macOS 11 Big Sur compatibility on Apple Silicon

[claui]

Latest news on native ARM compatibility

• (2020-12-26) We currently have 3168 formulas bottled for Apple Silicon in homebrew-core. At this point, the table below is probably not really relevant anymore (except for historical reference) and the best way to know if a formula is working is “does it have an ARM bottle” (a :arm64_big_sur line in the bottle block).
• (2020-12-04) A fellow maintainer has been setting up ARM-based Macs as CI nodes for Homebrew.
  That means Apple Silicon bottles are coming soon. Bottle-building may start next week, which is a few weeks earlier than we thought. Expect bottling to drag along. It definitely won’t be finished in 2020.
  Homebrew remains unsupported on Apple Silicon, and will become supported once enough bottles are built and once everything feels stable enough.
• (2020-11-18) Added Major blockers section for a quick overview.
• (2020-11-18) Issue with mkmf in Ruby.framework resolved (FB7836181).
  All brew commands that depend on that gem, e. g. brew audit, seem to work now.
• (2020-11-15) Issues with code signing now resolved thanks to @fxcoudert, @mistydemeo and others.
• (2020-11-15) There won’t be any support for native ARM Homebrew installations for months to come. See both macOS 11 Big Sur compatibility on Apple Silicon #7857 (comment) about CI infrastructure and macOS 11 Big Sur compatibility on Apple Silicon #7857 (comment) about GCC for details.
• (2020-11-15) Native ARM Homebrew installations are only going to be supported at /opt/homebrew (once support arrives). See macOS 11 Big Sur compatibility on Apple Silicon #7857 (comment) for details.

---

A detailed description of the proposed feature

This is an overview of compatibility issues and work items related to native ARM Homebrew installations on macOS 11.0 (Big Sur). Homebrew doesn’t support it right now but we need to track and triage those items nonetheless.

The motivation for the feature

macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) has been released to the public, and our goal is for Homebrew to support it.

How the feature would be relevant to at least 90% of Homebrew users

In the long run, more than 90 % of Homebrew (macOS) users are going to run Apple Silicon hardware.

What alternatives to the feature have been considered

No alternatives.

---

Major blockers

• Set up ARM-based CI infrastructure
• Have Homebrew’s CI build arm64_big_sur bottles
• go (waiting for upstream version 1.16)
• rust (waiting for upstream version 1.49 or backport to 1.47/1.48)
• ghc (help wanted)
• qt (help wanted)
• openjdk (waiting for upstream version 16; work in progress to integrate OpenJDK 16 preview as stop-gap)
• gcc (work in progress, see macOS 11 Big Sur compatibility on Apple Silicon #7857 (comment))
• Others (see macOS 11 Big Sur compatibility on Apple Silicon #7857 (comment))

