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xPack LLVM clang v21.1.8-1 released

· 9 min read
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

Version 21.1.8-1.1 is a new release; it follows the upstream release.

The xPack LLVM clang is a standalone cross-platform binary distribution of LLVM clang.

There are separate binaries for Windows (x64), macOS (x64 and arm64) and GNU/Linux (x64 and arm64).

Raspberry Pi

The main targets for the GNU/Linux Arm binaries are the Raspberry Pi class devices (aarch64 only; armv6 and armv7l are no longer supported).

Download​

The binary files are available from GitHub Releases.

Prerequisites​

  • x64 Windows: Windows 7 with the Universal C Runtime (UCRT), Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11
  • x64 macOS: 11.0 or later
  • arm64 macOS: 11.0 or later
  • x64 GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.28 or higher (like Ubuntu 20 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)
  • arm64 GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.28 or higher (like Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu 20 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)

Install​

The easiest way to install this specific version, is by using xpm:

xpm install @xpack-dev-tools/clang@21.1.8-1.1 -verbose

Comprehensive instructions for installing xPack xPack LLVM clang on different platforms can be found in the Install Guide.

Compliance​

The xPack LLVM clang is based on the official LLVM clang sources.

The current version is based on:

  • LLVM clang version 21.1.8, from 16 Dec 2025
  • binutils 2.45
  • mingw-w64 13.0.0

For x64 Linux and Windows, multilib (32/64-bit) libraries are provided.

Changes​

Compared to the upstream, there are no major functional changes.

Bug fixes​

  • none

Enhancements​

  • none

Known problems​

Please see the separate tests results page.

On GNU/Linux, LTO (Link Time Optimization) is supported only with -fuse-ld=lld.

Starting with 2.44, binutils deprecated ld.gold, and it is no longer provided.

Documentation​

The original documentation is available from the project web site:

Build​

The binaries for all supported platforms (Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux) were built using the xPack Build Box (XBB), a set of build environments based on slightly older distributions, that should be compatible with most recent systems.

For the prerequisites and more details on the build procedure, please see the Maintainer Info page.

CI tests​

Before publishing, a set of simple tests were performed on an exhaustive set of platforms. The results are available from:

Tests​

The binaries were tested on a variety of platforms, but mainly to check the integrity of the build, not the compiler functionality.

Checksums​

The SHA-256 hashes for the files are:

562270fc3029fbec56cadde80223efe2ea33e9fde46954582447afb4832310ea
xpack-clang-21.1.8-1-darwin-arm64.tar.gz

eab22258684105f5c32bb29772e2b17bc2ec4eac49b3c4d1775e45b3d1baf385
xpack-clang-21.1.8-1-darwin-x64.tar.gz

be1eae2706c049ff9d1c5816e58bb5557d75810c9762cb929208472f7914617e
xpack-clang-21.1.8-1-linux-arm64.tar.gz

0db58136aedb58b9af8c605a1b1570defbe06618f82bff60d24d3327f81d8321
xpack-clang-21.1.8-1-linux-x64.tar.gz

b23d38e2c1c539182919e147e7158fd8b4e8bdd9e6ddc5dfe06f6488c6d9d516
xpack-clang-21.1.8-1-win32-x64.zip

Folders hierarchy​

After install, the package creates a hierarchy of folders like the following (only the first two depth levels are shown):

