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Fcitx5 macOS

Fcitx5 input method framework ported to macOS.

Please download installer and read documentation.

Build

Native build on Intel and Apple Silicon is supported.

This is NOT an Xcode project, but Xcode >= 26 is needed for Swift compiler.

Install dependencies

You may use nvm to install node, then

sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
brew install cmake ninja extra-cmake-modules gettext librsvg
./scripts/install-deps.sh
npm i -g pnpm
pnpm --prefix=fcitx5-webview i

Build with CMake

cmake -B build/$(uname -m) -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
cmake --build build/$(uname -m)
sudo cmake --install build/$(uname -m)

After the first time you execute cmake --install, you need to logout and login, then add Fcitx5 in System Setttings -> Keyboard -> Input Sources, Chinese Simplified.

For installations afterwards, clicking Restart in Fcitx5 menu suffices.

You can also use Cmd+Shift+B in VSCode to execute a task.

Code sign

Some features (e.g. notifications, core dump) require the app bundle be code-signed after installation:

./scripts/code-sign.sh

Debug

Console.app

• Check Include Info Messages and Include Debug Messages in Action menu.
• Put FcitxLog in Search.

Log

/tmp/Fcitx5.log contains all log in Console.app, plus those written to stderr by engines, e.g. rime.

lldb

SSH into the mac from another device, then

$ /usr/bin/lldb
(lldb) process attach --name Fcitx5

Core dump

sudo chmod 1777 /cores
sudo sysctl kern.coredump=1
ulimit -c unlimited  # only works for current shell
pkill Fcitx5; /Library/Input\ Methods/Fcitx5.app/Contents/MacOS/Fcitx5

When Fcitx5 crashes, it creates a ~10GB core file under /cores.

/usr/bin/lldb -c /cores/core.XXXX
(lldb) bt

Plugins

Fcitx5 only packages keyboard engine. To install other engines or tables, use the built-in Plugin Manager.

Translation

Swift sources

To update .strings files for each supported locale, run

cmake --build build/$(uname -m) --target GenerateStrings

This will, e.g., update assets/zh-Hans/Localizable.strings, and then the translator can work on it.

C++ sources

First, create assets/po/base.pot file:

cmake --build build/$(uname -m) --target pot

To add a new language, do

cd po && msginit -l <locale>

Then, use a PO file editor to translate strings.

Finally, to merge new strings into PO files, do

cd po && msgmerge -U <locale>.po base.pot

Credits

• fcitx5: LGPL-2.1-or-later
• fcitx5-android: LGPL-2.1-or-later
• squirrel: GPL-3.0-only
• swift-cmake-examples: Apache-2.0
• SwiftyJSON: MIT
• AlertToast: MIT
• pugixml: MIT
• webview: MIT