Finding libexpat on a Mac

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Geant4 Version: 11.4.0
Operating System: MacOS Sequia 15.6.1 (Intel)
Compiler/Version: Apple clang version 17.0.0 (clang-1700.0.13.5)
CMake Version: 3.30.2

I’ve installed geant4 on my mac, and when I try to do a build, cmake can’t find libexpat.dylib. It sets the environment variable EXPAT_LIBRARY_RELEASE to /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX11.1.sdk/usr/lib/libexpat.tbd, which doesn’t exist.

I’ve tried defining the environment variable to the correct location (/usr/local/cellar/expat/2.7.4/lib/libexpat.dylib) in .zshrc, but cmake always overrides it and I have to go into ccmake and change it by hand, which is kind of annoying.

I’m a real novice at cmake, so I’m sure I’m missing something, and any advice would be appreciated.

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That’s odd. If you’re on Sequoia (15.6.1), that path should be …/MacOS15.sdk/… (which is a symlink). On my Mac (Tahoe 26.2), I have:
/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX26.2.sdk/usr/lib/libexpat.tbd.

But my CMake sets it to something else (from CMakeCache.txt):

EXPAT_LIBRARY_RELEASE:FILEPATH=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/lib/libexpat.tbd

It’s going through XCode to get there, rather than /Library. That has the slight advantage that your OS version number isn’t embedded in the path.

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