I have an older iMac running OS Catalina. I have Gimp 2.9.36 and Darktable 4.6. The very latest Darktable will not run on my mac. I want to open a raw image in gimp and have it shell out to Darktable. The Gimp import and export preferences won’t let me change to Darktable. I can’t find how to post a photo of the preferences box. Any ideas or tips.
It is broken on 4.6 but I think fixed now or will be soon but only if you can run more updated code
I think the fix is part of 4.6.1: Commits · darktable-org/darktable · GitHub
A build for older Macs:
You have had good advice provided here and the break between GIMP and DT is recognised and is being sorted. My work around has been to install RawTherapee in the meantime. I only use this to show students/people who want to process raw photos in GIMP. I personally don’t and do edits in DT and export as 16-bit tiffs and then open them in GIMP if there is something that requires further work in GIMP. Good luck.
I tried to download darktable 6.1, but it will not run on OS Catalina.
Did you try the builds I linked here?
Will this version of Darktable 4.6.1 run in Mac OS Catalina?
Stevie Jay Perry
The Blues Man
It says:
darktable-4.6.1_x86_64_macos10.14.dmg (macOS >= 10.14)
I don’t us a Mac, but can quickly find on the net that:
macOS Catalina (version 10.15) is the sixteenth major release of macOS
(macOS Catalina - Wikipedia)
So, if the version that I linked to above supports versions 10.14 and above, then it supports 10.15 = Catalina.
I finally dowloaded DT 4.6.1 got it running on Mac OS Catalina. Still not able to shell out from Gimp 2.10.36 to DT. Any further ideas?
I am running the latest from master and as far as I know the fix is still not yet implemented (darktable --version still doesn’t output what gimp is expecting).
I think both teams (darktable and gimp developers) are still trying to define and implement the new protocol between the two software. See here.
I personally (very crudely) modified the code in gimp (plug-ins/file-raw/file-darktable.c) to make it work, by removing all checks on the version of darktable (only left “have_darktable = TRUE;”).
I do not recommend it 
Master doesn’t support the old way. Waiting for gimp to implement the protocol. 4. 6.1 should work
DT 4.6.1 does work, at least with linux. I wonder if the plugin shows up in preferences as Setting up Darktable in Gimp Preferences to be ram editor
The issue possibly a macos security thing.