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D.gnu - Bootstrapping GDC with DMD

reply Brian Callahan <bcallah openbsd.org> writes:
Hi all —

In case it is useful to anyone else, I documented how I 
bootstrapped GDC with DMD, with a freely available tool so that 
you can too.

https://briancallahan.net/blog/20260713.html

~Brian
Jul 13
parent reply Iain Buclaw <ibuclaw gdcproject.org> writes:
On Monday, 13 July 2026 at 18:14:34 UTC, Brian Callahan wrote:

 Hi all —

 In case it is useful to anyone else, I documented how I 
 bootstrapped GDC with DMD, with a freely available tool so that 
 you can too.

 https://briancallahan.net/blog/20260713.html

 ~Brian


Thanks for the write-up.

The GCC ports for Darwin (also PPC) and Solaris (x86 and SPARC) 
regularly(-ish?) test bootstrapping the current mainline version 
of D with the oldest supported version of GDC - there's a reason 
why it says 9.4, and not 9.x.

[Darwin is a bit more involved as they test bootstrap from 
apple-gcc 4.2 -> gcc 17.x, with all the odd jumps in between for 
Ada, C++, and D]

You are correct that there's nothing preventing the use of 
another D compiler to bootstrap GDC. So long as it can create a 
static executable, it will do.

For the sake of comparing notes, I did put out a little 
proof-of-concept gist around the time of the 12.1 release, as at 
least one distro packager asked at the time.

dmd: 
https://gist.github.com/ibuclaw/73f91fd66b5d4a1a6ad29d739be627c1
ldc: 
https://gist.github.com/ibuclaw/e6733142a8644ffb53106cc9986372fa

Iain.
Jul 14
parent Brian Callahan <bcallah openbsd.org> writes:
On Tuesday, 14 July 2026 at 15:47:12 UTC, Iain Buclaw wrote:

 On Monday, 13 July 2026 at 18:14:34 UTC, Brian Callahan wrote:

 Hi all —

 In case it is useful to anyone else, I documented how I 
 bootstrapped GDC with DMD, with a freely available tool so 
 that you can too.

 https://briancallahan.net/blog/20260713.html

 ~Brian


 Thanks for the write-up.

 The GCC ports for Darwin (also PPC) and Solaris (x86 and SPARC) 
 regularly(-ish?) test bootstrapping the current mainline 
 version of D with the oldest supported version of GDC - there's 
 a reason why it says 9.4, and not 9.x.

 [Darwin is a bit more involved as they test bootstrap from 
 apple-gcc 4.2 -> gcc 17.x, with all the odd jumps in between 
 for Ada, C++, and D]

 You are correct that there's nothing preventing the use of 
 another D compiler to bootstrap GDC. So long as it can create a 
 static executable, it will do.

 For the sake of comparing notes, I did put out a little 
 proof-of-concept gist around the time of the 12.1 release, as 
 at least one distro packager asked at the time.

 dmd: 
 https://gist.github.com/ibuclaw/73f91fd66b5d4a1a6ad29d739be627c1
 ldc: 
 https://gist.github.com/ibuclaw/e6733142a8644ffb53106cc9986372fa

 Iain.


Thanks Iain! I probably would have used your scripts had I found 
them before writing my own :)

~Brian
Jul 16