrew/makefile.osx.patch that shows what you need to change, or you can just patch by doing

   patch -p1 < contrib/homebrew/makefile.osx.patch
   

3. Build bitcoind:

   cd src
   make -f makefile.osx
   

4. It is a good idea to build and run the unit tests, too:

   make -f makefile.osx test
   

Creating a release build

A bitcoind binary is not included in the Bitcoin-Qt.app bundle. You can ignore this section if you are building bitcoind for your own use.

If you are building bitcoind for others, your build machine should be set up as follows for maximum compatibility:

All dependencies should be compiled with these flags:

-mmacosx-version-min=10.5 -arch i386 -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk

For MacPorts, that means editing your macports.conf and setting macosx_deployment_target and build_arch:

macosx_deployment_target=10.5
build_arch=i386

... and then uninstalling and re-installing, or simply rebuilding, all ports.

As of December 2012, the boost port does not obey macosx_deployment_target. Download http://gavinandresen-bitcoin.s3.amazonaws.com/boost_macports_fix.zip for a fix. Some ports also seem to obey either build_arch or macosx_deployment_target, but not both at the same time. For example, building on an OS X 10.6 64-bit machine fails. Official release builds of Bitcoin-Qt are compiled on an OS X 10.6 32-bit machine to workaround that problem.

Once dependencies are compiled, creating Bitcoin-Qt.app is easy:

make -f Makefile.osx RELEASE=1

Running

It's now available at ./bitcoind, provided that you are still in the src directory. We have to first create the RPC configuration file, though.

Run ./bitcoind to get the filename where it should be put, or just try these commands:

echo -e "rpcuser=bitcoinrpc\nrpcpassword=$(xxd -l 16 -p /dev/urandom)" > "/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/bitcoin.conf"
chmod 600 "/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/bitcoin.conf"

When next you run it, it will start downloading the blockchain, but it won't output anything while it's doing this. This process may take several hours.

Other commands:

./bitcoind --help  # for a list of command-line options.
./bitcoind -daemon # to start the bitcoin daemon.
./bitcoind help    # When the daemon is running, to get a list of RPC commands