# darlinghq/darling

Darwin/macOS emulation layer for Linux

Repository: https://github.com/darlinghq/darling
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/darling
Homepage: http://www.darlinghq.org
Language: Objective-C
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Last push: 2026-08-22T17:45:35+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 87/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 63, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5015, "days_push": 11, "days_rel": 85, "gap_med": 110.0, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 13106, forks 522 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:02.177033+00:00)

## What it is
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
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: interpreter, middleware, gui
- domain: operating-systems, cross-platform, developer-tools
- platform: cross-platform
- tags: compatibility-layer, darwin, wine-like, mach-o, emulation, objective-c, cocoa, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- darlinghq/darling (main) score 87

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:02.177033+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:13:31.394724+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/darlinghq/darling (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:02.177033+00:00, sha 240248f58470)
  - homepage: http://www.darlinghq.org (fetched 2026-08-29T08:09:00.084123+00:00, sha fc260ab14ccc)
  - site_page: https://docs.darlinghq.org/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:09:00.096748+00:00, sha 19b3713b01a4)
  - site_page: https://docs.darlinghq.org/build-instructions.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:09:00.093733+00:00, sha 8dba204c620e)
  - site_page: https://docs.darlinghq.org/wsl-build.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:09:00.099405+00:00, sha 8cf9a440832b)
  - site_page: https://docs.darlinghq.org (fetched 2026-08-29T08:09:00.102876+00:00, sha 19b3713b01a4)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.