How to Install GTK in a Mac

By Wolfram Donat

GTK is a free, open-source, cross-platform software package that can be used for developing GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces). The version that can be installed on Mac OS X is now separate from the Windows and Linux versions and uses a Python program called "jhbuild" to install all of the dependencies. It has its own site, support platform and wiki. GTK-OSX (the Mac version) and jhbuild are installed using the terminal.

Download and install "git," the free version tracker for OS X, from the Google code Web page. Git is pre-installed on Mac Snow Leopard, but may require download for earlier versions of OS X. Once the .dmg file has been downloaded, double-click the file to mount the disc image. Open the disc image and drag the application to the Applications folder to install git.

Install the current version of Python to enable jhbuild to run. From "Python.org/download", download the installer for your version of OS X. Double-click the downloaded .dmg file to mount the disc image. Open the disc image and drag the Python file to the Applications folder to install Python.

Download GTK's installer shell script from the SourceForge website.

Open a terminal. In the Applications folder, click "Utilities," followed by "Terminal." Navigate to the location of the downloaded script (most likely the Downloads folder) by typing:

cd Downloads

Run the installer script. In your terminal, type:

sh gtk-osx-build-setup.sh

and watch it run.

Type "jhbuild bootstrap" followed by "jhbuild build meta-gtk-osx-bootstrap" and "jhbuild build meta-gtk-osx-core" to build and install GTK-OSX.

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