MacOS on Ke's Notes and Blogs

MacBook with MacPorts

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 13:40:57 -0400

Introduction

This document covers how to set up an Intel-chip (x64) Macbook as a developer machine, using MacPorts as the package manager.

This is intended for old Macbooks whose OS has dropped out of Homebrew Tier 1 support. For example, when macOS Tahoe was released, Ventura dropped to Homebrew Tier 3 support. A 2017 Macbook Pro cannot upgrade beyond Ventura, so it has to use MacPorts. Since Tahoe is the last macOS that supports x64, eventually all Intel-chip Macbooks have to use MacPorts instead of Homebrew.

MacBook with Homebrew

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 13:36:55 -0400

Introduction

This document covers how to set up an ARM64 Macbook as a developer machine. It is geared towards Go, Python, JavaScript and Java development.

All commands on this page should be executed from the user’s home directory.

For using MacPorts instead of Homebrew as the package manager, refer to MacBook with MacPorts.

Install Xcode Command Line Tools

xcode-select --install

Install Homebrew

Use the macOS default Terminal app.

GPG for GitHub

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 21:38:04 -0500

GPG, or GNU Privacy Guard, is a free-software replacement for Symantec’s PGP cryptographic software suite. GPG is not a new cryptographic algorithm. GPG keys are simply those generated by the GPG software using existing algorithms such as RSA.

gpg is a CLI tool for managing keys, and the keys it generates have more features. For example, GPG keys can expire or be revoked. With GitHub, SSH keys are used for authentication, while GPG keys are used for signing commits and tags. Commit-signing makes sure the committer is indeed who he/she claims to be — otherwise any one can claim to be any one by setting username and password with git config.

SSH Client and Server

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 21:31:53 -0500

This page describes how to set up a Linux machine as an SSH server and remote in from macOS.

SSH Server on Linux

First install OpenSSH server on the specific Linux distro if it’s not already present.

Then check if the sshd service is enabled and active.

sudo systemctl status sshd

If not, enable and activate it by the following.