.gitignore                       |  1 +
 Makefile                         | 17 ++++++++++++++++-
 misc/macos-legacy/mach_gettime.c | 42 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 misc/macos-legacy/mach_gettime.h | 28 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 src/nnn.c                        |  4 ++++

diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e2f3f8994da1e6dc0224b4eee761df442cac3251..a023af708e8ab5b7ed5259af2d1e3ac9a9261e4b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 *.o
+*.dSYM
 nnn
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 5a283e4d565a3cc49def64bfc2be18681fee83ce..869a47ce85a2f996efd6272f93e76dee39b4b246 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -153,11 +153,26 @@
 GITSTATUS = patches/gitstatus
 NAMEFIRST = patches/namefirst
 
+# test if we are on Mac OS X and get X.Y.Z OS version with system binary /usr/bin/sw_vers
+MACOS_VERSION := $(strip $(shell command -v sw_vers >/dev/null && [ "`sw_vers -productName`" = "Mac OS X" ] && sw_vers -productVersion))
+# if Mac OS X detected, test if its version is below 10.12.0 relying on "sort -c" returning "disorder" message if the input is not sorted
+ifneq ($(MACOS_VERSION),)
+	MACOS_BELOW_1012 := $(if $(strip $(shell printf '10.12.0\n%s' "$(MACOS_VERSION)" | sort -ct. -k1,1n -k2,2n -k3,3n 2>&1)),1)
+endif
+# if Mac OS X version is below 10.12.0, compile in the replacement clock_gettime and define MACOS_BELOW_1012 so that it's included in nnn.c
+ifneq ($(MACOS_BELOW_1012),)
+	GETTIME_C = misc/macos-legacy/mach_gettime.c
+	GETTIME_H = misc/macos-legacy/mach_gettime.h
+	SRC += $(GETTIME_C)
+	HEADERS += $(GETTIME_H)
+	CPPFLAGS += -DMACOS_BELOW_1012
+endif
+
 all: $(BIN)
 
 $(BIN): $(SRC) $(HEADERS)
 	@$(MAKE) --silent prepatch
-	$(CC) $(CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@ $< $(LDLIBS)
+	$(CC) $(CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@ $(GETTIME_C) $< $(LDLIBS)
 	@$(MAKE) --silent postpatch
 
 # targets for backwards compatibility
diff --git a/misc/macos-legacy/mach_gettime.c b/misc/macos-legacy/mach_gettime.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a52bb84dbdafa9fad3e3a81b9e13eb09457231e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/misc/macos-legacy/mach_gettime.c
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+#include "mach_gettime.h"
+#include <mach/mach_time.h>
+
+#define MT_NANO (+1.0E-9)
+#define MT_GIGA UINT64_C(1000000000)
+
+// TODO create a list of timers,
+static double mt_timebase = 0.0;
+static uint64_t mt_timestart = 0;
+
+int clock_gettime(clockid_t clk_id, struct timespec *tp)
+{
+	kern_return_t retval = KERN_SUCCESS;
+
+	if (clk_id == TIMER_ABSTIME) {
+		if (!mt_timestart) { // only one timer, initialized on the first call to the TIMER
+			mach_timebase_info_data_t tb;
+			mach_timebase_info(&tb);
+			mt_timebase = tb.numer;
+			mt_timebase /= tb.denom;
+			mt_timestart = mach_absolute_time();
+		}
+
+		double diff = (mach_absolute_time() - mt_timestart) * mt_timebase;
+		tp->tv_sec = diff * MT_NANO;
+		tp->tv_nsec = diff - (tp->tv_sec * MT_GIGA);
+	} else { // other clk_ids are mapped to the coresponding mach clock_service
+		clock_serv_t cclock;
+		mach_timespec_t mts;
+
+		host_get_clock_service(mach_host_self(), clk_id, &cclock);
+		retval = clock_get_time(cclock, &mts);
+		mach_port_deallocate(mach_task_self(), cclock);
+
+		tp->tv_sec = mts.tv_sec;
+		tp->tv_nsec = mts.tv_nsec;
+	}
+
+	return retval;
+}
+
+/*  Copyright (c) 2015-2018 Alf Watt - Open Source - https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT */
diff --git a/misc/macos-legacy/mach_gettime.h b/misc/macos-legacy/mach_gettime.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..cf574d4a0fb29215f6410a9133953816f686920a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/misc/macos-legacy/mach_gettime.h
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+#ifndef mach_time_h
+#define mach_time_h
+
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#include <sys/_types/_timespec.h>
+#include <mach/mach.h>
+#include <mach/clock.h>
+
+/* The opengroup spec isn't clear on the mapping from REALTIME to CALENDAR
+ being appropriate or not.
+ http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695299/basedefs/time.h.html */
+
+// XXX only supports a single timer
+#define TIMER_ABSTIME -1
+#define CLOCK_REALTIME CALENDAR_CLOCK
+#define CLOCK_MONOTONIC SYSTEM_CLOCK
+
+typedef int clockid_t;
+
+/* the mach kernel uses struct mach_timespec, so struct timespec
+	is loaded from <sys/_types/_timespec.h> for compatability */
+// struct timespec { time_t tv_sec; long tv_nsec; };
+
+int clock_gettime(clockid_t clk_id, struct timespec *tp);
+
+#endif
+
+/*  Copyright (c) 2015-2018 Alf Watt - Open Source - https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT */
diff --git a/src/nnn.c b/src/nnn.c
index 5dc55dd782a3264738e768de1c586d9c732894f4..b15a1199b95e039d3347d780cef2d3d3521524a4 100644
--- a/src/nnn.c
+++ b/src/nnn.c
@@ -108,6 +108,10 @@ #include <wchar.h>
 #include <pwd.h>
 #include <grp.h>
 
+#ifdef MACOS_BELOW_1012
+#include "../misc/macos-legacy/mach_gettime.h"
+#endif
+
 #if !defined(alloca) && defined(__GNUC__)
 /*
  * GCC doesn't expand alloca() to __builtin_alloca() in standards mode