diff --git a/src/fds.rs b/src/fds.rs
index 188690e06..c7f5b13a4 100644
--- a/src/fds.rs
+++ b/src/fds.rs
@@ -267,18 +267,23 @@ pub fn open_cloexec(path: &CStr, flags: OFlag, mode: nix::sys::stat::Mode) -> ni
 
 mod o_search {
     use super::OFlag;
-    /// On FreeBSD or MacOS we have O_SEARCH.
-    #[cfg(any(target_os = "freebsd", target_os = "macos"))]
-    pub const BEST_O_SEARCH: OFlag = unsafe { OFlag::from_bits_unchecked(libc::O_SEARCH) };
+    /// On macOS we have O_SEARCH, which is defined as O_EXEC | O_DIRECTORY,
+    /// where O_EXEC is 0x40000000. This is only on macOS 12.0+ or later; however
+    /// prior macOS versions ignores O_EXEC so it is treated the same as O_RDONLY.
+    #[cfg(target_os = "macos")]
+    pub const BEST_O_SEARCH: OFlag =
+        unsafe { OFlag::from_bits_unchecked(libc::O_DIRECTORY | 0x40000000) };
+
+    /// On FreeBSD, we have O_SEARCH = 0x00040000.
+    #[cfg(target_os = "freebsd")]
+    pub const BEST_O_SEARCH: OFlag = unsafe { OFlag::from_bits_unchecked(0x00040000) };
+
     /// On Linux we can use O_PATH, it has nearly the same semantics. we can use the fd for openat / fchdir, with only requiring
     /// x permission on the directory.
-    #[cfg(all(
-        not(any(target_os = "macos", target_os = "freebsd")),
-        any(target_os = "linux", target_os = "android")
-    ))]
+    #[cfg(any(target_os = "linux", target_os = "android"))]
     pub const BEST_O_SEARCH: OFlag = unsafe { OFlag::from_bits_unchecked(libc::O_PATH) };
 
-    /// Fall back to O_RDONLY, this is what fish did before.
+    /// Fall back to O_RDONLY.
     #[cfg(not(any(
         target_os = "linux",
         target_os = "android",