Building on macos

[dwoznicki]

Looking to build the project on macos, and just keep banging my head into errors. Highlights include

• missing LLD linker
• missing WASI headers
• missing cbindgen lib
• libc++ regression test failure (maybe??)

I'm currently stuck on error: incomplete type 'mozilla::dom::OwningUnrestrictedDoubleOrString', which I can't seem to figure out how to solve.

I know this is a bit just how building C++ projects goes, but I'm wondering if anyone has managed to build Glide on macos. And if so, what you needed to install to make it work? I'm staring to run out of steam here.

[RobertCraigie]

I primarily build glide on macOS fwiw.

I don't remember running into many issues building, maybe you could try pnpm mach bootstrap and pnpm mach doctor? (I've never ran mach doctor but it seems like it could be helpful)

What's your macOS / xcode SDK version? If you're on an older xcode version, I'd recommend trying to update it.

[dwoznicki]

I couldn't get mach bootstrap to work from within glide, but I have a copy of the firefox repo I've been using instead. I clobbered by old bootstrap setup, and am trying again with 2. Firefox for Desktop from there.

Very much hoping this isn't an issue with macos 26. Downgrading is not much fun.

[RobertCraigie]

okay for some reason running pnpm mach bootstrap does not work for me either on a fresh machine, but cd engine && ./mach bootstrap does.

edit: okay I see the issue with pnpm mach, I'll update it.

[RobertCraigie]

also getting mach bootstrap to actually run did help on my fresh machine, I ran into the same "missing linker" issue you did, and now the build is getting further along.

[RobertCraigie]

@dwoznicki on a fresh VM running macOS 26, I managed to compile on the latest commit with pnpm bootstrap && pnpm mach bootstrap --application-choice=browser && pnpm build (after changing the download script to use https)

[dwoznicki]

Success! A couple learnings

• build the desktop app, no artifact mode
• bootstrapping a separate copy of the firefox app doesn't actually do anything

[RobertCraigie]

Awesome!