# Installing Cylc 7 on Mac OS "Big Sur" / Apple Silicon **URL:** \ **Category:** Cylc Support\ **Created:** [May 18, 2021, 9:56pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/installing-cylc-7-on-mac-os-big-sur-apple-silicon/337 "2021-05-18T21:56:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![schaferk](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/schaferk/32/92_2.png) [@schaferk](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/schaferk)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 9:56pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/installing-cylc-7-on-mac-os-big-sur-apple-silicon/337/1 "2021-05-18T21:56:52Z")
```auto $ git clone https://github.com/cylc/cylc-flow.git $ cd cylc-flow $ git checkout -b 7.8.x origin/7.8.x # follow instructions in INSTALL.md cylc-flow % bash export PATH=$PWD/bin:$PATH bash-3.2$ make etc/dev-bin/create-version-file (a cylc VERSION file is not needed in a cylc git repo) ``` ```auto $ make -C doc clean html Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in ImportError: No module named cylc.version Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in ImportError: No module named cylc.version Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in ImportError: No module named cylc.version /bin/sh: sphinx-build: command not found ``` ```auto bash-3.2$ cylc check-software Individual results: =============================================================== Package (version requirements) Outcome (version found) =============================================================== *REQUIRED SOFTWARE* Python (2.6+, <3).....FOUND & min. version MET (2.7.16.final.0) Meets core requirements. Summary: **************************** Core requirements: ok Full-functionality: not ok **************************** ``` OK. so sphinx doc does not build. move on and try a known working suites. ```auto bash-3.2$ cylc register test test REGISTERED test -> /Users/schaferk/cylc-suite/test bash-3.2$ cylc validate test Traceback (most recent call last): File "/Users/schaferk/cylc-flow/bin/cylc-validate", line 38, in from cylc.config import SuiteConfig, SuiteConfigError File "/Users/schaferk/cylc-flow/lib/cylc/config.py", line 68, in from cylc.xtrigger_mgr import XtriggerManager File "/Users/schaferk/cylc-flow/lib/cylc/xtrigger_mgr.py", line 28, in from cylc.subprocpool import get_func File "/Users/schaferk/cylc-flow/lib/cylc/subprocpool.py", line 92, in class SubProcPool(object): File "/Users/schaferk/cylc-flow/lib/cylc/subprocpool.py", line 120, in SubProcPool POLLREAD = select.POLLIN | select.POLLPRI AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'POLLIN' ``` who knows? tried this with various branches, same thing ```auto cylc-suite % python --version Python 2.7.16 ``` can Anyone recommend cylc for install on MacBook Air M1 Big Sur? ---
**Author:** ![hilary.j.oliver](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/hilary.j.oliver/32/4_2.png) [@hilary.j.oliver](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/hilary.j.oliver)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 12:51am UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/installing-cylc-7-on-mac-os-big-sur-apple-silicon/337/2 "2021-05-19T00:51:33Z")
@schaferk - if you enclose multi-line code and console transcripts in triple back-quotes (```blah``` → `blah`), it’ll be formatted for readability on this forum. I edited your post above to do that. The `INSTALL.md` file contains minimal instructions for installing Cylc release tarballs. Installing from a `git` clone may require additional steps that Cylc developers would be expected to know or figure out. Either way, with Cylc 7 it is unfortunately up to you to install required software dependencies. It seems (for instance) that you don’t have Sphinx installed to build the documentation (but don’t bother with that, just use the online docs). Cylc 8 (still in beta) has proper packaging for `pip` and `conda` and brings everything it needs with it. ```auto AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'POLLIN' ``` Huh. A web search shows some old-ish results that suggest `select.POLLIN` is not (or was not?) supported on MacOS. But I believe one of the Cylc team uses a Mac as his development platform and that evidently works … maybe @oliver.sanders can enlighten us… Hilary ---
