diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ba90db0..d81d100 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -13,10 +13,12 @@ src/starfighter
 aclocal.m4
 autom4te.cache
 compile
+config.guess
 config.h
 config.h.in
 config.log
 config.status
+config.sub
 configure
 depcomp
 install-sh
@@ -28,6 +30,7 @@ config.h.in~
 src/Makefile
 src/Makefile.in
 src/.deps
+src/conf
 misc/Makefile
 misc/Makefile.in
 misc/.deps
diff --git a/README.txt b/README.txt
index d1c643e..89b93d6 100644
--- a/README.txt
+++ b/README.txt
@@ -136,6 +136,14 @@ terminal window:
 
 The arguments to autoreconf are technically optional, but recommended.
 
+The Python script build.py may fail on MacOS due to a missing msgfmt
+program. msgfmt is part of gettext and the version that ships on a Mac
+does not include the msgfmt utility. This can be solved by using gettext
+from Homebrew:
+
+    brew install gettext
+    export PATH="$(brew --prefix gettext)/bin:$PATH"
+
 If for some reason you need to remove all of these files from your
 directory, you can do so via the following command (requires Git):
 
@@ -143,4 +151,3 @@ directory, you can do so via the following command (requires Git):
 
 Note: automatically generated files are listed in .gitignore, so you
 generally don't actually have to do this.
-
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index de100ca..543da5b 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -20,6 +20,18 @@ AC_PROG_INSTALL
 STARFIGHTER_CPPFLAGS="-DVERSION=\\\"$PACKAGE_VERSION\\\" -Wall -Wformat-truncation=0"
 
 # Checks for libraries.
+
+# Detect MacOS
+AC_CANONICAL_HOST
+build_mac=no
+
+case $host_os in
+  darwin*) build_mac=yes
+  	;;
+esac
+
+AM_CONDITIONAL([BUILD_MACOS], [test "$build_mac" = "yes"])
+
 AC_SEARCH_LIBS([atanf], [m])
 
 PKG_CHECK_EXISTS([SDL2_mixer], [
diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
index c4f0431..27131a6 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@ else
 starfighter_CPPFLAGS = $(STARFIGHTER_CPPFLAGS) -DDATADIR=\"$(pkgdatadir)\"
 endif
 
+if BUILD_MACOS
+starfighter_LDFLAGS = -framework CoreFoundation
+endif
+
 starfighter_CFLAGS = $(SDL_CFLAGS) $(PANGO_CFLAGS)
 starfighter_LDADD = $(SDL_LIBS) $(PANGO_LIBS)
 
diff --git a/src/Starfighter.c b/src/Starfighter.c
index 30f3892..7e8d41a 100644
--- a/src/Starfighter.c
+++ b/src/Starfighter.c
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	char path[PATH_MAX];
 	if (CFURLGetFileSystemRepresentation(resourcesURL, TRUE, (UInt8 *)path, PATH_MAX))
 	{
-		chdir(path);
+		// chdir(path);
 		printf("Current directory \"%s\"\n", path);
 	}
 	else