macOS Development Environment

The following instructions set up a PX4 development environment on macOS. This environment can be used to build PX4 for:

• Pixhawk and other NuttX-based hardware
• Gazebo Simulation (Gazebo Harmonic)

It works on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

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This setup is supported by the PX4 dev team. To build for other targets you will need to use a different OS or an unsupported development environment.

Development Environment Setup

Prerequisites

1. Install Xcode Command Line Tools — provides git, make, and the Apple clang compiler:

   xcode-select --install

2. Install Homebrew by following the installation instructions.

3. Increase the open-file limit. The PX4 build opens many files simultaneously and the macOS default limit (256) is too low — you may see "LD: too many open files" errors without this.

   Add the following line to your shell startup file so it applies to every new terminal session. macOS defaults to zsh since Catalina, so add it to ~/.zshrc (use ~/.bashrc if you use bash):

   echo "ulimit -S -n 2048" >> ~/.zshrc

   Then open a new terminal (or run source ~/.zshrc) for the change to take effect.

4. Ensure Python 3 is available. Some PX4 build scripts require python3 and pip3 to be in your PATH. The Xcode Command Line Tools include Python 3 by default.

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   If you need to install or manage a different Python version, we recommend pyenv, which lets you set global and per-directory Python versions.

Install Development Tools

1. Download PX4 Source Code:

   git clone https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot.git
   cd PX4-Autopilot
   git submodule update --init --recursive --force

2. Install development environment libraries from the macos.sh helper script:

   ./Tools/setup/macos.sh --sim-tools

   This installs:

   • px4-dev — ARM cross-compiler (arm-gcc-bin@13), cmake, ninja, ccache, and other build tools
   • Python packages from requirements.txt
   • px4-sim (via --sim-tools) — Gazebo Harmonic simulation (gz-harmonic) and related tools

   INFO

   Omit --sim-tools if you only need to build for NuttX hardware and don't need simulation.

   Use --reinstall to force reinstallation of all Homebrew formulas (useful if something is broken).

Gazebo Simulation

The --sim-tools flag installs the px4-sim Homebrew formula, which pulls in Gazebo Harmonic.

If you skipped --sim-tools during initial setup and want to add simulation later:

brew tap PX4/px4
brew install px4-sim

INFO

Gazebo requires XQuartz for display on macOS. If you don't already have it installed:

brew install --cask xquartz

You may need to log out and back in after installing XQuartz.

Verify Installation

After installation, verify the key tools are available:

# NuttX cross-compiler (from arm-gcc-bin@13)
arm-none-eabi-gcc --version

# Build tools
cmake --version
ninja --version

# Gazebo (if --sim-tools was used)
gz sim --versions

Quick smoke test — build and run a simulation target:

make px4_sitl gz_x500

If everything is set up correctly, this will build PX4 SITL and launch a Gazebo simulation with the x500 quadcopter.

Next Steps

Once you have finished setting up the command-line toolchain:

• Install VSCode (if you prefer using an IDE to the command line).

• Install the QGroundControl Daily Build

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  The daily build includes development tools that are hidden in release builds. It may also provide access to new PX4 features that are not yet supported in release builds.

• Continue to the build instructions.