Status of core formulae

Formula	Works1 on 11.0	Comments
ack	🥇
adns	🥇
adwaita-icon-theme
aircrack-ng
ansible
ant		Re-check when openjdk works
aom	🥇	Patched for now
apache-spark
apr-util	🥇
apr	🥇
argon2	🥇
arpack
asciidoc	🥇
asdf
aspell	🥇
atk
augeas	🥇
autoconf	🥇
autojump
automake	🥇
aws-elasticbeanstalk	🥇
aws-iam-authenticator		Re-check when go works
awscli	⚠️	Build fails with a distutils.errors.DistutilsClassError, see logs. Possibly related to setuptools: pypa/setuptools#2231
azure-cli	🥇
bash-completion	🥇
bash	⚠️	make says, redefinition of 'sys_siglist' with a different type: 'char *[32]' vs 'const char *const [32]'. Logs
bat		Re-check when rust works
bazel		Re-check when openjdk@11 works
bdw-gc
berkeley-db	🥇
binutils	🥇
bison	🥇
blueutil	🥇
boost	🥇	Patched for now
brotli	🥇
c-ares	🥇
cabal-install		Re-check when ghc works
cairo	🥇
cargo-c		Builds in rust prereleases; will work when a stable Rust with Apple Silicon support ships
carthage	🥇	Patched for now
cask		Re-check when emacs works
ccache	🥇	Used to work, no longer builds. Logs Says: invalid conversion between vector type '__m64' (vector of 1 'long long' value) and integer type 'int' of different size
ceres-solver
certbot	🥇
cfitsio	🥇
cgal		Re-check when qt works
circleci		Re-check when go works
clang-format	🥇
cloc	🥇
cmake	🥇
cocoapods	⚠️	Error Unrecognized Mach-O load command: 0x80000034 in ffi_c.bundle
colordiff	🥇
composer	🥇
consul		Re-check when go works
coreutils	🥇
cscope	🥇
ctags	🥇
cunit	🥇
curl	🥇
curl-openssl	🥇
cython	🥇
dav1d	🥇
daemontools	🥇
deno		Re-check when llvm and rust work
dep		Re-check when go works
dialog	🥇	Patched for now
direnv		Re-check when go works
dnsmasq	🥇
docbook-xsl	🥇
docbook	🥇
docker		Re-check when go works
docker-completion	🥇
docker-machine		Re-check when go works
doctl		Re-check when go works
dos2unix	🥇
doxygen	🥇
duti	🥇	Patched for now. PR also submitted upstream.
eigen	🥇
elasticsearch		Re-check when gradle and openjdk work
elixir		Re-check when erlang works
emacs		Re-check when gnutls works
epsilon	🥇
epstool		Re-check when ghostscript works
erlang	⚠️	Either we need to backport erlang/otp#2700 or wait for upstream release 23.1. Same with erlang/otp#2687.
exiftool	🥇
expat	🥇
fastlane	🥇
fd		Re-check when rust works
ffmpeg		Re-check when gnutls, libbluray and several other dependencies work
fftw		Re-check when gcc and open-mpi work
fig2dev		Re-check when ghostscript and netpbm work
figlet	🥇
findutils	🥇
fish	🥇
flac	🥇
fltk
fontconfig	🥇	Patched for now
fontforge
freetds	🥇
freetype	🥇
freexl	⚠️	Build error: implicitly declaring library function 'printf' Logs
frei0r	🥇
fribidi	🥇
fswatch
fzf
gawk	🥇
gcal	🥇
gcc	⚠️	@iains has some work in progress on https://github.com/iains/gcc-darwin-arm64 to port the GCC backend to Apple Silicon. Mind that Apple Silicon support is going to require GCC 11 even in the best case. The first stable release of GCC 11 may come out in mid-2021 or later. If you absolutely require a stable GCC, or any formula that depends on it, you may want to hold off your Apple Silicon Mac purchase decisions until it’s clear if or when GCC will support it. For limited testing on Apple Silicon, Homebrew may consider shipping an unstable GCC 11 but that’s yet to be decided.
gdal		Re-check when expat, freexl, geos, hdf5 and a dozen of other dependencies work
gdbm	🥇
gdb
gdk-pixbuf
gd	🥇
geckodriver
geos	⚠️	Squeals about duplicate symbol BasicSegmentString in inlines.o vs. libnoding.a. Logs
gettext	🥇
gflags
ghc	⚠️	Re-check when Homebrew/homebrew-core#57892 is merged
ghc@8.8
ghostscript	⚠️	Re-check when Homebrew/homebrew-core#58493 is merged
giflib	🥇
git	⚠️	Lots of Undefined symbols for architecture arm64. Possibly related to libintl and pcre2. Logs
git-flow
git-gui
git-lfs
