diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index af2bc89741..27110075df 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ if targetos == 'windows'
                                       include_directories: include_directories('.'))
 elif targetos == 'darwin'
   coref = dependency('appleframeworks', modules: 'CoreFoundation')
-  iokit = dependency('appleframeworks', modules: 'IOKit')
+  iokit = dependency('appleframeworks', modules: 'IOKit', required: false)
 elif targetos == 'sunos'
   socket = [cc.find_library('socket'),
             cc.find_library('nsl'),
@@ -1023,6 +1023,9 @@ if get_option('cfi')
   add_project_link_arguments(cfi_flags, native: false, language: ['c', 'cpp', 'objc'])
 endif
 
+have_host_block_device = (targetos != 'darwin' or
+    cc.has_header('IOKit/storage/IOMedia.h'))
+
 #################
 # config-host.h #
 #################
@@ -1113,6 +1116,7 @@ config_host_data.set('HAVE_DRM_H', cc.has_header('libdrm/drm.h'))
 config_host_data.set('HAVE_PTY_H', cc.has_header('pty.h'))
 config_host_data.set('HAVE_SYS_IOCCOM_H', cc.has_header('sys/ioccom.h'))
 config_host_data.set('HAVE_SYS_KCOV_H', cc.has_header('sys/kcov.h'))
+config_host_data.set('HAVE_HOST_BLOCK_DEVICE', have_host_block_device)
 
 ignored = ['CONFIG_QEMU_INTERP_PREFIX'] # actually per-target
 arrays = ['CONFIG_AUDIO_DRIVERS', 'CONFIG_BDRV_RW_WHITELIST', 'CONFIG_BDRV_RO_WHITELIST']
diff --git a/qapi/block-core.json b/qapi/block-core.json
index 3484986d1c..1a9576de8d 100644
--- a/qapi/block-core.json
+++ b/qapi/block-core.json
@@ -959,7 +959,8 @@
   'discriminator': 'driver',
   'data': {
       'file': 'BlockStatsSpecificFile',
-      'host_device': 'BlockStatsSpecificFile',
+      'host_device': { 'type': 'BlockStatsSpecificFile',
+                       'if': 'defined(HAVE_HOST_BLOCK_DEVICE)' },
       'nvme': 'BlockStatsSpecificNvme' } }
 
 ##
@@ -2827,7 +2828,9 @@
 { 'enum': 'BlockdevDriver',
   'data': [ 'blkdebug', 'blklogwrites', 'blkreplay', 'blkverify', 'bochs',
             'cloop', 'compress', 'copy-on-read', 'dmg', 'file', 'ftp', 'ftps',
-            'gluster', 'host_cdrom', 'host_device', 'http', 'https', 'iscsi',
+            'gluster', 'host_cdrom',
+            {'name': 'host_device', 'if': 'defined(HAVE_HOST_BLOCK_DEVICE)' },
+            'http', 'https', 'iscsi',
             'luks', 'nbd', 'nfs', 'null-aio', 'null-co', 'nvme', 'parallels',
             'preallocate', 'qcow', 'qcow2', 'qed', 'quorum', 'raw', 'rbd',
             { 'name': 'replication', 'if': 'defined(CONFIG_REPLICATION)' },
@@ -4012,7 +4015,8 @@
       'ftps':       'BlockdevOptionsCurlFtps',
       'gluster':    'BlockdevOptionsGluster',
       'host_cdrom': 'BlockdevOptionsFile',
-      'host_device':'BlockdevOptionsFile',
+      'host_device': { 'type': 'BlockdevOptionsFile',
+                       'if': 'defined(HAVE_HOST_BLOCK_DEVICE)' },
       'http':       'BlockdevOptionsCurlHttp',
       'https':      'BlockdevOptionsCurlHttps',
       'iscsi':      'BlockdevOptionsIscsi',
diff --git a/block/file-posix.c b/block/file-posix.c
index 00cdaaa2d4..11d2021346 100644
--- a/block/file-posix.c
+++ b/block/file-posix.c
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@
 #include "scsi/constants.h"
 
