MacOS build Instructions

Contents:

• Prerequisites

• Building Using conda (RECOMMENDED)

• Building Using vcpkg

• Building Using conan

• Building Using System Libraries (NOT RECOMMENDED)

---

Prerequisites

• Compiler: C++20 support required

  • macOS: Xcode 12+ or Clang 10+

• Git: Any recent version

• CMake: 3.16 or newer

• pkg-config: Library configuration tool

If you do not have these on your system, you can install them with:

# Install Xcode Command Line Tools (includes git, clang):
xcode-select --install

# Install CMake and pkg-config via Homebrew:
brew install cmake pkg-config

Note For conda Users: If you use the conda environment approach described below (recommended) you can install many of these prerequisites using conda instead of your system package manager (which often requires sudo access). While it is preferred to use the system compilers, if you do not have access, you can install them into the vira_env environment (see Building Using conda) using:

conda install -c conda-forge cmake git pkg-config cxx-compiler make

---

Building Using conda (RECOMMENDED)

Using conda is our recommended way to build and install Vira. We will assume you already have the required system prerequisites.

1. Setup conda (if you haven’t already):

   cd ~
   # For Apple Silicon Macs:
   curl -L -O "https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-MacOSX-arm64.sh"
   chmod +x Miniforge3-MacOSX-arm64.sh
   ./Miniforge3-MacOSX-arm64.sh
   
   # For Intel Macs:
   curl -L -O "https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-MacOSX-x86_64.sh"
   chmod +x Miniforge3-MacOSX-x86_64.sh
   ./Miniforge3-MacOSX-x86_64.sh
   

   Follow the prompts and ensure you can activate the conda base environment (You should see a (base) to the left of your username in the terminal)

2. Create the vira_env environment:

   conda env create -f dependencies/environment.yml
   conda activate vira_env
   

3. Build:

   mkdir build && cd build
   cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../cmake/conda-toolchain.cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ../
   cmake --build . -j
   

4. OPTIONAL - Installing in conda Environment: Once you have successfully built the project, you can install Vira into your conda environment (while still in the vira_env environment) using:

   cmake --install .
   

---

Building Using vcpkg

vcpkg is a free open source package manager available on Windows, Linux, and MacOS. vcpkg builds libraries from source and so first time builds of Vira can seem excessive if using vcpkg. We will assume you already have the required system prerequisites.

1. Setup vcpkg:

   git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git ~/vcpkg
   ~/vcpkg/bootstrap-vcpkg.sh
   ~/vcpkg/vcpkg integrate install
   

2. Build:

   mkdir build && cd build
   cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=~/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ../
   cmake --build . -j
   

---

Building Using conan

conan is a free and open source package manager available on Windows, Linux, and MacOS. We do NOT regularly test builds with this but provide some basic support because we recognize some teams use conan for package management. We will assume you already have the required system prerequisites, and that you already have conan setup.

1. Install dependencies:

   conan install dependencies/conanfile.py --build=missing --output-folder=.
   cd build
   

2. Build:

   cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=./Release/generators/conan_toolchain.cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ../
   cmake --build . -j
   

---

Building Using System Libraries (NOT RECOMMENDED)

In the event that you wish to use your system package manager (such as brew) or build the dependencies from source, that should in theory work, however it is not supported (we cannot guarantee to use versions of libraries commonly available on system package managers). You will need to install the following dependencies on your system manually:

Library	Version	Description
assimp	>=5.2,<6.0	3D model loading
cfitsio	>=3.49	FITS I/O
cspice	=67	NASA SPICE
embree3	>=3.13,<4.0	Ray tracing kernels
fftw	>=3.3.10,<4.0	Fast Fourier Transform
gdal	>=3.10,<4.0	Geospatial Abstraction
glm	>=1.0.1	Linear Algebra
libtiff	>=4.7.0	TIFF I/O
lz4	>=1.9	Compression
tbb	>=2021.0	Intel TBB
yaml-cpp	>=0.8.0,<1.0	YAML parser
gtest	>=1.15,<2.0	Google Test (Only required if enabling VIRA_BUILD_TESTS)

Assuming you have installed these dependencies, the build process will be straight forward. From within the cloned vira repository:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../ -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build . -j