gitlab-runner
gl2ps
glew
glib-networking
glib	🥇
glog
glpk
gmp	🥇
gnu-getopt	🥇
gnu-sed	🥇
gnu-tar	🥇
gnupg		Re-check when gnutls works
gnuplot
gnutls		Re-check pending
gobject-introspection	🥇
go	⚠️	Bootstrapped go (x86_64) is killed at build time. Logs Re-check when upstream 1.16 is released
gpatch	🥇
gpgme
gradle		Re-check when openjdk works
grafana
graphicsmagick
graphite2	🥇
graphviz		Re-check when gts works
grep	🥇
groonga	🥇
groovy
grpc
gsettings-desktop-schemas
gsl
gst-plugins-bad
gstreamer
gtk+3
gtk+
gtk-mac-integration
gts		Re-check when netpbm works
guile	🥇	Fixed
harfbuzz	🥇
hdf5		Re-check when gcc works
helm		Re-check when go works
helm@2		Re-check when glide and go work
hicolor-icon-theme
highlight	🥇
htop	🥇
httpd	🥇
httpie	🥇
hub		Re-check when go works
hugo		Re-check when go works
hwloc	🥇
icu4c	🥇
ideviceinstaller	🥇
ilmbase	🥇
imagemagick@6	🥇
imagemagick		Re-check when ghostscript, libheif and libomp work
inetutils	🥇
ios-deploy	🥇
ios-webkit-debug-proxy	🥇
iperf3	🥇
ipython	🥇
isl	🥇
itstool	🥇
jansson	🥇
jasper	🥇
jemalloc	🥇
jenkins		Re-check when openjdk@11 works
jenkins-lts		Re-check when openjdk@11 works
jenv	🥇
jmeter
jpeg	🥇
jq	🥇
json-c	🥇
jupyterlab		Re-check when pandoc works
kafka		Re-check when openjdk (or some other form of Java) and zookeeper work
kops
kotlin		Re-check when openjdk (or some other form of Java) works
krb5	🥇	Patched for now. Patch submitted to upstream issue tracker.
kubectx
kubernetes-cli		Re-check when go works
kustomize
lame	🥇
ldns
leptonica	🥇
libarchive
libassuan	🥇
libass	🥇
libb2
libbluray		Re-check when openjdk (or some other form of Java) works
libcbor
libcerf
libcroco
libdap
libde265	⚠️	ARM assembly/macros/directives fail at build time. Re-check needed with the correct triple. Logs
libepoxy
libevent	🥇
libev	🥇
libexif
libffi	🥇	Patched for now, awaiting upstream patches: libffi/libffi#565
libfido2
libgcrypt	🥇
libgeotiff
libgit2	🥇
libgpg-error	🥇
libheif		Re-check when libde265 works
libiconv	🥇
libidn2	🥇
libidn	🥇
libilbc	🥇
libimobiledevice	🥇
libksba	🥇
liblqr	🥇
libmagic	🥇
libmaxminddb	🥇
libmetalink	🥇
libmpc	🥇
libnet
libogg	🥇
libomp	⚠️	make install fails while trying to make sense of x86_64 assembly for Linux. Logs
libp11
libplist	🥇
libpng	🥇
libpq	🥇
libpsl
librdkafka
libressl
librsvg
libsamplerate	🥇
libscrypt	🥇
libsmi	🥇
libsndfile	🥇
libsodium	🥇
libsoup
libsoxr	🥇
libspatialite
libspiro
libssh	🥇
libssh2	🥇
libtasn1	🥇
libtermkey
libtiff	🥇
libtool	🥇
libuninameslist
libunistring	🥇
libusb-compat
libusbmuxd	🥇
libusb	🥇
libuv	🥇
libvidstab	🥇
libvirt
libvorbis	🥇
libvpx	🥇
libvterm
libwebsockets
libxml2	🥇
libxslt
libyaml	🥇
libzip	🥇
little-cms2	🥇
llvm	🥉	Builds if OpenMP is disabled. Stable builds don't work, but HEAD does and 11.0.0 will be compatible.
lua	🥇
lua@5.1	🥇
luajit	⚠️	Fails with 2.0.5 but should work when upstream 2.1.0 is released.
luarocks	🥇
lynx	🥇	Patched for now
lz4	🥇
lzo	🥇
macvim
mad	⚠️	Configure error: /bin/ksh ./config.sub -apple-darwin20.0.0 failed Logs
make
mariadb		Re-check when groonga works
mas	🥇	Fixed
maven		Re-check when openjdk works
mbedtls
mcrypt
mecab	🥇
mecab-ipadic	🥇
memcached
mercurial	🥇
meson	🥇
metis
midnight-commander
minikube
minizip	🥇
mitmproxy
mkcert
mkvtoolnix
mono
mosh
mpfr	🥇
mpv
msgpack	🥇
mtr
mujs
mutt
mysql	⚠️	The build proceeds to completion but mysqld_safe fails with syntax error near unexpected token 'then' in line 831.
mysql@5.6	⚠️	make errors out after building the target event_extra. Logs
mysql@5.7	⚠️	Builds but mysqld_safe fails: syntax error near unexpected token 'then' in line 804.
mysql-client	🥇
nano	🥇
nasm	🥇
ncdu
ncurses	🥇
neofetch
neovim	⚠️	Upstream PR in progress: neovim/neovim#12624
netcdf
netpbm		Re-check when subversion works
nettle	🥇	Patched for now
nghttp2	🥇
nginx	🥇
ninja	🥇
