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+# darwin.builder {#sec-darwin-builder}
+
+`darwin.builder` provides a way to bootstrap a Linux builder on a macOS machine.
+
+This requires macOS version 12.4 or later.
+
+This also requires that port 22 on your machine is free (since Nix does not
+permit specifying a non-default SSH port for builders).
+
+You will also need to be a trusted user for your Nix installation.  In other
+words, your `/etc/nix/nix.conf` should have something like:
+
+```
+extra-trusted-users = <your username goes here>
+```
+
+To launch the builder, run the following flake:
+
+```ShellSession
+$ nix run nixpkgs#darwin.builder
+```
+
+That will prompt you to enter your `sudo` password:
+
+```
++ sudo --reset-timestamp /nix/store/…-install-credentials.sh ./keys
+Password:
+```
+
+… so that it can install a private key used to `ssh` into the build server.
+After that the script will launch the virtual machine and automatically log you
+in as the `builder` user:
+
+```
+<<< Welcome to NixOS 22.11.20220901.1bd8d11 (aarch64) - ttyAMA0 >>>
+
+Run 'nixos-help' for the NixOS manual.
+
+nixos login: builder (automatic login)
+
+
+[builder@nixos:~]$
+```
+
+> Note: When you need to stop the VM, run `shutdown now` as the `builder` user.
+
+To delegate builds to the remote builder, add the following options to your
+`nix.conf` file:
+
+```
+# - Replace ${ARCH} with either aarch64 or x86_64 to match your host machine
+# - Replace ${MAX_JOBS} with the maximum number of builds (pick 4 if you're not sure)
+builders = ssh-ng://builder@localhost ${ARCH}-linux /etc/nix/builder_ed25519 ${MAX_JOBS} - - - c3NoLWVkMjU1MTkgQUFBQUMzTnphQzFsWkRJMU5URTVBQUFBSUpCV2N4Yi9CbGFxdDFhdU90RStGOFFVV3JVb3RpQzVxQkorVXVFV2RWQ2Igcm9vdEBuaXhvcwo=
+
+# Not strictly necessary, but this will reduce your disk utilization
+builders-use-substitutes = true
+```
+
+… and then restart your Nix daemon to apply the change:
+
+```ShellSession
+$ sudo launchctl kickstart -k system/org.nixos.nix-daemon
+```
+
+## Example flake usage
+
+```
+{
+  inputs = {
+    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-22.11-darwin";
+    darwin.url = "github:lnl7/nix-darwin/master";
+    darwin.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
+  };
+
+  outputs = { self, darwin, nixpkgs, ... }@inputs:
+  let
+
+    inherit (darwin.lib) darwinSystem;
+    system = "aarch64-darwin";
+    pkgs = nixpkgs.legacyPackages."${system}";
+    linuxSystem = builtins.replaceStrings [ "darwin" ] [ "linux" ] system;
+
+    darwin-builder = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
+      system = linuxSystem;
+      modules = [
+        "${nixpkgs}/nixos/modules/profiles/macos-builder.nix"
+        { virtualisation.host.pkgs = pkgs; }
+      ];
+    };
+  in {
+
+    darwinConfigurations = {
+      machine1 = darwinSystem {
+        inherit system;
+        modules = [
+          {
+            nix.distributedBuilds = true;
+            nix.buildMachines = [{
+              hostName = "ssh://builder@localhost";
+              system = linuxSystem;
+              maxJobs = 4;
+              supportedFeatures = [ "kvm" "benchmark" "big-parallel" ];
+            }];
+
+            launchd.daemons.darwin-builder = {
+              command = "${darwin-builder.config.system.build.macos-builder-installer}/bin/create-builder";
+              serviceConfig = {
+                KeepAlive = true;
+                RunAtLoad = true;
+                StandardOutPath = "/var/log/darwin-builder.log";
+                StandardErrorPath = "/var/log/darwin-builder.log";
+              };
+            };
+          }
+        ];
+      };
+    };
+
+  };
+}
+```
+
+## Reconfiguring the builder
+
+Initially you should not change the builder configuration else you will not be
+able to use the binary cache. However, after you have the builder running locally
+you may use it to build a modified builder with additional storage or memory.
+
+To do this, you just need to set the `virtualisation.darwin-builder.*` parameters as
+in the example below and rebuild.
+
+```
+    darwin-builder = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
+      system = linuxSystem;
+      modules = [
+        "${nixpkgs}/nixos/modules/profiles/macos-builder.nix"
+        {
+          virtualisation.host.pkgs = pkgs;
+          virtualisation.darwin-builder.diskSize = 5120;
+          virtualisation.darwin-builder.memorySize = 1024;
+          virtualisation.darwin-builder.hostPort = 33022;
+          virtualisation.darwin-builder.workingDirectory = "/var/lib/darwin-builder";
+        }
+      ];
+```
+
+You may make any other changes to your VM in this attribute set. For example,
+you could enable Docker or X11 forwarding to your Darwin host.
+