macOS: Bundle format unrecognized, invalid, or unsuitable

hebasto commented at 2:34 pm on March 5, 2026: member

The master branch (@ 7e91060ec7736f86e65e77996a2312a8e80d3f09) on macOS Tahoe 26.2 (Apple M1):

0% cmake -B build -DBUILD_GUI=ON
1% cmake --build build -j 10
2% cmake --build build -t deploy
3% unzip build/bitcoin-macos-app.zip -d build/deploy
4% codesign --verify build/deploy/Bitcoin-Qt.app
5build/deploy/Bitcoin-Qt.app: bundle format unrecognized, invalid, or unsuitable
6In subcomponent: /Users/hebasto/git/bitcoin/build/deploy/Bitcoin-Qt.app/Contents/Frameworks/QtDBus.framework

0% brew info qt | head -1
1==> qt: stable 6.10.2 (bottled)

pinheadmz commented at 2:36 pm on March 5, 2026: member

Which version of Bitcoin?

fanquake commented at 2:37 pm on March 5, 2026: member

What are the steps to reproduce? What version of the code? What version of Qt in brew (if used)?

hebasto commented at 2:54 pm on March 5, 2026: member

The issue has been updated with more details.

pinheadmz commented at 3:01 pm on March 5, 2026: member

Does the cmake macOS deploy target do code signing? Like. What’s codesign –verify expected to do before a signed release?

hebasto commented at 3:08 pm on March 5, 2026: member

Does the cmake macOS deploy target do code signing?

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/fc39a4f5686fce42fd846583e3f6ba6d39b64ea1/contrib/macdeploy/macdeployqtplus#L490-L492

hebasto commented at 3:49 pm on March 5, 2026: member

Here is a culprit: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/fc39a4f5686fce42fd846583e3f6ba6d39b64ea1/contrib/macdeploy/macdeployqtplus#L502

where symlinks are not preserved.

fanquake commented at 3:58 pm on March 5, 2026: member

where symlinks are not preserved.

Should they be? Isn’t macdeployqtplus meant to create a standalone tarball (which is why the libraries are copied into the bundle in the first place). If not, then why copy the dylibs at all?

hebasto commented at 4:10 pm on March 5, 2026: member

where symlinks are not preserved.

Should they be? Isn’t macdeployqtplus meant to create a standalone tarball (which is why the libraries are copied into the bundle in the first place). If not, then why copy the dylibs at all?

Quoting from Placing content in a bundle:

The final structure looks like this:

0CoreWaffleVarnishing.framework/
1  CoreWaffleVarnishing -> Versions/Current/CoreWaffleVarnishing
2  Resources -> Versions/Current/Resources
3  Versions/
4    Current -> A
5    A/
6      CoreWaffleVarnishing
7      Resources/
8        Info.plist
9        … other resources …

fanquake added the label macOS on Mar 6, 2026

fanquake commented at 12:11 pm on March 10, 2026: member

Ok. So if this is broken, should it be on the v31 milestone? Looks like it might have been broken for a while, so maybe not? Opened #34787 to check the CI. Any fix here should likely add a similar test, to prevent silent breakage.

fanquake added this to the milestone 31.0 on Mar 10, 2026

fanquake commented at 5:33 pm on March 10, 2026: member

Now a (mostly untested) fix for this in #34787.

Sjors commented at 3:21 pm on March 11, 2026: member

Looks like it might have been broken for a while, so maybe not?

When building locally on macOS 26.3.1 (M4) and opening the build folder in Finder, Bitcoin-Qt.app works but bitcoin-macos-app.zip doesn’t. I’ve noticed that before, but I assumed the latter was only supposed to work in guix builds.

Starting from the terminal also fails:

0% build/Bitcoin-Qt\ 2.app/Contents/MacOS/Bitcoin-Qt
1qt.qpa.plugin: Could not find the Qt platform plugin "cocoa" in ""
2This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.
3
4zsh: abort      build/Bitcoin-Qt\ 2.app/Contents/MacOS/Bitcoin-Qt

I can also reproduce the “bundle format unrecognized” with the steps in the PR description. Will test the fix.

sedited closed this on Mar 13, 2026

pull[bot] referenced this in commit 390e7d61bd on Mar 13, 2026

macOS: Bundle format unrecognized, invalid, or unsuitable #34744