Unable to execute custom build of audacity

Hello, I am not able to run a custom build of audacity.

I have followed the instructions in this file: audacity/BUILDING.md at master · audacity/audacity · GitHub. I have completed the build and install steps successfully.

I execute my custom build with this command: /usr/local/audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/audacity. This throws the following error:

➜  audacity git:(master) ✗ /usr/local/audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/audacity 
dyld[83706]: Library not loaded: /lib/libexpat.1.dylib
  Referenced from: <7D61A1B3-B2BE-364A-9D5F-3F1B62FB5DCD> /usr/local/audacity.app/Contents/Frameworks/libwx_baseu_xml-3.1.dylib
  Reason: tried: '/lib/libexpat.1.dylib' (no such file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/lib/libexpat.1.dylib' (no such file), '/lib/libexpat.1.dylib' (no such file)
[1]    83706 abort      /usr/local/audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/audacity

This is my environment. I’m on MacOS 15

➜  audacity git:(master) ✗ uname -a
Darwin <username> 24.2.0 Darwin Kernel Version 24.2.0: Fri Dec  6 19:01:59 PST 2024; root:xnu-11215.61.5~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T6000 arm64

I’m at the tip of master branch at this commit: d1f7b507a0d919dcd9d58588ac85ce6dbea527e5. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the code. I must be doing something wrong in the build step.

Furthermore, otool does not list libexpat.1.dylib in the list of shared libraries.

➜  audacity git:(master) ✗ otool -L /usr/local/audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/audacity | grep "libexpat"
	@rpath/libexpat.1.8.10.dylib (compatibility version 10.0.0, current version 10.10.0)

The error message in the above message is perplexing because I don’t have /lib/ folder or the libexpat.1.dylib anywhere in my computer.

It appears that the wxwidgets dependency uses an incorrect absolute path in MacOS. I was able to fix this issue by using install_name_tool to rectify this error.

However, I’m still not able to record audio on a new Audacity project. The UI does not show any variation in frequency/amplitude on a new project. The Audacity log file has several errors titled:
| PlaybackController::isLoopEnabled | Not implemented!!,
| App::run | error: qrc:/qml/FirstLaunchSetup/PlaybackPage.qml:27:1: module "MuseScore.GraphicalEffects" is not installed,
several instances of : | Qt | qrc:/qml/FirstLaunchSetup/FirstLaunchSetupDialog.qml:218: TypeError: Cannot call method 'resetFocus' of null

Any suggestions are much appreciated.
error_log.txt (17.7 KB)

Master is not ready to be used yet. Please use release-3.7.1 instead if you want to do something with it. The build instructions there are both more complete and very different to master.