wiki:BuildMacApp

Version 34 (modified by charlief, 17 years ago) (diff)

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Building BOINC Project Applications for Macintosh OS X

Last updated 4/30/08

This document applies to BOINC libraries 6.1.12 and later. It has instructions for building science project applications to run under BOINC on Macintosh OSX. Information for building the BOINC Client and Manager for Macintosh OSX can be found here.

Contents of this document:

  1. Building BOINC Project Applications for Macintosh OS X
    1. General Considerations
    2. Cross-Platform Development
    3. Preparing To Build
    4. Build Any Other Needed Libraries
    5. Build Your Application Using Cross-Development
      1. Using an XCode Project
      2. Using a Generic Makefile With a Custom Shell Script
      3. Using a Custom Makefile
    6. Upgrading applications for version 6 graphics
    7. Adding a Finder icon to your graphics application
    8. Additional References

General Considerations

Building applications for Macintosh OS X is complicated by the fact that Mac OS X is actually 3 different platforms:

  • powerpc-apple-darwin: PowerPC processors running OS 10.3.0 and above
  • i686-apple-darwin: 32-bit intel processors running OS 10.4.0 and above
  • x86_64-apple-darwin: 64-bit intel processors running OS 10.5.0 and above

BOINC does not support 64-bit PowerPC applications for the Mac.

Of course, you can choose to support only some of these platforms. For example, you may not need a 64-bit version. If your project does not support the x86_64-apple-darwin platform, BOINC will automatically request your i686-apple-darwin application. And /or you may choose not to support the powerpc-apple-darwin platform.

Although BOINC version 6.1.0 supports only Mac OS X 10.3.9 and later, earlier versions supported all versions back to OS 10.3.0. The GCC compiler version 4.0 was introduced in OS 10.3.9. OS 10.3.0 through 10.3.8 can't run applications built with GCC 4.0, so you have 2 choices if you want to support PowerPC (G3, G4 and G5) processors:

  • Build your PowerPC application with GCC 4.0 and distribute it only to Macs running 10.3.9 or later.
  • Build your PowerPC application with GCC 3.3.

The libraries supplied with different versions of OS X support different APIs. You need to take certain steps to ensure that you use only APIs that are available in all the OS versions you plan to support. There are two basic ways to accomplish this:

  • Build each platform on a system running the oldest OS you need to support:
    • A PowerPC development system running OS 10.3.0 through 10.3.8 (or 10.3.9 if you won't support the older systems)
    • An Intel development system running OS 10.4.x
    • A 64-bit development Intel system running OS 10.5.x (The original Intel Macs used an Intel Core Duo processor which was 32-bit only. You must have an Intel Core 2 Duo or newer processor to run 64-bit applications.)
  • Use a single development system running OS 10.5.x and cross-compile for the various platforms. The remainder of this document describes that process.

You will also need to build the BOINC libraries on each platform and any other libraries your application needs. You can use the Makefiles supplied in the BOINC Subversion tree to build the BOINC libraries with this approach, or build them as Universal Binaries using the BOINC XCode project, as described later in this document.

At the time this is written, the BOINC Makefiles do not build 64-bit binaries.

Cross-Platform Development

Apple provides the tools necessary to cross-compile for all three BOINC Mac platform on any Mac running OS 10.5.x. If you don't need to support the x86_64-apple-darwin platform, you can also cross-compile on OS 10.4.x.

Apple provides Software Developer Kits (SDKs) for OS 10.3.9, OS 10.4 and OS 10.5. These include all the header files and stub libraries appropriate to the corresponding versions of OS X.

You get these tools, including the GCC compilers and system library header files, by installing the XCode Tools package. I recommend running OS 10.5.x and installing XCode Tools 3.0 or later. If you have the OS 10.5 installation DVD for your system, you can install XCode Tools at the time you install the OS, or you can install it later by opening the file Optional Installs/XCode Tools/XCodeTools.mpkg.

Note that the MacOS10.3.9 SDK is not automatically included unless you customize the installation; you must click the Customize button in the Installation type step and select the MacOS10.3.9 SDK when you run the XCode Tools installer if you want to support the powerpc-apple-darwin platform.

Otherwise, you can download it from Apple's web site (it is large: 1.1 GB). You must be a member of the Apple Developer Connection to download the software, but you can join for free at: ​http://connect.apple.com

  • All BOINC software for Power PC Macs must be built using MacOS10.3.9 SDK to assure backward compatibility with OS 10.3.9.
  • All 32-bit BOINC software for Intel Macs must be built using GCC 4.0 and MacOS10.4.u SDK to allow cross-compiling and to assure backward compatibility with OS 10.4.x.
  • All 64-bit BOINC software for Intel Macs must be built using GCC 4.0 and MacOS10.5 SDK.

