How can Kafka be started on a Mac when the classpath is empty? Should the project be built first by executing the command './gradlew jar -PscalaVersion=2.13.10'?

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To start Kafka on a Mac when the classpath is empty, you can use the following command:

./bin/kafka-server-start.sh config/server.properties

This assumes that you have already downloaded the Kafka binary files and have set the KAFKA_HOME environment variable to the Kafka installation directory.

No, you do not need to build the project before starting Kafka. The ./gradlew jar -PscalaVersion=2.13.10 command is used to build the Kafka project, which generates the Kafka jar files that can be included in your own Java applications. It is not necessary for running Kafka itself.