Build system setup macOS

Tested with macOS 10.15.7, Xcode 12.1 build 12A7403.
Tested with macOS 11.6, Xcode 13.0 build 13A233, arm64 kernel.

Obtain & install Xcode or CLT:

1. obtain Xcode from here. Note: installer file download is over/near 5 GB, and needs 12+ GB space.
2. If you prefer to not obtain Xcode, then one of the alternative is: obtain Command-Line-Tools¹ (CLT), (installer download is under/near 300 MB, and needs around 2.5 GB space). It is also known as Command Line Developer Tools.
   
   • inside Terminal utility/app, run this command to load CLT: xcode-select --install

Install any one of the (3rd-party) package manager software in macOS:

1. Homebrew : Note: it shares user's usage/private data with Ggl.
2. MacPorts¹.

Prepare a dedicated case-sensitive filesystem for OpenWRT build/compile:

• We will be using a sparsebundle to allow us to have a case sensitive filesystem.
• The size that you provide will be the max size of the volume for working with OpenWrt

  hdiutil create -size 20g -type SPARSE -fs "Case-sensitive HFS+" -volname OpenWrt OpenWrt.sparseimage
  hdiutil attach OpenWrt.sparseimage

• Change to the OpenWrt volume and create the necessary directories:

  cd /Volumes/OpenWrt

Install the necessary packages with below command:

• if you have homebrew:

  brew install coreutils findutils gawk grep gnu-getopt gnu-tar wget diffutils git-extras quilt svn make ncurses pkg-config

• if you have MacPorts:

  sudo port install coreutils findutils gawk grep getopt gnutar wget diffutils git-extras quilt subversion gmake ncurses pkgconfig

Create a file called env.sh in /Volumes/OpenWrt
This is to allow the utilities (aka: packages) we just installed to be used instead of the macOS provided ones.

• For x86_64 Apple hardware, & when you have homebrew, then create this file:

  PATH="/usr/local/opt/make/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"
  PATH="/usr/local/opt/gnu-getopt/bin:$PATH"
  PATH="/usr/local/opt/gettext/bin:$PATH"
  PATH="/usr/local/opt/coreutils/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"
  PATH="/usr/local/opt/findutils/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"
  export PATH

• For x86_64 Apple hardware, & when you have MacPorts, then create this file:

  PATH="/opt/local/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"
  PATH="/opt/local/libexec/coreutils:$PATH"
  PATH="/opt/local/bin/svn-tools:$PATH"
  PATH="/opt/local/bin:$PATH"
  PATH="/opt/local/sbin:$PATH"
  export PATH

For arm64 (Apple Silicon(M1)) Apple hardware:

PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/make/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"
PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/gnu-getopt/bin:$PATH"
PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/gettext/bin:$PATH"
PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/coreutils/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"
PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/findutils/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"
export PATH

Check homebrew official page or MacPorts-guide if you need more information related to PATH variable

When developing, do source /Volumes/OpenWrt/env.sh to set up the path variable. This leaves your system in a clean state without symlinking.

Now proceed normally.

For darwin/arm64 and linux/aarch64 golang package (feed “packages”) golang C-bootstrap method doesn't work, but it is possible to use external golang bootstrap. On MacOS arm64 the easiest way is to install golang using brew and use installed golang as bootstrap:

brew install golang

Then set CONFIG_GOLANG_EXTERNAL_BOOTSTRAP_ROOT=“/opt/homebrew/opt/go/libexec” in .config file