Add macos support by ovo-Tim · Pull Request #96 · Gerharddc/Litterbox

ovo-Tim · 2026-05-04T06:43:03Z

#95
Adds macOS host support by gating Linux-only features and dependencies behind cfg(target_os = "linux").

Changes

Make Landlock optional on non-Linux (no-op on macOS) and move landlock dependency to Linux-only target deps.
Gate Linux-only nix usage (prctl, inotify, major/minor) and add non-Linux-safe behavior where needed.
Refactor devices.rs into clean platform-specific implementations; non-Linux now returns a clear unsupported error for device attachment.
Update README to document macOS support and clarify Linux-only features (Landlock, litterbox device).

Do not merge for now. The test is still going.

ovo-Tim · 2026-05-04T08:25:21Z

It's good to go now

Gerharddc

Thanks for the PR! As indicated in my comments, I would prefer if this change be much smaller and not have so much platform-conditional code. I believe that is possible by approaching things differently.

Gerharddc · 2026-05-05T20:26:06Z

Please rebase this on #101 and check how well it works on macOS. This change should make support much easier because now there is a dedicated "lbx-init" binary which goes inside the container and can easily be cross-compiled

ovo-Tim · 2026-05-06T02:18:34Z

Good to go again 🎉

Gerharddc · 2026-05-08T16:27:52Z

Sorry for the delay, but great to see the Linux lbx-init binary now works on MacOS! I've now merged my large PR after making a few more tweaks. Unfortunately it seems you will now have to rebase again after those changes, sorry about that

binary. This will make cross-compliation easier to support other platforms.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <copilot@github.com>

Gerharddc

Thanks for all the hard work on this! And my apologies for being pedantic, but I prefer to keep PRs clean and concise. I prefer when a PR has one specific goal and does not touch other parts of the code along the way

Gerharddc · 2026-05-14T16:30:35Z

Are these changes required for macOS support?

Gerharddc · 2026-05-15T15:18:08Z

-                let _ = symlink("/lbx-init", format!("/usr/bin/{su_bin}"));
+                let _ = symlink("/litterbox", format!("/usr/bin/{su_bin}"));


This does not look right, are you sure this works?

Gerharddc · 2026-05-15T15:19:11Z

-use shared::entrypoint::{CommonEntrypointOptions, WaitBehaviour};
-use shared::env;


This also seems odd

Gerharddc · 2026-05-15T15:20:03Z

I suspect this file has been changed by accident. It believe it should not need to be changed at all

ovo-Tim · 2026-05-16T03:33:30Z

Really sorry for all the mess. I'm a bit overloaded this week.

I'm testing the code after reverting all the "unnecessary" changes as you required. But I constantly get:

❯ cargo run --manifest-path ./litterbox/Cargo.toml -- enter test1
    Finished `dev` profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.15s
     Running `litterbox/target/debug/litterbox enter test1`
[2026-05-16T02:46:18Z DEBUG litterbox::commands::enter] Container "08a5b29ce3b08037551a95f08889213a26f1fc296ca3787ea6206dcac01eb471" is already running; just attaching...
[2026-05-16T02:46:18Z DEBUG litterbox::commands::enter] Entering Litterbox...
[2026-05-16T02:46:18Z DEBUG lbx_init::commands::entrypoint] XDG_RUNTIME_DIR: /run/user/501
Error: Failed to set owner of $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR

Caused by:
    ENOENT: No such file or directory
[2026-05-16T02:46:18Z DEBUG litterbox::commands::enter] Exited Litterbox

After inspecting the code carefully, I found that we are using /run/user/{uid} as XDG_RUNTIME_DIR, but it will only be created when the wayland or pipewire working path is mounted.

ovo-Tim · 2026-05-16T04:45:11Z

Sometimes I get this error while rebuilding:

Error: statfs /Users/tim/Litterbox/.session-test2.lock: no such file or directory
Error: Podman command failed

It seems to occur randomly. I failed to find the cause.

