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Nix on macOS

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“There are still many issues with the Darwin platform but most of it is quite usable.” — http://yves.gnu-darwin.org192 Servers

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20 Feb 2026
@michael:zortek.cloudMichael joined the room.03:22:02
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@eveeifyeve:matrix.orgeveeifyeveI have a feeling this can be fixed from nix and upstream, so I am posting it here: https://github.com/withastro/astro/issues/13083#issuecomment-393325022711:37:22
@matthewahiles:matrix.orgMatthew Hilesthis doesn't seem to be mac specific, why post it here?13:13:59
@xored:xored.lolxoredIs actool on apple-sdk? element-desktop is failing to build because of it but I’m not sure if it’s something on my end20:36:26
@reckenrode:matrix.orgRandy EckenrodeIt probably requires Xcode.20:37:27
@xored:xored.lolxoredshoudn't matter what I have on the host, isn't build sandboxed? regardless, I do have xcode ```❯ actool --version <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>com.apple.actool.version</key> <dict> <key>bundle-version</key> <string>24506</string> <key>short-bundle-version</key> <string>26.2</string> </dict> </dict> </plist>``` <- from apple terminal20:39:45
@xored:xored.lolxored *

shoudn't matter what I have on the host, isn't build sandboxed? regardless, I do have xcode

❯ actool --version
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>com.apple.actool.version</key>
	<dict>
		<key>bundle-version</key>
		<string>24506</string>
		<key>short-bundle-version</key>
		<string>26.2</string>
	</dict>
</dict>
</plist>
20:40:06
@xored:xored.lolxored^ from apple terminal 20:40:11
@toonn:matrix.orgtoonn xored: But Nixpkgs doesn't build with Xcode. 20:50:59
@xored:xored.lolxoredright, so I'm guessing the package is broken? or upstream? coz it's trying to call actool and failing 20:51:44
@xored:xored.lolxoredthat's why I asked if this was something that was part of apple-sdk because i've seen that used beforee20:52:16
@xored:xored.lolxored* that's why I asked if this was something that was part of apple-sdk because i've seen that used before20:52:17
@toonn:matrix.orgtoonn If actool is provided by Xcode then something requiring it can't be built by Nixpkgs. 20:52:47
@xored:xored.lolxoredthat makes perfect sense20:53:20
@xored:xored.lolxoredso it's not on my end :(20:53:35
21 Feb 2026
@reckenrode:matrix.orgRandy Eckenrodehttps://www.phoronix.com/news/KosmicKrisp-202601:25:04
@reckenrode:matrix.orgRandy EckenrodeGeometry shaders in the next 3~6 months? They’ll pass MoltenVK soon at this rate.01:25:27
@msgilligan:matrix.orgmsgilligan

I received a new Mac Mini M4 today and am looking to do a complete fresh install of macOS, Nix, and all the various Nix tools that I use. I have the following in mind:

  1. Install Nix with the experimental/beta installer.
  2. Install (standalone) Home Manager (existing, shared cross-platform configuration)
  3. Install Nix Darwin
  4. Setup a Linux Builder with Nix Darwin
  5. Setup a UTM VM with NixOS w/GUI
04:12:01
@msgilligan:matrix.orgmsgilligan *

I received a new Mac Mini M4 today and am looking to do a complete fresh install of macOS, Nix, and all the various Nix tools that I use. I have the following in mind:

  1. Install Nix with the experimental/beta installer.
  2. Install (standalone) Home Manager (existing, shared cross-platform configuration)
  3. Install Nix Darwin
  4. Setup a Linux Builder with Nix Darwin
  5. Setup a UTM VM with NixOS w/GUI

(Oops, I'm still editing this didn't mean to submit, give me a few minutes to finish...)

04:12:45
@msgilligan:matrix.orgmsgilligan *

I received a new Mac Mini M4 today and am looking to do a complete fresh install of macOS, Nix, and all the various Nix tools that I use. I have the following in mind:

  1. Install Nix with the experimental/beta installer.
  2. Install (standalone) Home Manager (existing, shared cross-platform configuration)
  3. Install Nix Darwin
  4. Setup a Linux Builder with Nix Darwin
  5. Setup a UTM VM with NixOS w/GUI
  6. Install NixOS in headless VMs using Lima and https://github.com/nixos-lima
  7. Have macOS VMs (generally with Nix Darwin) running under UTM for testing, etc.

And I want all of this to be as declarative and reproducible as possible. (Should be weeks of fun!)

Can anyone recommend a guide or even a blog post that presents a big-picture approach to doing this "all-of-the-above" Nix on Mac setup?

04:16:30
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22 Feb 2026
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23 Feb 2026
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@samasaur:matrix.orgsamasaur

do we have a standard recommendation for how to handle meta.mainProgram/nix run compatibility for packages that produce an app bundle? I've seen:

  1. symlinking the binary to $out/bin via something like ln -s $out/{Applications/${name}.app/Contents/MacOS/${name},bin/}
  2. using makeBinaryWrapper to do something similar
  3. putting a wrapper script in $out/bin that calls open -na on the produced application bundle

Is one of these unambiguously "better" than the others? I recall the symlink approach having issues (and I can find comments in nixpkgs and on PRs to that extent), so makeBinaryWrapper seems better than that for not a lot of overhead. I vaguely recall some cases where even that approach doesn't work (properly), and see some examples in nixpkgs (libreoffice, mongodb-compass, beekeeper-studio, jetbrains, tigervnc) using open instead, but that has some other behavioral differences (such as exiting in the terminal immediately, unless we standardize on using -W). Maybe there isn't a universal right answer, but I feel like it'd be helpful to have docs either way

06:29:38

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