1. Install Bitcoin-Qt Client
1) Download Mac version from the download page of official website.
2) Double click the dmg file and drag into /Application folder.
2. Configuration file
Before you start it, you need to configure some options such as testnet, rpcuser, rpcpassword.
1) Create the data content directory for Bitcoin if it doesn’t exist.
mkdir -p ~/Library/Application\ Support/Bitcoin
2) Add bitcoin.conf in the data content directory. Here is a sample bitcoin configuration file:
testnet=1
server=1
rpcuser=YOUR_RPC_USER
rpcpassword=YOUR_RPC_PASSWORD
rpctimeout=30
rpcport=8332
For more available options in bitcoin.conf, check it here
3. Run Bitcoin-Qt
To start Bitcoin-Qt, you only need to click the application icon in /Applications. If you have enabled testnet option in bitcoin.conf, the application icon should be green instead of normal orange color. When Bitcoin-Qt is running, you can see a testnet3 folder in ~/Library/Application\ Support/Bitcoin, it is the same structure as its parent directory(for the real bitcoin network):
├── blocks
├── chainstate
├── database
├── db.log
├── debug.log
├── peers.dat
└── wallet.dat
For the details of this structure, check it here.
All transaction logs can be seen in debug.log. When you received bitcoins, you will get something like this:
2014-04-20 03:11:05 receive version message: /Satoshi:0.9.1/: version 70002, blocks=225797, us=221.232.86.145:18535, them=23.239.17.57:18333, peer=23.239.17.57:18333
2014-04-20 03:11:05 Added time data, samples 13, offset -1 (+0 minutes)
2014-04-20 03:11:05 nTimeOffset = +0 (+0 minutes)
2014-04-20 03:11:48 AddToWallet eb204331b354e0977e337b24fb0b145c9935776bf985ab2ae283742a7f3839b7 new
4. Retrieve testnet bitcoins
1) To retrieve testnet bitcoins, you need to get a receiving address first with Bitcoin-Qt.
2) Go to a testnet faucet, enter the receiving address and bitcoin amount, then summit the form.
3) After the transaction is finished, you can check it here with the receiving address.
5. Check
In general, it will spend a few minutes to synchronize. After the testnet blockchain is downloaded, you can see it in your balance.
You can also check it with command line by using JSON RPC:
curl --user YOUR_RPC_USER --data-binary '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id":"curltest", "method": "getinfo", "params": [] }' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:8332/
Enter host password for user 'root':
{"result":{"version":90100,"protocolversion":70002,"walletversion":60000,"balance":37.38825610,"blocks":225803,"timeoffset":-1,"connections":12,"proxy":"","difficulty":1.00000000,"testnet":true,"keypoololdest":1397888847,"keypoolsize":101,"paytxfee":0.00000000,"errors":""},"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
References: