= Mac OS X build instructions =

== Prerequisites on Mac OS X ==

 * Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger), 10.5.x (Leopard), 10.6.x (Snow Leopard) or 10.7.x (Lion) running on Intel hardware (PowerPC hardware is '''not''' supported). [[BR]]Please note that Tiger support was dropped with the 3.1 release. Also building a X11 variant of !VirtualBox on Mac OS X is not supported.

 * Xcode matching your Mac OS X version (http://developer.apple.com/tools/download/): 
       * 2.4.1 or later for Tiger
       * 3.1.0 or later for Leopard
       * 3.2.0 or later for Snow Leopard
       * 4.1.x for Lion (4.2 and later will not work!)

 * Some things from !MacPorts (http://www.macports.org/). [[BR]]
 After installing !MacPorts, do not forget to add the following two lines to your `~/.profile`
{{{
export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
export MANPATH=/opt/local/share/man:$MANPATH
}}}

 Then perform the following command: [[BR]]
 for < Snow Leopard
{{{
sudo port install libidl doxygen texlive texlive-latex-extra texlive-fonts-extra cdrtools
}}}
 for >= Snow Leopard (32 Bit)
{{{
sudo port install libidl +universal doxygen texlive texlive-latex-extra texlive-fonts-extra cdrtools
}}}

 Doxygen and texlive* are optional.
 On 10.5 you may need a newer OpenSSL version than the one provided by the system. If so, perform:
{{{
sudo port install openssl
}}}

 * Qt/Mac (http://qt.nokia.com/downloads/qt-for-open-source-cpp-development-on-mac-os-x) [[BR]]
 Carbon 4.4.x upwards for Tiger[[BR]]
 Cocoa 4.5.x upwards for Leopard/Snow Leopard/Lion[[BR]]

 * LaTeX ("sudo port install texlive texlive-fonts-extra texlive-latex-extra texlive-latex-recommended") for building the documentation

== Some words on 32bit vs. 64bit host operation systems ==

Starting with 10.6 Mac OS X is available in 64bit mode and with 10.7 most graphical application runs in 64bit mode. However, we have to distinct between the user and the kernel space. As !VirtualBox is using its own kernel extensions, it has to be build and run in a version which match the kernel variant. You can check the current kernel mode by executing `uname -m`. If this shows `i386` it runs in 32bit and if it shows `x86_64` it runs the 64bit kernel. For switching between these modes on boot (on supported hardware) see [https://support.apple.com/kb/ht3773 this kb article]. If the build system doesn't correct detect the right kernel mode, you can use `--target-arch=` to overwrite it. Please also note that !VirtualBox can execute 64bit guest operation systems, even when itself is 32bit.

== Building !VirtualBox ==

 1. Change to the root directory of the sources and execute the configure script: 
{{{
./configure --disable-hardening
}}}
 You can manually set the target architecture with `--target-arch=x86` or `amd64`, if some architecture related problems occur.

 If it finds everything it needs, it will create a file called `!AutoConfig.kmk` containing paths to the various tools on your system. Also, it will create an environment setup script called env.sh. This step only has to be done once (if something changes in your build tool setup, you might have to repeat it but keep in mind that both output files will be overwritten). For additional options like providing a path to the OpenSSL library see `./configure --help`.
 2. Whenever you want to build !VirtualBox, you have to open a shell and source the generated environment setup script `env.sh`, i.e. do
{{{
. ./env.sh
}}}

 3. To build type 
{{{
kmk
}}}
    The default is to a release build, should you wish to do a ''debug'' or ''profile'' build add {{{BUILD_TYPE=debug}}} or {{{BUILD_TYPE=profile}}} as argument to `kmk` or export it as an environment variable in your shell.

=== Tips for building !VirtualBox on Snow Leopard 32bit ===

For backward compatibility (that is Leopard) !VirtualBox is build against the 10.5 SDK even on Snow Leopard (32bit). This can be problematic if you are using e.g. OpenSSL from !MacPorts which is build against the 10.6 SDK. You have two possibilities to solve this problem:

 1. Build all dependencies yourself and point them to the 10.5 SDK. Use e.g. `./configure --with-openssl-dir=/path/to/self/build/OpenSSL` before building !VirtualBox.

