The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) project has marked a significant milestone: the GCC 15 development branch has officially been created. This action signifies the closure of the main trunk for GCC 14 work and signals the beginning of the development phase for the upcoming GCC 15.0 release.
For those unfamiliar with the process, creating a development branch means that the primary codebase, known as the trunk, is now open for new features and significant changes aimed at the next major version, which in this case is GCC 15. Meanwhile, the GCC 14 branch will now enter a maintenance mode, receiving only bug fixes and potentially some very minor adjustments, leading to future GCC 14.x point releases like 14.1, 14.2, and so on.
The branching of GCC 15 is an exciting step as it clears the way for developers to merge their pending work and introduce new capabilities into the main development line. While a definitive list of all new features and optimizations expected in GCC 15 is still evolving, this branching allows these contributions to start landing and being tested. We can anticipate seeing improvements across various aspects, including support for newer programming language standards, enhanced performance optimizations, better support for various hardware architectures, and continued work on areas like static analysis and debugging capabilities.
Typically, once a major release branches off (like GCC 14 did earlier, leading to its eventual 14.1 release), the trunk immediately opens up for the next cycle. The creation of the GCC 15 branch solidifies this transition. The development of GCC 15.0 will now proceed on this new branch throughout the rest of the year and into the next.
While the exact release date for GCC 15.0 is not yet set, based on historical release cycles, we can generally expect the final version to be released sometime in the spring of the following year. Until then, the development branch will be a beehive of activity as new code is merged and tested, shaping the future of this crucial compiler. The creation of the GCC 15 branch is a clear indicator that the journey towards the next major version is well underway.
Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/GCC-15-Branched
