Fontbakery: ftxvalidator installation errors with INSTALL.md instructions on macOS 10.12.6

[chrissimpkins]

Observed behaviour

Unable to execute ftxvalidator using the installation instructions on the INSTALL.md page

Expected behaviour

Expected to install ftxvalidator with GUI installation tool or via command line instructions and perform macOS font validations.

Resources and exact process needed to replicate

macOS 10.12.6
ftxvalidator via Font_Tools_for_Xcode_9.dmg download from Apple developer site (download 7/5/18)

1) Attempted installation with the dmg GUI installer and received no errors during installation attempt. Opened iTerm2 and tried to execute the command ftxvalidator -h and received the following error message:

dyld: lazy symbol binding failed: Symbol not found: __ZN3ftx8FTStringC1EPKcz
  Referenced from: /usr/bin/ftxvalidator (which was built for Mac OS X 10.12)
  Expected in: /Library/Frameworks/FontToolbox.framework/Versions/A/FontToolbox

dyld: Symbol not found: __ZN3ftx8FTStringC1EPKcz
  Referenced from: /usr/bin/ftxvalidator (which was built for Mac OS X 10.12)
  Expected in: /Library/Frameworks/FontToolbox.framework/Versions/A/FontToolbox

[1]    4295 abort      ftxvalidator -h

2) Attempted install with command line instructions provided on your INSTALL.md documentation and received the following at the hdiutil attach osxfonttools.dmg ; step:

hdiutil: attach failed - No such file or directory

Thoughts? Seems that there is a problem with the installed FontToolbox.framework. I can verify that the FontToolbox framework is present on that path and was last modified 9/26/2011.

Related issue report: https://github.com/googlefonts/fontbakery/issues/1927

[davelab6]

Maybe needs a newer macOS?

[chrissimpkins]

Should have mentioned. I have XCode 9.2 installed

[chrissimpkins]

Maybe needs a newer macOS

Will give it a try on 10.13. Will let you know.

[chrissimpkins]

Install works with 10.13.5 + XCode v9.4.1 + GUI macOS FontTools installer...

The FontTools.framework is installed with the execution of the .dmg installer downloaded from the Apple developer site. On macOS 10.13.5 / XCode 9.4.1 I get an updated framework on the path /Library/Frameworks/FontToolbox.framework/Versions/A/FontToolbox c/w the one that is installed on my macOS 10.12 machine:

6.5M Sep  2  2017 FontToolbox

I suppose ok to close? Not sure that there is anything to do about it here. FYI.

[davelab6]

To close, let's update our docs to remind users to be on latest macOS

[chrissimpkins]

some of us are slower than others :)

[eliheuer]

@chrissimpkins I was on 10.11 on a 2008 Mac until this issue finally pushed me to upgrade. I suspect this will be a big pain point if fontbakery sees increased usage.

ftxvalidator install worked fine for me on 10.13.6 as well.

[chrissimpkins]

Thanks Eli. It seems that Apple updated the framework as of 10.13. My version of the framework in 10.12 was last changed in 2011...

[HinTak]

BTW, you can check this sort of issue if you have otools (should be part of Xcode):

you do something like this:

otools -L /usr/bin/ftxvalidator
otools -L /Library/Frameworks/FontToolbox.framework/Versions/A/FontToolbox

(sorry not actually in front of a box with those... the syntax might be different).

This command prints the actual library versions expected/embedded within the binaries concerned.

If you are armed with an OS X cross-compiling tool chain such as osxcross on Linux or windows, you can do the same with darwin-apple...-otools also, where ... is the tool chain version. I do that all the time with my cross-compiled FontVal OSX binaries to check and verify their dependencies.

[chrissimpkins]

https://github.com/googlefonts/fontbakery/pull/1997 adds the documentation recommended by @davelab6 in https://github.com/googlefonts/fontbakery/issues/1960#issuecomment-403151180