The "MakefileMac" files only exist in the *util directories. Those make files as well as the variables I set in the make files in the various actual program directories are built assuming GLFW headers are in /usr/local/include and the libraries are in /usr/local/lib. You will probably see two warning messages when compiling Controller.c++ in the SampleProgramSet directories: warning: gl.h and gl3.h are both included. Compiler will not invoke errors if using removed OpenGL functionality. warning: 'gluErrorString' is deprecated: first deprecated in OS X 10.9 These two messages can safely be ignored. To run on the mac, you will need to do once per login window: export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH:../lib