GRASS Build

These instructions are old. See the GRASS source Mac OS X readme for up to date build instructions.

Last change: 2005/6/19

NOTE: GRASS is now at v6.0.0 released. I'm going to leave it at this and update these instructions only for changes in release versions (I'm a bit burnt out on weekly CVS updates).

Note: some of these may not be used by GRASS, at least not directly, but are included for maximum flexibility.

Expat, giflib, libjpeg, libpng, libtiff, libjasper (optional), freetype2 (optional), libfftw (optional), PROJ.4, libgeotiff, GEOS (optional), MrSID Geo DSDK (optional), OGDI (optional), NetCDF (optional), HDF (optional), Tcl/Tk, LessTif (optional, Used for the xganim module), MySQL (optional), PostGreSQL + PostGIS (recommended), GDAL/OGR.

Source: GRASS

NOTE: I'm describing what works for me, with a few adjustments to take into account some common general cases. I can't guarantee that this will work in any particular situation (especially on Mac OS 10.2). While installing all this software should be safe and cause no problems, and I made an effort to be explicit and detailed, the responsibility is yours if your computer blows up or something goes wrong.

GRASS version: 6.0.1

In a Terminal type (supply admin password when asked):

$ cd path_to_folder_containing_grass_source_tar_gz
$ tar -zxf grass-6.0.1.tar.gz

One change you can make if you like. If you installed libtiff with LZW support, you can enable GRASS to write LZW compressed TIFFs. In raster/r.out.tiff/r.out.tiff.c, change line 95 to read:

compopt->options        = "none,packbit,deflate,lzw";

and before line 123 add:

	else if (strncmp(compopt->answer,"lzw",7) == 0)
		compression = COMPRESSION_LZW;

Then you're ready for configure:

$ cd grass-6.0.1
$ ./configure --enable-sysv --with-includes=/usr/X11R6/include --with-libs=/usr/X11R6/lib --with-freetype --with-tcltk-includes=/usr/X11R6/include --with-tcltk-libs=/usr/X11R6/lib --with-gdal=/usr/local/bin/gdal-config --with-proj --with-x --with-cxx --with-glw --with-motif --without-odbc --enable-shared

If you installed PostGreSQL, add this to the configure line (make sure there is a space after the last option and this):

--with-postgres-includes=/usr/local/pgsql/include --with-postgres-libs=/usr/local/pgsql/lib

otherwise add this:

--without-postgres

If you need MySQL support, add this to the configure line:

--with-mysql --with-mysql-includes=/usr/local/mysql/include --with-mysql-libs=/usr/local/mysql/lib

If you built your own freetype, add this to the configure line:

--with-freetype-includes=/usr/local/include/freetype2

otherwise add this:

--with-freetype-includes=/usr/X11R6/include/freetype2

And do it:

$ make
$ sudo make install

Depending on your Mac's power, make could take up to an hour or more to build, so take a break, read a book, have lunch, go for a walk, multitask…

Note: There is a setting for when applications crash - whether to display some sort of notice, a crash report for Apple or nothing. This can be set by TinkerTool and other utilities. I can't remember what the default from Apple is, but if a display is set, when running configure, you will probably get crash dialogs, you can just cancel/close them.

Also, GRASS building emits some of beeps. Don't worry, just ignore them, your Mac isn't about to explode. Just some harmless warning/error (something about fake mapset not found).

Cleanup

When updating from a previous GRASS 6.0.x version the old version will be left behind, taking of disk space. To delete an old version, use the **Go→Go to Folder(( in the Finder to open /usr/local and move older versions to the Trash (admin authorization required).

First, before opening a graphic window or using TclTk GRASS, you must start X11 manually. You could add it as a Login item if you like, so it's always available.

To get GRASS to use our specially-built X11 version of Tcl/Tk, add the following to your .cshrc:

export GRASS_TCLSH=/usr/X11R6/bin/tclsh
export GRASS_WISH=/usr/X11R6/bin/wish