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What is the current version of Clang?

Author

Olivia House

Published Mar 15, 2026

What is the current version of Clang?

Clang 12, the latest major version of Clang as of April 2021, has full support for all published C++ standards up to C++17, implements most features of C++20, and adds initial support for the upcoming C++23 standard.

In respect to this, what version of C++ does Clang use?

Clang 3.4 and later implement all of the ISO C++ 2014 standard. By default, Clang builds C++ code according to the C++14 standard. You can use Clang in C++14 mode with the -std=c++14 option (use -std=c++1y in Clang 3.4 and earlier).

Likewise, is Clang slower than GCC? While LLVM's Clang C/C++ compiler was traditionally known for its faster build speeds than GCC, in recent releases of GCC the build speeds have improved and in some areas LLVM/Clang has slowed down with further optimization passes and other work added to its growing code-base.

Consequently, is Clang better than GCC?

Clang is much faster and uses far less memory than GCC. Clang aims to provide extremely clear and concise diagnostics (error and warning messages), and includes support for expressive diagnostics. GCC's warnings are sometimes acceptable, but are often confusing and it does not support expressive diagnostics.

What is difference between Clang and GCC?

Clang is much faster and uses far less memory than GCC. Clang aims to provide extremely clear and concise diagnostics (error and warning messages), and includes support for expressive diagnostics. GCC's warnings are sometimes acceptable, but are often confusing and it does not support expressive diagnostics.

How do I get Clang version?

How to download / Install Clang?
  1. Open a terminal window. Enter the command (clang — version) to confirm if the Clang Compilers had already been installed.
  2. To update or install the Clang Compilers, you need to type in the following command: command xcode-select–install.

What is the difference between Clang and LLVM?

Clang is a front-end for LLVM that processes C-family languages: C, C++, Objective C, Objective C++. Clang converts C/C++/etc to LLVM IR, LLVM performs optimizations on the IR, and the LLVM x86 backend writes out x86 machine code for execution.

Is Clang part of LLVM?

Clang is an “LLVM native†C/C++/Objective-C compiler, which aims to deliver amazingly fast compiles, extremely useful error and warning messages and to provide a platform for building great source level tools.

What is Clang written in?

C++

Who invented Clang?

Chris Lattner (born 1978) is an American software engineer best known as the main author of LLVM and related projects such as the Clang compiler and the Swift programming language. He joined SiFive as Senior Vice President of Platform Engineering, after two years at Google Brain.

Does Clang support coroutines?

Compiling code using coroutines

Unfortunately, with clang you also need to include the coroutine header as <experimental/coroutine> rather than <coroutine> . Moreover, a number of types are named std::experimental::xxx instead of std::xxx .

Will clang replace GCC?

Clang is designed to provide a frontend compiler that can replace GCC. GCC has always performed well as a standard compiler in the open source community. However, Apple Inc. has its own requirements for compilation tools.

Does Apple use GCC or clang?

It uses the Clang frontend and LLVM backend optimizer and code generator. Apple claims that the Clang parser is 3x faster than GCC for debug builds whilst maintaining compatibility with GCC. However the advantage of using Clang is about much more than just speed.

Is GCC a good compiler?

GCC is a free, open source, high quality, compiler. You can get it with cygwin. Microsoft makes a C compiler that comes with Visual Studio, which is Microsoft's integrated development environment. Also, Intel makes a good compiler.

Why you should use clang?

Clang can perform static analysis of your code, and lets you write tools that give you information about a program. Although many developers prefer developing in C/C++ using GCC, developer David Bolton (in a new Dice article) makes an argument for why you should switch to Clang.

Is G ++ a clang?

In modern versions of macOS, g++ is just a little shim that points to the relevant part of clang in whichever version of Xcode you have installed.

Does C++ use LLVM?

LLVM itself is written in C++. LLVM's APIs are available in C and C++ incarnations.

Why does Apple use Clang?

Clang builds on the LLVM optimizer and code generator, allowing it to provide high-quality optimization and code generation support for many targets. Clang is designed to support the C family of programming languages, which includes C, Objective-C, C++, and Objective-C++ as well as many dialects of those.

