What to try
Here are some things you may want to try after installing Darling.
Print "Hello World"
See if Darling can print the famous greeting:
Darling [~]$ echo Hello World
Hello World
It works!
Run uname
uname is a standard Unix command to get the name (and optionally the version)
of the core OS. On Linux distributions, it prints "Linux":
uname
Linux
But Darling emulates a complete Darwin environment, so running uname results in "Darwin":
Darling [~]$ uname
Darwin
Run sw_vers
sw_vers (for "software version") is a Darwin command that prints the
user-facing name, version and code name (such as "El Capitan") of the OS:
Darling [~]$ sw_vers
ProductName: Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.14
BuildVersion: Darling
Explore the file system
Explore the file system Darling presents to Darwin programs, e.g.:
Darling [~]$ ls -l /
...
Darling [~]$ ls /System/Library
Caches Frameworks OpenSSL ...
Darling [~]$ ls /usr/lib
...
Darling [~]$ ls -l /Volumes
...
Inspect the Mach-O binaries
Darling ships with tools like nm and otool that let you inspect Mach-O
binaries, ones that make up Darling and any third-party ones:
Darling [~]$ nm /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib
...
Darling [~]$ otool -L /bin/bash
/bin/bash:
/usr/lib/libncurses.5.4.dylib (compatibility version 5.4.0, current version 5.4.0)
/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1238.0.0)
Explore process memory layout
While Darling emulates a complete Darwin system, it's still powered by Linux underneath. Sometimes,
this may prove useful. For example, you can use Linux's /proc pseudo-filesystem to explore the
running processes. Let's use cat to explore its own process memory layout:
Darling [~]$ cat /proc/self/maps
...
7ffff7ffb000-7ffff7ffd000 rwxp 00000000 fe:01 20482 /home/user/.darling/bin/cat
7ffff7ffd000-7ffff7ffe000 rw-p 00002000 fe:01 20482 /home/user/.darling/bin/cat
7ffff7ffe000-7ffff7fff000 r--p 00003000 fe:01 20482 /home/user/.darling/bin/cat
7ffff7fff000-7ffff80f3000 rwxp 00182000 fe:01 60690 /home/user/.darling/usr/lib/dyld
7ffff80f3000-7ffff80fc000 rw-p 00276000 fe:01 60690 /home/user/.darling/usr/lib/dyld
7ffff80fc000-7ffff8136000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
7ffff8136000-7ffff81d6000 r--p 0027f000 fe:01 60690 /home/user/.darling/usr/lib/dyld
7fffffdde000-7fffffdff000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [stack]
7fffffe00000-7fffffe01000 r--s 00000000 00:0e 8761 anon_inode:[commpage]
Check out the mounts
Darling runs in a mount namespace that's separate from the host. You can use
host's native mount tool to inspect it:
Darling [~]$ /Volumes/SystemRoot/usr/bin/mount | column -t
/Volumes/SystemRoot/dev/sda3 on /Volumes/SystemRoot type ext4 (rw,relatime,seclabel)
overlay on / type overlay (rw,relatime,seclabel,lowerdir=/usr/local/libexec/darling,upperdir=/home/user/.darling,workdir=/home/user/.darling.workdir)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,relatime)
<...>
Notice that not only can you simply run a native ELF executable installed on the
host, you can also pipe its output directly into a Darwin command (like column
in this case).
