docs: reflect equal support for gcc and clang

[PATCH] docs: reflect equal support for gcc and clang

Posted by Ariful Islam Shoikot 1 month, 1 week ago

Update the programming language documentation to reflect that both
gcc and clang are fully supported compilers.

Signed-off-by: Ariful Islam Shoikot <islamarifulshoikat@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/process/programming-language.rst | 9 +++++----
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst b/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
index c18e307ccb56..491138ae17cb 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
@@ -4,10 +4,11 @@ Programming Language
 ====================
 
 The Linux kernel is written in the C programming language [c-language]_.
-More precisely, it is typically compiled with ``gcc`` [gcc]_
-under ``-std=gnu11`` [gcc-c-dialect-options]_: the GNU dialect of ISO C11.
-``clang`` [clang]_ is also supported; see documentation on
-:ref:`Building Linux with Clang/LLVM <kbuild_llvm>`.
+More precisely, it is compiled with either ``gcc`` [gcc]_ or
+``clang`` [clang]_, both of which are fully supported, using
+``-std=gnu11`` [gcc-c-dialect-options]_:
+the GNU dialect of ISO C11. See
+:ref:`Building Linux with Clang/LLVM <kbuild_llvm>` for additional details.
 
 This dialect contains many extensions to the language [gnu-extensions]_,
 and many of them are used within the kernel as a matter of course.
-- 
2.43.0

Re: [PATCH] docs: reflect equal support for gcc and clang

Posted by Al Viro 1 month, 1 week ago

On Tue, Feb 24, 2026 at 09:09:06AM +0600, Ariful Islam Shoikot wrote:
> Update the programming language documentation to reflect that both
> gcc and clang are fully supported compilers.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Ariful Islam Shoikot <islamarifulshoikat@gmail.com>
> ---
>  Documentation/process/programming-language.rst | 9 +++++----
>  1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst b/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
> index c18e307ccb56..491138ae17cb 100644
> --- a/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
> @@ -4,10 +4,11 @@ Programming Language
>  ====================
>  
>  The Linux kernel is written in the C programming language [c-language]_.
> -More precisely, it is typically compiled with ``gcc`` [gcc]_
> -under ``-std=gnu11`` [gcc-c-dialect-options]_: the GNU dialect of ISO C11.
> -``clang`` [clang]_ is also supported; see documentation on
> -:ref:`Building Linux with Clang/LLVM <kbuild_llvm>`.
> +More precisely, it is compiled with either ``gcc`` [gcc]_ or
> +``clang`` [clang]_, both of which are fully supported, using

"Fully" is a bit of stretch.  Realistically, if you have x86,
arm/arm64, riscv or s390, it should work.  Beyond that... 

Quite a few architectures are in the "hopefully the resulting kernel
will work" state (ppc, mips) and it runs all the way through "if you
are lucky, it builds" (sparc64, IIRC), some requiring a fork of clang
(openrisc, for example), to "you are SOL, this target doesn't have
even an attempted out-of-tree support" (alpha and parisc, at least).

[PATCH v2] docs: clarify gcc and clang support wording

Posted by Ariful Islam Shoikot 1 month, 1 week ago

Avoid stating that both are "fully supported" due to
variance between architecture.

Reported-by: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>

Signed-off-by: Ariful Islam Shoikot <islamarifulshoikat@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/process/programming-language.rst | 9 +++++----
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst b/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
index c18e307ccb56..25ec1c99e2ae 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/programming-language.rst
@@ -4,10 +4,11 @@ Programming Language
 ====================
 
 The Linux kernel is written in the C programming language [c-language]_.
-More precisely, it is typically compiled with ``gcc`` [gcc]_
-under ``-std=gnu11`` [gcc-c-dialect-options]_: the GNU dialect of ISO C11.
-``clang`` [clang]_ is also supported; see documentation on
-:ref:`Building Linux with Clang/LLVM <kbuild_llvm>`.
+More precisely, it is compiled with either ``gcc`` [gcc]_ or
+``clang`` [clang]_, both of which are supported, using
+``-std=gnu11`` [gcc-c-dialect-options]_:
+the GNU dialect of ISO C11. See
+:ref:`Building Linux with Clang/LLVM <kbuild_llvm>` for additional details.
 
 This dialect contains many extensions to the language [gnu-extensions]_,
 and many of them are used within the kernel as a matter of course.
-- 
2.43.0