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What's the meaning of "default compiler" in this context? Will the kernel be built with clang or gcc?

cc

Which was gcc, until today. Has that changed?

It's a symlink. And yes, there is no other meaning of "switching the default compiler." The effect is that any tooling that uses `cc` (like the `CC` implicit variable in Make) will now use `clang` rather than `gcc`. So any software built on the system uses clang unless you force it to use something else. No idea if they will still distribute gcc by default.

What I'm getting from your comment is that they're switching everything over to building with clang, including the kernel. That's interesting (it's a bold move) since there have been a few systems over the years that set aside a separate compiler just for building the kernel.

The kernel has been buildable with clang for some time now.

It would have been a bold move 4 years ago. Today most software that builds with gcc also builds with clang. FreeBSD's switch everything to clang project is dead because there is nothing left to do: nearly every open source project builds with clang by default, the rare exceptions are complex cases not worth fixing.

OpenBSD has spent the last few years ensuring their code all builds with clang, and they support. All the add on software you might want to use also works well built in clang.

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