**Author:** ![oliver.sanders](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/oliver.sanders/32/110_2.png) [@oliver.sanders](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/oliver.sanders)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 9:18am UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/installing-cylc-7-on-mac-os-big-sur-apple-silicon/337/3 "2021-05-19T09:18:28Z")
Hello, Cylc 7 should be capable of running on Mac OS “Big Sur”, however, Cylc 7 never officially supported or tested on Mac OS. I’ve had Cylc 7 running on Mac OS up to Mavericks but haven’t tried on the latest and greatest. It should be possible but may take a bit of fiddling. Cylc 8 will be Mac OS compatible, currently there is no Mac OS Conda-Forge build so Cylc 8 must be installed from PyPi or source with a [small patch](https://cylc.github.io/cylc-doc/latest/html/installation.html#installing-on-mac-os) to the source code to handle Mac OS DNS issues. ## Cylc 7 Installation On Mac OS / Apple Silicon Apple Silicon is a brand new architecture and the community is still racing to support it. Legacy packages / versions are unlikely to be rebuilt for this new architecture so you might run into difficulties installing some of the more involved components, namely the GUIs. However, I think it should be possible. If you want to go ahead and try to get Cylc 7 running on Big Sur, here’s some info that might help. Let us know how you get on! ### AttributeError: ‘module’ object has no attribute ‘POLLIN’ Is this using the Python 2 version that is included with Big Sur? Historically Apple’s Python builds have come with broken interfaces in the `select` module. Unfortunately Homebrew have now dropped Python 2 support, however, you may still be able to install Python 2 via Conda. Otherwise, I think this patch to `lib/cylc/subprocpool.py` should bypass the polling functionality (not strictly necessary) allowing this part of the code to work with Apple compiled Python: ```diff ERR_WORKFLOW_STOPPING = 'workflow stopping, command not run' JOBS_SUBMIT = 'jobs-submit' - POLLREAD = select.POLLIN | select.POLLPRI + POLLREAD = None RET_CODE_WORKFLOW_STOPPING = 999 def __init__ (self): self.size = glbl_cfg().get(['scheduler', 'process pool size']) self.proc_pool_timeout = glbl_cfg().get( ['scheduler', 'process pool timeout']) self.closed = False # Close queue self.stopping = False # No more job submit if True # .stopping may be set by an API command in a different thread self.stopping_lock = RLock() self.queuings = deque() self.runnings = [] + self.pipepoller = None - try: - self.pipepoller = select.poll() - except AttributeError: # select.poll not implemented for this OS - self.pipepoller = None ``` ### Cylc Dependencies Cylc has some dependencies that you will need to install, see `cylc check-software` and [this page](https://cylc.github.io/cylc-doc/stable/html/installation.html#third-party-software-packages). You don’t need to build your own copy of the documentation (`make -C doc clean html`) so don’t need to install the documentation dependencies (e.g. Sphinx). I would suggest installing missing system dependencies via [Homebrew](https://brew.sh) e.g: ```console $ brew install graphviz ``` Followed by installing the Python dependencies via Pip e.g: ```console $ pip install pygraphviz ``` ### Mac OS Dependencies On top of the regular Cylc dependencies you will need a few extra ones to make things run on Mac OS, I would suggest installing these via [Homebrew](https://brew.sh): ```console $ brew install bash coreutils gnu-sed ``` > **Note:** From Catalina onwards the default shell is now ZSH not Bash. The Bash version Apple provides is _very_ old (Bash 3) so it’s a good idea to update to Bash 4+. You _don’t_ need to change your default shell to Bash. > **Note:** You will need to prepend the `coreutils` and `gnu-sed` installations to your `$PATH` , follow the instructions in the `brew install` output to prepend these tools to your `$PATH` for the Bash shell. ### GUI The GUI will likely be the trickiest part to install Homebrew no long supports GTK2. If you don’t have GTK2 preinstalled you may need to install from [Conda Forge](https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/gtk2) or compile yourself. Note GTK2 must be installed before attempting to `pip install pygtk`. The GUI (and PyGTK) is not required for general functionality, only the GUIs (`cylc gui`, `cylc graph`, `cylc gscan`). The `cylc review` web GUI can be used as a standin for monitoring purposes. ### DNS Patch From Mac OS Catalina onwards the `socket.getfqdn` interface is broken for the default DNS configuration. If on a personal machine applying this patch to `lib/python/hostuserutil.py` should do the trick. > ### SSH From Mac OS Catalina onwards SSH has been disabled by default for security reasons. You may need to enable it from system preferences for full Cylc functionality. > **[Allow a remote computer to access your Mac](https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp1066/mac)** > > Allow remote login on your Mac so you can use SSH or SFTP to access it from another computer. ### Atrun [Atrun](https://www.unix.com/man-page/FreeBSD/8/atrun/) (the `at` command) does not run out-of-the-box on Mac OS for security reasons and must be manually enabled. ---
**Author:** ![oliver.sanders](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/oliver.sanders/32/110_2.png) [@oliver.sanders](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/oliver.sanders)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 9:41am UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/installing-cylc-7-on-mac-os-big-sur-apple-silicon/337/4 "2021-05-19T09:41:11Z")
Just to chuck in one last suggestion, if you don’t need Cylc to SSH around a network of hosts and the above looks like too much hassle you might want to consider installing Cylc via Docker Engine. Docker works nicely on Mac OS, it runs a Linux kernel inside a VM that is surprisingly efficient. ---