nmap	🥇	Fixed
node	🥇	Patched for now. See also nodejs/node#34043 and nodejs/TSC#886 for upstream progress.
node@10
node@12	🥇
node-build
nodebrew
npth	🥇
nspr	🥇
nss	⚠️	Build fails while loading softokn3. Logs
ntfs-3g
numpy
nvm
ocaml		Upstream PR merged, see ocaml/ocaml#9699. 4.10 backport in progress, see ocaml/ocaml#10026. 4.10 formula-patches PR: Homebrew/formula-patches#318
octave
oniguruma	🥇
opam
open-mpi		Re-check when gcc works
openblas
openconnect
opencore-amr
opencv
openexr	🥇
openjdk	⚠️	Needs to be ported (logs). See also related JEP draft: MacOS/AArch64 Port
openjdk@11
openjpeg	🥇
openldap	🥇
openssh
openssl aka openssl@1.1	🥇	Patched for now. Works well enough until the upstream fix is released.
openvpn	🥇
opusfile	🥇
opus	🥇
orc
p11-kit	🥇
p7zip	🥇
packer		Re-check when go works
pandoc		Re-check when cabal-install and ghc work
pango	🥇	Patched for now
parallel	🥇
pcre2	🥇	Note: JIT disabled for now. See Homebrew/homebrew-core#57419
pcre	🥇	Note: JIT disabled for now. See Homebrew/homebrew-core#57410
perl	🥇	Patched for now
php@7.2	⚠️	Seems more difficult to fix than php. Might want to triage as 🚫.
php@7.3	⚠️	Seems more difficult to fix than php. Might want to triage as 🚫.
php	🥇	Fixed
pinentry	🥇
pipenv	🥇
pixman	🥇
pkcs11-helper	🥇
pkg-config	🥇
plantuml
poppler		Re-check when nss and qt work
popt	🥇
portaudio	🥇
postgis		Re-check when gdal, geos, gpp and sfcgal work
postgresql	🥇
postgresql@9.6
postgresql@10
postgresql@11
pre-commit	🥇
proj	🥇
protobuf	🥇
protobuf-c	🥇
pstoedit
pstree	🥇
pulumi
putty	🥇
py3cairo
pyenv	⚠️	Bash crashes due to code signature error when trying to load pyenv-realpath.dylib as a builtin. Log
pyenv-virtualenv
pygobject3
pyqt
python@3.7	⚠️	Patch python/cpython#21249 fails. Re-check when upstream arm64 support stabilises.
python@3.8	🥉	Patched for now but brew test fails. Re-check after Homebrew/homebrew-core#64872 is merged.
python aka python@3.9	🥉	brew test currently fails. Re-check after Homebrew/homebrew-core#64869 is merged.
qemu
qhull
qrupdate
qt	⚠️	Fails running find_sdk.py late in the build. (logs, full make log)
rabbitmq		Re-check when erlang works
rav1e		Re-check when cargo-c and rust work
rbenv
rclone
readline	🥇
redis	🥇	Patched for now
rename
ripgrep
rsync
rtmpdump	🥇
rubberband
ruby-build
ruby@2.5
ruby	🥇
rust	⚠️	Upstream tracking issue: rust-lang/rust#73908
rustup-init
s-lang
s3cmd
sbcl
sbt
scala
scrcpy
screenresolution	🥇
sdl2
sdl	🥇
sfcgal		Re-check when cgal works
shared-mime-info	🥇
shellcheck		Re-check when cabal-install, ghc@8.8 and pandoc work
sip
skaffold
snappy	🥇
socat
source-highlight	🥇
sox		Re-check when mad works
spandsp	🥇
speedtest-cli
speex	🥇
sphinx-doc	🥇
sqlite	🥇
sqlmap
srt	⚠️	Fails with 'GLES/gl.h' file not found during make install. Logs
ssh-copy-id
sshfs
sshpass
sshuttle
starship
stoken
subversion	🥉	Works but brew test fails. Logs.
suite-sparse
sundials
swagger-codegen
swiftformat
swiftlint	🥇
swig	🥇
szip	🥇
tbb	🥇	Patched for now
tcl-tk
telnetd	🥇
telnet	🥇
terraform		Re-check when go works
terragrunt
tesseract	🥇
texinfo	🥇
tfenv
tflint
thefuck	🥇
theora	🥇
the_silver_searcher
tidy-html5	🥇
tig
tmux	🥇
tomcat
tor	🥇
tree	🥇
uchardet
unar	🥇
unbound	🥇
unibilium
unixodbc	🥇
unrar	🥇
utf8proc	🥇
v8
vala		Re-check when graphviz works
valgrind
vapoursynth
vault
vde
vim	🥇
vips
watchman
watch
webp	🥇
wget	🥇
wimlib
winetricks
wireshark
wxmac
x264	🥇	Patched for now
x265	🥇
xcodegen	⚠️	Not compatible with Xcode 12. Re-check with upstream version > 2.17.0 once released.
xerces-c
xmlto	🥇
xvid	🥇
xxhash	🥇
xz	🥇
yara	🥇
yarn	🥇
yasm	🥇	Note: doesn’t support ARM targets
youtube-dl	🥇
yq		Re-check when go works
zeromq	🥇
zimg	🥇
zlib	🥇
zookeeper		Re-check when ant works
zsh	🥇
zsh-autosuggestions	🥇
zsh-completions	🥇
zsh-syntax-highlighting	🥇
zstd	🥇