Does Python use LLVM?

Dropbox's compiler for Python uses the LLVM to push the language closer to C/C++ speeds, but it's far from production-ready. Fast development or fast execution, take your pick. Python programmers elect to go with the former, but have always sought ways to make their choice of language run a little faster.

Who owns LLVM?

LLVM
The LLVM logo, a stylized wyvern
Original author(s)Vikram Adve, Chris Lattner
Developer(s)LLVM Developer Group
Initial release2003
Stable release12.0.1 / July 9, 2021

Is G ++ a compiler?

G++ is a compiler, not merely a preprocessor. G++ builds object code directly from your C++ program source. There is no intermediate C version of the program. (By contrast, for example, some other implementations use a program that generates a C program from your C++ source.)

What is the difference between LLVM and GCC?

How Is LLVM Different From GCC? LLVM and the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) are both compilers. The difference is that GCC supports a number of programming languages while LLVM isn't a compiler for any given language. LLVM is a framework to generate object code from any kind of source code.

Is Clang fast?

-O3 optimization was importantly beneficial to Clang. At -O2 optimization, GCC was faster than Clang by just a whisker. At -O3 optimization, Clang was importantly faster than GCC.

Is GCC fast?

Although GCC-7.1 is faster than GCC-6.3, all the GCC versions are slower than GCC-4.9. 4 which is the fastest at compiling code with optimizations. GCC-7.1 is the fastest GCC version for compiling code in debug mode. In some cases, there is almost no difference between different compilers in the generated code.

Is GCC a compiler?

The GNU Compiler Collection, commonly known as GCC, is a set of compilers and development tools available for Linux, Windows, various BSDs, and a wide assortment of other operating systems. It includes support primarily for C and C++ and includes Objective-C, Ada, Go, Fortran, and D.

Can GCC compile Java?

Within GCC, it comprises the Java programming language front-end (gcc/java), a runtime library (libjava) and other helper libraries (boehm-gc, libffi and zlib). GCJ can compile Java source files to native code or to Java bytecode and can also compile Java bytecode to native code.

Is Clang a compiler?

The Clang tool is a front end compiler that is used to compile programming languages such as C++, C, Objective C++ and Objective C into machine code. Clang is also used as a compiler for frameworks like OpenMP, OpenCL, RenderScript, CUDA and HIP.

Are GCC and Clang compatible?

Yes, for C code Clang and GCC are compatible (they both use the GNU Toolchain for linking, in fact.) You just have to make sure that you tell clang to create compiled objects and not intermediate bitcode objects.

How do I use Clang in Visual Studio?

To configure a Visual Studio project to use Clang, right-click on the project node in Solution Explorer and choose Properties. Typically, you should first choose All configurations at the top of the dialog. Then, under General > Platform Toolset, choose LLVM (clang-cl) and then OK.

How does Clang work?

The Clang tool is a front end compiler that is used to compile programming languages such as C++, C, Objective C++ and Objective C into machine code. Clang uses the LLVM compiler as its back end and it has been included in the release of the LLVM since the LLVM 2.6.

Is GCC open source?

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) distributes GCC as free software under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL).

GNU Compiler Collection.

Screenshot of GCC 10.2 compiling its own source code
Initial releaseMay 23, 1987
Stable release11.2 / July 27, 2021
Preview release11.2.0-RC / July 21, 2021
Repository

How do you compile with Clang?

2.4.

To compile a C++ program on the command line, run the clang++ compiler as follows: $ scl enable llvm-toolset-6.0 'clang++ -o output_file source_file ' This creates a binary file named output_file in the current working directory. If the -o option is omitted, the clang++ compiler creates a file named a.

How do I install clang?

On Windows, it's easy to install the Clang tools. Just grab the “Clang compiler for Windows,†an optional component of the “Desktop development with C++†workload. This will install everything you need to develop with Clang on Windows. You can also install your own copy of Clang/LLVM or even build it from source.

What is GCC option?

GCC Command Options. When you invoke GCC, it normally does preprocessing, compilation, assembly and linking. The "overall options" allow you to stop this process at an intermediate stage. For example, the -c option says not to run the linker.