Introduction
Installer package is intended for folks who are lazy or don't want to deal with using the terminal command line. Doesn't work for everybody, if it doesn't work for you, you'll have to use the package managers like Homebrew, Fink, MacPorts, as described below. Those sections describe how to get Freeciv running on Mac OS X using pre-built methods. Which package manager should you choose? Homebrew requires MacOS 10.14 or later, and gets you the latest freeciv version with the gtk3 client (which has bugs). Fink gets you freeciv version 2.5.9 with gtk2 client, and appears to be abandoned. MacPorts gets you the latest freeciv version with either the gtk2 client or sdl client. For building from source, see Build-MacOSX.
Install From Installer package
Available on Dropbox here [1]
Download the version you want, un-zip it, and double click the "xxx.pkg" file to start the install.
Please share your experiences on the Freeciv forum [2]
Does not work on Mac OS 10.11 or earlier. Do not yet know about 10.13 and up.
Install from Homebrew
As of Apr, 2021, Homebrew does not support MacOS 10.13 or earlier. The gtk3 client is what you get, and it has annoying graphics bugs. Running it gives a bunch of warnings, e.g.
(freeciv-gtk3:84703): Gtk-WARNING **: 23:04:44.899: Could not load a pixbuf from /org/gtk/libgtk/theme/Adwaita/assets/bullet-symbolic.svg.
This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.
(freeciv-gtk3:84703): Gtk-WARNING **: 23:04:45.012: Error loading theme icon 'media-seek-backward' for stock:
(freeciv-gtk3:84703): Gtk-WARNING **: 23:04:45.013: Error loading theme icon 'window-close' for stock: Icon 'window-close' not present in theme Adwaita
And there are some graphic widgets missing from the UI, worst is missing disclosure triangles in the help dlog.
Note: The commands below need to be copied and pasted into a terminal!
Head here to install Homebrew:
This is the current command to install Homebrew (check the site to make sure it hasn't changed):
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
The Homebrew base repository hosts a variety of games, too, like Freeciv. To install it, run:
brew install freeciv
Note that this downloads quite a few software development packages and command line utilities as prerequisites to the game. It can take a bit under 5 minutes to complete the overall process and uses your full CPU, so it makes sense to brew a cup of coffee in the meantime.
On Yosemite if you get error "dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/lib/liblzma.5.dylib" then install xz library
brew install xz
Run
freeciv-gtk3
Install from Fink
Apr, 2021 - I was able to successfully install on a Mac running 10.12 Sierra. You need to have X11 and XCode installed, see this link -[3]
When you have X11 and XCode installed, you can install Fink. Instructions here -[4]
I used the helper script from the source install instructions. That script is interactive, and requires you to answer questions about various options, which may be over your head unless you're a Unix expert. Luckily they provide default answers, so I just accepted all the defaults. The install took about 2 hours. The fink executable gets put into /sw/bin. If you're a Unix expert you will know how to set up your PATH env to include /sw/bin, they include a helper script file /sw/bin/init.sh to help. Otherwise, use a Terminal window and enter these commands -
cd /sw/bin
./ fink install freecivThat took about 40 hours. The freeciv-gtk2 is also put in /sw/bin, so when you are in that directory you can run it by entering -
./freeciv-gtk2If you did the Unix PATH magic you can run it from anywhere. The gtk2 client is what you get. Fink does not have a gtk3 package avail, so no gtk3 client is possible. The version of Freeciv is 2.5.9, it looks like no one is now maintaining it on Fink , so 2.5.9 may be the last version you can get there.
Install from MacPorts
Prepare Mac OS X
See instructions for installing XCode here https://guide.macports.org/#installing.xcode
Install MacPorts
Mac Ports can be downloaded from http://www.macports.org/install.php . Here you'll find the versions for the different versions of MAC OS X.
Having installed MacPorts, you'll be able to execute the 'port' command in Terminal. This will the download the different packages and install FreeCiv on your HD.
% sudo port install freeciv-x11 Or try: % sudo port install freeciv
Installing freeciv gives you the sdl client, freeciv-x11 gets you the gtk2 client (recommended).
Install from Source
This subject is complex enough that it has moved to its own page Build-MacOSX.