M1 Mac x86_64 app building: Is this Rosetta 2?

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adtewa Author

Level 1

4 points

M1 Mac x86_64 app building: Is this Rosetta 2?

I've just figured out how to use the architecture change in terminal from:

https://vineethbharadwaj.medium.com/m1-mac-switching-terminal-between-x86-64-and-arm64-e45f324184d9

I'm using MacOS on M1.

env /usr/bin/arch -x86_64 /bin/zsh --login

makes me an environment in terminal to be able to build my application for x86_64 MacOS.

My question would be: is this made possible by Rosetta2? And will be here until only 2027 Fall?

Because if this is Rosetta, I see a justification for Rosetta to stay more around until people still use x86_64 Mac Operating Systems to be able to build apps for them on Apple Silicon Macs.

MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 2021)

Posted on Jun 21, 2026 4:08 PM

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Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

128,746 points

Jul 22, 2026 7:51 AM in response to adtewa

Rosetta2 support will end with macOS 28 in Fall 2027. At that timeframe, no X86_64 built application will run on an Apple Silicon Mac. That five-year old Medium article should not be followed now, since one can build a Universal2 binary containing both x86_64 and arm64 binaries — whether using Swift, or Objective-C.

Here is how I build a Universal2 binary using Swift. The Frameworks based on those used by the application. In this example, I am specifying macos12 because the UniformTypeIdentifiers require macOS 11 or later.

/*
== build Universal2 binary ==
  Use a target of macOS 12 as UniformTypeIdentifiers requires macOS 11 or later
  swiftc -Osize -o pdfinfo_x86_64 pdfinfo.swift -framework Foundation \
    -framework PDFKit -framework UniformTypeIdentifiers -target x86_64-apple-macos12
  swiftc -Osize -o pdfinfo_arm64 pdfinfo.swift -framework Foundation \
    -framework PDFKit -framework UniformTypeIdentifiers
  lipo -create -output pdfinfo pdfinfo_arm64 pdfinfo_x86_64
  lipo -archs pdfinfo
*/

The pdfinfo application is now a Universal2 binary and will run natively on an Intel or Apple Silicon Mac without any external Terminal modifications.

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