building on macOS

[pistepilvi]

Hi,
I'm trying to build LuxCoreRender 2.10 on macOS, but ran into some issues that I suspect have to do with mixing llvm and Apple Clang. According to the wiki (https://wiki.luxcorerender.org/Building_LuxCoreRender), I should use llvm, but the latest commit comment for https://github.com/LuxCoreRender/LuxCor ... acOS-ARM64 is "MacOS: back to apple-clang".

The steps I carried out are as follows:

1. open Terminal (zsh)
2. get files from github
   git clone https://github.com/LuxCoreRender/LuxCore/
3. set clang version to llvm
   export CC=/opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin/clang
   export CXX=/opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin/clang++
   export CMAKE_C_COMPILER=/opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin/clang
   export CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=/opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin/clang++
4. test if clang is set to /opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin/clang
   which clang
5. go to luxcore folder
   cd luxcore
6. build dependencies
   make deps

However, building deps fails (full log from the terminal attached):

Code: Select all

ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture arm64
clang++: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

Is the build system working for other people? Am I doing something wrong? Should I use Apple clang or llvm?

[CodeHD]

Hi,

I'm going to ping another developer who has more knowledge about this.

One hint from me: the latest development is happening in branch "for_v2.11", not "master". It might be worth trying to build with that branch. Based on your description, I am assuming you are trying to build "master".

Another note: While the current build pipeline on GitHub seems to work for macOS, there is not much local testing on macOS (main work is happening on Linux). So any feedback on issues like this is greatly appreciated!

[Howetuft]

Hello,

Yes, we migrated back to apple-clang when Github upgraded their runners to MacOS 15, last autumn.
apple-clang versions on the previous runners did not support C++20, so there was an unsatisfying workaround with llvm clang, but now, with recent MacOS runners, it's over and we're back to apple-clang. PR is here, if you're interested: https://github.com/LuxCoreRender/LuxCoreDeps/pull/21.

Two other remarks:
- current dev version is 2.11. Due to lack of time, I may be late with some admin tasks concerning 2.10 that could hamper the build now. I would recommend you to select 2.11, if you want to build.
- In theory, if build environment setup is ok (starting with compiler), `make deps` should not trigger any build, but only install already compiled packages. This is how it works on Windows and Linux, at least. However, we're suffering from a lack of MacOS developers, so we have never had the opportunity to test it by ourselves in "normal" MacOS environment (just Github runners): your feedback will be welcome.

[pistepilvi]

Thank you both! Building and running LuxCoreRender 2.11 with Apple clang worked.

It did involve a bit of a workaround: after successfully running make deps, I got an error when running make:

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CMake Error at out/build/generators/conan_toolchain.cmake:16 (include):
  include could not find requested file:
    /var/folders/ww/jph9065166s_69b23klmhkbh0000gp/T/tmp_8xmvted/.conan2/profiles/macos-vars-ARM64.cmake

From what I understand, this file is written to a temporary folder, which no longer exists when I run make. So I added some lines in deps.py to copy this file to the output folder instead. Then before running make, I changed the path in conan_toolchain.cmake.

Furthermore, when trying to run luxcoreui, it turned out it did not find the paths to the .dylib files. I actually had the same issue with the ready-made executable; there I moved the dylib files to the bin folder, and I think I had to run all dylib files first, so I could tell macOS for each of them that I trust them.

All in all, the steps I now took were:

1. open Terminal (zsh)
2. get files from github
   git clone https://github.com/LuxCoreRender/LuxCore/
3. got to luxcore folder
   cd luxcore
4. create virtual python environment
   python3 -m venv ~/luxvirtual
5. activate virtual python environment
   source ~/luxvirtual/bin/activate
6. adapt deps.py, after line 382:

   Code: Select all

           # Copy profiles to permanent location
           profiles_src = _conan_home / "profiles"
           profiles_dest = Path(output_dir) / "build" / "profiles"
           if profiles_src.exists():
               shutil.copytree(profiles_src, profiles_dest, dirs_exist_ok=True)
               logger.info(f"Copied profiles to {profiles_dest}")

7. build dependencies
   make deps
8. adapt conan_toolchain.cmake

   Code: Select all

   #include("/var/folders/ww/jph9065166s_69b23klmhkbh0000gp/T/tmplap4q5nd/.conan2/profiles/macos-vars-ARM64.cmake")
   include("${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/../profiles/macos-vars-ARM64.cmake")

9. add path to OpenMP
   export OpenMP_ROOT=$(brew --prefix)/opt/libomp
10. build
    make
11. navigate to Release folder
    cd /Users/pistepilvi/LuxCore/out/install/Release
12. set library path
    export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(pwd)/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
13. run
    ./bin/luxcoreui

[Howetuft]

Hello,
Glad to see that it worked! And thank you for your comments and workarounds, I'll take them into account next time I update the build system.