# macOS Build Guide

**Updated for MacOS [26](https://www.apple.com/os/macos/)**

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

## Preparation

The commands in this guide should be executed in a Terminal application.
macOS comes with a built-in Terminal located in:

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

### 1. Xcode Command Line Tools

The Xcode Command Line Tools are a collection of build tools for macOS.
Version 16.2 (or higher) of these tools must be
[installed](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/installing-the-command-line-tools)
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.

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

To install, run the following from your terminal:

``` bash
brew install cmake boost pkgconf libevent capnp
```

#### Wallet Dependencies

If you do not need wallet functionality, you can use `-DENABLE_WALLET=OFF` in
the `cmake -B` step below.

SQLite is required, but since macOS ships with a useable `sqlite` package, you don't need to
install anything.

#### IPC Dependencies

If you do not need IPC functionality (see [multiprocess.md](multiprocess.md))
you can omit `capnp` and use `-DENABLE_IPC=OFF` in the `cmake -B` step below.

### 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

#### GUI Dependencies

###### Qt

Bitcoin Core includes a GUI built with the cross-platform Qt Framework. To compile the GUI, we need to install
Qt, libqrencode and pass `-DBUILD_GUI=ON`. Skip if you don't intend to use the GUI.

``` bash
brew install qt@6
```

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).

###### libqrencode

The GUI will be able to encode addresses in QR codes unless this feature is explicitly disabled. To install libqrencode, run:

``` bash
brew install qrencode
```

Otherwise, if you don't need QR encoding support, you can pass `-DWITH_QRENCODE=OFF` to disable this feature.

---

#### ZMQ Dependencies

Support for ZMQ notifications requires the following dependency.
Skip if you do not need ZMQ functionality.

``` bash
brew install zeromq
```

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](#3-deploy-optional) a `.zip` containing the Bitcoin Core application.
It is required that you have `python` and `zip` installed.

## Building Bitcoin Core

### 1. Configuration

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

##### Wallet and GUI:

This enables the GUI.
If `sqlite` or `qt` are not installed, this will throw an error.

``` bash
cmake -B build -DBUILD_GUI=ON
```

##### No Wallet or GUI

``` bash
cmake -B build -DENABLE_WALLET=OFF
```

##### 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
cmake -B build -LH
```

### 2. Compile

After configuration, you are ready to compile.
Run the following in your terminal to compile Bitcoin Core:

``` bash
cmake --build build     # Append "-j N" here for N parallel jobs.
ctest --test-dir build  # Append "-j N" for N parallel tests.
```

### 3. Deploy (optional)

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

``` bash
cmake --build build --target deploy
```

## Running Bitcoin Core

Bitcoin Core should now be available at `./build/bin/bitcoind`.
If you compiled support for the GUI, it should be available at `./build/bin/bitcoin-qt`.

There is also a multifunction command line interface at `./build/bin/bitcoin`
supporting subcommands like `bitcoin node`, `bitcoin gui`, `bitcoin rpc`, and
others that can be listed with `bitcoin help`.

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