The example_app found in boinc_samples has examples of 3 different ways to build the application for all 3 platforms using cross-development:

  • Create an XCode project
  • Use a generic Makefile with a custom shell script
  • Use a custom Makefile

The basic requirements for building each platform are:

  • Specify the architecture: ppc, i386 or x86_64
  • Specify the compiler to use if it is GCC-3.3.
  • Specify the appropriate SDK for the minimum target OS X version.
  • Specify the Mac OSX Deployment Target, which is the minimum target OS X version. This tells the compiler to reject any attempts to use APIs not available in that version of OS X.

Preparing To Build

Create a parent directory within which to work. In this description , we will call it BOINC_dev, but you can name it anything you wish. This parent directory will contain the BOINC source files, your application project, and any other library projects you will use.

Source files are now archived using Subversion. You can download svnX, a free GUI application for running Subversion from either ​http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/development_tools/svnx.html or ​http://www.lachoseinteractive.net/en/community/subversion/svnx/.

You also need to install Subversion itself. One place to get it is: ​http://www.codingmonkeys.de/mbo/

Get the BOINC source tree from SVN, and put it in the same BOINC_dev folder. To do this, type the following in Terminal: 

cd {path}/BOINC_dev/
svn co http://boinc.berkeley.edu/svn/trunk/boinc

(You may change the name of the boinc directory to anything you wish.) Hint: if you have trouble getting this to work, try using https instead of http.

The command above retrieves the source code from the HEAD or development branch of the SVN repository. See more information on getting the BOINC source code?.

Build the BOINC libraries as follows:

Build BOINC as follows:

BOINC itself is built using the boinc.xcodeproj file. You can either build directly in XCode (more information below) or run the BuildMacBOINC.sh script: 

cd {path}/BOINC_dev/boinc/mac_build/
source BuildMacBOINC.sh -lib

The complete syntax for this script is 

source BuildMacBOINC.sh [-dev] [-noclean] [-no64bit] [-all] [-lib] [-client] [-help]

The options for BuildMacBOINC.sh are:

-dev
build the development (debug) version (native architecture only). Default is deployment (release) version (universal binaries containing three architectures: ppc, i386 and x86_64); when you link your application with these libraries, the linker will automatically select the architecture matching your application.
-noclean
don't do a 'clean' of each target before building. default is to clean all first.
-no64bit
build 32-bit binaries only, no x86_64 architecture.

The following arguments determine which targets to build

-all
build all targets (i.e. target 'Build_All' -- this is the default)
-lib
build the three libraries: libboinc_api.a, libboinc_graphics_api.a, libboinc.a
-client
build two targets: BOINC client and command-line utility boinc_cmd? (also builds libboinc.a, since boinc_cmd requires it.)

Both -lib and -client may be specified to build five targets (no BOINC Manager.)

Note: You may find three XCode projects in the BOINC_dev/boinc/mac_build/ directory:

  • boinc.pbproj is obsolete and should no longer be used.
  • wxMac-BOINC.xcodeproj was needed for building older versions of the wxMac library in conjunction with the older versions of the setupForBoinc.sh or buildWxMac.sh scripts. It is not used for BOINC 5.9.2 or later.
  • boinc.xcodeproj builds BOINC. It can be used either with the BuildMacBOINC.sh script or as a stand-alone project. It has three extra build configurations, i386-Deployment and ppc-Deployment, which can be used for testing only to build for just one architecture, and Deployment-no64 which builds only 32-bit products. The Development build configuration builds only the native architecture and is used for debugging. The Deployment build configuration builds a universal binary and is suitable for release builds.

The standard release of BOINC version 6.1.0 and later contains a universal binary of the BOINC Client containing builds for three architectures: ppc, i386 and x86_64. The Mac OS automatically chooses the appropriate architecture as follows:

  • On a PowerPC Mac, it runs the ppc executable.
  • On a Mac with a 64-bit Intel processor running OS 10.5 or later, it runs the x86_64 executable.
  • On any other Intel Mac, it runs the i386 executable.

Build Any Other Needed Libraries

If you are building a third-party library (such as JPEG), you will need to take the steps listed above in the section Cross-Platform Development. See the files boinc_samples/example_app/Makefile_mac2 and boinc_samples/example_app/MakeMacExample.sh for examples of how to accomplish this.

Build Your Application Using Cross-Development

We will use the example_app to illustrate the 3 methods of cross-compiling.

Download this sample project from Subversion, and put it in the same BOINC_dev folder. To do this, type the following in Terminal: 

cd {path}/BOINC_dev/
mkdir boinc_samples
cd boinc_samples/
svn co http://boinc.berkeley.edu/svn/trunk/boinc_samples

Using an XCode Project

Double-click on the project file boinc_samples/mac_build/UpperCase2.xcodeproj. At the top of the main window, select Build_All for the Active Target, and ppc_Deployment for the Active Build Configuration. Then click on the Build icon (or select Build from the Build menu.) Repeat for Active Build Configurations i386_Deployment and x86_64_Deployment.