**Author:** ![schaferk](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/schaferk/32/92_2.png) [@schaferk](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/schaferk)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2021, 12:54pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/installing-cylc-7-on-mac-os-big-sur-apple-silicon/337/5 "2021-05-20T12:54:17Z")
downloaded Docker Desktop to initiate cylc via Docker. ---
**Author:** ![schaferk](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/schaferk/32/92_2.png) [@schaferk](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/schaferk)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 12:32pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/installing-cylc-7-on-mac-os-big-sur-apple-silicon/337/6 "2021-07-04T12:32:55Z")
update: Docker installed on BigSur M1. containers kinow/cylc-flow (version 8.0a1) and kinow/cylc-uiserver pulled and running verified with docker ps. some custom suites installed in cylc-flow container and suites running. how is the gui used? ‘’’’ [I 2021-07-04T12:12:23.159 JupyterHub app:2422] JupyterHub is now running at http://:8000 ‘’’ now what? ---
**Author:** ![kinow](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/kinow/32/145_2.png) [@kinow](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/kinow)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 9:04pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/installing-cylc-7-on-mac-os-big-sur-apple-silicon/337/7 "2021-07-04T21:04:23Z")
Those Docker images were used to experiment running Cylc with Docker. alanbchristie (GH) did a much better work [1] that includes instructions for running the GUI, though the version packaged is a bit older. We were working to get his image back under the cylc community, but the work was paused to focus on Cylc 8. But maybe what Oliver suggested was for you to use an existing image like alpine, ubuntu, debian, etc., and install Cylc there as you would in a local Linux system? Cheers Bruno [1] [GitHub - alanbchristie/cylc-docker: Docker files](https://github.com/alanbchristie/cylc-docker) ---
**Author:** ![hilary.j.oliver](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/hilary.j.oliver/32/4_2.png) [@hilary.j.oliver](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/hilary.j.oliver)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 11:07pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/installing-cylc-7-on-mac-os-big-sur-apple-silicon/337/8 "2021-07-04T23:07:19Z")
Yes, I think @oliver.sanders was suggesting the latter method. We haven’t got any up-to-date pre-configured Cylc Docker images, but it’s easy enough to do that yourself - just treat Cylc like anything else you want installed into the image. ---
**Author:** ![oliver.sanders](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/oliver.sanders/32/110_2.png) [@oliver.sanders](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/oliver.sanders)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2021, 8:59am UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/installing-cylc-7-on-mac-os-big-sur-apple-silicon/337/9 "2021-07-05T08:59:35Z")
I think this should do the trick: ```auto FROM ubuntu:latest RUN apt-get update && \ apt-get install -y python3.9 pip nodejs npm && \ npm install -g configurable-http-proxy && \ pip install cylc-flow cylc-uiserver ``` For a full list of dependencies see the Conda feedstock files for cylc-flow and the cylc-uiserver: - [cylc-flow-feedstock/meta.yaml at master · conda-forge/cylc-flow-feedstock · GitHub](https://github.com/conda-forge/cylc-flow-feedstock/blob/master/recipe/meta.yaml) - [cylc-uiserver-feedstock/meta.yaml at master · conda-forge/cylc-uiserver-feedstock · GitHub](https://github.com/conda-forge/cylc-uiserver-feedstock/blob/master/recipe/meta.yaml) ---
**Author:** ![schaferk](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/schaferk/32/92_2.png) [@schaferk](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/schaferk)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 3:21pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/installing-cylc-7-on-mac-os-big-sur-apple-silicon/337/10 "2021-07-16T15:21:24Z")
i was able to get both kinow/cylc-flow kinow/cylc-uiserver working to where i could log in the the web interface. as alluded to, these are somewhat a work in progress. The exercise was useful though. ---
**Author:** ![schaferk](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/schaferk/32/92_2.png) [@schaferk](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/schaferk)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 3:22pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/installing-cylc-7-on-mac-os-big-sur-apple-silicon/337/11 "2021-07-16T15:22:06Z")
i/ll work to build via a Dockerfile as suggested.