# macOS

These instructions are for people using Apple's macOS.

From the developer's point of view, macOS is a sort of hybrid Mac and
Unix system, and you have the option of using either traditional
command line tools or Apple's IDE Xcode.

# Command Line Build

To build SDL using the command line, use the CMake build script:

```bash
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.13
cmake --build .
sudo cmake --install .
```


You can also build SDL as a Universal library (a single binary for both
64-bit Intel and ARM architectures):

```bash
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. "-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64;x86_64" -DCMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.13
cmake --build .
sudo cmake --install .
```

Please note that building SDL requires at least Xcode 12.2 and the macOS 11.0 SDK.

If you are getting errors building SDL_mfijoystick.m with Xcode 12.2, find your SDKs
directory and move MacOSX10.15.sdk out of the way so it isn't accidentally being used
by the build environment.

To use the library once it's built, you essential have two possibilities:
use the traditional autoconf/automake/make method, or use Xcode.


# Caveats for using SDL with macOS

If you register your own NSApplicationDelegate (using [NSApp setDelegate:]),
SDL will not register its own. This means that SDL will not terminate using
SDL_Quit if it receives a termination request, it will terminate like a
normal app, and it will not send a SDL_EVENT_DROP_FILE when you request to open a
file with the app. To solve these issues, put the following code in your
NSApplicationDelegate implementation:


```objc
- (NSApplicationTerminateReply)applicationShouldTerminate:(NSApplication *)sender
{
    if (SDL_EventEnabled(SDL_EVENT_QUIT)) {
        SDL_Event event;
        SDL_zero(event);
        event.type = SDL_EVENT_QUIT;
        SDL_PushEvent(&event);
    }

    return NSTerminateCancel;
}

- (BOOL)application:(NSApplication *)theApplication openFile:(NSString *)filename
{
    if (SDL_EventEnabled(SDL_EVENT_DROP_FILE)) {
        SDL_Event event;
        SDL_zero(event);
        event.type = SDL_EVENT_DROP_FILE;
        event.drop.file = SDL_strdup([filename UTF8String]);
        return SDL_PushEvent(&event);
    }

    return NO;
}
```

SDL is [not designed to be used in setuid or setgid executables](README-platforms.md#setuid).

# Using the Simple DirectMedia Layer with a traditional Makefile

An existing build system for your SDL app has good chances to work almost
unchanged on macOS, as long as you link with the SDL framework. However,
to produce a "real" Mac binary that you can distribute to users, you need
to put the generated binary into a so called "bundle", which is basically
a fancy folder with a name like "MyCoolGame.app".

To get this build automatically, add something like the following rule to
your Makefile.am:

```make
bundle_contents = APP_NAME.app/Contents
APP_NAME_bundle: EXE_NAME
	mkdir -p $(bundle_contents)/MacOS
	mkdir -p $(bundle_contents)/Resources
	echo "APPL????" > $(bundle_contents)/PkgInfo
	$(INSTALL_PROGRAM) $< $(bundle_contents)/MacOS/
```

You should replace `EXE_NAME` with the name of the executable. `APP_NAME` is
what will be visible to the user in the Finder. Usually it will be the same
as `EXE_NAME` but capitalized. E.g. if `EXE_NAME` is "testgame" then `APP_NAME`
usually is "TestGame". You might also want to use `@PACKAGE@` to use the
package name as specified in your configure.ac file.

If your project builds more than one application, you will have to do a bit
more. For each of your target applications, you need a separate rule.

If you want the created bundles to be installed, you may want to add this
rule to your Makefile.am:

```make
install-exec-hook: APP_NAME_bundle
	rm -rf $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/Applications/APP_NAME.app
	mkdir -p $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/Applications/
	cp -r $< /$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)Applications/
```

This rule takes the Bundle created by the rule from step 3 and installs them
into "$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/Applications/".

Again, if you want to install multiple applications, you will have to augment
the make rule accordingly.

But beware! That is only part of the story! With the above, you end up with
a barebones .app bundle, which is double-clickable from the Finder. But
there are some more things you should do before shipping your product...

1. You'll need to copy the SDL framework into the Contents/Frameworks
   folder in your bundle, so it is included along with your application.

2. Add an 'Info.plist' to your application. That is a special XML file which
   contains some meta-information about your application (like some copyright
   information, the version of your app, the name of an optional icon file,
   and other things). Part of that information is displayed by the Finder
   when you click on the .app, or if you look at the "Get Info" window.
   More information about Info.plist files can be found on Apple's homepage.


