2.11 Installing Rattle on macOS

20250929

As of 30 September 2025 the Rattle version is 6.5.20.

To review changes in the latest release of Rattle visit the CHANGELOG.

Summary

See details below for more explanation.

To Install R for the first time, or to update R to the latest version:

  1. Visit https://cloud.r-project.org/
  2. Tap Download R for macOS
  3. Download R-n.n.n-arm64.pkg (Apple) or R-n.n.n-x86_64.pkg (Intel)
  4. Open the downloaded file to install R choosing all the defaults
  5. R will be installed to /usr/local/bin/R
  6. Start a Terminal and the type R the ENTER
  7. Run install.packages() as in Section 2.2

To then install Rattle or to update to the latest version using the self installing application:

  1. Download https://access.togaware.com/rattle-dev-macos-unsigned.dmg
  2. Open the dmg
  3. Drag the Rattle app to Applications
  4. Open Rattle from the Launchpad

Before Installing Rattle

Before you install Rattle please be sure that R is installed, as detailed in Section 2.1 and be sure to install the required R packages, as detailed in Section 2.2. Please also install XQuartz.

You are then ready to install Rattle.

Installing Rattle Itself

There are two options for installing Rattle on macOS:

  • dmg package file;
  • zip archive.

A homebrew option is in progress as in Section 2.12;

You can also download the dmg pacakge or zip archive from the command line if you have curl installed:

curl https://access.togaware.com/rattle-dev-macos.zip -o rattle-dev-macos-unsigned.dmg
curl https://access.togaware.com/rattle-dev-macos.zip -o rattle-dev-macos.zip

You can the open either to run Rattle. For the dmg version, after opening the downloaded file drag rattle into the Applications folder

Or else open a terminal after downloading the zip archive and unzip it locally:

unzip rattle-dev-macos.zip -d rattle

Then run the app:

open rattle/rattle.app

Troubleshooting

“rattle.app” Not Opened

The package is currently unsigned (in progress) so the OS reports that the app could not be verified and so it is not opened. On older macOS, tap the Security link (Settings) that pops up to allow rattle to be run. For newer versions of macOS you will see a popup with a warning but no solutions offered there. Tap Done, then open System Settings, choose Privacy & Security, then scroll down to the bottom to tap on Open Anyway for rattle.

On some macOS versions, the following command also works to give permission to the app.

If you have downloaded the dmg distribution and copied the app to the Applications folder within the distribution, then you can do the following:

xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/rattle.app
open /Applications/rattle.app

If you have unzipped the downloaded zip distribution:

xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine rattle/rattle.app
open rattle/rattle.app

You only need to give permissions once, but you will need to do this each time you install a new version of Rattle.

failed to load Cairo DLL

If you see this message then be sure to install XQuartz to be able to utilise the Cairo graphics library for vector based (i.e., infinite resolution) graphics as used by Rattle.

Missing Packages


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