Building BOINC Client and Manager on Macintosh OSX

Written by Charlie Fenton
Last updated 10/20/2021

This document applies to BOINC version 7.19.0 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 with embedded BOINC Client.
• Building BOINC Manager Installer.
• Code Signing the BOINC Manager Installer and Uninstaller
• Debugging and BOINC security.
• Debugging into wxWidgets.
• Installing and setting up Xcode.

Note: setupForBoinc.sh (described late in this document) runs buildWxMac.sh to build the wxWidgets library used by BOINC Manager. If you built the wxWidgets library with an earlier version of  buildWxMac.sh, then you must rebuild it with the buildWxMac.sh included in the newer source tree. Otherwise, the BOINC Manager build will fail with linker (ld) errors.

Important requirements for building BOINC software for the Mac

As of version 6.13.0, BOINC does not support Macintosh PowerPC processors. As of 7.15.0, BOINC is built entirely for 64-bit Intel, including the BOINC libraries. As of 7.16.14, BOINC is built as Universal2 Binaries which can run on both 64-bit Intel and Apple Silicon (arm64) hardware. 
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 10.8.x or later 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, cURL, openSSL,  freetype and ftgl libraries, as well as all project applications.  

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

Starting with version 7.16.14, the BOINC screensaver supports only Mac OS 10.9.0 and later.
Cross-Platform Development
Apple provides the tools necessary to build BOINC on any Mac running OS 10.8.x or later.
You get these tools, including the GCC or Apple LLVM compiler and system library header files, by installing the Xcode Tools package. 
Building BOINC now requires Xcode Tools version 6.0 or later.  

You can download Xcode from Apple's App Store (it is large: over 4 GB).  If you are a member of Apple's Mac Developer Program, you can also download it from Apple's web site: http://developer.apple.com.
Source files are now archived using git.  For details, see:
	http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/SourceCodeGit

Building BOINC Manager with embedded Core Client

Note: building BOINC Manager 7.3.0 and later requires the OS 10.8 SDK or later.

BOINC depends on seven third-party libraries: wxWidgets-3.1.5, c-ares-1.17.2, curl-7.79.1, openssl-3.0.0, freetype-2.11.0 and ftgl-2.1.3~rc5.  You can obtain the source files from the following URLs.  Clicking on the first URL of each pair will download the tar file.  The second URL will open the third party’s home web page.  On Mac OS X the tar file will usually be downloaded into the Downloads folder.  You will need to expand the tar files by double-clicking on them, which will create a folder and place the appropriate files into that folder. You will need to move these folders later.

wxWidgets-3.1.5 (needed  only if you are building the BOINC Manager):
	https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidgets/releases/download/v3.1.5/wxWidgets-3.1.5.tar.bz2
	https://c-ares.org

curl-7.79.1:
	https://curl.se/download/curl-7.79.1.tar.gz
	https://curl.se

c-ares-1.17.2 (used by curl):
	https://c-ares.org/download/c-ares-1.17.2.tar.gz
	http://daniel.haxx.se/projects/c-ares/

openssl-3.0.0
	https://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-3.0.0.tar.gz
	http://www.openssl.org/

freetype-2.11.0 (needed  only if you are building the BOINC default screensaver or a project screensaver):
	https://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/freetype-2.11.0.tar.gz
	http://www.freetype.org/

ftgl-2.1.3~rc5 (needed  only if you are building the BOINC default screensaver or a project screensaver):
	http://sourceforge.net/projects/ftgl/files/FTGL%20Source/2.1.3%7Erc5/ftgl-2.1.3-rc5.tar.gz
	http://sourceforge.net/projects/ftgl

XCode will automatically check compatibility back to OS 10.10 if the following are defined during compilation:
MAC_OS_X_VERSION_MAX_ALLOWED=10100
MAC_OS_X_VERSION_MIN_REQUIRED=10100

These are not done automatically by either the Xcode projects which come with wxWidgets-3.1.5, nor  the AutoMake scripts supplied with wxWidgets-3.1.5, c-ares-1.17.2, curl-7.79.1, openssl-3.0.0, freetype-2.11.0 and ftgl-2.1.3~rc5.  So be sure to use our special scripts to build these packages.
[1] Make sure you are logged into the Mac using an account with administrator privileges.  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] Move the following 7 directories from the Downloads folder into the BOINC_dev folder (omit any you don't need):
    c-ares-1.17.2
    curl-7.79.1
    openssl-3.0.0
    wxWidgets-3.1.5
    freetype-2.11.0
    ftgl-2.1.3~rc5

Important: do not change the names of any of these 7 directories.  Remember that the names are case sensitive.

[3] If you have not yet done so, install Xcode and launch it once to accept the license agreement and complete the installation.

[4] Get the BOINC source tree from the repository, and put it in the same BOINC_dev folder.  To do this, type the following in Terminal (if you have problems, you may need to enter sudo and a space before the git command):

cd {path}/BOINC_dev/
git clone https://github.com/BOINC/boinc.git boinc

(You may change the name of the boinc directory to anything you wish.)  

