# Alternatives for macOS testing?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/alternatives-for-macos-testing/22306>\
**Category:** Tooling\
**Created:** [March 25, 2019, 3:19pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/alternatives-for-macos-testing/22306 "2019-03-25T15:19:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lobingera](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lobingera/32/211_2.png) [@lobingera](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lobingera)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:19pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/alternatives-for-macos-testing/22306/1 "2019-03-25T15:19:13Z")

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All of us (i guess) are using travis-ci for macOS testing of packages. Are there known alternatives? I’m looking for something that enables me (a non-macOS user) to debug something.

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:26pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/alternatives-for-macos-testing/22306/2 "2019-03-25T15:26:54Z")

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Can you be more specific what and how you want to debug, and how Travis-CI is inadequate for the purpose? Specifically,

1. Given the constraints of a CI setup, you can emit information to stdout (`@info` etc) that should aid debugging.

2. Functionality using native Julia and standard Unix features (eg filesystem, shell) is fairly equivalent on Linux and OS X, so for local debugging Linux is an OK substitute. That said, there are obvious exceptions (eg binary dependencies).

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**Author:** ![lobingera](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lobingera/32/211_2.png) [@lobingera](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lobingera)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 12:40pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/alternatives-for-macos-testing/22306/3 "2019-03-26T12:40:50Z")

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> [@Tamas\_Papp](#):
>
> obvious exceptions (eg binary dependencies).

That’s what i’m looking for. Command line access would be nice and the possibility to run julia itself in a debugger to get full stacktrace in case of signals.

Writing this: What i’d actually need is a ssh into a macOS … (as a service)

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 12:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/alternatives-for-macos-testing/22306/4 "2019-03-26T12:46:40Z")

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AFAIK Travis allows ssh connections in debug mode:

> **[Travis CI Documentation](https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/running-build-in-debug-mode/)**
>
> Running Build in Debug Mode

but I am not sure if that’s available for OS X.

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**Author:** ![lobingera](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lobingera/32/211_2.png) [@lobingera](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lobingera)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 12:54pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/alternatives-for-macos-testing/22306/5 "2019-03-26T12:54:31Z")

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I used the ssh into travis debug builds (and the RDP into appveyor …). But i’d like to see alternatives.

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**Author:** ![dpo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dpo/32/3335_2.png) [@dpo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dpo)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 1:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/alternatives-for-macos-testing/22306/6 "2019-03-26T13:12:41Z")

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In addition to Travis, I sometimes use [CircleCI](https://circleci.com), which supports Linux and macOS, and allows you to ssh into the VM to debug. Example script: [https://github.com/JuliaSmoothOptimizers/MUMPS.jl/blob/master/.circleci/config.yml](https://github.com/JuliaSmoothOptimizers/MUMPS.jl/blob/master/.circleci/config.yml).