1# macOS Build Guide 2 3**Updated for MacOS [11.2](https://www.apple.com/macos/big-sur/)** 4 5This guide describes how to build bitcoind, command-line utilities, and GUI on macOS 6 7**Note:** The following is for Intel Macs only! 8 9## Dependencies 10 11The following dependencies are **required**: 12 13Library | Purpose | Description 14-----------------------------------------------------------|------------|---------------------- 15[automake](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/automake) | Build | Generate makefile 16[libtool](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/libtool) | Build | Shared library support 17[pkg-config](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/pkg-config) | Build | Configure compiler and linker flags 18[boost](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/boost) | Utility | Library for threading, data structures, etc 19[libevent](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/libevent) | Networking | OS independent asynchronous networking 20 21The following dependencies are **optional**: 22 23Library | Purpose | Description 24--------------------------------------------------------------- |------------------|---------------------- 25[berkeley-db@4](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/berkeley-db@4) | Berkeley DB | Wallet storage (only needed when wallet enabled) 26[qt@5](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/qt@5) | GUI | GUI toolkit (only needed when GUI enabled) 27[qrencode](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/qrencode) | QR codes in GUI | Generating QR codes (only needed when GUI enabled) 28[zeromq](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/zeromq) | ZMQ notification | Allows generating ZMQ notifications (requires ZMQ version >= 4.0.0) 29[sqlite](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/sqlite) | SQLite DB | Wallet storage (only needed when wallet enabled) 30[miniupnpc](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/miniupnpc) | UPnP Support | Firewall-jumping support (needed for port mapping support) 31[libnatpmp](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/libnatpmp) | NAT-PMP Support | Firewall-jumping support (needed for port mapping support) 32[python3](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/python@3.9) | Testing | Python Interpreter (only needed when running the test suite) 33 34The following dependencies are **optional** packages required for deploying: 35 36Library | Purpose | Description 37----------------------------------------------------|------------------|---------------------- 38[librsvg](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/librsvg) | Deploy Dependency| Library to render SVG files 39[ds_store](https://pypi.org/project/ds-store/) | Deploy Dependency| Examine and modify .DS_Store files 40[mac_alias](https://pypi.org/project/mac-alias/) | Deploy Dependency| Generate/Read binary alias and bookmark records 41 42See [dependencies.md](dependencies.md) for a complete overview. 43 44## Preparation 45 46The commands in this guide should be executed in a Terminal application. 47macOS comes with a built-in Terminal located in: 48 49``` 50/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app 51``` 52 53### 1. Xcode Command Line Tools 54 55The Xcode Command Line Tools are a collection of build tools for macOS. 56These tools must be installed in order to build Bitcoin Core from source. 57 58To install, run the following command from your terminal: 59 60``` bash 61xcode-select --install 62``` 63 64Upon running the command, you should see a popup appear. 65Click on `Install` to continue the installation process. 66 67### 2. Homebrew Package Manager 68 69Homebrew is a package manager for macOS that allows one to install packages from the command line easily. 70While several package managers are available for macOS, this guide will focus on Homebrew as it is the most popular. 71Since the examples in this guide which walk through the installation of a package will use Homebrew, it is recommended that you install it to follow along. 72Otherwise, you can adapt the commands to your package manager of choice. 73 74To install the Homebrew package manager, see: https://brew.sh 75 76Note: If you run into issues while installing Homebrew or pulling packages, refer to [Homebrew's troubleshooting page](https://docs.brew.sh/Troubleshooting). 77 78### 3. Install Required Dependencies 79 80The first step is to download the required dependencies. 81These dependencies represent the packages required to get a barebones installation up and running. 82To install, run the following from your terminal: 83 84``` bash 85brew install automake libtool boost pkg-config libevent 86``` 87 88### 4. Clone Bitcoin repository 89 90`git` should already be installed by default on your system. 91Now that all the required dependencies are installed, let's clone the Bitcoin Core repository to a directory. 92All build scripts and commands will run from this directory. 93 94``` bash 95git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git 96``` 97 98### 5. Install Optional Dependencies 99 100#### Wallet Dependencies 101 102It is not necessary to build wallet functionality to run `bitcoind` or `bitcoin-qt`. 103To enable legacy wallets, you must install `berkeley-db@4`. 104To enable [descriptor wallets](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/descriptors.md), `sqlite` is required. 105Skip `berkeley-db@4` if you intend to *exclusively* use descriptor wallets. 106 107###### Legacy Wallet Support 108 109`berkeley-db@4` is required to enable support for legacy wallets. 110Skip if you don't intend to use legacy wallets. 111 112``` bash 113brew install berkeley-db@4 114``` 115 116###### Descriptor Wallet Support 117 118Note: Apple has included a useable `sqlite` package since macOS 10.14. 119You may not need to install this package. 120 121`sqlite` is required to enable support for descriptor wallets. 