The command above retrieves the source code from the HEAD / MASTER (TRUNK) or development branch of the git repository.  For more information on getting the BOINC source code, see:
	http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/SourceCodeGit

[5] Run the script to build the c-ares, curl, openssl, wxWidgets, freetype and ftgl 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 1: Be sure to run the script using the source command.  Do not double-click on the scripts or use the sh command to run them.
Note 2: This script tries to build all seven third-party libraries: wxWidgets-3.1.5, c-ares-1.17.2, curl-7.79.1, openssl-3.0.0,  freetype-2.11.0 and ftgl-2.1.3~rc5.  When the script finishes, it will display a warning about any libraries it was unable to build (for example, if you have not downloaded them.)  To make it easier to find the error messages, clear the Terminal display and run the script again without -clean.
Note 3: setupForBoinc.sh runs buildWxMac.sh to build the wxWidgets library used by BOINC Manager. If you built the wxWidgets library with an earlier version of  buildWxMac.sh, then you must rebuild it with the buildWxMac.sh included in the newer source tree. Otherwise, the BOINC Manager build will fail with linker (ld) errors.
Note 4: The {path} must not contain any space characters.
Hint: You don't need to type the path to a file or folder into Terminal; just drag the file or folder icon from a Finder window onto the Terminal window.
Note 5: To be compatible with OS 10.7 or earlier, the screensaver must be built with Garbage Collection (GC) supported (and without Automatic Reference Counting) , but Xcode versions later than 5.0.2 do not allow building with GC. To allow building with newer versions of Xcode while keeping backward compatibility to OS 10.7, the GIT repository includes the screensaver executable built with GC, while the Xcode project builds the screensaver with ARC (for newer versions of OS X.) The release_boinc.sh script (described later in this document) adds both the GC and ARC builds of the screensaver to the installer; the installer code selects the correct screensaver for the target version of OS X at install time.

[6] 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] [-libc] [-c++11] [-help]

The options for BuildMacBOINC.sh are:
	-dev		build the development (debug) build. 
			default is deployment (release) build.

	-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 six libraries: libboinc_api.a, libboinc_graphics_api.a, libboinc.a, libboinc_opencl.a, libboinc_zip.a, jpeglib.a

	-client		build two targets: boinc client and command-line utility boinccmd
			(also builds libboinc.a, since boinc_cmd requires it.)

 	-libc		build using libc++ instead of libstdc++ (requires OS 10.7 or later)

	-c++11	build using c++11 language dialect instead of default

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

Note 1: boinc.xcodeproj in the BOINC_dev/boinc/mac_build/ directory 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 2: To perform a release build under Xcode 6 or later when not using the BuildMacBOINC.sh script, select "Build for Profiling" from Xcode's Product menu.  To save disk space, do not select "Archive."

Note 3: Using the BuildMacBOINC.sh script is generally easier than building directly in Xcode.  The script will place the built products in the directory BOINC_dev/boinc/mac_build/build/Deployment/ or BOINC_dev/boinc/mac_build/build/Development/ where they are easy to find.  Building directly in Xcode places the built products in a somewhat obscure location. To determine this location, control-click on Products in Xcode's Project Navigator and select "Show in Finder."  

Note 4: As of version 7.15.0, BOINC is always built using libc++. Project applications built for libstdc ++ with newer versions of Xcode will not link properly with BOINC libraries built for libc++. 

Hint: You can install multiple versions of Xcode on the same Mac, either by putting them in different directories or by renaming Xcode.app of different versions.  You can then specify which version the BuildMacBOINC.sh script should use by setting the DEVELOPER_DIR environment variable using the env command.  For example, if you have installed Xcode 6.2 in the Applications directory and renamed Xcode.app to Xcode_6_2.app, you can invoke the script with:
env DEVELOPER_DIR=/Applications/Xcode_6_2.app/Contents/Developer sh BuildMacBOINC.sh

The BOINC Xcode project has built-in scripts which create a text file with the path to the built products at either BOINC_dev/boinc/mac_build/Build_Deployment_Dir or BOINC_dev/boinc/mac_build/Build_Development_Dir.  These files are used by the release_boinc.sh script, but you can also use them to access the built products directly as follows; open the file with TextEdit and copy the path, then enter command-shift-G in the Finder and paste the path into the Finder's  dialog.

The standard release of BOINC version 7.15.0 and later builds only for Macintosh computers with 64-bit Intel processors.  The executables and libraries are built only for the x86_64 architecture.

Building BOINC Manager Installer

In order to execute BOINC Manager, you must 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 7.9.0, the command would be
source {path}/BOINC_dev/boinc/mac_installer/release_boinc.sh 7 9 0
This will create a directory "BOINC_Installer/New_Release_7_9_0" in the BOINC_dev directory, and the installer will be located in '{path}/BOINC_dev/BOINC_Installer/New_Release_7_9_0/boinc_7.9.0_macOSX_x86_64'.

