mozilla-central/docs/setup/macos_build.rst

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Building Firefox On macOS
=========================
This document will help you get set up to build Firefox on your own
computer. Getting set up can take a while - we need to download a
lot of bytes! Even on a fast connection, this can take ten to fifteen
minutes of work, spread out over an hour or two.
Requirements
------------
- **Memory:** 4GB RAM minimum, 8GB+ recommended.
- **Disk Space:** At least 30GB of free disk space.
- **Operating System:** macOS - most recent or prior release. It is advisable
to upgrade to the latest “point” release. See :ref:`build_hosts` for more
information.
1. System preparation
---------------------
1.1. Install Brew
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mozilla's source tree requires a number of third-party tools.
You will need to install `Homebrew <https://brew.sh/>`__ so that we
can automatically fetch the tools we need.
1.2. Install Xcode
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Install Xcode from the App Store.
Once done, finalize the installation in your terminal:
.. code-block:: shell
sudo xcode-select --switch /Applications/Xcode.app
sudo xcodebuild -license
1.3 Install Mercurial
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mozilla's source code is hosted in Mercurial repositories. You will
need Mercurial to download and update the code. Additionally, we'll
put user-wide python package installations on the ``$PATH``, so that
both ``hg`` and ``moz-phab`` will be easily accessible:
.. code-block:: shell
echo 'export PATH="'"$(python3 -m site --user-base)"'/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshenv
python3 -m pip install --user mercurial
Now, restart your shell so that the ``PATH`` change took effect.
You can test that Mercurial is installed by running:
.. code-block:: shell
hg version
.. note::
If you're using a shell other than ``zsh``, you'll need to manually add Python's
``bin`` directory to your ``PATH``, as your shell probably won't pick up our
changes in ``~/.zshenv``.
2. Bootstrap a copy of the Firefox source code
----------------------------------------------
Now that your system is ready, we can download the source code and have Firefox
automatically download the other dependencies it needs. The below command
will download a lot of data (years of Firefox history!) then guide you through
the interactive setup process.
.. code-block:: shell
python3 bootstrap.py
.. note::
To use ``git``, you can grab the source code in "git" form by running the
bootstrap script with the ``vcs`` parameter:
.. code-block:: shell
python3 bootstrap.py --vcs=git
This uses `Git Cinnabar <https://github.com/glandium/git-cinnabar/>`_ under the hood.
Choosing a build type
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you aren't modifying the Firefox backend, then select one of the
:ref:`Artifact Mode <Understanding Artifact Builds>` options. If you are
building Firefox for Android, you should also see the :ref:`GeckoView Contributor Guide <geckoview-contributor-guide>`.
3. Build
--------
Now that your system is bootstrapped, you should be able to build!
.. code-block:: shell
cd mozilla-unified
hg up -C central
./mach build
🎉 Congratulations! You've built your own home-grown Firefox!
You should see the following message in your terminal after a successful build:
.. code-block:: console
Your build was successful!
To take your build for a test drive, run: |mach run|
For more information on what to do now, see https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/setup/contributing_code.html
You can now use the ``./mach run`` command to run your locally built Firefox!
If your build fails, please reference the steps in the `Troubleshooting section <#troubleshooting>`_.
Running outside the development environment
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To test your changes on another macOS system (or to keep that particular Firefox around after new builds), you can't just use the generated application bundle (``obj-*/dist/Nightly[Debug].app``), since it contains symbolic links to other built libraries. Instead, build a distributable disk image with:
.. code-block:: shell
./mach package
Copy the resulting ``.dmg`` file from ``obj-*/dist/`` to the target system, then double-click it as usual to find an ``.app`` bundle containing all dependencies.
Now the fun starts
------------------
Time to start hacking! You should join us on `Matrix <https://chat.mozilla.org/>`_,
say hello in the `Introduction channel
start working on <https://codetribute.mozilla.org/>`_.
See the :ref:`Firefox Contributors' Quick Reference` to learn how to test your changes,
send patches to Mozilla, update your source code locally, and more.
Troubleshooting
---------------
Build errors
~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you encounter a build error when trying to setup your development environment, please follow these steps:
1. Copy the entire build error to your clipboard
2. Paste this error to `paste.mozilla.org <https://paste.mozilla.org>`_ in the text area and change the "Expire in one hour" option to "Expire in one week". Note: it won't take a week to get help but it's better to have the snippet be around for a bit longer than expected.
3. Go to the `introduction channel <https://chat.mozilla.org/#/room/#introduction:mozilla.org>`__ and ask for help with your build error. Make sure to post the link to the paste.mozilla.org snippet you created!