The latest version of Mac OS X, code-named El Capitan, introduces a new feature called System Integrity Protection (SIP). SIP is designed to protect the core operating system files, as well as Apple-supplied applications, from tampering by malicious software. Unfortunately, as with most major OS changes, there is collateral damage in the form of application incompatibility.

NRAO’s classic data reduction software, AIPS, has been found to have one of these incompatibilities. AIPS is unable to start properly on systems running OSX 10.11 due to a change in how the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable is treated. This variable used to tell the system’s dynamic linker to “look here for additional libraries.” This behavior has security implications and is, therefore, restricted under 10.11.

The workaround is to create symbolic links in one of the standard library paths to point to the necessary shared libraries for AIPS. I have created a shell script that will attempt to apply the workaround to a machine with AIPS installed on 10.11. To use it, you must first start bash (required – sorry CSH users) and then source your AIPS LOGIN.SH script so that this repair script knows where to find your AIPS installation. Here’s what it looks like when repairing my test system:

loonquawl:~ jmalone$ . /usr/local/aips/LOGIN.SH
loonquawl:~ jmalone$ ./fix_aips_elcap.sh

This script will attempt to configure an existing AIPS installation
to work properly under OS X 10.11 "El Capitan". You will be prompted
for your password so that several commands can be run as root.

Press enter to continue...

Password:

Three shared libraries were linked to /usr/local/lib. Your
installation should now be fixed to operate under OS X 10.11.

loonquawl:~ jmalone$

You must run this script as a user with administrative privileges, but do NOT run it as root or under sudo.

Download the script.

UPDATES:

2015-12-07: Detect (and fix) broken or out-of-date XQuartz installations