Source

curl -sLS \
  'https://formulae.brew.sh/api/analytics/install/90d.json' \
  | jq -r '.items
    | map(select (.formula | contains("/") | not) | .formula)[:512]
    | sort
    | [""] + map("`\(.)`")
    | map([., "", ""] | @csv)
    | .[]
    ' \
  | pandoc -f csv -t gfm \
  | sed -e 's/\\`/`/g'

___

¹ For Works on 11.0, the key is:

• 🥇brew install -s succeeds on Apple Silicon. The software works well enough natively.
• 🥈 The formula has been updated with depends_on :arch => [:x86_64, :build]. The software works well enough on Rosetta.
• 🥉 The formula has known issues on macOS 11, though most features work. The issues are described in the Comments field.
• 🚫 The formula has been updated with depends_on :arch => :x86_64. The software has been deemed to work on Intel only (for now).
• ⚠️ The formula has been found to need more analysis/work.

[MikeMcQuaid]

@FigBug Please don't ask us for help while you're running an unsupported version of macOS.

[MikeMcQuaid]

How can we help Big Sur compatibility on ARM Macs if we are indeed running an unsupported version of macOS?

Submit PRs to fix things. Almost every issue we have had so far has been already known. We know things aren't working. We need help fixing things not telling us what isn't working.

[jimtut]

Yeah, don't let the lack of a big announcement turn you off. I have an M1 Mac, and all I've installed is the ARM-compatible version of HB. Took a while to get some of the complex languages/compilers working, but there is a TON working now. Don't hold back! BTW, it would be a good idea to make an announcement, esp. if you can link to a dynamic list of apps/formulae/bottles working on M1/ARM. That would reassure a lot of people, I think.

[infa-jowoods]

@fxcoudert @jimtut - oh I know support is good! Been using it for since M1 launch. Just at some point its worth publishing this is ready, and removing the warnings, many ppl still believe its not working on M1.

[SMillerDev]

removing the warnings, many ppl still believe its not working on M1.

The warnings were removed a in brew 2.7.1

[fxcoudert]

We're working on an announcement.

[cdalvaro]

One more question.

