Building BOINC Client and Manager on Macintosh OSX

Written by Charlie Fenton
Last updated 10/26/11

This document applies to BOINC version 6.13.9 and later.  It has instructions for building the BOINC Client and Manager for Macintosh OSX.  Information for building science project applications to run under BOINC on Macintosh OSX can be found here.  

Note: the information in this document changes from time to time for different versions of BOINC.  For any version of BOINC source files, the corresponding version of this document can be found in the source tree at:
                   boinc/mac_build/HowToBuildBOINC_XCode.rtf

Contents of this document:
• Important requirements for building BOINC software for the Mac.
• Cross-Platform Development.
• Building BOINC Manager, BOINC Client and boinc_cmd.
• Building BOINC Manager Installer.
• Debugging and BOINC security.
• Debugging into wxWidgets.

Important requirements for building BOINC software for the Mac

Building BOINC for Macintosh OS X is complicated by the fact that Mac OS X is actually 2 different platforms:
	•	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
As of version 6.13.0, BOINC does not support Macintosh PowerPC processors.
Although BOINC supports 64-bit Intel project applications on Mac OS 10.5.0 and above, the only part of the BOINC client package built as a 64-bit executable is the screensaver coordinator for OS 10.6.x and later.  The BOINC libraries also include a 64-bit build so that they can be linked with 64-bit project applications.
You need to take certain steps to ensure that you use only APIs that are available in all the OS versions BOINC supports for each architecture. The best way to accomplish this is to use a single development system running OS 10.7.x and cross-compile for the various platforms. The remainder of this document describes that process.

The above requirements apply not only to BOINC itself, but also to the WxWidgets, c-ares and cURL libraries, as well as all project applications. 

Be sure to follow the directions in this document to ensure that these requirements are met.

Cross-Platform Development
Apple provides the tools necessary to cross-compile for all three BOINC Mac platform on any Mac running OS 10.6.x or OS 10.7.x.
You get these tools, including the GCC compilers and system library header files, by installing the Xcode Tools package. 
Building BOINC now requires Xcode Tools version 3.2 or later but Xcode 4.2 or later is recommended.  

If you have the OS 10.6 installation DVD for your system, you can install Xcode Tools 3.2 at the time you install the OS, or you can install it later by opening the file Optional Installs/XCode Tools/XCodeTools.mpkg.  
You can also download Xcode from Apple's web site: http://developer.apple.com.
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 in the /usr/local/bin/ directory.  By default, OS X and Xcode install it in /usr/bin/.  To copy it into /usr/local/bin/, enter the following in the Terminal utility application:

cd /usr/bin
sudo cp -p svn* /usr/local/bin

Enter your administrator password when prompted to do so.

Building BOINC Manager with embedded Core Client

BOINC depends on three third-party libraries: wxMac-2.8.10, c-ares-1.7.4, and curl-7.21.7.  You can obtain these from the following URLs:

wxMac-2.8.10 (needed  only if you are building the BOINC Manager):
	http://www.wxwidgets.org
	http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wxwindows/wxMac-2.8.10.tar.gz

curl-7.21.7:
	http://curl.haxx.se
	http://curl.haxx.se/download/curl-7.21.7.tar.gz

c-ares-1.7.4 (used by curl):
	http://daniel.haxx.se/projects/c-ares/
	http://daniel.haxx.se/projects/c-ares/c-ares-1.7.4.tar.gz

XCode will automatically check compatibility back to OS 10.4 if the following are defined during compilation:
MAC_OS_X_VERSION_MAX_ALLOWED=1040
MAC_OS_X_VERSION_MIN_REQUIRED=1040

These are not done automatically by either the Xcode projects which come with wxMac-2.8.10, nor  the AutoMake scripts supplied with wxMac-2.8.10, c-ares-1.7.4, curl-7.21.7.  So be sure to use our special scripts to build these packages.
[1] 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.

[2] Put the following 3 directories inside the BOINC_dev folder (omit any you don't need):
    c-ares-1.7.4
    curl-7.21.7
    wxMac-2.8.10

Important: do not change the names of any of these 3 directories.

[3] Get the BOINC source tree from Subversion, 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 (TRUNK) or development branch of the CVS repository.  For more information on getting the BOINC source code, see:
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/SourceCode

[4] Run the script to build the c-ares, curl and wxMac libraries as follows:

cd {path}/BOINC_dev/boinc/mac_build/
source setupForBoinc.sh -clean

If you don't wish to force a full rebuild of everything, omit the -clean argument.