As a final remark, let me add that I use some of the techniques (and some
variations of them) in [Exult](https://github.com/exult/exult) and
[ScummVM](https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm); both are available in source on
the net, so feel free to take a peek at them for inspiration!


# Using the Simple DirectMedia Layer with Xcode

These instructions are for using Apple's Xcode IDE to build SDL applications.

## First steps

The first thing to do is to unpack the Xcode.tar.gz archive in the
top level SDL directory (where the Xcode.tar.gz archive resides).
Because Stuffit Expander will unpack the archive into a subdirectory,
you should unpack the archive manually from the command line:

```bash
cd [path_to_SDL_source]
tar zxf Xcode.tar.gz
```

This will create a new folder called Xcode, which you can browse
normally from the Finder.

## Building the Framework

The SDL Library is packaged as a framework bundle, an organized
relocatable folder hierarchy of executable code, interface headers,
and additional resources. For practical purposes, you can think of a
framework as a more user and system-friendly shared library, whose library
file behaves more or less like a standard UNIX shared library.

To build the framework, simply open the framework project and build it.
By default, the framework bundle "SDL.framework" is installed in
/Library/Frameworks. Therefore, the testers and project stationary expect
it to be located there. However, it will function the same in any of the
following locations:

* ~/Library/Frameworks
* /Local/Library/Frameworks
* /System/Library/Frameworks

## Build Options

There are two "Build Styles" (See the "Targets" tab) for SDL.
"Deployment" should be used if you aren't tweaking the SDL library.
"Development" should be used to debug SDL apps or the library itself.

## Building the Testers

Open the SDLTest project and build away!

## Using the Project Stationary

Copy the stationary to the indicated folders to access it from
the "New Project" and "Add target" menus. What could be easier?

## Setting up a new project by hand

Some of you won't want to use the Stationary so I'll give some tips:

(this is accurate as of Xcode 12.5.)

* Click "File" -> "New" -> "Project...
* Choose "macOS" and then "App" from the "Application" section.
* Fill out the options in the next window. User interface is "XIB" and
  Language is "Objective-C".
* Remove "main.m" from your project
* Remove "MainMenu.xib" from your project
* Remove "AppDelegates.*" from your project
* Add "\$(HOME)/Library/Frameworks/SDL.framework/Headers" to include path
* Add "\$(HOME)/Library/Frameworks" to the frameworks search path
* Add "-framework SDL -framework Foundation -framework AppKit" to "OTHER_LDFLAGS"
* Add your files
* Clean and build

## Building from command line

Use `xcode-build` in the same directory as your .pbxproj file

## Running your app

You can send command line args to your app by either invoking it from
the command line (in *.app/Contents/MacOS) or by entering them in the
Executables" panel of the target settings.

# Implementation Notes

Some things that may be of interest about how it all works...

## Working directory

In SDL 1.2, the working directory of your SDL app is by default set to its
parent, but this is no longer the case in SDL 2.0 and later. SDL2 does not
change the working directory, which means it'll be whatever the command line
prompt that launched the program was using, or if launched by double-clicking
in the Finder, it will be "/", the _root of the filesystem_. Plan accordingly!
You can use SDL_GetBasePath() to find where the program is running from and
chdir() there directly.


## You have a Cocoa App!

Your SDL app is essentially a Cocoa application. When your app
starts up and the libraries finish loading, a Cocoa procedure is called,
which sets up the working directory and calls your main() method.
You are free to modify your Cocoa app with generally no consequence
to SDL. You cannot, however, easily change the SDL window itself.
Functionality may be added in the future to help this.


## Raw Mouse Input

SDL uses the Game Controller framework's GCMouse API to provide raw,
unaccelerated mouse input in relative mode. This is ideal for games
and applications requiring precise 1:1 mouse movement.

On versions older than macOS 11.0 (Big Sur), SDL would fall back to
NSEvent-based mouse input, which includes system mouse acceleration.

To use accelerated (system-scaled) mouse movement on macOS 14.0+, set the hint:

```c
SDL_SetHint(SDL_HINT_MOUSE_RELATIVE_SYSTEM_SCALE, "1");
```

# Bug reports

Bugs are tracked at [the GitHub issue tracker](https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/issues/).
Please feel free to report bugs there!