Gerharddc · 2026-05-16T14:56:58Z

@ovo-Tim I appreciate all the work you have done on this, but after seeing how the solution is working out and the shortcomings involved, I just don't think macOS support makes sense anymore. I sincerely apologise that it has taken me so long to reach this conclusion.

Given that neither graphics nor the ssh agent work on macOS, I really don't see the point of using Litterbox on macOS over just using Podman directly. The little bit of convenience Litterbox may add can easily be replicated with a simpler program (likely even just some shell script). There is also not much portability for Litterbox users between Linux and macOS since most of the features will be missing.

Hence, the minimal reward does not justify the additional maintenance burden of trying to support macOS. I think it will also be misleading to users to pretend that there is really support for macOS.

I believe that making Litterbox truly cross platform will require re-implementing it from scratch to use microVMs instead of simple Linux containers. I'm not working on this now, but it is something that I'm considering in the distant future (should I ever find time for it).

For now however, if you really want to use Litterbox on macOS, I would suggest using it inside a full blown Linux VM so that you can take advantage of the features it offers. Alternatively, just use Podman directly. Or feel free to maintain a fork, that's totally cool too :)

Gerharddc reviewed May 4, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread litterbox/scripts/litterbox-helper.sh Outdated

Comment thread litterbox/src/settings.rs Outdated

Comment thread litterbox/src/commands/entrypoint.rs

Comment thread litterbox/src/devices.rs

Gerharddc reviewed May 5, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread litterbox/src/commands/entrypoint.rs Outdated

Comment thread litterbox/src/devices.rs Outdated

ovo-Tim force-pushed the macos-support branch from df945f8 to f4c8f2c Compare May 6, 2026 01:03

Gerharddc and others added 20 commits May 14, 2026 08:23

Split out the binary that runs inside the container from the main

dfad3a7

binary. This will make cross-compliation easier to support other platforms.

feat: add macos support

1374290

chore: fmt

2d2120a

fix: fix env missing error

dee85da

fix: info

afdc5f0

chore: fmt

1445f5a

fix; disable ssh agent on macos

aec9124

feat: add litterbox-helper for non-linux users

87e3e5d

feat: disable entire entrypoint and wait modules

40bdc53

feat: disable devices module

90695d7

feat: clean up unused conditions

5c85201

chore: revert log level

9652ba1

Co-authored-by: Copilot <copilot@github.com>

chore: add comments to litterbox-helper.sh

1d86648

chore: revert unrelated changes

eca1552

feat: remove unused changes in ibx-init

bc02bfa

feat: remove enter and wait command

1262748

chore: revert unrelated changes

81464cf

feat: remove helper script and make cross-sompile work on macos

0bb8c4e

feat: disable ssh agent on macos

5084be8

feat: better XDG_RUNTIME_DIR handler

b1e5c9f

ovo-Tim force-pushed the macos-support branch 2 times, most recently from 44d084e to b1e5c9f Compare May 14, 2026 00:25

chore: remove unused landlock

031aed8

Gerharddc reviewed May 14, 2026

View reviewed changes

ovo-Tim added 3 commits May 15, 2026 14:36

chore: revert unecessary changes

ba9f33d

chore: revert

a4bf760

chore: fmt

e838d13

Gerharddc reviewed May 15, 2026

View reviewed changes

ovo-Tim added 2 commits May 16, 2026 10:27

chore: revert changes

15ac465

feat: handle pipewire better when XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is not definded

d41ae3d

feat: create XDG_RUNTIME_DIR if not exist

e504de3

Gerharddc closed this May 16, 2026

Gerharddc mentioned this pull request May 16, 2026

Add support for macos #95

Closed

		let _ = symlink("/lbx-init", format!("/usr/bin/{su_bin}"));
		let _ = symlink("/litterbox", format!("/usr/bin/{su_bin}"));

		use shared::entrypoint::{CommonEntrypointOptions, WaitBehaviour};
		use shared::env;

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