Use the example XCode project as a guide or a starting point to create an XCode project for your own application. Pay special attention to the XCode build settings. For more information on using XCode, see ​XCode User Guide and ​XCode Build Settings.

Using a Generic Makefile With a Custom Shell Script

Type the following in Terminal: 

cd {path}/BOINC_dev/boinc_samples/example_app/Mac/
sh MakeMacExample.sh -clean

Again, you can use this shell script as a guide or starting point to create one for your application. Let's examine the details:

If your application uses an autoconf file, you can set the various environment variables for configure directly. For examples, see the scripts buildc-ares.sh, buildcurl.sh and buildjpeg.sh in the directory {path}/BOINC_dev/boinc/mac_build/.

In this case, there is no autoconf file, so we had to modify the generic Makefile slightly. The most significant change was to add the variable VARIANTFLAGS to the list of arguments in CXXFLAGS. The remaining changes were to ensure that the search paths included the needed BOINC headers and libraries.

Here are the elements of our script: 

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH

XCode 2.4.1 installs autoconf 2.59 and automake 1.6.3. XCode 3.0 installs autoconf 2.61 and automake 1.10. To determine the version number, type autoconf --version or automake --version. If you installed a later version of either or both, they will be in the '/usr/local/bin/' directory. This line ensures that the system will look there first.

None of these examples require running _autosetup. If you are building other libraries or utilities that do have _autosetup , you may also need to install ​pkg-config. 

export MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.3

Specifies the Mac OSX Deployment Target, which is the minimum target OS X version. This tells the compiler to reject any attempts to use APIs not available in that version of OS X. 

export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-3.3;export CXX=/usr/bin/g++-3.3

Specifies which compiler to use. 

export LDFLAGS="-Wl,-syslibroot,/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.3.9.sdk -arch ppc"

Specifies the appropriate SDK for the minimum target OS X version and the architecture for the linker. 

export VARIANTFLAGS="-arch ppc -D_NONSTD_SOURCE -isystem /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.3.9.sdk"

Specifies the appropriate SDK for the minimum target OS X version and the architecture for the compiler. For an explanation of _NONSTD_SOURCE, see: ​http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man5/compat.5.html

Using a Custom Makefile

Type the following in Terminal: 

cd {path}/BOINC_dev/boinc_samples/example_app/
make -f Makefile_mac2 clean all

The elements of our custom Makefile correspond to those described in our script, with one important exception. Instead of setting the environment variable MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET, we include in the CXXFLAGS one of the following: -DMAC_OS_X_VERSION_MIN_REQUIRED=1030 (to build a PowerPC application using GCC-3.3), -mmacosx-version-min=10.4 (to build a 32-bit Intel application using GCC-4.0) or -mmacosx-version-min=10.5 (to build a 64-bit Intel application using GCC-4.0).

Upgrading applications for version 6 graphics

One of the major changes in BOINC for version 6 is that applications are now expected to generate graphics in a separate executable. The graphics application typically communicates with the worker application using shared memory.

For additional information, please see the 6.0 roadmap and the Graphics API page.

Adding a Finder icon to your graphics application

There is an optional API setMacIcon() in the libboinc_api.a library. This allows science graphics applications to display an application icon in the Dock and in the Finder. (The icon does not appear in the Dock until the application displays graphics.) To implement this, do the following:

  • Use '/Developer/Applications?/utilities/Icon Composer.app' to create a xxx.icns file. (Use any name you wish instead of xxx.)
  • Convert the xxx.icns file to an app_icon.h file as follows: in Terminal, run: 
    {path}/MakeAppIcon_h {source_file_path}/xxx.icns {dest_file_path}/app_icon.h
    (The !MakeAppIcon_h command-line utility is built by the Mac boinc XCode project in the 'boinc/mac_build/build/' directory.) Add the app_icon.h file to your graphics application's project.
  • In the graphics application's main(), add 
    #include "app_icon.h"
    and call: 
    setMacIcon(argv[0], MacAppIconData, sizeof(MacAppIconData));
  • The graphics application must link with Carbon.framework to use setMacIcon().

Additional References

​http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2005/tn2137.html
​http://developer.apple.com/documentation/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/cross_development/
​http://developer.apple.com/releasenotes/DeveloperTools/RN-GCC4/
​http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Porting/Conceptual/PortingUnix/compiling/chapter_4_section_3.html
​http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Porting/Conceptual/PortingUnix/compiling/chapter_4_section_6.html
​http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/universal_binary/universal_binary_compiling/chapter_2_section_7.html
​http://developer.apple.com/releasenotes/DeveloperTools/GCC40PortingReleaseNotes/index.html