Run Linux binary under OS X

Question

Is it possible to create a Linux compatibility layer inside OS X?

Someone have created xbinary, which is essentially an OS X port of binfmt_misc as a kext, here: http://www.osxbook.com/software/xbinary/. Extending from the idea here, I am guessing if it is possible to create a Linux compatibility layer inside OS X:

• xbinary is obviously what makes the kernel accepts ELF. When an ELF is encountered ...
• A port of ld-linux.so which itself is a Mach-O binary is started, loading ELF libraries (Mach-O libraries can also be used, to some extent).
• Another kext that catches Linux syscalls (int 80h on x86 and amd64 systems) and translates them into corresponding OS X syscalls in kernel, or let the ld-linux.so replace all syscalls with a small function call in another library that translates them in userland.

Answer 1

I think you would also need to make OS X support Linux personality so that the syscalls behave identically to those of Linux (if present)

Other than that a binary might depend on a VDSO shim present in higher randges of address space, which is usually taken care of by libc implementation on Linux

Many other subtleties are possible...