 2. If you don't care about backwards compatibility, you can force !VirtualBox to be build against the 10.6 SDK. For this include the following into a file called `LocalConfig.kmk`, which should be located in the top level directory of the !VirtualBox build tree:
{{{
VBOX_DEF_MACOSX_VERSION_MIN = 10.6
VBOX_DARWIN_NO_COMPACT_LINKEDIT =
VBOX_MACOS_10_5_WORKAROUND =
}}}

== Running !VirtualBox ==

 1. Load all the kernel extension modules. These can be found in `out/darwin.x86/release/dist` along with a small script (`loadall.sh`) to load them. Execute and make sure the modules loads successfully. 
 2. Enter {{{out/darwin.x86/release/dist/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/}}}.
 3. Run {{{./VirtualBox}}}

== Building OSE packages for distribution ==

'''Never''' disable hardening (see previous section) when creating packages for redistribution. 

Hardening needs some additional configuration and post-build steps. The default install directory of !VirtualBox is `/Applications/VirtualBox.app/`. If you like to change that, say into `/Applications/OpenSource/VirtualBox.app/`, you need to add the following to the `LocalConfig.kmk`:
{{{
VBOX_PATH_APP_PRIVATE      = "/Applications/OpenSource/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS"
VBOX_PATH_APP_PRIVATE_ARCH = "/Applications/OpenSource/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS"
VBOX_PATH_SHARED_LIBS      = "/Applications/OpenSource/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS"
VBOX_PATH_APP_DOCS         = "/Applications/OpenSource/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS"
}}}
It may also make sense to disable some of the development only stuff, like test cases. Add the following to `LocalConfig.kmk`:
{{{
VBOX_WITH_TESTSUITE=
VBOX_WITH_TESTCASES=
}}}
Starting with !VirtualBox 4.1, extra debug symbols are created. You can prevent that by adding the following to `LocalConfig.kmk`:
{{{
kBuildGlobalDefaults_LD_DEBUG=
}}}
Next rebuild !VirtualBox and install it into `/Applications/OpenSource/`. There isn't any support for installing !VirtualBox into a target directory. Just copy the files to the destination. Now make sure that the setuid stubs have the correct permissions: 
{{{
sudo chown -R root:admin /Applications/OpenSource/VirtualBox.app/
sudo chmod u+s /Applications/OpenSource/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VirtualBox
sudo chmod u+s /Applications/OpenSource/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VirtualBoxVM
sudo chmod u+s /Applications/OpenSource/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxHeadless
sudo chmod u+s /Applications/OpenSource/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxNetAdpCtl
sudo chmod u+s /Applications/OpenSource/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxNetDHCP
}}}
Another requirement of hardening is that every path component of the parent directory of `VirtualBox.app/` is owned by `root` and not `world` writable. Make sure this is the case.
=== Relative vs. absolute paths in the used libraries ===
If you see something like the following error when starting !VirtualBox you need to change the used libraries to use absolute paths.
{{{
VirtualBox: supR3HardenedMainGetTrustedMain: dlopen("/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VirtualBox.dylib",) failed: \
 dlopen(/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VirtualBox.dylib, 10): Library not loaded: QtCore.framework/Versions/4/QtCore
  Referenced from: /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VirtualBox.dylib
  Reason: unsafe use of relative rpath QtCore.framework/Versions/4/QtCore in /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VirtualBox.dylib with restricted binary
}}}
On Mac OS X it isn't allowed to use libraries with relative paths for referencing to other libraries when the executable is setuid. You can display all linked libraries by the following command:
{{{
otool -L /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VirtualBox.dylib
}}}
Next, assuming Qt is installed in `/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/Frameworks/`, you can change the path by using this:
{{{
install_name_tool -id /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/Frameworks/QtGui.framework/Versions/4/QtGui \
 /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/Frameworks/QtGui.framework/Versions/4/QtGui
install_name_tool -change @executable_path/../Frameworks/QtCore.framework/Versions/4/QtCore \
 /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/Frameworks/QtCore.framework/Versions/4/QtCore \
 /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/Frameworks/QtGui.framework/Versions/4/QtGui
}}}
The first command changes the identifier of the library itself. The second changes references to other libraries. There, the first path is the old referenced path, the second one is the new path and the last path is the file to change (see `man install_name_tool`). Note, you need to repeat this with every library involved (at least `VirtualBox.dylib`, `QtCore`, `QtGui`, `QtNetwork`, `QtOpenGl`).