Fossil

How To Sign Mac Binaries
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2019-10-14

MacOS 10.15 "Catalina" won't run unsigned binaries by default, I am told. So precompiled programs, such as the precompiled Fossil binaries on this website, must be signed for maximum ease-of-use. Here are my notes on how to go about doing that, in general, gleaned from multiple documentation sources and experimentation.

  1. Get an Apple Developer-ID. (Mine is "drh@sqlite.org").

  2. Turn on 2FA on your Developer-ID

  3. Install and run Xcode

  4. Under Xcode/Preferences/Accounts, in the lower right-hand corner is a button for "Manage Certificates...". Click that button.

  5. Click the "+" sign on the bottom left to get yourself a certificate.

  6. Now you can sign binaries using a command like: "codesign -s drh@sqlite.org fossil"

    1. Change "drh@sqlite.org" to your developer-id
    2. Change "fossil" to be the name of the executable you are trying to sign.
    3. You will get a GUI password prompt to authorize the signature