Talk:Compile for Mac

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Revision as of 17:18, 2 May 2011 by Parjlarsson (talk | contribs) (→‎Explain the "disc image" vs. "non-universal binary" way.: new section)
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I think setting the prefix (installation directory) to /opt/local is not such a good idea, because that is the default place for the macports installation, which could lead to conflicts between port installations and libraries installed manually. For unmanaged software packages it would be better to choose a neutral default, for example /usr/local.

  • The wiki was incorrect. The configure script does not override $PREFIX with /opt/local. It uses /usr/local (by default) like all other configure scripts I have come across. What it does do is add /opt/local/lib to LDFLAGS and /opt/local/include to CFLAGS if /opt/local exists. In other words, the configure script is aware of where MacPorts installs and tries to automatically find dependencies there. Having said that, using make install on Mac OS X is almost certainly not going to work correctly for you. It certainly has never worked for me. --Tchristney 08:18, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

There are several severe problems with the instructions for compiling using Fink and Port when running mac OS X 10.5.5 Intel/Universal.

  • You can't build universal binaries using Fink. Period. Fink does not support them. If you must build universal binaries you have to follow the direction for using MacPorts (or figure out how to build all the dependencies as universal binaries - good luck.) --Tchristney 08:24, 17 December 2008 (UTC)


If anyone can compile for mac on or for either ppc or intel, please put a note here, and ideally update the instructions to match.

  • I have had success compiling with MacPorts. I've updated the sections of the wiki that I know to be incorrect. --Tchristney 08:24, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Need the *.dev versions of various packages installed by Fink and MacPorts, not the regular packages --Doc.Torr 27 Dec 08

Clarify "Make macinstaller" please

The page states:

You can have the last steps automated by choosing

make macinstaller

from the root directory, but this will also upload/download stuff and create an disk-image, which might be not desired in your case.

Would someone who knows what's going on please indicate what gets upload/downloaded, and just what exactly that step does?

dylib loading (SDL_mixer)

-dylib_file @loader_path/Frameworks/smpeg.framework/Versions/A/smpeg:/Library/Frameworks/SDL_mixer.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/smpeg.framework/Versions/A/smpeg

see http://playcontrol.net/ewing/jibberjabber/big_behind-the-scenes_chang.html#SDL_mixer

might help to fix our problem with no ogg sound

I think this was talking about an issue that was already fixed in MacPorts.
More likely, we may need to switch to the downloaded official distribution, rather than the MacPorts distribution -- there were linking changes made that I am beginning to wonder if MacPorts picked up. MP is nice for the auto update, but if it does with with distribution and not with MP, then a bug needs to be filed with MP.

Making it easier to follow

I got this PM from a newbie to all this:


So, one thing at a time: when I download and copy over the .dmg version of 2.3, I get a message saying that it's not supported on this architecture.

Next, the wiki instructions and my limited understanding of them. I'm basing this on the http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Compile_for_Mac page. I start off downloading the four SDL frameworks and copy them over to the main library/frameworks folder. Then I do what? The layout of the instructions seems to guide me down to the Without Fink--gettext portion, since I don't have fink or mac ports, so I downloaded that as well. From there, I'm looking at the section labeled Compilation, which starts off with the instruction to run the configure script. At this point I'm lost--is this configure script something for gettext specifically? Looking at gettext, I'm not sure how to go about using it to do anything.

Also, at which point in general does Terminal come into play? From what I've found, the wiki instructions don't actually say when to use Terminal, how to use it, or even mention it by name. Are all those dotted boxes supposed to be Terminal inputs? If so, I haven't been able to utilize those commands. So, at this point, my understanding of the process fails before a log of any kind could be helpful. Sorry if it seems like I'm being unbearably dense or obtuse, but this is way outside my field of experience thus far, and so I feel like I need remedial guidance on how to get 2.3 working.


You and I are so used to this that we forget what new people go through.

Explain the "disc image" vs. "non-universal binary" way.

The "General" section right now just has a statement with no explanation on why you'd want to do one thing rather than the other. A newbie coming here will just be sorely confused, as there's no explanation of what a disc image or a binary or compiling is - the vast majority of people just want to play the game.Parjlarsson 18:18, 2 May 2011 (CEST)