# macOS Build Guide

**Updated for MacOS [11.2](https://www.apple.com/macos/big-sur/)**

This guide describes how to build bitcoind, command-line utilities, and GUI on
macOS

**Note:** The following is for Intel Macs only!

## Dependencies

The following dependencies are **required**:

Library | Purpose |
Description
-----------------------------------------------------------|------------|----------
------------
[automake](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/automake) | Build | Generate
makefile
[libtool](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/libtool) | Build | Shared
library support
[pkg-config](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/pkg-config) | Build | Configure
compiler and linker flags
[boost](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/boost) | Utility | Library
for threading, data structures, etc
[libevent](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/libevent) | Networking | OS
independent asynchronous networking

The following dependencies are **optional**:

Library | Purpose
| Description
---------------------------------------------------------------
|------------------|----------------------
[berkeley-db@4](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/berkeley-db@4) | Berkeley DB
| Wallet storage (only needed when wallet enabled)
[qt@5](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/qt@5) | GUI
| GUI toolkit (only needed when GUI enabled)
[qrencode](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/qrencode) | QR codes in GUI
| Generating QR codes (only needed when GUI enabled)
[zeromq](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/zeromq) | ZMQ notification
| Allows generating ZMQ notifications (requires ZMQ version >= 4.0.0)
[sqlite](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/sqlite) | SQLite DB
| Wallet storage (only needed when wallet enabled)
[miniupnpc](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/miniupnpc) | UPnP Support
| Firewall-jumping support (needed for port mapping support)
[libnatpmp](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/libnatpmp) | NAT-PMP Support
| Firewall-jumping support (needed for port mapping support)
[python3](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/[email protected]) | Testing
| Python Interpreter (only needed when running the test suite)

The following dependencies are **optional** packages required for deploying:

Library | Purpose |
Description
----------------------------------------------------|------------------|-----------
-----------
[librsvg](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/librsvg) | Deploy Dependency| Library to
render SVG files
[ds_store](https://pypi.org/project/ds-store/) | Deploy Dependency| Examine
and modify .DS_Store files
[mac_alias](https://pypi.org/project/mac-alias/) | Deploy Dependency|
Generate/Read binary alias and bookmark records

See [dependencies.md](dependencies.md) for a complete overview.

## Preparation

The commands in this guide should be executed in a Terminal application.

macOS comes with a built-in Terminal located in:

```
/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
```

### 1. Xcode Command Line Tools

The Xcode Command Line Tools are a collection of build tools for macOS.
These tools must be installed in order to build Bitcoin Core from source.

To install, run the following command from your terminal:

``` bash
xcode-select --install
```

Upon running the command, you should see a popup appear.

Click on `Install` to continue the installation process.

### 2. Homebrew Package Manager

Homebrew is a package manager for macOS that allows one to install packages from
the command line easily.
While several package managers are available for macOS, this guide will focus on
Homebrew as it is the most popular.
Since 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.
Otherwise, you can adapt the commands to your package manager of choice.

To install the Homebrew package manager, see: https://brew.sh

Note: If you run into issues while installing Homebrew or pulling packages, refer
to [Homebrew's troubleshooting page](https://docs.brew.sh/Troubleshooting).

### 3. Install Required Dependencies

The first step is to download the required dependencies.

These dependencies represent the packages required to get a barebones installation
up and running.
To install, run the following from your terminal:

``` bash
brew install automake libtool boost pkg-config libevent
```

### 4. Clone Bitcoin repository

`git` should already be installed by default on your system.

Now that all the required dependencies are installed, let's clone the Bitcoin Core
repository to a directory.
All build scripts and commands will run from this directory.

``` bash
git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git
```

### 5. Install Optional Dependencies

#### Wallet Dependencies

It is not necessary to build wallet functionality to run `bitcoind` or `bitcoin-

qt`.
To enable legacy wallets, you must install `berkeley-db@4`.
To enable [descriptor wallets]
(https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/descriptors.md), `sqlite` is
required.
Skip `berkeley-db@4` if you intend to *exclusively* use descriptor wallets.

###### Legacy Wallet Support

`berkeley-db@4` is required to enable support for legacy wallets.

Skip if you don't intend to use legacy wallets.

``` bash
brew install berkeley-db@4
```

###### Descriptor Wallet Support

Note: Apple has included a useable `sqlite` package since macOS 10.14.
You may not need to install this package.

`sqlite` is required to enable support for descriptor wallets.

Skip if you don't intend to use descriptor wallets.

``` bash
brew install sqlite
```
---

#### GUI Dependencies

###### Qt

Bitcoin Core includes a GUI built with the cross-platform Qt Framework.