Alternatively, you can read the same info from the /proc pseudo-filesystem:
Darling [~]$ column -t /proc/self/mounts
<...>
List running processes
Darling emulates the BSD sysctls that are needed for ps to work:
Darling [~]$ ps aux
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TT STAT STARTED TIME COMMAND
user 32 0.0 0.4 4229972 13016 ?? ? 1Jan70 0:00.05 ps aux
user 5 0.0 0.5 4239500 15536 ?? ? 1Jan70 0:00.22 /bin/launchctl bootstrap -S System
user 6 0.0 0.4 4229916 11504 ?? ? 1Jan70 0:00.09 /usr/libexec/shellspawn
user 7 0.0 0.6 4565228 17308 ?? ? 1Jan70 0:00.14 /usr/sbin/syslogd
user 8 0.0 0.6 4407876 18936 ?? ? 1Jan70 0:00.15 /usr/sbin/notifyd
user 29 0.0 0.2 4229948 7584 ?? ?N 1Jan70 0:00.03 /usr/libexec/shellspawn
user 30 0.0 0.5 4231736 14268 ?? ? 1Jan70 0:00.11 /bin/bash
user 1 0.0 0.5 4256056 15484 ?? ? 1Jan70 0:00.25 launchd
Read the manual
Darling ships with many man pages you can read:
Darling [~]$ man dyld
Run a script
Like Darwin, Darling ships with a build of Python, Ruby and Perl. You can try running a script or exploring them interactively.
Darling [~]$ python
Python 2.7.10 (default, Sep 8 2018, 13:32:07)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Clang 6.0.1 (tags/RELEASE_601/final)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import sys
>>> sys.platform
'darwin'
Trace a process
Use our xtrace tool to trace the emulated Darwin syscalls a process makes:
Darling [~]$ arch
i386
Darling [~]$ xtrace arch
<...>
[321] mach_timebase_info_trap() -> numer = 1, denom = 1
[321] issetugid() -> 0
[321] host_self_trap() -> port right 2563
[321] mach_msg_trap(0x7fffffdff270, MACH_SEND_MSG|MACH_RCV_MSG, 40, 320, port 1543, 0, port 0)
[321] {remote = copy send 2563, local = make send-once 1543, id = 200}, 16 bytes of inline data
[321] mach_host::host_info(copy send 2563, 1, 12)
[321] mach_msg_trap() -> KERN_SUCCESS
[321] {local = move send-once 1543, id = 300}, 64 bytes of inline data
[321] mach_host::host_info() -> [8, 8, 0, 0, 3104465855, 4160607681, 4160604077, 0, 4292867120, 4292867064, 4151031935, 3160657432], 12
[321] _kernelrpc_mach_port_deallocate_trap(task 259, port name 2563) -> KERN_SUCCESS
[321] ioctl(0, 1074030202, 0x7fffffdff3d4) -> 0
[321] fstat64(1, 0x7fffffdfef80) -> 0
[321] ioctl(1, 1074030202, 0x7fffffdfefd4) -> 0
[321] write_nocancel(1, 0x7f823680a400, 5)i386
-> 5
[321] exit(0)
Control running services
Use launchctl tool to control launchd:
Darling [~]$ launchctl list
PID Status Label
323 - 0x7ffea3407da0.anonymous.launchctl
49 - 0x7ffea3406d50.anonymous.shellspawn
50 - 0x7ffea3406a20.anonymous.bash
39 - 0x7ffea3406350.anonymous.shellspawn
40 - 0x7ffea3405fd0.anonymous.bash
- 0 com.apple.periodic-monthly
- 0 com.apple.var-db-dslocal-backup
31 - com.apple.aslmanager
- 0 com.apple.newsyslog
- 0 com.apple.periodic-daily
- 0 com.apple.securityd
19 - com.apple.memberd
23 - com.apple.notifyd
20 - org.darlinghq.iokitd
- 0 com.apple.periodic-weekly
21 - org.darlinghq.shellspawn
22 - com.apple.syslogd
- 0 com.apple.launchctl.System
Darling [~]$ sudo launchctl bstree
System/
A org.darlinghq.iokitd
A com.apple.system.logger
D com.apple.activity_tracing.cache-delete
D com.apple.SecurityServer
A com.apple.aslmanager
A com.apple.system.notification_center
A com.apple.PowerManagement.control
com.apple.xpc.system (XPC Singleton Domain)/
Read man launchctl for more information of other commands launchctl has.
