mac-os-dev-notes

MacOS Clean Install

1. Prepare a bootable USB disk of MacOS
   1. Create a bootable installer for MacOS
   2. Download MacOS
2. Hold down the Option key when booting up.
3. Install the OS and then update. Note format the partition as Mac OS Extended, Journaled.

Customize

• Update macOS first
  • General --> Software Update
• Appearance
  • Appearance --> Dark
  • Show scroll bars --> Always
• Desktop & Dock
  • Dock
    • Position on screen --> Left
    • Automactically hide and show -- Enable
    • Show suggested and recent apps in dock --> Disable
  • Hot Corners --> Disable all
• Keyboard
  • Text input - Input Sources --> Edit...
    • Correct spelling --> Disable
    • Capitalize words --> Disable
    • Add period with double space --> Disable
    • Use smart quotes and dashes --> Disable
    • Use " for double quote
    • Use ' for single quote
• Trackpad
  • Tap to click
• Network
  • Firewall --> Enable
• Siri --> Diable
• Spotlight --> Only "Applications" and "System Settings"
• Control Center
  • Battery --> Show percentage
  • Digital clock --> 24-hour clock
• Security & Privacy
  • FileVault --> Enable
• Finder --> Settings...

Install

1. Xcode Command-Line Tools
   1. Search and download from developer.apple.com
   2. Verify with xcode-select -p or gcc --version
2. Chrome
3. Firefox
   1. Settings...
   2. Always check default browser --> Disable
   3. Language and Appearance --> Dark
   4. Privacy & Security - Passwords - Ask to save passwords --> Disable
   5. Privacy & Security - Autofill --> Disable
4. Monospaced Fonts
   1. Download Source Code Pro from Font Squirrel
   2. Open Font Book, then File - Add Fonts to Current User
5. Miniconda, run the script with bash not zsh
6. PyCharm CE
7. Visual Studio Code, can run locally from ~/Applications

Startup Modes

When powering up

• Hold down Command-R for recovery mode.
• Hold down Command-S for single-user mode.
• Hold down Command-V for verbose mode.

To disable single-user mode, enter the recovery mode. In the "macOS Utilities" window, choose "Utilities" then "Startup Security Utility", and set a firmware password. Make sure to never forget the firmware password.

Terminal

By default the Mac OS terminal is a login shell (/usr/bin/login). The login shell executes ~/.bash_profile but does not execute ~/.bashrc. We should source ~/.bashrc in ~/.bash_profile for consistent behavior across login shells and non-login shells. (We can make the terminal a non-login shell via /bin/bash).

The latest macOS terminal is the Z shell (Zsh). The equivalent to ~/.bash_profile is ~/.zprofile and to ~/.bashrc is ~/.zshrc. A difference here is, in Zsh, .zshrc is automatically sourced for all interactive shells including the login shells that are also interactive. Still, on a dev laptop, we source .zshrc in .zprofile for consistent behavior across all shells.

Lastly, there is the general-purpose ~/.profile. It is meant to be shell-agnostic. However, Zsh by default does not automatically source .profile. We explicitly source it in .zprofile.

This is what the ~/.zprofile looks like:

if [ -r ~/.profile ]; then
  source ~/.profile
fi

if [ -r ~/.zshrc ]; then
  source ~/.zshrc
fi

Visual profile:

• Background: opacity 85%, blur 0%
• Font: Source Code Pro 15 pt, 135 columns, 35 rows, on 16" MacBook Pro
• Text: Antialias

vim

Run vim --version and should see "-python3" which means Python3 is not supported. The primary target is to add Python3 support.

Before we proceed, make sure the Xcode Command-Line Tools are installed. The gcc compiler is required and is included in Xcode Command-Line Tools. We will also use the python installed with Xcode.

The source code of vim is checked out into ~/Downloads and is compiled there. The compiled code is deployed to ~/Applications. Here are the detailed steps:

1. cd ~/Downloads
2. git clone https://github.com/vim/vim.git
3. cd vim
4. Checkout the latest release tag, e.g. git checkout tags/v9.1.0869
5. Compile. See the recipe of commands with flags after the list
6. Copy the compiled executable src/vim to ~/Applications/vim/bin
7. Add ${HOME}/Applications/vim/bin to $PATH in ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc for older macOS)
8. Make a directory sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/share/vim
9. Copy everything system vim there sudo cp -r /usr/share/vim/vim90/* /usr/local/share/vim/. Note vim90 is the version of your old vim executable
10. Copy the ~/.vimrc file

The following works on macOS 15.1 Sequoia:

# The script should execute within the checked out vim folder

# Must specify --with-python3-config-dir even though it is deprecated
# Check output for "if compile and link flags for Python 3 are sane... yes"
./configure \
    --enable-multibyte \
    --disable-gui \
    --without-x \
    --enable-terminal \
    --disable-netbeans \
    --enable-cscope \
    --enable-python3interp=yes \
    --with-python3-command="/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Library/Frameworks/Python3.framework/Versions/3.9/bin/python3.9" \
    --with-python3-config-dir="/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Library/Frameworks/Python3.framework/Versions/3.9/lib/python3.9/config-3.9-darwin" \
    --with-python3-stable-abi=3.9

# Without this, make can't locate the headers
export C_INCLUDE_PATH=/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Library/Frameworks/Python3.framework/Versions/3.9/Headers

make

# At this point, `src/vim` fails with an rpath error
# The following fixes it
sudo install_name_tool -add_rpath /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Library/Frameworks ./src/vim

Java

1. Download and install Oracle Java JDK. Java virtual machines are installed at /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines.

$ls -l /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines
drwxr-xr-x  3 root  wheel  102 Jul 14 14:52 1.6.0.jdk
drwxr-xr-x  3 root  wheel  102 Jan  4 16:06 jdk1.8.0_66.jdk

2. Before Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Java is also set up at /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework. Let's call this framework Java. If Java 6 is installed using the Apple package, it is still installed as framework Java, at /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework. This is for legacy Java 6 only. Newer versions of Java, Java 7 and 8, are from Oracle and are not at system frameworks any more.
3. /usr/libexec/java_home is where the Java home is read. For example,

$/usr/libexec/java_home         # the default Java home
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_66.jdk/Contents/Home
$/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8  # Java 8 home
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_66.jdk/Contents/Home
$/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6  # Java 6 home
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home
$/usr/libexec/java_home -V      # List of installed JVMs

4. Set up JAVA_HOME for the terminal. Certain apps at command-line need the JAVA_HOME environment variable.

export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home)"
export PATH="${PATH}:${JAVA_HOME}/bin"

5. Download and install Eclipse.