Tiger PPC Builds

Pre-compiled modern software for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger on PowerPC.

These are statically linked binaries cross-compiled from Linux, targeting powerpc-apple-darwin8 with the 10.4 universal SDK. Download, copy to your Tiger Mac, and run.

Available Packages

Package	Version	GCC 15 / ld64	GCC 7.5 / G5	GCC 7.5 / G3	Notes
GCC	15.2.0	Yes	Yes	--	C/C++ compiler with C++23. 137/137 tests.
Python	3.13.12	Yes	Yes	Yes	Full stdlib: sqlite3, ssl, ctypes, readline, lzma, bz2
OpenSSL	3.6.1	Yes	Yes	Yes	Static libraries + headers
curl	8.12.1	Yes	Yes	Yes	HTTPS via OpenSSL 3.6.1, TLS 1.2/1.3
git	2.48.1	Yes	Yes	Yes	Full git with HTTPS clone support
ffmpeg	7.1.1	Yes	Yes	Yes	ffmpeg + ffprobe

Which release should I download?

• GCC 15 / ld64 -- recommended: Latest builds compiled with GCC 15.2.0 using the fully local ld64 pipeline. Better optimized code, C++17/20/23 standards compliance. G3/G4/G5 compatible.
• GCC 7.5 / G3: Compiled with GCC 7.5.0. G3/G4/G5 compatible.
• GCC 7.5 / G5: Compiled with GCC 7.5.0. G5 only.

Compatibility

All GCC 15 / ld64 builds and GCC 7.5 / G3 builds run on any PowerPC Mac -- G3, G4, or G5. GCC 7.5 / G5 builds require a G5 processor.

OS: Mac OS X 10.4.x Tiger, any point release.

Installation

Download the tarball from Releases, then:

tar xzf <package>.tar.gz -C /

Most binaries install to /usr/local/bin. See individual release notes for details.

Package-specific notes

Python 3.13: Set PYTHONHOME=/usr/local before running.

GCC 15: Installs to /usr/local/bin/gcc and /usr/local/bin/g++. G3/G4/G5 compatible. Includes assembly fixup scripts for Tiger compatibility. Requires original Apple Developer Tools for the system assembler and linker. Important: /usr/bin/ld must be the original cctools ld, not ld64 -- see gcc15-fix/README.md.

curl: CA certificate bundle at /usr/local/etc/ssl/cert.pem.

git: Set GIT_EXEC_PATH=/usr/local/libexec/git-core and SSL_CERT_FILE=/usr/local/etc/ssl/cert.pem.

Test Results

All packages verified on a real iMac G5 -- PowerMac8,2, PPC G5 2GHz, 1GB RAM, Tiger 10.4.11. All tests passing across two test suites:

Package	Tests	Count	Result
GCC 15	C/C++ compile+run, STL, exceptions, C++17/20/23, optimization, linking, patterns	137	All pass
Python 3.13	Core language, 48 stdlib modules, file I/O, subprocess, threading, sqlite3, compression, ssl/HTTPS	105	All pass
git 2.48.1	init/add/commit/log, branch/merge/tag/stash/reset, cherry-pick/blame/archive, format-patch/apply/am, grep, HTTPS clone	58	All pass
ffmpeg 7.1.1	Audio gen, format conversion, filters, ffprobe, video gen, containers, metadata	46	All pass
curl 8.12.1	HTTP/HTTPS verbs, headers, auth, redirects, downloads, TLS verification, file:// protocol	29	All pass
OpenSSL 3.6.1	Tested via Python ssl and curl HTTPS: contexts, ciphers, TLS 1.2, cert verification	24	All pass

Test suites: run_309_tests.sh (package integration), test_gcc15_comprehensive.sh (137 GCC compiler tests)

How These Were Built

GCC 15 / ld64 builds -- recommended

Cross-compiled on Linux using a fully self-contained pipeline -- no Mac needed:

• GCC 15.2.0 cc1/cc1plus as native x86_64 ELF binaries
• ld64-97.17 -- Apple's linker, built for Linux
• cctools assembler for Mach-O object files
• fix_exc_ld64.py + ppc-darwin-fixup.py for assembly post-processing
• tiger-compat.h for 10.5+ API shims when building against the Tiger SDK
• Apple 10.4u SDK for headers and frameworks
• -mcpu=G3 targeting -- runs on any PPC Mac

The native GCC 15 compiler itself (gcc-15.2.0-g3) was also built with this pipeline -- GCC 15 compiling GCC 15 source into a PPC binary.

GCC 7.5 builds -- legacy

Cross-compiled on Linux using GCC 7.5.0 with SSH-proxied linking on a real Tiger Mac.

Cross-Compiler Toolchains

GCC 15 + ld64 v1.3 -- Standalone, No Mac Needed

Download PPC Tiger Cross-Compiler v1.3, GCC 15.2.0 + ld64 -- 66 MB

tar xf ppc-tiger-gcc15-xcompiler.tar.gz
export PATH="$PWD/ppc-tiger-xcompiler/bin:$PATH"

# C
ppc-ld64-gcc -O2 hello.c -o hello

# C++ with exceptions, STL, C++17
ppc-ld64-g++ -std=c++17 -O2 program.cpp -o program

Everything runs locally on x86_64 Linux. No Mac, no SSH. Includes GCC 15 cc1/cc1plus, ld64-97.17, cctools assembler, assembly fixup scripts, runtime libraries, tiger-compat.h, and the Mac OS X 10.4u SDK. Targets -mcpu=G3 by default -- binaries run on any PPC Mac. 137/137 comprehensive tests passing (C11, C++17/20/23, exceptions, STL, optimization, real-world patterns). Successfully builds a full Mozilla-based browser from source.

v1.3 changes: G3-safe runtime libraries (libgcc.a, libstdc++.a rebuilt with -mcpu=G3), assembler wrapper runs fix_exc_ld64.py on all input, libstdc++ cross-compiled from GCC 15 source for Tiger.

Requirements: x86_64 Linux, Python 3, ~250 MB disk space.

GCC 7.5 -- SSH-based

Download PPC Tiger Cross-Compiler, GCC 7.5.0 -- 86 MB

Compiles and assembles locally on x86_64 Linux. Final linking runs via SSH on your Tiger Mac.

ld64 Pipeline Source

The ld64-pipeline/ directory contains the source for the cross-compiler wrapper scripts:

File	Description
ppc-ld64-gcc	C compiler wrapper (GCC 15 cc1 + ld64)
ppc-ld64-g++	C++ compiler wrapper (GCC 15 cc1plus + ld64)
fix_exc_ld64.py	Exception handling assembly fixups for ld64
ppc-darwin-fixup.py	Darwin PPC assembly post-processing
tiger-compat.h	Tiger 10.4 SDK compatibility header (10.5+ API shims)

License

Each package retains its original license. This repo only distributes pre-compiled binaries.