C:> tree /f %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\xPacks\@xpack-dev-tools\clang\21.1.8-1.1\.content
Folder PATH listing
Volume serial number is B02D-925C
├── README.md
├── bin
│   ├── analyze-build
│   ├── clang++.exe -> clang-target-wrapper.exe
│   ├── clang-21.exe
│   ├── clang-check.exe
│   ├── clang-cl.exe -> clang-target-wrapper.exe
│   ├── clang-cpp.exe -> clang-target-wrapper.exe
│   ├── clang-doc.exe
│   ├── clang-format.exe
│   ├── clang-include-cleaner.exe
│   ├── clang-installapi.exe
│   ├── clang-linker-wrapper.exe
│   ├── clang-nvlink-wrapper.exe
│   ├── clang-refactor.exe
│   ├── clang-repl.exe
│   ├── clang-scan-deps.exe
│   ├── clang-sycl-linker.exe
│   ├── clang-target-wrapper.exe
│   ├── clang-tidy.exe
│   ├── clang.exe -> clang-target-wrapper.exe
│   ├── clangd.exe
│   ├── diagtool.exe
│   ├── gendef.exe
│   ├── git-clang-format
│   ├── git-clang-format.bat
│   ├── hmaptool
│   ├── ld.lld.exe -> lld.exe
│   ├── libLTO.dll
│   ├── libRemarks.dll
│   ├── libc++.dll
│   ├── liblldb.dll
│   ├── libunwind.dll
│   ├── lld.exe
│   ├── lldb-argdumper.exe
│   ├── lldb-dap.exe
│   ├── lldb-instr.exe
│   ├── lldb-server.exe
│   ├── lldb.exe
│   ├── llvm-addr2line.exe -> llvm-symbolizer.exe
│   ├── llvm-ar.exe
│   ├── llvm-cov.exe
│   ├── llvm-cxxfilt.exe
│   ├── llvm-dlltool.exe -> llvm-ar.exe
│   ├── llvm-nm.exe
│   ├── llvm-objcopy.exe
│   ├── llvm-objdump.exe
│   ├── llvm-profdata.exe
│   ├── llvm-ranlib.exe -> llvm-ar.exe
│   ├── llvm-rc.exe
│   ├── llvm-readelf.exe -> llvm-readobj.exe
│   ├── llvm-readobj.exe
│   ├── llvm-size.exe
│   ├── llvm-strings.exe
│   ├── llvm-strip.exe -> llvm-objcopy.exe
│   ├── llvm-symbolizer.exe
│   ├── llvm-windres.exe -> llvm-rc.exe
│   ├── offload-arch.exe
│   ├── run-clang-tidy
│   ├── scan-build-py
│   └── widl.exe
├── distro-info
│   └── licenses
├── i686-w64-mingw32
│   ├── bin
│   ├── include
│   ├── lib
│   └── share
├── include
├── lib
│   ├── clang
│   ├── cmake
│   ├── libLTO.dll.a
│   ├── libRemarks.dll.a
│   ├── libear
│   └── libscanbuild
├── libexec
│   ├── analyze-c++
│   ├── analyze-cc
│   ├── c++-analyzer
│   ├── c++-analyzer.bat
│   ├── ccc-analyzer
│   ├── ccc-analyzer.bat
│   ├── intercept-c++
│   └── intercept-cc
├── share
│   ├── clang
│   ├── clang-doc
│   ├── opt-viewer
│   ├── scan-build
│   └── scan-view
└── x86_64-w64-mingw32
  ├── bin
  ├── include
  ├── lib
  └── share

26 directories, 70 files

Deprecation notices​

GNU/Linux minimum requirements​

The minimum requirement is GLIBC 2.28, available starting with Ubuntu 20, Debian 10 and RedHat 8. Support for RedHat 7 was dropped in 2022. Support for Ubuntu 18 was dropped in 2025.

32-bit support​

Support for 32-bit x64 GNU/Linux and x64 Windows was dropped in 2022 and for 32-bit Arm GNU/Linux in 2025.

Pre-deprecation notice for x64 macOS​

Apple has discontinued support for the x64 (Intel) architecture. GitHub will no longer support this architecture on macOS after the macOS 15 runner image is retired in November 2027; building and testing x64 macOS binaries will become more difficult, requiring a self-hosted runner, and cannot be guaranteed in the long term.

You should begin migrating your projects to arm64-based (Apple Silicon) binaries to prepare for this deprecation (tentatively planned for 2028).

Analytics​

Credit to Shields IO for the badges and to Somsubhra/github-release-stats for the individual file counters.