PulseView (native Apple Silicon build)

Builds PulseView and its sigrok libraries natively for arm64 macOS, and packages a self-contained /Applications/PulseView.app.

The old approach ran the 2018 x86_64 PulseView 0.4.2 .dmg under Rosetta. That is no longer necessary — libsigrok, libsigrokdecode and pulseview all build cleanly as native arm64 against Homebrew's Qt6.

Quick start

make            # full build + package /Applications/PulseView.app
open -a PulseView

Requires Homebrew. The build installs its own dependencies (Qt6, glib/glibmm, boost, libusb/hidapi/libftdi/libserialport, doxygen, swig, python@3.14) via brew.

Targets

Command	What it does
make	Full from-scratch build + package the app
make install	Same as make (the app is the install)
make package	Repackage /Applications/PulseView.app from an existing build (no recompile)
make run	Launch the dev binary from the build tree
make clean	Remove downloaded sources + build prefix
make distclean	clean + remove the installed app

What gets built

make (via install.sh) clones three repos and builds them in order, all under this directory:

1. libsigrok (git) → sigrok/ prefix — needs Doxygen for the C++ bindings.
2. libsigrokdecode (git) → sigrok/ prefix — protocol decoders; linked against Homebrew's default python@3.14.
3. pulseview (git, Qt6) → pulseview/build/pulseview.

Then it packages everything into /Applications/PulseView.app: the binary, the sigrok dylibs (rewritten to bundle-relative paths), the decoders, the fx2lafw firmware, and Qt frameworks via macdeployqt. The app is self-contained except for Homebrew's python@3.14, which the decoders link by absolute path.

The cloned sources (libsigrok/, libsigrokdecode/, pulseview/) and the build prefix (sigrok/) are git-ignored — they're downloaded artifacts and re-created by make.

Local patches

patches/*.patch are applied to the fresh PulseView checkout on every build (install.sh runs git apply after cloning). Currently:

• pulseview-top-margin-clamp.patch — stops the first trace (D0) being clipped at, or pushed below, the top of the view when a stale saved v_offset is restored. Top-aligns the trace stack when it fits the window; otherwise honours the saved scroll position but clamps it so the first trace can never be clipped.
• pulseview-default-samplerate-count.patch — sets the default acquisition parameters to 16 MHz sample rate and 1k sample limit when a device is selected (the driver clamps the rate to its nearest supported value).

Notes

• Why build the sigrok libs from git rather than the Homebrew bottles? PulseView master uses decoder APIs (logic output channels, the Glib::DateTime header packet) that the released 0.5.x bottles predate. Building all three from git keeps the versions self-consistent.
• The fx2lafw firmware (needed for Saleae Logic clones to capture, not just enumerate) has no Homebrew formula; install.sh downloads the official blobs.
• First launch may hit Gatekeeper (the app is ad-hoc signed, not notarized): right-click → Open once.