bootstrapped JHBuild for macOS

This project (on GitLab, GitHub) is my take on setting up JHBuild on macOS in order to build GTK-based apps. It is inspired by and uses components of gtk-osx, but deviates from it in a few significant ways:

• It uses a FSH-inspired directory layout.

• It is fully self-contained to its directories, allowing for co-existence of multiple installations in locations of your choosing.

• It uses a relocatable Python.framework to bootstrap itself until it can build its own Python to become self-sufficient.

prerequisites

Make sure the following prerequisites are met:

• A clean environment is key. This is the most inconvenient requirement as it will likely conflict with how you are currently using your Mac, but it is vital.

  • Software and libraries - usually installed via package managers like Homebrew, MacPorts, Fink etc. - are known to cause problems depending on installation prefix. You cannot have software installed in the following locations:
    • /usr/local
    • /opt/homebrew
    • /opt/local
  • Uninstall Xquartz.
  • Undo any customizations in dotfiles like .profile, .bashrc etc. that interfere with the environment.
    • If in doubt, use a dedicated user account instead.

• There are version recommendations based on known working setups.

  • macOS >= 11
  • Xcode >= 13
  • macOS SDK 11.3 (from Xcode 13.0)

• An internet connection is required to download all the packages.

usage

1. Clone the latest version of this repository.

   git clone https://github.com/dehesselle/jhb
   cd jhb
   # checkout tag with highest version number
   git checkout $(git tag | grep "^v" | sort -V | tail -1)
   # pull in submodules
   git submodule update --init --recursive

2. 💁 This is an optional step. You are encouraged to skip this!
   By default we're going to use /Users/Shared/work (see directories.sh) to build and install everything as that is a user-independent but user-writable location present on every macOS installation. If you're not comfortable with that, run e.g.

   export WRK_DIR=$HOME/my_custom_location

3. Bootstrap JHBuild by running the following command.

   usr/bin/bootstrap

   This is the equivalent to gtk-osx's jhbuild bootstrap-gtk-osx, i.e. build and install all the modules from boostrap.modules. A few additional modules will be built as well (see jhb.modules) to make life easier on macOS.

   Depending on wether you've skipped step 2 or not, the bootstrapping process will either download and extract an archive containing everything pre-built (and you're done in a minute) or start to build everything from source (this will take a while).

4. Install your own module sets (*.modules). It is important that you keep them all together in a dedicated directory (including a patches subdirectory if any local patches are being used) as that whole directory is going to be copied to your bootstrapped jhb.

   # specify your main file here
   usr/bin/jhb configure $HOME/my_modulesets/my_main_set.modules

real-world examples

This is not theoretical work but the result of refactoring and outsourcing parts of Inkscape's build pipeline so it can be reused to build other GTK-based apps on macOS. Here you can see this being used in production:

• Inkscape: see inkscape-ci-macos
• Siril: see siril_macos
• Meld: see meld_macos
• Rnote: see rnote_macos

credits

The jhb logo uses modified versions of

• a construction sign, licensed under CC0-1.0
• the GTK logo from Andreas Nilsen, licensed under CC-BY-SA-3.0

license

GPL-2.0-or-later