I would like to know if /opt/homebrew will be the default directory for Apple Silicon from now on. Or, if at some point, /usr/local will be the default one again.

My real interest is if in the medium term I will have to update configurations by changing library and binary paths.

[mvllow]

I would like to know if /opt/homebrew will be the default directory for Apple Silicon from now on. Or, if at some point, /usr/local will be the default one again.

From the installation docs:
"This script installs Homebrew to its preferred prefix (/usr/local for macOS Intel, /opt/homebrew for Apple Silicon)..."

Not sure if Intel would ever be changed but looks like for Apple silicon it will remain /opt/homebrew

[fxcoudert]

/opt/homebrew will be the default directory for Apple Silicon from now on, we will not go back to /usr/local. (We had been discussing moving away from /usr/local before the ARM transition, but had been punting on it because it was a breaking change.)

[cdalvaro]

Thank you very much for your answers @mvllow and @fxcoudert

[sjmueller]

I installed a bunch of stuff into /usr/local in december, then now installed the latest homebrew and started a bunch of new formulas into /opt/homebrew, how do I transfer all the old ones? Also how do I check afterwards to ensure everything is installed natively?

[SMillerDev]

/usr/local/bin/brew bundle dump and then brew bundle install with the new brew install.

[zonorion]

I can not install kafka on my M1 mac by using brew install kafka or brew install -s kafka
Error:

Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:3.8.1:compile (pre-compile-jute) on project
zookeeper-jute: Fatal error compiling: error: invalid flag: -Xdoclint:-missing -> [Help 1]

[carlocab]

kafka has an unbottled dependency:

❯ brew unbottled --tag=arm64_big_sur kafka
==> Populating dependency tree...
==> :arm64_big_sur bottle status
kafka: unbottled deps: zookeeper

It's possible that zookeeper just doesn't work on ARM yet. I'd start with brew install -s zookeeper && brew test zookeeper. If that works we can try to bottle it.

[zonorion]

kafka has an unbottled dependency:

❯ brew unbottled --tag=arm64_big_sur kafka
==> Populating dependency tree...
==> :arm64_big_sur bottle status
kafka: unbottled deps: zookeeper

It's possible that zookeeper just doesn't work on ARM yet. I'd start with brew install -s zookeeper && brew test zookeeper. If that works we can try to bottle it.

I try brew install -s zookeeper && brew test zookeeper but got same error

[carlocab]

Looks like it doesn't work on ARM then. You'll need to check with the zookeeper devs if they support Apple M1.

[dasNavy]

I try to install terminal-notifier and csshX and get this error

[rsclarke]

I try to install terminal-notifier and csshX and get this error

@dasNavy As suggested in the error message Homebrew on ARM should be installed in /opt/homebrew and not /usr/local. I am able to install csshX on M1.

[tcurdt]

...the best way to know if a formula is working is “does it have an ARM bottle” (a :arm64_big_sur line in the bottle block).

Not entirely sure what "bottle block" refers to.

Is there a way to get that piece of information for all installed formulas?
I want to check compatibility of all I have installed on an Intel mac (or what is defined in a Brewfile)

[MikeMcQuaid]

I want to check compatibility of all I have installed on an Intel mac

brew unbottled --tag=arm64_big_sur $(brew list --formula)

or what is defined in a Brewfile

brew unbottled --tag=arm64_big_sur $(HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 brew bundle list --formula)

[tcurdt]

To understand the output:

caddy: ready to bottle
git-annex: unbottled deps: ghc@8.8 ghc cabal-install

IIUC git-annex has a dep to ghc that is not available for arm yet.
But what does ready to bottle mean exactly?

[carlocab]

It means all of its dependencies (if it has any) have been bottled, but it hasn't been bottled itself.

[jrtibbetts]

I don't know whether this is the best place to post this, but after I upgraded to a MBP 13" M1, SwiftGen just dies with a Killed: 9 message. I've brew uninstall and brew installed it again to get 6.4.0, but I get the same message.

[tresf]

SwiftGen just dies with a Killed: 9 message.

May be best for the discussions area. Some similar discussions: https://github.com/Homebrew/discussions/search?q=killed&type=discussions