After moving from macOS to a Linux-based distribution, I benefit from deciding to have most of my backups on HFS+ partitions (with journaling disabled using a program that changes the value of kHFSVolumeJournaledBit later) early on during system configuration.
Unfortunately, I still decided to use some of my back drives as APFS and it contains two volumes. They (as of now) are not manipulable in GParted and I need to shrink the drive as I need to migrate data off a drive. This is all done on a Linux system as I no longer have the privilege of using a macOS system.
My first thought would be to convert it to HFS+, conversion clearly being possible due to the existence of Paragon's APFS to HFS+ Converter (which as of this writing is no longer available for download) and the fact that I don't think deduplication would have affected my files too much so space occupied shouldn't be too different.
I was considering running Paragon's tool within Darling but running alpha-level software to manipulate my (sole) backup is not on the top of my list and as far as I know, the converter does not have a CLI-only interface.
That being said, is there a (better) way to convert an APFS drive to an HFS+ (non Journaled) partition on Linux?
Best Answer
Paragon Software has a product called APFS for Linux. This would allow read/writing to APFS without have to convert to HFS+. Evidently, you have to build and install the driver. So this would in theory work with any current Linux distribution. The only drawback is the APFS container would have to be pre Big Sur. In other words, the APFS container would have to never had Big Sur installed. Currently, Paragon Software is working to overcome this limitation.
Update: In a comment, the OP posted there exists a read-only FUSE driver (apfs-fuse) available that might be Big Sur compatible.