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Compile instructions (Mac OS X) - Git

Use these instructions to compile MuseScore on Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) and 10.8 (Mountain Lion). The binary will run on 10.7 and above. Instructions and binaries are for Mac 64-bit.

Setting the build and development environment

  1. Install Xcode 4.6 from the Mac App Store
  2. Launch Xcode and accept the licence
  3. In Xcode, go to Preferences -> Download and install the Command line Tools
  4. Choose the DMG of your OS and install MacPorts
  5. Open a terminal and enter the following (in your home):
    sudo port install git libsndfile pkgconfig lame portaudio jack cmake
  6. Qt 4.8.4 is shipped as a package, suitable for 10.7. Download and install it
  7. Open a terminal and enter the following (in your home):
  8. Clone the repository from GitHub:
    git clone git://github.com/musescore/MuseScore.git

    If you plan to contribute to MuseScore, you can setup your own fork on GitHub and clone it instead. See the Git Workflow page.

Building MuseScore

  1. In a terminal, enter:
    cd musescore
  2. Set the revision SHA1 for this build
    make revision
  3. Start the actual compilation. It takes more than one hour on a MacBook 2 GHz
    make -f Makefile.osx release
  4. Call the install target. The bundle is copied from the Release directory into the applebuild directory. All resources (such as help and templates) are added to it
    make -f Makefile.osx install
  5. The package step. This target calls a script derived from this one. It creates a self-contained bundle, thanks to macdeployqt, by adding and stripping the Qt libraries into the MuseScore bundle. It also adds Qt plugins, PortAudio and libsndfile. A DMG file is the result
    make -f Makefile.osx package

Debugging and developing MuseScore

If you are a developer, look at the xcode target in the makefile. It generates a xcodeproj file. You can open this xcodeproj file and use the Apple IDE for tasks such as modifying, debugging and compiling MuseScore code.

Run 

make -f Makefile.osx xcode

Then open the xcodeproj bundle in Xcode

open build.xcode/mscore.xcodeproj

In XCode, run the ALL_BUILD scheme. It will compile all the files. Then run the install scheme. It will install the required files (fonts, images etc...) for runtime. Debug by running the mscore scheme.

The prefered way to contribute is via a Pull Request on GitHub. Patches are also welcome on the Developer Mailing List, or on the Issue Tracker.