No. Docker for mac runs a Linux VM.

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of Docker?

But anyway, thanks for the info :)

Running a Linux VM on Mac defeats some of the purpose of Docker, but it's still valuable:

* Docker is useful for production and has various other benefits, and Docker for Mac is a nice way to develop locally with Docker even if it's not as efficient as on Linux.

* Docker for Mac uses some built-in virtualization tools in macOS to share network and filesystem more efficiently than you could do with the older VirtualBox approach. So it's maybe a little closer to native OS support than you're thinking.

* A typical configuration has a single Linux VM holding many Docker containers, which is better than the alternative of many VMs.

I see. okay.

I assumed the main idea of Docker were reproducible builds on different machines and wanted to use it for building iOS apps.

That's certainly a use case, it's just not compatible with Apple's restrictions.

No, because the purpose of Docker is not 'to run XCode CLI tools'...

I think the GP means that the purpose of Docker is to provide containers, which are a substitute for VMs. If you are going to be running a VM anyway, why run a container?

Yes. thank you.