opencv/doc/tutorials/introduction/macos_install/macos_install.markdown

Installation in MacOS

The following steps have been tested for MacOSX (Mavericks) but should work with other versions as well.

Required Packages

• CMake 3.9 or higher
• Git
• Python 2.7 or later and Numpy 1.5 or later

This tutorial will assume you have Python, Numpy and Git installed on your machine.

@note OSX comes with Python 2.7 by default, you will need to install Python 3.8 if you want to use it specifically.

@note If you XCode and XCode Command Line-Tools installed, you already have git installed on your machine.

Installing CMake

-# Find the version for your system and download CMake from their release's page

-# Install the dmg package and launch it from Applications. That will give you the UI app of CMake

-# From the CMake app window, choose menu Tools --> Install For Command Line Use.

-# Install folder will be /usr/bin/ by default, submit it by choosing Install command line links.

-# Test that it works by running @code{.bash} cmake --version @endcode

Getting OpenCV Source Code

You can use the latest stable OpenCV version or you can grab the latest snapshot from our Git repository.

Getting the Latest Stable OpenCV Version

• Go to our downloads page.
• Download the source archive and unpack it.

Getting the Cutting-edge OpenCV from the Git Repository

Launch Git client and clone OpenCV repository. If you need modules from OpenCV contrib repository then clone it as well.

For example @code{.bash} cd ~/<my_working_directory> git clone https://github.com/opencv/opencv.git git clone https://github.com/opencv/opencv_contrib.git @endcode Building OpenCV from Source Using CMake

-# Create a temporary directory, which we denote as <cmake_build_dir>, where you want to put the generated Makefiles, project files as well the object files and output binaries and enter there.

For example
@code{.bash}
mkdir build_opencv
cd build_opencv
@endcode

@note It is good practice to keep clean your source code directories. Create build directory outside of source tree.

-# Configuring. Run cmake [<some optional parameters>] <path to the OpenCV source directory>

For example
@code{.bash}
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBUILD_EXAMPLES=ON ../opencv
@endcode

or cmake-gui

-   set full path to OpenCV source code, e.g. `/home/user/opencv`
-   set full path to `<cmake_build_dir>`, e.g. `/home/user/build_opencv`
-   set optional parameters
-   run: "Configure"
-   run: "Generate"

-# Description of some parameters - build type: CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release (or Debug) - to build with modules from opencv_contrib set OPENCV_EXTRA_MODULES_PATH to <path to opencv_contrib>/modules - set BUILD_DOCS=ON for building documents (doxygen is required) - set BUILD_EXAMPLES=ON to build all examples

-# [optional] Building python. Set the following python parameters: - PYTHON3_EXECUTABLE = <path to python> - PYTHON3_INCLUDE_DIR = /usr/include/python<version> - PYTHON3_NUMPY_INCLUDE_DIRS = /usr/lib/python<version>/dist-packages/numpy/core/include/ @note To specify Python2 versions, you can replace PYTHON3_ with PYTHON2_ in the above parameters.

-# Build. From build directory execute make, it is recommended to do this in several threads

For example
@code{.bash}
make -j7 # runs 7 jobs in parallel
@endcode

-# To use OpenCV in your CMake-based projects through find_package(OpenCV) specify OpenCV_DIR=<path_to_build_or_install_directory> variable.

@note You can also use a package manager like Homebrew or pip to install releases of OpenCV only (Not the cutting edge).