Notes for things I had to do on my OS X laptop.

HACKING.rst

@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ Install Salt (and dependencies) into the virtualenv::
 
     pip install M2Crypto    # Don't install on Debian/Ubuntu (see below)
     pip install pyzmq PyYAML pycrypto msgpack-python jinja2 psutil
-    pip install -e ./salt       # the path to the salt git clone from above
+    pip install -e ./salt   # the path to the salt git clone from above (or . if you're already in that directory)
 
 .. note:: Installing M2Crypto
 
@@ -150,6 +150,18 @@ Install Salt (and dependencies) into the virtualenv::
 .. _`CentOS`: http://centos.org/
 .. _`Fedora Linux`: http://fedoraproject.org/
 .. _`Amazon Linux`: https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-ami/
+
+.. note:: Installing dependencies on OS X.
+
+One simple way to get all needed dependencies on OS X is to use homebrew,
+and install the following packages::
+
+    brew install swig
+    brew install zmq
+
+Afterward the pip commands should run without a hitch. Also be sure to set
+max_open_files to 2048 (see below).
+
 Running a self-contained development version
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
@@ -173,6 +185,7 @@ Edit the master config file:
     ``/path/to/your/virtualenv/salt-master.pid``.
 4.  If you are also running a non-development version of Salt you will have to
     change the ``publish_port`` and ``ret_port`` values as well.
+5. On OS X also set max_open_files to 2048.
 
 Edit the minion config file:
 

doc/topics/hacking.rst

@@ -176,6 +176,16 @@ Install Salt (and dependencies) into the virtualenv::
 .. _`Fedora Linux`: http://fedoraproject.org/
 .. _`Amazon Linux`: https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-ami/
 
+.. note:: Installing dependencies on OS X.
+
+One simple way to get all needed dependencies on OS X is to use homebrew,
+and install the following packages::
+
+    brew install swig
+    brew install zmq
+
+Afterward the pip commands should run without a hitch. Also be sure to set
+max_open_files to 2048 (see below).
 
 Running a self-contained development version
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@@ -200,6 +210,7 @@ Edit the master config file:
     ``/path/to/your/virtualenv/salt-master.pid``.
 4.  If you are also running a non-development version of Salt you will have to
     change the ``publish_port`` and ``ret_port`` values as well.
+5. On OS X also set max_open_files to 2048.
 
 Edit the minion config file:
 

doc/topics/installation/index.rst

@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ These guides go into detail how to install salt on a given platform.
     gentoo
     windows
     solaris
+    osx
 
 
 Dependencies

doc/topics/installation/osx.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+====
+OS X
+====
+
+Now go to the :doc:`Configuring Salt</topics/configuration>` page.
+
+Dependency installation
+-----------------------
+
+There are many ways to skin the dependency cat. One solution that I found
+simple enough was to install two key packages with the fine homebrew package
+manager:
+
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    brew install swig
+    brew install zmq
+
+and then install the python dependencies as follows:
+
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    pip install M2Crypto pyzmq PyYAML pycrypto msgpack-python jinja2 psutil
+
+
+Post-installation tasks
+=======================
+
+Now go to the :doc:`Configuring Salt</topics/configuration>` page.