Installing GW on macOS

For best performance, install GW as a desktop application (Intel or Apple silicone), or build from source. Use one of the installers below, or head over to the GitHub Releases page.

GW Intel x86_64 mac dmg installer

GW Apple arm64 mac dmg installer

GW can be copied to your bin directory to make it available as a command-line tool:

cp /Applications/gw.app/Contents/MacOS/gw /usr/local/bin

To install GW as a command-line tool, you have two primary options depending on your system architecture: using Conda or Homebrew. These instructions cover both Intel-based (x86_64) and Apple Silicon (M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M2, etc.) Macs.

Using Conda (Intel chips)

For users who prefer using Conda , GW can be installed from the Conda-Forge and Bioconda channels. This method works for Intel architectures only. Open your terminal and execute the following command:

conda install -c conda-forge -c bioconda gw

Using Homebrew (Intel + Apple chips)

For those who prefer Homebrew, GW has a Homebrew tap available. This method is compatible with both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs. Open your terminal and run:

brew install kcleal/homebrew-gw/gw

Building from source

Before building GW, you need to install the glfw3 and htslib libraries. These can be easily installed using Conda, and optionally, setting the CONDA_PREFIX environment variable is advised so gw can find the required libraries.

conda install -c conda-forge -c bioconda glfw htslib
export CONDA_PREFIX=~/miniconda3

Next clone the GW repository and build GW:

git clone https://github.com/kcleal/gw.git && cd gw
make prep && make -j8

Also, it is recommended to add GW to your bin directory:

cp gw /usr/local/bin

After installation, you can verify that GW has been installed correctly by running:

gw --version