Fetch a webpage
See if networking works as it should:
Darling [~]$ curl http://example.org
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Example Domain</title>
<...>
Try using sudo
Just like the real Mac OS X may, Darling allows you to get root privileges without having to enter any password, except in our case it's a feature:
Darling [~]$ whoami
user
Darling [~]$ sudo whoami
root
Of course, our sudo command only gives the program the impression it's
running as root; in reality, it still runs with privileges of your user. Some
programs explicitly check that they're running as root, so you can use our
sudo to convince them to run.
Use a package manager
Download and install the Rudix Package Manager:
Note: Not currently working due to lack of TLS support.
Darling [~]$ curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rudix-mac/rpm/2015.10.20/rudix.py | sudo python - install rudix
Now you can install arbitrary packages using the rudix command:
Darling [~]$ sudo rudix install wget mc
Install Homebrew
macOS's de-facto package manager, Homebrew, installs and works under Darling (albeit with issues with certain formulas).
Darling [~]$ /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Now you can install packages just like you would on a real macOS installation:
Darling [~]$ brew install wget
Try running Midnight Commander
If you've installed Midnight Commander (mc package in Rudix), launch it to see
if it runs smoothly:
Darling [~]$ mc
Manually install a package
You can also try installing a .pkg file manually using the installer
command:
Darling [~]$ installer -pkg mc-4.8.7-0.pkg -target /
Unlike macOS, Darling also ships with an uninstaller command which you can use
to easily uninstall packages.
Attach disk images
Darling ships with an implementation of hdiutil, a tool that allows you to
attach and detach DMG disk images:
Darling [~]$ hdiutil attach Downloads/SomeApp.dmg
/Volumes/SomeApp
Darling [~]$ ls /Volumes/SomeApp
SomeApp.app <...>
Darling [~]$ cp -r /Volumes/SomeApp/SomeApp.app /Applications/
Darling [~]$ hdiutil detach /Volumes/SomeApp
Check out user defaults
macOS software uses the so-called "user defaults" system to store preferences.
You can access it using the defaults tool:
Darling [~]$ defaults read
For more information about using defaults, read the manual:
Darling [~]$ man defaults
Run neofetch
Get the neofetch.sh script from its homepage and run it:
Darling [~]$ bash neofetch.sh
'c. user@hostname
,xNMM. ------------------------
.OMMMMo OS: macOS Mojave 10.14 Darling x86_64
OMMM0, Kernel: 16.0.0
.;loddo:' loolloddol;. Uptime: 1 day, 23 hours, 25 mins
cKMMMMMMMMMMNWMMMMMMMMMM0: Shell: bash 3.2.57
.KMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMWd. DE: Aqua
XMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMX. WM: Quartz Compositor
;MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM: WM Theme: Blue (Print: Entry, AppleInterfaceStyle, Does Not Exist)
:MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM: Terminal: /dev/pts/1
.MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMX. CPU: GenuineIntel
kMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMWd. Memory: 12622017MiB / 2004MiB
.XMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMk
.XMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMK.
kMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMd
;KMMMMMMMWXXWMMMMMMMk.
.cooc,. .,coo:.
neofetch exercises a lot of the Darwin internals, including BSD sysctl
calls, Mach IPC and host info API, and the "user defaults" subsystem.
Compile and run a program
If you have Xcode SDK installed, you can compile and run programs.
Darling [~]$ xcode-select --switch /Applications/Xcode.app
Now, build a "Hello World" C program using the Clang compiler:
Darling [~]$ cat > hello-world.c
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
puts("Hello World!");
}
Darling [~]$ clang hello-world.c -o hello-world
And run it:
Darling [~]$ ./hello-world
Hello world!
The whole compiler stack works, how cool is that! Now, let's try Swift:
Darling [~]$ cat > hi.swift
print("Hi!")
Darling [~]$ swiftc hi.swift
Darling [~]$ ./hi
Hi!
Try running apps
Darling has experimental support for graphical applications written using Cocoa. If you have a simple app installed, you can try running it:
Darling [~]$ /Applications/HelloWorld.app/Contents/MacOS/HelloWorld