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Netatalk Wiki

Here in the Netatalk Wiki, you can find and contribute to collaborative articles covering topics regarding Netatalk features as well as Mac and Apple II file sharing and networking.

Editing is open to all GitHub account holders. We’re looking forward to your contributions!

What is Netatalk?

Netatalk is a cross-platform open source implementation of AFP (Apple Filing Protocol), the protocol used for file sharing on Apple II, Classic Mac OS, and Mac OS X. At the time of writing, AFP is one of several file sharing protocols with client support in macOS.

The Netatalk software runs on a NIX host machine (Linux distro, BSD distro, Solaris, or macOS) while a Mac client would connect to the file server via the Network drawer / Locations (on macOS) or the Chooser (on Classic Mac OS.)

macOS Network Drawer screenshot

macOS 15.1 Network Drawer Example

Examples of clients that Netatalk has been tested with:

Features

Below is an overview of the capabilities and bundled utilities that the latest version of Netatalk provides.

Feature Details
Host OS Support Linux (glibc & musl), DragonFlyBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, macOS, OmniOS, Solaris 11
Client OS Support macOS, Mac OS X, Mac OS 8/9, Macintosh System Software 6.0.x/7.x, GS/OS, ProDOS
AFP Protocol Versions 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3. 3.4
AFP over TCP Yes
AFP over AppleTalk Yes (supported on Linux, NetBSD)
Macintosh File System Metadata macOS / OSX extended attributes, Classic Mac OS resource forks
Service Discovery Bonjour-compatible on macOS / OSX, AppleTalk on Classic Mac OS
Remote Backups Time Machine-compatible
Indexed Search Spotlight-compatible on macOS / OSX, CatalogSearch on Classic Mac OS
Macintosh Network Booting NetBoot 1.0-compatible (usage example: kea-mboot)
Apple II Network Booting Yes: //e and IIGS (via a2boot)
AppleTalk Printing to modern printers Yes (via papd)
Printing to LocalTalk printers Yes (via pap)
AppleTalk Time Server Timelord-compatible (via timelord)
AppleTalk Router Yes (via atalkd)
MacIP Gateway Yes (via macipgw)
Administrative GUI Webmin module

See also Netatalk Links

Footnotes

This is a mirror of the Netatalk GitHub Wiki. Please visit the original page if you want to correct an error or contribute new contents.

Last updated 2025-06-25