---
Type:            article
Title:           Building HandBrake for Mac
Project:         HandBrake
Project_URL:     https://handbrake.fr/
Project_Version: Latest
Language:        English
Language_Code:   en
Authors:         [ Bradley Sepos <bradley@bradleysepos.com> (BradleyS), Scott (s55) ]
Copyright:       2017 HandBrake Team
License:         Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
License_Abbr:    CC BY-SA 4.0
License_URL:     https://handbrake.fr/docs/license.html
---

Building HandBrake for Mac
==========================

Building HandBrake for Mac requires an Apple computer with a 64-bit Intel processor running OS X 10.11.5 El Capitan or later, and the following dependencies.

- [Xcode](https://developer.apple.com/xcode/) 8.2.1 or later
  - free Apple Developer registration required, or install from the Mac App Store
- [Command Line Tools for Xcode](https://developer.apple.com/download/more/)
  - free Apple Developer registration required, or install using `xcode-select --install`

Additional dependencies (may be built via included script):

- autoconf
- automake
- cmake (3.8.2 or later recommended)
- libtool
- pkg-config
- yasm 1.2.0 or later (1.3.0 or later recommended)

Install Xcode[^xcode-install] and open it once. You may quit Xcode after it has finished loading.

Install Command Line Tools for Xcode[^xcode-cli-tools].

    xcode-select --install

Clone the HandBrake repository.

    git clone https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake.git && cd HandBrake

You may build and install the additional dependencies using the included script. Feel free to choose a different output path, if desired.

    scripts/mac-toolchain-build /usr/local

This process will take a few minutes. If necessary, the script will provide you with instructions for adding the resulting binaries location to your environment's `PATH`[^default-path]. Do this now.

Build HandBrake. To build the command line interface only, disable the graphical interface by appending `--disable-xcode`.

    ./configure --launch-jobs=$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu) --launch

When complete, you will find `HandBrakeCLI` in the `build/xroot` directory. If the graphical interface is enabled, you will also find `HandBrake.app` in this directory.

Install HandBrake (optional).

    cd build && sudo make install

To start over, simply remove the `build` directory.

    if [[ "$(basename $(pwd))" == "build" ]]; then cd ..; fi
    rm -rf build

[^xcode-install]: Make sure Xcode is installed at `/Applications/Xcode.app`. When using an Xcode Beta release, you may need to rename `Xcode-beta.app` to `Xcode.app`.

[^xcode-cli-tools]: When installing Command Line Tools for Xcode using the package installer (instead of `xcode-select --install`), make sure to install the package that corresponds to the installed Xcode version. A mismatch between the installed Xcode and Command Line Tools versions may cause problems.

[^default-path]: `/usr/local/bin` is included in the system's `PATH` by default. It is not necessary to add it to your environment's `PATH` when installing the additional dependencies to `/usr/local`.