To compile the GUI, we need to install `qt@5`.
Skip if you don't intend to use the GUI.

``` bash
brew install qt@5
```

Ensure that the `qt@5` package is installed, not the `qt` package.
If 'qt' is installed, the build process will fail.
if installed, remove the `qt` package with the following command:

``` bash
brew uninstall qt
```

Note: Building with Qt binaries downloaded from the Qt website is not officially
supported.
See the notes in [#7714](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/7714).

###### qrencode

The GUI can encode addresses in a QR Code. To build in QR support for the GUI,
install `qrencode`.
Skip if not using the GUI or don't want QR code functionality.

``` bash
brew install qrencode
```
---

#### Port Mapping Dependencies

###### miniupnpc

miniupnpc may be used for UPnP port mapping.

Skip if you do not need this functionality.

``` bash
brew install miniupnpc
```

###### libnatpmp

libnatpmp may be used for NAT-PMP port mapping.

Skip if you do not need this functionality.

``` bash
brew install libnatpmp
```

Note: UPnP and NAT-PMP support will be compiled in and disabled by default.
Check out the [further configuration](#further-configuration) section for more
information.

---

#### ZMQ Dependencies

Support for ZMQ notifications requires the following dependency.

Skip if you do not need ZMQ functionality.

``` bash
brew install zeromq
```

ZMQ is automatically compiled in and enabled if the dependency is detected.

Check out the [further configuration](#further-configuration) section for more
information.

For more information on ZMQ, see: [zmq.md](zmq.md)

---

#### Test Suite Dependencies

There is an included test suite that is useful for testing code changes when
developing.
To run the test suite (recommended), you will need to have Python 3 installed:

``` bash
brew install python
```

---

#### Deploy Dependencies

You can deploy a `.dmg` containing the Bitcoin Core application using `make
deploy`.
This command depends on a couple of python packages, so it is required that you
have `python` installed.

Ensuring that `python` is installed, you can install the deploy dependencies by
running the following commands in your terminal:

``` bash
brew install librsvg
```

``` bash
pip3 install ds_store mac_alias
```

## Building Bitcoin Core

### 1. Configuration

There are many ways to configure Bitcoin Core, here are a few common examples:

##### Wallet (BDB + SQlite) Support, No GUI:

If `berkeley-db@4` is installed, then legacy wallet support will be built.

If `berkeley-db@4` is not installed, then this will throw an error.
If `sqlite` is installed, then descriptor wallet support will also be built.
Additionally, this explicitly disables the GUI.

``` bash
./autogen.sh
./configure --with-gui=no
```

##### Wallet (only SQlite) and GUI Support:

This explicitly enables the GUI and disables legacy wallet support.
If `qt` is not installed, this will throw an error.
If `sqlite` is installed then descriptor wallet functionality will be built.
If `sqlite` is not installed, then wallet functionality will be disabled.

``` bash
./autogen.sh
./configure --without-bdb --with-gui=yes
```

##### No Wallet or GUI

``` bash
./autogen.sh
./configure --without-wallet --with-gui=no
```

##### Further Configuration

You may want to dig deeper into the configuration options to achieve your desired
behavior.
Examine the output of the following command for a full list of configuration
options:

``` bash
./configure -help
```

### 2. Compile

After configuration, you are ready to compile.

Run the following in your terminal to compile Bitcoin Core:

``` bash
make # use "-j N" here for N parallel jobs
make check # Run tests if Python 3 is available
```

### 3. Deploy (optional)

You can also create a `.dmg` containing the `.app` bundle by running the following
command:

``` bash
make deploy
```

## Running Bitcoin Core

Bitcoin Core should now be available at `./src/bitcoind`.

If you compiled support for the GUI, it should be available at `./src/qt/bitcoin-
qt`.

The first time you run `bitcoind` or `bitcoin-qt`, it will start downloading the
blockchain.
This process could take many hours, or even days on slower than average systems.

By default, blockchain and wallet data files will be stored in:

``` bash
/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/
```

Before running, you may create an empty configuration file:

```shell
mkdir -p "/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin"

touch "/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/bitcoin.conf"

chmod 600 "/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/bitcoin.conf"

```

You can monitor the download process by looking at the debug.log file:

```shell
tail -f $HOME/Library/Application\ Support/Bitcoin/debug.log
```

## Other commands:

```shell
./src/bitcoind -daemon # Starts the bitcoin daemon.
./src/bitcoin-cli --help # Outputs a list of command-line options.
./src/bitcoin-cli help # Outputs a list of RPC commands when the daemon is
running.
./src/qt/bitcoin-qt -server # Starts the bitcoin-qt server mode, allows bitcoin-cli
control
```