aarch64-pc-windows-gnullvm is now tier 2

[yutannihilation]

stable doc: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/rustc/platform-support/windows-gnullvm.html (tier 2 without host)
beta doc: https://doc.rust-lang.org/beta/rustc/platform-support/windows-gnullvm.html (tier 2 with host)

[jeroen]

Does this means it can be installed with rustup?

[yutannihilation]

Yes, target can be added via rustup, but toolchain is not yet available (I forget when, but probably Rust 1.89 or 1.90?).

❯ rustup target add aarch64-pc-windows-gnullvm
info: downloading component 'rust-std' for 'aarch64-pc-windows-gnullvm'
info: installing component 'rust-std' for 'aarch64-pc-windows-gnullvm'

Sorry, the URL I wrote is beta, not stable.

[yutannihilation]

In Rust 1.89, aarch64-pc-windows-gnullvm target has host tools.

rust-lang/rust#140772

A bit off topic; since there's no maintainer on *-gnu-windows targets, I'm afraid x86_64-pc-windows-gnu will be also demoted to tier 2 sooner or later. So, I think we might need to replace x86_64-pc-windows-gnu with x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm at some point (or gccrs will be added to Rtools...?).

https://blog.rust-lang.org/2025/05/26/demoting-i686-pc-windows-gnu/

[yutannihilation]

Thanks for merging!

[jeroen]

Thanks for updating us :)

A bit off topic; since there's no maintainer on *-gnu-windows targets, I'm afraid x86_64-pc-windows-gnu will be also demoted to tier 2 sooner or later. So, I think we might need to replace x86_64-pc-windows-gnu with x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm at some point (or gccrs will be added to Rtools...?).

I'm skeptical R will ever see gccrs in Rtools, but perhaps they could switch Rtools to the llvm toolchains alltogether at some point, that would solve many problems. But I think last time @kalibera said the Flang compiler was not good enough yet.

Relatedly, other major projects like libv8 are also starting to drop gcc support: JanMarvin/v8-R#16, so llvm is definitely a safer bet going forward.

[yutannihilation]

Yeah, I agree LLVM is safer. Probably, R needs to keep using LLVM for ARM macOS anyway, so I think it's reasonable to use it for Windows unless LLVM is very poor at supporting Windows.

[mati865]

A bit off topic; since there's no maintainer on *-gnu-windows targets, I'm afraid x86_64-pc-windows-gnu will be also demoted to tier 2 sooner or later. So, I think we might need to replace x86_64-pc-windows-gnu with x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm at some point (or gccrs will be added to Rtools...?).

blog.rust-lang.org/2025/05/26/demoting-i686-pc-windows-gnu

FYI I can co-maintain windows-gnu but I don't want to be the only maintainer for something I don't even use.

[yutannihilation]

I don't want to be the only maintainer for something I don't even use.

I get you. I really wish *-pc-windows-gnullvm will success and eventually supersede *-pc-windows-gnu.