The latest release 4.0 should work on all Mac OS versions greater or equal to 10.11. The installation requires a couple of steps (of which you have maybe done some already for other reasons):

• Install the xcode command line tools
• (for some versions) install SDK headers
• install Homebrew
• install Perlbrew
• install some dependencies using Homebrew
• install some dependencies using Perlbrew/cpanm
• install a python dependence
• download and install polymake

For all steps you need an open Terminal. You can find the Terminal app in the Subfolder Utilities of Applications.

In the terminal type

xcode-select --install

Either this tells you that your command line tools are installed or opens a small window that asks you whether you want to install them. Confirm. It also offers to install the full XCode IDE. This is not neccessary and not recommended (you then need to install the command line tools on top from whithin XCode).

On MacOS 10.14 you may need an additional step. Run

ls /System/Library/Perl/5.18/darwin-thread-multi-2level/CORE/EXTERN.h

If that returns a File not found error then run

sudo installer -pkg /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Packages/macOS_SDK_headers_for_macOS_10.14.pkg -allowUntrusted -target /

This will ask for your passoword. You need to be an administrator of your Mac to run this command. If this fails, then run

softwareupdate -l
softwareupdate -i "Command Line Tools (macOS Mojave version 10.14) for Xcode-10.3"

where you may need to replace the string in the second command to the one that looks similar in the return of the first command. Then repeat the previous installer command. It should now succeed.

Installation instructions are here. In most cases it should be sufficient to copy and execute the first code line on that page into your terminal. Make sure you copy the whole line!

Installation instructions are here. In most cases it should be sufficient to copy and execute the first code line on that page into your terminal. Make sure you copy the whole line!

Now add some paths to your Terminal config and reload the config:

echo "export PERL5LIB=$HOME/perl5/lib/perl5:$HOME/perl5${PERL5LIB+:$PERL5LIB}" >> $HOME/.bash_profile
echo "source ~/perl5/perlbrew/etc/bashrc" >> $HOME/.bash_profile
echo 'export ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64"' >> $HOME/.bash_profile
source $HOME/.bash_profile

Run the collowing lines in your terminal:

brew install gmp
brew install mpfr
brew install boost
brew install readline
brew install ppl
brew install python3
brew install ninja
brew install ccache

Run the following lines in your terminal:

yes N | perlbrew install-cpanm
cpanm --local-lib=~/perl5 local::lib && eval $(perl -I ~/perl5/lib/perl5/ -Mlocal::lib)
brew link --force readline
cpanm Term::ReadLine::Gnu
brew unlink readline
cpanm SVG
cpanm Moo
cpanm ZEFRAM/Module-Runtime-0.013.tar.gz
cpanm MongoDB
cpanm JSON
cpanm install Net::SSLeay

pip3 install jupyter --user

You find the sources here. Get the source tarball from the Linux section of that page. Download to Downloads.

in the terminal do

cd Downloads
tar -tvfj polymake-4.0.tar.bz2

cd ~/Downloads/polymake-4.0
./configure --without-java
ninja -C build/Opt -j2 install

Here is also a script that does almost all these steps and allows some configuration.