VirtualBuddy是一个用于在Apple Silicon芯片的macOS上创建macOS虚拟机的工具，它可以方便地帮助开发者在本地测试应用的兼容性。与传统的虚拟化软件相比，VirtualBuddy具有许多独特的特点和优势，使其成为开发者的必备工具。

首先，VirtualBuddy支持任意版本的macOS 12或macOS 13，包括测试版。这意味着开发者可以使用最新的操作系统进行测试，确保应用在最新的操作系统上能够正常运行。

其次，VirtualBuddy内置了安装向导，可以帮助开发者轻松地选择和安装所需的操作系统版本。开发者可以从Apple服务器上可用的恢复镜像集合中选择，也可以选择安装最新稳定版的macOS本地恢复镜像。这样可以让开发者更加方便快捷地创建虚拟机，并开始测试。

除了支持多种操作系统版本外，VirtualBuddy还支持网络和文件共享。这意味着开发者可以在虚拟机和主机之间共享剪贴板，无需运行macOS Ventura（实验性）。这一功能大大提高了开发者的效率，让他们可以在不同的虚拟机之间轻松地共享和传递数据。

此外，VirtualBuddy还支持启动进入恢复模式（例如用于禁用SIP）。这可以帮助开发者在虚拟机中测试一些需要特殊权限或特殊环境的操作，例如禁用系统完整性保护（SIP）等。这一功能为开发者提供了更多的测试选项和更大的灵活性。

VirtualBuddy can virtualize macOS 12 and later on Apple Silicon, with the goal of offering features that are useful to developers who need to test their apps on multiple versions of macOS, especially betas.

VirtualBuddyGuest app

VirtualBuddy automatically mounts a disk image with the VirtualBuddyGuest app when you boot up a virtual machine running macOS. To install the VirtualBuddyGuest app, just select the "Guest" disk on Finder's side bar then double-click the "VirtualBuddyGuest" app icon.

VirtualBuddyGuest enables clipboard sharing between host and guest and automatic mounting of the shared folders configured for the virtual machine.

Taking Advantage of APFS

Sometimes when trying things out in the OS installed in one of the virtual machines, things might break, requiring a full install of the guest operating system again, which is a pain.

Thanks to APFS cloning though, you can just duplicate a virtual machine within your library folder (using Command + D in Finder), and the copy will take almost no additional disk space. This way you can have a clean copy of your VM, do whatever you want with a duplicate of it, and then throw the copy away and re-duplicate the clean version if things break.

Sharing Folders Between Host and Virtual Machine

You can share folders from your Mac to the Virtual Machine and vice-versa using regular macOS file sharing that can be configured in System Preferences/Settings.

When both the Virtual Machine and the host are running macOS 13 or later, it's possible to share folders directly by configuring them in the VM settings within VirtualBuddy before booting up the VM.

What's New:

Version 1.5:

Adds support for virtual machine state restoration. State restoration requires the host to be running macOS 14 or later and a macOS guest. Once a state has been saved, I recommend always starting up from a saved state, otherwise you may encounter VM corruption (this is a limitation of Apple's Virtualization API).
There's a new "Library" item in the "Window" menu to open the library window
Editing the name of a new managed disk image now works as expected
Linux guests now use cached mode for block storage devices, addressing a corruption issue that could occur when doing heavy I/O operations (by @jamestut in #332)
Improved virtual machine screenshot performance and reliability
Addresses a bug that prevented spaces from being inserted into the name of Virtual Machine when editing in the library window
Addresses an issue where rapidly renaming the same virtual machine multiple times could cause the name displayed in the library to no longer match the name that's on the filesystem
Fixed some memory leaks