Hacking OSX Catalina in < 10.15 Commands

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As I click on auto-update to celebrate the end of midterms, I accidentally realized that it no longer was the end. 

Where did my Conda envs go? Why is my Mujoco breaking? Why can't I compile my C program anymore? Is Spotify now a virus?

This post is where I'll list some of the (hopefully) temporary hacks to get your dependencies up and running again with the new OS X update, which prevents you from writing to the root directory and installing third party applications without manually clicking on icons.

Anaconda

You will have a directory on ~/Desktop called Relocated items. To restore your environments, 
  • Download the conda prefix replacement tool: 
curl -L  https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/misc/cpr-exec/cpr-0.1.1-osx-64.exe -o cpr 
&& chmod +x cpr
  •  Re-home your anaconda directory:
./cpr rehome ~/anaconda3
    • Re-run conda init to fix your shell environment:
    source ~/anaconda3/bin/activate
conda init
    • Optional: get ride of the base environment
    conda config --set auto_activate_base False

    Header Files

    For if Clang, or gcc, and Mujoco (which depends on building using wheel) breaks.
    • Note: you don't need the Xcode IDE, you can just get the latest version of Xcode CLI
    xcode-select --install
    • Run to find the locations of your header files:
    sudo find /Library -name stdio.h
                 Notice there are no header files in /usr/include as before.
    • Rename the SDK directories to use the previous Mojave OSX SDK as sysroot again (cd into /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/):
    mv MacOSX.sdk/ MacOSX_current.sdk
    cp MacOSX10.14.sdk/ MacOSX.sdk

    You may get some warnings about header files already existing, ignore them.

    Un-verified Downloads

    You may encounter the error: cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified. Usually you can just go to the app icon, right click, then Open, however this won't be convenient sometimes. So from the command line:
    • Allow apps downloaded from anywhere 
    sudo spctl --master-disable
    • Similarly, going to the Security & Privacy settings in System Preferences:
    check the Terminal App under Developer Tools in Privacy tab

    Closing Thoughts

    The solutions I have outlined above in this blog post definitely work to mirror the features and freedoms (to a certain extent) of the old OSX 10.14. As more updates and patches roll in for OSX 10.15, these hacks may no longer be necessary, but in the meantime, I hope this helped you get unblocked!

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