overby.me / darling-nix
this repo has no description
1
fork

Configure Feed

Select the types of activity you want to include in your feed.

darling-nix / plan /
at master 14 files
00-background.md
01-blockers.md
02-phase0-packaging.md
03-phase1-syscalls.md
04-phase2-sandbox.md
05-phase3-nix-install.md
06-phase4-building.md
07-phase5-daemon.md
08-phase6-ci.md
09-phase7-remote-builder.md
10-phase8-stretch.md
11-architecture.md
README.md
syscall-triage.md
README.md

PLAN: Making Darling Fully Capable of Running Nix#

Goal: Enable Darling (macOS compatibility layer for Linux) to run the Nix package manager reliably, so that Linux machines can build, test, and cross-compile x86_64-darwin Nix derivations — analogous to how Wine enables building and testing Windows binaries on Linux.

Plan Documents#

Document Description
Background & Current State Motivation, what works today, what doesn't
Known Blockers Detailed analysis of each blocking issue with fix strategies
Phase 0 — Nix Packaging + DevShell flake.nix, devShell, .envrc, NixOS module
Phase 1 — Core Syscall Fixes setattrlist, renameatx_np, utimensat, etc.
Phase 2 — Sandbox Stub sandbox-exec passthrough, sandbox API stubs
Phase 3 — Nix Installation Automated installer, verification, wrappers
Phase 4 — Derivation Building Trivial derivations → stdenv → binary substitution
Phase 5 — Nix Daemon Multi-user mode, Directory Services stubs, launchd
Phase 6 — CI & Testing NixOS VM tests, regression suite, GitHub Actions
Phase 7 — Remote Builder Darling as a nix.buildMachines target
Phase 8 — Stretch Goals aarch64-darwin, GUI testing, Hydra builder
Architecture System diagram, key technical decisions
Syscall Triage Tracking table for unimplemented/buggy syscalls

Priority & Effort Estimates#

Phase Priority Effort Depends On
Phase 0 — Nix packaging + devShell P0 S (1–2 weeks) —
Phase 1 — Syscall fixes P0 L (4–8 weeks) Phase 0
Phase 2 — Sandbox stub P0 S (1 week) —
Phase 3 — Nix installation P0 M (2–3 weeks) Phases 1, 2
Phase 4 — Derivation building P1 L (4–8 weeks) Phase 3
Phase 5 — Nix daemon P2 M (2–4 weeks) Phase 4
Phase 6 — CI/testing P1 M (2–3 weeks) Phase 3
Phase 7 — Remote builder P2 L (4–8 weeks) Phases 4, 5
Phase 8 — Stretch goals P3 XL (months) Phase 7

Estimated time to MVP (Phases 0–3): ~8–14 weeks of focused effort.

Estimated time to usable Darwin builder (through Phase 7): ~6–12 months.

How to Contribute#

  1. Pick a task from any phase document (earlier phases first).
  2. Check upstream Darling issues for existing work.
  3. Write a minimal reproducer — a small C program or shell command that demonstrates the bug inside darling shell.
  4. Fix it in the appropriate subsystem (darlingserver for syscalls, src/external/libc for wrappers, src/sandbox for sandbox, etc.).
  5. Add a test to the regression suite (see Phase 6 and tests/).
  6. Submit a PR to this repo, and consider upstreaming to darlinghq/darling.

Key Scripts & Tools#

File Description
scripts/run-tests.sh Unified test runner — compiles and runs all regression tests inside Darling (6 suites)
scripts/install-nix-in-darling.sh Automated Nix installer for Darling prefixes
scripts/verify-nix.sh Standalone health-check for a Nix installation inside Darling
scripts/build-trivial.sh Progressive derivation build tests (5 levels) for Phase 4
scripts/darling-nix Host-side wrapper to run Nix commands inside Darling
scripts/triage-syscalls.sh Automated syscall triage — discovers unimplemented syscalls during Nix ops
scripts/darling-build-hook Nix build hook — offloads x86_64-darwin builds to local Darling without SSH (Phase 7.4)
nix/darlingBuilderModule.nix NixOS module — services.darling-builder remote builder setup (Phase 7.5)
src/dirserv/dseditgroup Directory Services stub — group create/edit/delete/checkmember/read (Phase 5.1)
src/dirserv/sysadminctl Directory Services stub — addUser/deleteUser with UID/GID/home/shell (Phase 5.1)
src/dirserv/dscl Directory Services stub — read/list/create/delete/append/search (Phase 5.1)
tests/darling-smoke.nix NixOS VM smoke test — Darling boot, stubs, filesystem, no network (Phase 6.6)
tests/nix-in-darling.nix NixOS VM integration test — full Nix install + eval + build (Phase 6.1)
tests/darling-builder.nix NixOS VM test — remote builder service, sshd, SSH auth, restart resilience (Phase 7)
tests/nix/compatibility-matrix.sh Systematic package build test — 4 tiers, JSON reports, cross-run comparison (Phase 6.5)
tests/dirserv/test_dirserv.sh Shell-level tests for Directory Services stubs (60+ tests)
tests/sandbox/test_sandbox_api.c C-level regression tests for sandbox API stubs
tests/sandbox/test_sandbox_exec.sh Shell-level tests for the sandbox-exec stub binary
tests/syscall/test_renameatx_np.c renameatx_np regression tests (plain rename, SWAP, EXCL, invalid flags)
tests/syscall/test_setattrlist_flags.c setattrlist/getattrlist ATTR_CMN_FLAGS tests
tests/syscall/test_utimensat.c utimensat/setattrlistat timestamp handling tests
docs/darwin-builder.md User-facing setup guide — NixOS module, manual setup, shared store, troubleshooting, perf tuning (Phase 7.7)
templates/darling-builder/ Flake template — nix flake init -t .#darling-builder generates a ready-to-use NixOS config (Phase 7.7)

References#