Setting Up macOS for Web Development

Getting your development environment running and configured has become much easier over time but it’s still a hassle to get everything set up and configured from scratch. These notes are a continuously evolving task list for my personal setup.

Applications

• Install Docker desktop, configure it as needed and remember to authenticate it.
• Install VS Code and log in to synchronize settings. Then some authentication:
  • For GitLab, pull from any GL repo and then enter username + personal access token
• Install iTerm2.

Terminal

• Install Homebrew and following packages
  • node
  • nvm
  • pyenv
  • virtual-pyenv
  • gdal
  • hugo
• Install Powerline fonts (clone, run install script)
• Install Oh my zsh
• To get ssh-agent starting up automatically you need to run sudo touch /var/db/useLS and then reboot.
• Generating a secure SSH key: ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -a 100

Git

git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global init.defaultBranch main

Node

Node is almost as bad as Python with different versions so using nvm is a must. After installing it with brew, install few of the necessary versions and then set the default:

nvm install 12
nvm install 14
nvm install 16
nvm alias default 16

Now the default version does not use the latest node but the latest 16.x instead. Whenever a project needs different version, just say nvm use x to activate the needed version.

Python

To minimize XKCD 1987 the best way to handle Python versions is to only use pyenv. So brew install pyenv (and brew install pyenv-virtualenv). Then, importantly, add both of these lines to make sure pyenv is loaded for new terminal sessions automatically:

echo 'eval "$(pyenv init --path)"' >> ~/.zprofile
echo 'eval "$(pyenv init -)"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'eval "$(virtualenv-init init -)"' >> ~/.zshrc

Now just install the latest usable (ie. not the point zero version of a new release) Python version and set it as global default.

Poetry is easiest to install with the installation script.

Postgis / GDAL / GEOS

Previously I haven’t had much problem with these as they install easily with Homebrew, but on macOS Monterey and Apple Silicon (M1) I had to add these to Django settings to get them working:

GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH = '/opt/homebrew/opt/gdal/lib/libgdal.dylib'
GEOS_LIBRARY_PATH = '/opt/homebrew/opt/geos/lib/libgeos_c.dylib'