Apple Silicon

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"zsh: bad CPU type in executable" and "mach-o file, but is an incompatible architecture" — what is the Mac actually telling me? Architecture

New Mac, moved my work across, and I now get one of these two errors constantly. Sometimes from a command line tool, sometimes when a Python package imports something. The second one says , which at least sounds like a…

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@rosetta_reva · 3d ago

How do I tell whether Rosetta is actually installed, and is there any reason not to install it? Rosetta

Set up a new Mac and did not install Rosetta, on the theory that everything is native now and I would rather find out early if something is not. That lasted about a week. Something asked for it, I clicked through a…

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@brew_prefix_bo · 3d ago

Homebrew keeps complaining about my Command Line Tools after every macOS update — why does this keep coming back? Homebrew

Every few months, usually after a system update, Homebrew starts refusing to do anything useful and tells me my Command Line Tools do not support the current macOS, or that they are outdated. I reinstall them, it works,…

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The architecture transition as it actually shows up: binaries that will not run, Homebrew in two places, Rosetta questions, and toolchains that quietly installed the wrong build.

A room for the errors that only make sense once you know there are two architectures on the machine.

Almost every question here is answered by finding out what architecture something is. Before posting, run uname -m — arm64 or x86_64 — and, if a specific binary is failing, file on it. Those two facts resolve most threads immediately.

Worth including:

macOS version and chip
which <thing> and whether it lives under /opt/homebrew or /usr/local
whether the terminal itself is running under Rosetta
the exact error text, which usually names both architectures

"It worked on my old Mac" is expected rather than surprising. The interesting part is which layer did not make the jump.

2K members
3 posts

Created February 3, 2025

Ask in this room

1
Post `uname -m` and the chip

Half the answers in this room depend on it and it takes two seconds.
2
Say where your Homebrew lives

`/opt/homebrew` and `/usr/local` are different installations. Having both is common and is the cause, not a detail.
3
Quote the whole error

Architecture errors name both sides — "have x86_64, need arm64" — and that direction is the answer.
4
Rosetta is not a bug

Running something translated is a legitimate answer. Questions about how to avoid it are welcome; contempt for it is not.
5
No serial numbers or account details

Redact them before pasting diagnostics.