Mac M1 setup for Plutus Pioneer Program

some useful infos: https://cardano.stackexchange.com/questions/6287/lessons-learned-setting-up-plutus-playground-feedback-welcome

https://docs.plutus-community.com/docs/setup/MacOS.html (do not use the "plutus" repo! instead use "plutus-apps")

For Intel Macs: https://github.com/Til-D/cardano-plutus

And finalised thanks to @nrkramer Nolan Kramer!

Step by step

1 download the nix package manager and install it

sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --darwin-use-unencrypted-nix-store-volume

2 restart terminal

3 open the nix config file

sudo nano /etc/nix/nix.conf

4 be sure these lines are all inside the file

build-users-group = nixbld

substituters        = https://hydra.iohk.io https://iohk.cachix.org https://cache.nixos.org/
trusted-public-keys = hydra.iohk.io:f/Ea+s+dFdN+3Y/G+FDgSq+a5NEWhJGzdjvKNGv0/EQ= iohk.cachix.org-1:DpRUyj7h7V830dp/i6Nti+NEO2/nhblbov/8MW7Rqoo= cache.nixos.org-1:6NCHdD59X431o0gWypbMrAURkbJ16ZPMQFGspcDShjY=

system = x86_64-darwin
extra-platforms = x86_64-darwin aarch64-darwin

sandbox = false
extra-sandbox-paths = /System/Library/Frameworks /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks /usr/lib /private/tmp /private/var/tmp /usr/bin/env
experimental-features = nix-command
extra-experimental-features = flakes

5 restart mac

6 clone the right repository! not the ...plutus one, it needs to be the ...plutus-apps repo:

git clone https://github.com/input-output-hk/plutus-apps

7 goto folder

cd plutus-apps/

8 no checkout of commits needed, just use the master branch for now

9 build the server

nix-build -A plutus-playground.server

IMPORTANT: if there occurs a segfault, just build it again, it will work.

10 build the client

nix-build -A plutus-playground.client

same here, if there are errors during build, just call the command again.

11 start nix shell (takes some time)

nix-shell

12 goto server dir and start server (yes, with the GC thing in front)

cd plutus-playground-server
GC_DONT_GC=1 plutus-playground-server

sometimes the server will not start at first try. try again, second start should work!

13 wait until server is started! you will see something like this

plutus-playground-server: for development use only
[Info] Running: (Nothing,Webserver {_port = 8080, _maxInterpretationTime = 80s})
Initializing Context
Initializing Context
Warning: GITHUB_CLIENT_ID not set
Warning: GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET not set
Warning: JWT_SIGNATURE not set
Interpreter ready

14 when server is started you can open a second nix-shell in another terminal

nix-shell

15 in the second terminal with nix-shell run

sudo npm install -g npm

16 goto client dir and start client (yes, with the GC thing in front)

cd plutus-playground-client
GC_DONT_GC=1 npm run start

17 wait until client has started and you see something like this

webpack compiled with 1 warning
ℹ ｢wdm｣: Compiled with warnings.

will take some time. same here as above: if there are errors be sure to try at least a second build!

if the client takes to long it could be that it runs in timeout which is default 80 seconds.

to prevent this and change the timeout to 150 seconds eg, you can start the server with an option like this:

GC_DONT_GC=1 plutus-playground-server -i 150s

both should work now, client with https cert security warning in your browser: https://localhost:8009/

wanna fix the certificate error in your browser? in plutus-playground-client folder do

nano webpack.config.js

and change the "https" flag from "true" to "false".

thats it, but not needed. the url from now on would be http://localhost:8009

to make some space on your harddrive without deleting nix - if you do not use nix for a while:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NixOS/comments/mndp6a/garbage_collection/

https://nixos.org/guides/nix-pills/garbage-collector.html

or to uninstall nix, maybe you want to reinstall after macOS update?

Use https://github.com/renzwo/cardano-plutus-apps-install-m1/blob/main/uninstall-nix-osx.sh

Do a "chmod 777 uninstall-nix-osx.sh" before using it with "sudo".