122Skip if you don't intend to use descriptor wallets. 123 124``` bash 125brew install sqlite 126``` 127--- 128 129#### GUI Dependencies 130 131###### Qt 132 133Bitcoin Core includes a GUI built with the cross-platform Qt Framework. 134To compile the GUI, we need to install `qt@5`. 135Skip if you don't intend to use the GUI. 136 137``` bash 138brew install qt@5 139``` 140 141Ensure that the `qt@5` package is installed, not the `qt` package. 142If 'qt' is installed, the build process will fail. 143if installed, remove the `qt` package with the following command: 144 145``` bash 146brew uninstall qt 147``` 148 149Note: Building with Qt binaries downloaded from the Qt website is not officially supported. 150See the notes in [#7714](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/7714). 151 152###### qrencode 153 154The GUI can encode addresses in a QR Code. To build in QR support for the GUI, install `qrencode`. 155Skip if not using the GUI or don't want QR code functionality. 156 157``` bash 158brew install qrencode 159``` 160--- 161 162#### Port Mapping Dependencies 163 164###### miniupnpc 165 166miniupnpc may be used for UPnP port mapping. 167Skip if you do not need this functionality. 168 169``` bash 170brew install miniupnpc 171``` 172 173###### libnatpmp 174 175libnatpmp may be used for NAT-PMP port mapping. 176Skip if you do not need this functionality. 177 178``` bash 179brew install libnatpmp 180``` 181 182Note: UPnP and NAT-PMP support will be compiled in and disabled by default. 183Check out the [further configuration](#further-configuration) section for more information. 184 185--- 186 187#### ZMQ Dependencies 188 189Support for ZMQ notifications requires the following dependency. 190Skip if you do not need ZMQ functionality. 191 192``` bash 193brew install zeromq 194``` 195 196ZMQ is automatically compiled in and enabled if the dependency is detected. 197Check out the [further configuration](#further-configuration) section for more information. 198 199For more information on ZMQ, see: [zmq.md](zmq.md) 200 201--- 202 203#### Test Suite Dependencies 204 205There is an included test suite that is useful for testing code changes when developing. 206To run the test suite (recommended), you will need to have Python 3 installed: 207 208``` bash 209brew install python 210``` 211 212--- 213 214#### Deploy Dependencies 215 216You can deploy a `.dmg` containing the Bitcoin Core application using `make deploy`. 217This command depends on a couple of python packages, so it is required that you have `python` installed. 218 219Ensuring that `python` is installed, you can install the deploy dependencies by running the following commands in your terminal: 220 221``` bash 222brew install librsvg 223``` 224 225``` bash 226pip3 install ds_store mac_alias 227``` 228 229## Building Bitcoin Core 230 231### 1. Configuration 232 233There are many ways to configure Bitcoin Core, here are a few common examples: 234 235##### Wallet (BDB + SQlite) Support, No GUI: 236 237If `berkeley-db@4` is installed, then legacy wallet support will be built. 238If `berkeley-db@4` is not installed, then this will throw an error. 239If `sqlite` is installed, then descriptor wallet support will also be built. 240Additionally, this explicitly disables the GUI. 241 242``` bash 243./autogen.sh 244./configure --with-gui=no 245``` 246 247##### Wallet (only SQlite) and GUI Support: 248 249This explicitly enables the GUI and disables legacy wallet support. 250If `qt` is not installed, this will throw an error. 251If `sqlite` is installed then descriptor wallet functionality will be built. 252If `sqlite` is not installed, then wallet functionality will be disabled. 253 254``` bash 255./autogen.sh 256./configure --without-bdb --with-gui=yes 257``` 258 259##### No Wallet or GUI 260 261``` bash 262./autogen.sh 263./configure --without-wallet --with-gui=no 264``` 265 266##### Further Configuration 267 268You may want to dig deeper into the configuration options to achieve your desired behavior. 269Examine the output of the following command for a full list of configuration options: 270 271``` bash 272./configure -help 273``` 274 275### 2. Compile 276 277After configuration, you are ready to compile. 278Run the following in your terminal to compile Bitcoin Core: 279 280``` bash 281make # use "-j N" here for N parallel jobs 282make check # Run tests if Python 3 is available 283``` 284 285### 3. Deploy (optional) 286 287You can also create a `.dmg` containing the `.app` bundle by running the following command: 288 289``` bash 290make deploy 291``` 292 293## Running Bitcoin Core 294 295Bitcoin Core should now be available at `./src/bitcoind`. 296If you compiled support for the GUI, it should be available at `./src/qt/bitcoin-qt`. 297 298The first time you run `bitcoind` or `bitcoin-qt`, it will start downloading the blockchain. 299This process could take many hours, or even days on slower than average systems. 300 301By default, blockchain and wallet data files will be stored in: 302 303``` bash 304/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/ 305``` 306 307Before running, you may create an empty configuration file: 308 309```shell 310mkdir -p "/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin" 311 312touch "/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/bitcoin.conf" 313 314chmod 600 "/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/bitcoin.conf" 315``` 316 317You can monitor the download process by looking at the debug.log file: 318 319```shell 320tail -f $HOME/Library/Application\ Support/Bitcoin/debug.log 321``` 322 323## Other commands: 324 325```shell 326./src/bitcoind -daemon # Starts the bitcoin daemon. 327./src/bitcoin-cli --help # Outputs a list of command-line options. 328./src/bitcoin-cli help # Outputs a list of RPC commands when the daemon is running. 329./src/qt/bitcoin-qt -server # Starts the bitcoin-qt server mode, allows bitcoin-cli control 330``` 331