Problems compiling ROOT

ROOT
1

I have a problem compiling root on Apple Silicon. This is a clean installation and make fails with

[ 64%] Linking CXX shared library ../../lib/libGraf.so
ld: warning: ignoring file '../../FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/objs/.libs/libfreetype.a(dlg.o)': found architecture 'x86_64', required architecture 'arm64'

What is crazy is the following:

$ cd FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE
$ file objs/ftbdf.*
objs/ftbdf.lo: libtool object file, ASCII text
objs/ftbdf.o:  Mach-O 64-bit object x86_64
$ rm  objs/ftbdf.*
$ make VERBOSE=1
./builds/unix/libtool --mode=compile /usr/bin/cc -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX15.5.sdk -pedantic -std=c99 -I/usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/src/base -I/usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/objs -I./builds/unix -I/usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/include  -c -Wall -O -fvisibility=hidden -DDARWIN_NO_CARBON  -pthread -DFT_CONFIG_CONFIG_H="<ftconfig.h>" -DFT_CONFIG_MODULES_H="<ftmodule.h>" -DFT_CONFIG_OPTIONS_H="<ftoption.h>" -DFT2_BUILD_LIBRARY -o /usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/objs/ftbdf.lo /usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/src/base/ftbdf.c
libtool: compile:  /usr/bin/cc -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX15.5.sdk -pedantic -std=c99 -I/usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/src/base -I/usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/objs -I./builds/unix -I/usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/include -c -Wall -O -fvisibility=hidden -DDARWIN_NO_CARBON -pthread "-DFT_CONFIG_CONFIG_H=<ftconfig.h>" "-DFT_CONFIG_MODULES_H=<ftmodule.h>" "-DFT_CONFIG_OPTIONS_H=<ftoption.h>" -DFT2_BUILD_LIBRARY /usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/src/base/ftbdf.c  -fno-common -DPIC -o /usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/objs/ftbdf.o
$ file objs/ftbdf.*
objs/ftbdf.lo: libtool object file, ASCII text
objs/ftbdf.o:  Mach-O 64-bit object x86_64

The file produced is x86_64 and the build fails. Now I take exactly the same line and I copy paste it and I execute it

$ rm  objs/ftbdf.*
$ ./builds/unix/libtool --mode=compile /usr/bin/cc -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX15.5.sdk -pedantic -std=c99 -I/usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/src/base -I/usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/objs -I./builds/unix -I/usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/include  -c -Wall -O -fvisibility=hidden -DDARWIN_NO_CARBON  -pthread -DFT_CONFIG_CONFIG_H="<ftconfig.h>" -DFT_CONFIG_MODULES_H="<ftmodule.h>" -DFT_CONFIG_OPTIONS_H="<ftoption.h>" -DFT2_BUILD_LIBRARY -o /usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/objs/ftbdf.lo /usr/local/root-git/buildroot/FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/src/base/ftbdf.c
$ file objs/ftbdf.*
objs/ftbdf.lo: libtool object file, ASCII text
objs/ftbdf.o:  Mach-O 64-bit object arm64

And now the file produced is arm!!!

HELP!

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ROOT Version: v6-36-00-patches
Platform: Darwin MacBook-Air.local 24.6.0 Darwin Kernel Version 24.6.0: Mon Jul 14 11:30:40 PDT 2025; root:xnu-11417.140.69~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8132 arm64
Compiler: Apple clang version 17.0.0 (clang-1700.0.13.5)

2

It “works for me” in a fresh build:

$ cmake -G ‘Unix Makefiles’ ~/root_working/code/master -Ddavix:BOOL=OFF
$ make -j4 Graf
$ file FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/objs/*.o
FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/objs/autofit.o:  Mach-O 64-bit object arm64
FREETYPE-prefix/src/FREETYPE/objs/bdf.o:      Mach-O 64-bit object arm64

So something on your system is interfering … do you homebrew or macport installed that could be ‘setting’ something to emulate and/or request x86_64 ?

3

I have homebrew. But I do not understand why in the makefile it compiles to x86_64 and at the command line it correctly compiles to arm64. Ciao

4

If I remember correctly this happens if you have an x86_64 make executable. It passes (I think implicitly via the equivalent of arch or by forgetting to do so) a request to build the product as x86_64 (I think mostly/just to the sub-make processes).

i.e. make sure you use a make (or ninja) build for arm64

5

m….

$ make -v
GNU Make 4.4.1
Built for x86_64-apple-darwin22.3.0

replacing with the native make. Thanks

6

Just to close this topic. The problem was that I was running a X86_64 make under rosetta. Somehow the make program or the rosetta environment force the architecture. Now all is fine, with 2 provisos:

  • Perhaps it would be better under Mac OS X add the architecture flag to the compilation just to avoid others this pain;
  • Still, when running cmake, I have the following lines
Compiler flags:
--
 - C:                          -m64 -pipe -W -Wall -fsigned-char -fno-common -Qunused-arguments -pthread
 - C (build type specific):   -O2 -g -DNDEBUG
 - C++:                        -Wc++11-narrowing -Wsign-compare -Wsometimes-uninitialized -Wconditional-uninitialized -Wheader-guard -Warray-bounds -Wcomment -Wtautological-compare -Wstrncat-size -Wloop-analysis -Wbool-conversion -m64 -pipe

Where -m64 appears. It seems to be harmless though, but it should perhaps be corrected.

Best,