Switching from i686-mingw32 to x86_64-w64-mingw32?
Project / Subsystem
gcc / gcc/build
Date
2026-08-16
Proposer
Zhongteng Gui <dragon-archer@outlook.com>
Source type
public_inbox
Consensus
Proposed
Sentiment
—/10
Technical tradeoffs
- • Removing support for `i686-mingw32` might affect niche users still developing for 32-bit Windows.
- • Updating platform lists requires careful coordination across documentation and build system configurations.
All attributes
- project
- gcc
- subsystem
- gcc/build
- patch_id
- —
- discussion_id
- SL2P216MB22713567DF1A0CC2252CC300EFD82@SL2P216MB2271.KORP216.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM
- source_type
- public_inbox
- title
- Switching from i686-mingw32 to x86_64-w64-mingw32?
- headline
- Switching Windows target from i686-mingw32 to x86_64-w64-mingw32
- tldr
- Proposes replacing the i686-mingw32 GCC secondary target with x86_64-w64-mingw32 due to i686's deprecation and x86_64's prevalence.
- proposer
- Zhongteng Gui <dragon-archer@outlook.com>
- consensus
- Proposed
- outcome
- proposed
- sentiment_score
- —
- technical_tradeoffs
-
- • Removing support for `i686-mingw32` might affect niche users still developing for 32-bit Windows.
- • Updating platform lists requires careful coordination across documentation and build system configurations.
- series_id
- —
- series_role
- standalone
- series_parts
- []
- tags
-
- • build
- • platform
- • Windows
- • cross-compilation
- • mingw
- bugzilla_url
- —
- date
- 2026-08-16T00:00:00.000Z
Switching from i686-mingw32 to x86_64-w64-mingw32?
Zhongteng Gui questions the continued listing of i686-mingw32 as a secondary GCC platform, arguing it’s an invalid triplet and that its likely intended counterpart, i686-w64-mingw32, has been deprecated by MSYS2. Given the dominance of 64-bit systems and the shift in MSYS2 environments to x86_64-w64-mingw32, the proposal is to switch the secondary target to the 64-bit version.