Note: this script builds c-ares and curl first and finally wxMac.  If you haven't downloaded wxMac because you aren't building the BOINC Manager, the script will build c-ares and curl.  

[5] 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

The complete syntax for this script is
source BuildMacBOINC.sh [-dev] [-noclean] [-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 binary: i386 and x86_64).

	-noclean	don't do a "clean" of each target before building.
			default is to clean all first.

  The following arguments determine which targets to build
	-all		build all targets (i.e. target "Build_All" -- this is the default)

	-lib		build the five libraries: libboinc_api.a, libboinc_graphics_api.a, libboinc.a, libboinc_opencl.a, jpeglib.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 seven targets (no BOINC Manager or screensaver.)

Note: You may find two Xcode projects in the BOINC_dev/boinc/mac_build/ directory: 
  • 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.  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.  If there are any other build configurations, they should not be used as they are obsolete.  

Note: To perform a release build under Xcode 4.2, select "Build for archiving" from Xcode's Product menu.  Do not select "Archive."

The standard release of BOINC version 6.13.0 and later builds only for Macintosh computers with Intel processors.  Most of the executables are built only for the i386 architecture.  The libraries and the screensaver are built as universal binaries containing builds for two architectures: i386 and x86_64.

Important compatibility note: Xcode 4.x comes with only two Mac SDKs: MacOSX10.6.sdk and MacOSX10.7.sdk.  The BOINC Xcode project uses MacOSX10.6.sdk so that it can build with either Xcode 4.x or Xcode 3.2.  However, a couple of the libraries in MacOSX10.6.sdk require OS 10.6 or later to run.  If you are building only to run on OS 10.6 or later, you don't need to do anything else.

However, if you want to build BOINC so it will run on OS 10.4 and OS 10.5, you must either:
 • build with Xcode 3.2, or 
 • build with Xcode 4.x after copying the MacOSX10.5.sdk from an older version of Xcode to your /Developer/SDKs/ folder .  The BOINC Xcode project will automatically detect the presence of that SDK and use the two older libraries needed for backward compatibility.

Building BOINC Manager Installer

In order to execute BOINC Manager, you have to install it using BOINC Manager Installer. Otherwise, you will encounter an error prompting for proper installation.

To build the Installer for the BOINC Manager, you must be logged in as an administrator.  If you are building BOINC version number x.y.z, type the following in Terminal, then enter your administrator password when prompted by the script:

cd {path}/BOINC_dev/boinc/
source {path}/BOINC_dev/boinc/mac_installer/release_boinc.sh x y z

Substitute the 3 parts of the BOINC version number for x y and z in the above.  For example, to build the installer for BOINC version 6.13.9, the command would be
source {path}/BOINC_dev/boinc/mac_installer/release_boinc.sh 6 13 9
This will create a directory "BOINC_Installer/New_Release_6_13_9" in the BOINC_dev directory, and the installer will be located in '{path}/BOINC_dev/BOINC_Installer/New_Release_6_13_9/boinc_6.13.0_macOSX_universal'.

Debugging and BOINC security

Version 5.5.4 of BOINC Manager for the Macintosh introduced new, stricter security measures.  For details, please see the file boinc/mac_installer/Readme.rtf and http://boinc.berkeley.edu/sandbox.php and http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/SandboxUser

The GDB debugger can't attach to applications which are running as a different user or group so it ignores the S_ISUID and S_ISGID permission bits when launching an application.  To work around this, the BOINC Development build does not use the special boinc_master or boinc_project users or groups, and so can be run under the debugger from Xcode.  

The Development build only of the BOINC Manager allows you to change the ownership and permission settings of the BOINC Data and executables by entering an administrator user name and password.  This also streamlines the development cycle by avoiding the need to run the installer for every change.  (To generate the development build under Xcode 4.2, choose "Build" from the product menu, or enter command-B on the keyboard.)

To restore the standard ownerships and permissions, run the installer.

Debugging into wxWidgets

The BOINC Xcode project normally links the BOINC Manager with the non-debugging (Deployment) build of wxWidgets, even for the Development build configuration of the Manager.  However, there may be times when you wish to link the Development build of the Manager to the Development build of wxWidgets for debugging, as when you want to step into internal wxWidgets code or put breakpoints in wxWidgets.

You can find instructions for doing this in the comments in the file boinc/clientgui/mac/MacGUI.pch.