Using Precompiled Binaries on MacOS - galacticusorg/galacticus GitHub Wiki

MacOS support is in beta-testing - this may or may not work for you. Please report success or failure in the discussion forum.

This assumes that you want to install a pre-compiled Galacticus in a folder called Galacticus from your home directory. (You can also attempt to install Galacticus from source - usually necessary only if you want to modify the code.)

  1. Download and unpack the source and datasets that are needed at run-time:
mkdir ~/Galacticus
cd ~/Galacticus
curl -L https://github.com/galacticusorg/galacticus/archive/master.zip --output galacticus.zip
curl -L https://github.com/galacticusorg/datasets/archive/master.zip --output datasets.zip
unzip galacticus.zip
unzip datasets.zip
mv galacticus-master galacticus
mv datasets-master datasets
  1. Download the pre-compiled binary and the tools package, move them to the ~/Galacticus folder, and unpack it:
  • For x86 chips (older Macs):
cd ~/Galacticus
curl -L https://github.com/galacticusorg/galacticus/releases/download/bleeding-edge/Galacticus_MacOS.exe --output Galacticus_MacOS.exe
mv Galacticus_MacOS.exe galacticus/Galacticus.exe
chmod u=wrx galacticus/Galacticus.exe
curl -L https://github.com/galacticusorg/galacticus/releases/download/bleeding-edge/toolsMacOS.zip --output toolsMacOS.zip
mkdir datasets
mv toolsMacOS.zip datasets/
cd datasets
unzip toolsMacOS.zip
cd ..
  • For Apple Silicon (M1 and newer chips):
cd ~/Galacticus
curl -L https://github.com/galacticusorg/galacticus/releases/download/bleeding-edge/Galacticus_MacOS.exe --output Galacticus_MacOS-M1.exe
mv Galacticus_MacOS-M1.exe galacticus/Galacticus.exe
chmod u=wrx galacticus/Galacticus.exe
curl -L https://github.com/galacticusorg/galacticus/releases/download/bleeding-edge/toolsMacOS.zip --output toolsMacOS-M1.zip
mkdir datasets
mv toolsMacOS-M1.zip datasets/
cd datasets
unzip toolsMacOS-M1.zip
cd ..
  1. Set environment variables to indicate the locations at which you downloaded the source and data:
export GALACTICUS_EXEC_PATH=~/Galacticus/galacticus
export GALACTICUS_DATA_PATH=~/Galacticus/datasets

(Galacticus needs to write some data files to disk at run time. Usually these are written to $GALACTICUS_DATA_PATH/dynamic/. If you do not have write permission to that location, you should set the environment variable GALACTICUS_DYNAMIC_DATA_PATH to a path where dynamically-generated files can be written.)

  1. MacOS typically won't allow you to run arbitrary unsigned executables that you download. To get around this, find the Galacticus.exe executable in finder, ctrl-click it, and select "Open". You see a message warning that the executable can't be verified - click "Open" anyway. Then ignore any messages or apps that open as a result. On newer versions of MacOS (e.g. Ventura) you may also need to explicitly allow each executable in the "Privacy & Security" settings. If the executable fails to run after doing this steps described above with a message saying that the developer cannot be verified, open "System Settings", go to "Privacy & Security" - you should see a message such as '"Galacticus.exe" was blocked from use because it is not from an identified developer' - click the "Allow Anyway" button next to it and you should now be able to run the executable.) You should then be able to run the Galacticus executable. Note that you will need to repeat this procedure for the following executables also:

    • ~/datasets/dynamic/RecFast/recfast.exe
    • ~/datasets/dynamic/CAMB-1.3.2/fortran/camb
    • ~/datasets/dynamic/class_public-3.0.2/class
    • ~/datasets/dynamic/fsps-3.2/src/autosps.exe
    • ~/datasets/dynamic/c17.02/source/cloudy.exe

  2. You can then run a quick test model using:

cd ~/Galacticus/galacticus
./Galacticus.exe parameters/quickTest.xml

Debugging

If you run into problems using Galacticus under MacOS it can be useful to download the debug symbols (or these debug symbols for Apple Silicon chips) and unpack them into the same folder as your Galacticus.exe executable to allow backtrace information to be generated.