Installing the core client executable

For some platforms, you can download the BOINC 'core client' by itself. The download files have names like:

boinc_5.2.13_powerpc-apple-darwin.zip
boinc_4.19_sparc-sun-solaris2.7.gz

This type of installation requires that you be familiar with the UNIX command-line interface.

After downloading the file:

• Use gunzip to uncompress the file if your browser has not done it for you.
• chmod +x the executable.
• put the executable into a separate directory (say, boinc/).
• run the executable. The first time you run it you'll need to attach it to a project, e.g.:

boinc_client -attach_project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu df0d93e384a2700f70e0bc45a1b2c96c

(substitute the actual name of the core client for boinc_client in the above example.)

The core client is controlled by a number of other command-line options, configuration files, and environment variables?.

You may want to automatically start the core client? at boot time.

To control a running BOINC client, use the BOINC command tool?.

Several tools? for Macintosh system administrators are available to:

• automatically start BOINC as a daemon or system service at boot time
• implement improved security for stand-alone clients
• prevent BOINC Manager from launching automatically when selected users log in.

Special cautions for Mac OS X

Normally, you should not install the separate command client if you are running the BOINC Manager. The BOINCManager.app bundle contains an embedded copy of the core client. The installer adds the BOINC Manager to the installing user's list of Login Items so it launches automatically whenever that user logs in. To have BOINC Manager run automatically when other users log in, you can manually add the BOINC Manager to each user's Login Items.

On Mac OS X, the core client executable is named boinc.

If you wish to run the embedded core client without launching the Manager, a typical command is:

/Applications/BOINCManager.app/Contents/resources/boinc -redirectio -dir /Library/Application\ Support/BOINC\ Data/

Normally, quitting the BOINC Manager also quits the embedded core client. But if you launch the core client (as in the above example) before launching the BOINC Manager, then it will continue to run even after the user quits the Manager.

On Mac OS X, the BOINC screen saver also will launch the Manager's embedded core client and will kill it when the screen saver is dismissed, but only if the core client was not already running.

If you must mix the stand-alone core client and the BOINC Manager on the same Mac OS X system, be careful of the following:

• The BOINC Manager installer sets the set_user_id (S_ISUID) and set_group_id (S_ISGID) permission bits for the BOINC Manager and its embedded core client executable files. This causes BOINC to always run with the effective user ID set to the installing user. This may cause permission problems if the stand-alone core client tries to access the same data as a different user. See The Secure BOINC Client for more information.
• By default, the stand-alone core client expects the data to be in the same directory containing the executable. But the BOINC Manager sets the current directory to "/Library/Application? Support/BOINC Data/" before launching the embedded core client.

If you want BOINC to operate on a separate set of data for each user on a Mac OS X system, then the stand-alone core client may be appropriate. But to avoid permission problems, make sure that users who have their own core client don't run the BOINC Manager, unless you have set permissions up properly with the special administrator tools?.