SeisComP is a seismological software for data acquisition, processing, distribution and interactive analysis that has been developed by the GEOFON Program at Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and gempa GmbH. More info here: https://www.seiscomp.de
If you want to compile and run the latest version of the SeisComP-macOS Github repository on your Apple Mac (Intel or Apple Silicon native) then follow these instructions.
Note that you need to git-clone *all* the *”SeisComP for macOS”* repositories from the github repository here: https://github.com/seiscomp-macOS/
The easiest way is to copy/paste the BASH script from https://github.com/seiscomp-macOS/seiscomp?tab=readme-ov-file#checkout-the-repositories-with-script-clone_seiscomp-macossh to git-clone all the repositories to your local directory.
macOS prerequisites
This will compile SeisComP natively on macOS for Mac INTEL or Mac Silicon.
seiscomp-macOS successfully runs in production environment on various macOS versions e.g. macOS Monterey v12, macOS Ventura v13.x, macOS Sonoma v14.x, macOS Sequoia 15.x on both Mac INTEL and Mac Silicon architectures (M1, M2, M3, M4).
However due to latest code changes of SeisComP which requires latest XCode 26.x Clang compiler, macOS Sequoia 15.7.x or macOS Tahoe 26.x for both Mac INTEL and Apple Silicon is recommended.
Install Xcode Development Tools
To compile you will need the Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app
Note that the full Xcode Development Tools from “Mac App Store” is *not* required.
Just install the “Command-Line Developer Tools” with Terminal.app instead:
Open your Terminal.app and install XCode command line tools with command:
xcode-select --install
Install Homebrew for macOS
Install with command (taken from https://brew.sh )
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
After that check or update your PATH to include Homebrew paths:
Update your .bashrc environment
On INTEL Mac the default Homebrew binary directory is located in /usr/local/bin/
so you must update your `.bashrc PATH`, like e.g:
export PATH=/usr/local/bin/:/usr/local/sbin/:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:$PATH
On Apple Silicon Mac the default Homebrew binary directory is located in /opt/local/homebrew/bin/
so you must update your .bashrc PATH, like e.g:
export PATH=/opt/homebrew/bin/:/opt/homebrew/sbin/:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:$PATH
Install SeisComP hombrew dependencies
After the “Homebrew” was succesfully installed, the following dependencies must be installed to compile succesfully seiscomp-macOS:
brew install boost # note: boost 1.90.x works
brew install cmake
brew install fftw
brew install flex
brew install gfortran
brew install hdf5
brew install mariadb # mariadb recommended over MySQL (from SeisComP note) but mariadb can also be installed
brew install ncurses
brew install openssl
brew install qt # note:will install Qt6 GUI (use qt5 if you want Qt5 which is not recommended)
brew install swig
Note: If you need a more specific version of python, e.g. python v3.10 use this command:
brew install python@3.10
Clone the repositories
Note that you need to git-clone the repositories from https://github.com/seiscomp-macOS/
Use the script from `Checkout the repositories` to git-clone all the repositories.
Note that “repo_path” was changed from:
repo_path=https://github.com/SeisComP
to:
repo_path=https://github.com/gilcel/
Compile seiscomp on macOS
After succesful git-cloning compile SeisComP on your Mac.
Here “seiscomp-macOS” was git-cloned inside ~/Downloads/seiscomp-git/:
cd ~/Downloads/seiscomp-git
mkdir build-seiscomp
cd build-seiscomp
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${HOME}/seiscomp ../seiscomp-macOS
Note 1: After compilation the seedlink plugins directory contains compiled libraries e.g. libreftek.a libutil.a etc.
You should clean up the "seedlink/plugins/" directory to be sure to recompile the latest versions (not necessary but should avoid compilation errors).
Also if you copy the “seiscomp-macOS” directory to another platform (Apple Silicon) or INTEL the compiled libraries are still there, so better do a `make clean`.
Just do the follwowing to cleanup remaining object files and static libs:
cd seiscomp-macOS/src/base/seedlink/plugins/
make clean
Note 2: if you need to use a specific Python version, e.g “Python 3.10” (don’t forget to set your PATH accordingly):
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${HOME}/seiscomp ../seiscomp-macOS/ -DPython_VERSION_REQUIRED=3.10
Compile SeisComP for macOS in the `build-seiscomp` directory
make -j4
Install the binaries with command:
make install
If compilation was succesful it will install the binaries and libraries in ${HOME}/seiscomp (the choosen CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX).
Launch seiscomp command
seiscomp status
Launch GUI-binaries e.g ‘scmv’ or ‘scrttv’ with command:
/Users/USERNAME>/seiscomp/bin/scrttv
Changelog
2026.01.21
– Small changes to make the compilation process easier (git-clone, building)
2025.12.16
– Removed dependency of bson-1.0 from Mongo-C-driver
– Removed Qt5 and replaced with Qt6 GUI lib.
Comments are closed.