 #if defined(__APPLE__) && (__MACH__)
+#include <sys/ioctl.h>
+#if defined(HAVE_HOST_BLOCK_DEVICE)
 #include <paths.h>
 #include <sys/param.h>
 #include <IOKit/IOKitLib.h>
@@ -52,6 +54,7 @@
 //#include <IOKit/storage/IOCDTypes.h>
 #include <IOKit/storage/IODVDMedia.h>
 #include <CoreFoundation/CoreFoundation.h>
+#endif /* defined(HAVE_HOST_BLOCK_DEVICE) */
 #endif
 
 #ifdef __sun__
@@ -181,7 +184,17 @@ typedef struct BDRVRawReopenState {
     bool check_cache_dropped;
 } BDRVRawReopenState;
 
-static int fd_open(BlockDriverState *bs);
+static int fd_open(BlockDriverState *bs)
+{
+    BDRVRawState *s = bs->opaque;
+
+    /* this is just to ensure s->fd is sane (its called by io ops) */
+    if (s->fd >= 0) {
+        return 0;
+    }
+    return -EIO;
+}
+
 static int64_t raw_getlength(BlockDriverState *bs);
 
 typedef struct RawPosixAIOData {
@@ -3014,6 +3027,7 @@ static BlockStatsSpecific *raw_get_specific_stats(BlockDriverState *bs)
     return stats;
 }
 
+#if defined(HAVE_HOST_BLOCK_DEVICE)
 static BlockStatsSpecific *hdev_get_specific_stats(BlockDriverState *bs)
 {
     BlockStatsSpecific *stats = g_new(BlockStatsSpecific, 1);
@@ -3023,6 +3037,7 @@ static BlockStatsSpecific *hdev_get_specific_stats(BlockDriverState *bs)
 
     return stats;
 }
+#endif /* HAVE_HOST_BLOCK_DEVICE */
 
 static QemuOptsList raw_create_opts = {
     .name = "raw-create-opts",
@@ -3247,6 +3262,8 @@ BlockDriver bdrv_file = {
 /***********************************************/
 /* host device */
 
+#if defined(HAVE_HOST_BLOCK_DEVICE)
+
 #if defined(__APPLE__) && defined(__MACH__)
 static kern_return_t GetBSDPath(io_iterator_t mediaIterator, char *bsdPath,
                                 CFIndex maxPathSize, int flags);
@@ -3539,16 +3556,6 @@ hdev_co_ioctl(BlockDriverState *bs, unsigned long int req, void *buf)
 }
 #endif /* linux */
 
-static int fd_open(BlockDriverState *bs)
-{
-    BDRVRawState *s = bs->opaque;
-
-    /* this is just to ensure s->fd is sane (its called by io ops) */
-    if (s->fd >= 0)
-        return 0;
-    return -EIO;
-}
-
 static coroutine_fn int
 hdev_co_pdiscard(BlockDriverState *bs, int64_t offset, int bytes)
 {
@@ -3872,6 +3879,8 @@ static BlockDriver bdrv_host_cdrom = {
 };
 #endif /* __FreeBSD__ */
 
+#endif /* HAVE_HOST_BLOCK_DEVICE */
+
 static void bdrv_file_init(void)
 {
     /*
@@ -3879,6 +3888,7 @@ static void bdrv_file_init(void)
      * registered last will get probed first.
      */
     bdrv_register(&bdrv_file);
+#if defined(HAVE_HOST_BLOCK_DEVICE)
     bdrv_register(&bdrv_host_device);
 #ifdef __linux__
     bdrv_register(&bdrv_host_cdrom);
@@ -3886,6 +3896,7 @@ static void bdrv_file_init(void)
 #if defined(__FreeBSD__) || defined(__FreeBSD_kernel__)
     bdrv_register(&bdrv_host_cdrom);
 #endif
+#endif /* HAVE_HOST_BLOCK_DEVICE */
 }
 
 block_init(bdrv_file_init);
