This page describes how GCstar and its dependencies could be installed on Mac OS X.

GCstar has to be installed in X11 environments, not on native ones. So first step would be to install it if you won’t already have it. You may find more information about this on the X11 for Mac OS X page. Just note that X11 is installed by default on Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard. So you won’t have anything to do if you have this version.

The dependencies will be installed through MacPorts. So you should consult documentation on its website to know how it should be used.

First step is to install gtk2-perl. This is done through this command:

sudo port install p5-gtk2

This should also install Perl and Gtk2. While there is already a Perl binary in /usr/local/bin, the new one will be /opt/local/bin/perl.

There are other packages to install. The following commands will install them:

sudo port install p5-lwp-authen-wsse
sudo port install p5-html-parser
sudo port install p5-archive-tar
sudo port install p5-archive-zip
sudo port install p5-xml-simple
sudo port install p5-xml-libxml

The three last ones are optional but provide some useful features (for importation and exportation of collections). They could be installed later if needed.

You have first to download the .tar.gz version from the GCstar repository. Extract it somewhere on your disk and go into the generated directory, gcstar. Then launch this command:

xhost +
sudo /opt/local/bin/perl install

A window like this should be opened:

Feel free to choose the installation path you want during the next step. For example, you can choose /usr/local (note: please avoid installing in /opt/local as this path is managed by macports and supposed to only contain things that macports has installed).

Once this step done, there are some options. The first one (Add GCstar to Applications menu) should be unchecked. Then you may validate the whole installation.

There is one last operation. Edit the file /usr/local/bin/gcstar (the path could change according to what have been choosen during the installation). Open a text editor such as Pico with

sudo pico /usr/local/bin/gcstar

You should change the first line to #!/opt/local/bin/perl (the path where Perl was installed from DarwinPorts). Save with ctrl+x, yes, enter.

To use GCstar, just launch /usr/local/bin/gcstar.

On first launch, GCstar may look ugly when compared to other systems such as GNU/Linux. It’s because it doesn’t use the native toolkit on MacOS and then it won’t use your global settings. The default theme for Gtk2 application is quite basic. You can change it using an application that needs to be installed.

sudo port install gtk-chtheme

You can find some themes in ports also. More information on this page about themes for Gtk2 application on MacOS.