Programming Tutorials

  You have just unboxed a new MacBook Pro with an M-series chip. You pull your team’s legacy Docker container, which has run flawlessly on Intel machines for years, and attempt to start it. Instead of the application logs, the container crashes immediately with a terse, confusing error: exec user process caused: exec format error This is the single most common friction point for developers migrating to Apple Silicon. While the error message is cryptic, the root cause is binary. This guide details exactly why this architectural mismatch occurs, how to bypass it temporarily using emulation, and how to permanently solve it using multi-architecture builds. The Root Cause: Architecture Mismatch To fix the error, you must understand what the kernel is rejecting. Apple M1, M2, and M3 chips are based on the  ARM64  (or  aarch64 ) architecture. Most legacy servers and developer laptops (Intel/AMD) operate on the  x86_64  (or  amd64 ) architecture. When you exec...