The installer script uses the deployment (release) build of BOINC; it won't work with a development (debug) build.
You can find the current version number in the file {path}/BOINC_dev/boinc/version.h

Code Signing the BOINC Manager Installer and Uninstaller

Mac OS 10.8 introduces a security feature called Gatekeeper, whose default settings won't allow a user to run applications or installers downloaded from the Internet unless they are signed by a registered Apple Developer.  The release_boinc.sh script looks for a file ~/BOINCCodeSignIdentities.txt containing the name of a valid code signing identity stored in the user's Keychain.  If this is found, the script will automatically sign the BOINC installer and BOINC uninstaller using that identity.  For example, if your user name is John Smith, the first line of ~/BOINCCodeSignIdentities.txt would be something like the following:
Developer ID Application: John Smith

If you wish to also code sign the installer package, add a second line to ~/BOINCCodeSignIdentities.txt with the installer code signing identity.  This would be something like the following:
Developer ID Installer: John Smith

If there is no ~/BOINCCodeSignIdentities.txt file, then the script will not sign the installer or uninstaller.  Code signing is not necessary if you won't be transferring the built software over the Internet.   For more information on code signing identities see the documentation for the codesign utility, Apple's Code Signing Guide and Tech Note 2206.

Important: Code signed under MacOS 11.0 or later is not compatible with MacOS 10.11.6 or earlier and will be rejected with "Signature invalid." If backward compatibility is desired to allow installing and running on systems prior to MacOS 10.12.0, run the release_boinc.sh script under MacOS 10.15.7 or earlier. You can do this even if you performed the previous steps under MacOS 11.0 or later.

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_dev/boinc/mac_installer/Readme.rtf and http://boinc.berkeley.edu/sandbox.php and http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/SandboxUser

The LLDB 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.  This also streamlines the development cycle by avoiding the need to run the installer for every change.  (To generate the development build under Xcode, choose "Build" from the product menu, or enter command-B on the keyboard.)

To restore the standard ownerships and permissions, run the installer or run the Mac_SA_Secure.sh shell script in Terminal (the comments in this script have instructions for running it.)

For information on interpreting crash dumps and backtraces, see Mac Backtrace.
Debugging into wxWidgets

The BOINC Xcode project links the BOINC Manager with the non-debugging (Deployment) build of wxWidgets for the Deployment build configuration of the Manager, and with the debugging (Development) build of wxWidgets for the Development build configuration of the Manager.  You should use the Development build of the Manager and wxWidgets for debugging; this allows you to step into internal wxWidgets code. With the Development build, you can even put breakpoints in wxWidgets; this is most easily done after stepping into a function in wxWidgets source file containing the code where you wish to put the breakpoint.

Installing and setting up Xcode

If Xcode is obtained from the Apple Store then it will be installed automatically into the Applications folder.  Double-click on the installed Xcode icon to run Xcode.  Xcode will display a dialog allowing you to finish the installation; you must do this before running BOINC's build scripts.  (Some versions of Xcode may not display this dialog until you open a file with Xcode.)

====================== Additional notes from Robert Chalmers ======================

NOTE to building with XCode.
The general instructions in the mac_build folder in the file HowToBuildBOINC_XCode.pdf should also note that if you want to build using XCode in it's GUI implementation - not command line - alone, you need to put all the downloaded libraries in the folder directly above the build folder. For EG:
All of these external programs:

wxWidgets-3.1.0
curl-7.79.1:
c-ares-1.17.2 (used by curl):
openssl-3/0/0
freetype-2.11.0 
ftgl-2.1.3~rc5 

Need to go into the top GitHub directory on your system and be unpacked there. Otherwise XCode  as the project is currently set up, will not find the libraries. They need to be unzipped there of course.

/Users/<your name>/GitHub/

So that when you build in XCode, they can be found in the existing setup, which looks for them in - for example - 
USER_HEADER_SEARCH_PATHS = ../../curl-7.79.1/include ../../openssl-3/0/0/include ../lib/**

I found the existing how-to-build pdf slightly misleading. It could be that to command line build would benefit from having the external libraries in this folder directly above the 'boinc' folder.

In my case I have 
/Users/Robert/Documents/GitHub
    /boinc
    /c-ares-1.17.2
    /curl-7.79.1
... and so on for the other required programs.

Below the boinc folder there is of course the 'boinc/mac_build' folder.

The result is

01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---] OS: Mac OS X 10.14.4 (Darwin 18.5.0)
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---] Memory: 16.00 GB physical, 67.34 GB virtual
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---] Disk: 931.19 GB total, 64.59 GB free
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---] Local time is UTC +1 hours
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---] Last benchmark was 17987 days 08:21:01 ago
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---] No general preferences found - using defaults
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---] Preferences:
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---]    max memory usage when active: 8192.00 MB
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---]    max memory usage when idle: 14745.60 MB
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---]    max disk usage: 64.50 GB
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---]    don't use GPU while active
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---]    suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 25%
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---]    (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---] Setting up project and slot directories
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---] Checking active tasks
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---] Setting up GUI RPC socket
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---] Checking presence of 0 project files
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---] This computer is not attached to any projects
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 Initialization completed
01-Apr-2019 09:21:01 [---] Suspending GPU computation - computer is in use