darlinghq/darling
Darwin/macOS emulation layer for Linux observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
87/100
- Activity 99
- Release rhythm 63
- Longevity 100
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-02. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 110.0
- age_days: 5015
- days_rel: 85
- days_push: 11
- n_releases_24m: 3
Adoption not part of the score
13106 stars · 522 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded
Darling is a translation/compatibility layer that lets users run macOS and Darwin software directly on Linux without a virtual machine, similar to how Wine runs Windows software. It provides a Mach-O binary loader, a userspace kernel server implementing Mach IPC, POSIX, and Darwin syscalls, and reimplementations of Apple frameworks like Foundation, AppKit, and CoreFoundation.
Use cases
- run macOS command-line tools on Linux
- execute Darwin binaries without a macOS machine or VM
- test Objective-C/Cocoa software on a Linux desktop
- run simple macOS GUI apps on Linux
- create isolated macOS-like environments (DPREFIXes) on Linux
- run macOS software inside WSL2 on Windows
When to choose
- you need to run macOS/Darwin CLI tools or apps natively on Linux without a VM
- you want a Wine-like experience but for macOS software
- you're developing or testing Darwin-targeted code on Linux
- you want free, open-source macOS compatibility under GPL
When to avoid
- you need full, reliable GUI app support — it's still experimental
- you need to run iOS apps — only a long-term goal
- you're on a 32-bit system, WSL1, or unsupported filesystems like NFS for prefixes
- you need production-grade macOS compatibility with commercial support
Facets
application · maturity active
interpreter middleware gui operating-systems cross-platform developer-tools cross-platform compatibility-layer darwin wine-like mach-o emulation objective-c cocoa linux macos
6 sources
- readme: https://github.com/darlinghq/darling · fetched 2026-08-28 · 240248f58470
- homepage: http://www.darlinghq.org · fetched 2026-08-29 · fc260ab14ccc
- site_page: https://docs.darlinghq.org/ · fetched 2026-08-29 · 19b3713b01a4
- site_page: https://docs.darlinghq.org/build-instructions.html · fetched 2026-08-29 · 8dba204c620e
- site_page: https://docs.darlinghq.org/wsl-build.html · fetched 2026-08-29 · 8cf9a440832b
- site_page: https://docs.darlinghq.org · fetched 2026-08-29 · 19b3713b01a4
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| darlinghq/darling | main | 87 |
For agents
markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="darlinghq/darling")
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem