> gcc(1) - updated to 12.5.0.

Anyone know why they are still on such an old version? The latest version is 16.1.

It's almost certainly due to supporting platforms like VAX and other, more exotic ISAs. GCC can have weird regressions [0] in "less tested" architectures, so I presume they use a single, known good release across all platforms for consistency's sake.

[0] GCC still supports PDP-11, for example, but for a while modern GCC had some major codegen bugs. Last I checked, the maintainer had made heroic efforts to fixing the bugs, but that's just an example of where bitrot silently renders a target unusable.

	▲	washbear an hour ago \| parent [-]
		This is partly the reason, the other reason is that we created this branch in July 2025 (GCC 12.5 was released on 11 July, 2025) and spent a year stabilizing it. A new system compiler is considered far too much of a risky, incompatible change to backport. Especially since lots of C code no longer compiles with GCC 14+ without significant changes.

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mghackerlady 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They don't like GPLv3. The other BSDs used similarly old versions until they moved to clang, but netbsd is pretty tied to the gnu toolchain and aims to be as portable as possible, so they kinda have to stick to gcc

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microtonal 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

But the licensing didn't change between gcc 12 and gcc 16, so that doesn't seem like a good explanation?

	▲	PuercoPop 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It is not a good explanation because that is not the reason. That reason is for Mac OS. I don't know the details, but BSDs normally modify the GCC version they use. IIRC OpenBSD used to use GCC 2.95 for years. Porting NetBSD base to compile with a newer GCC version is not as simple as a version bump. My guess is that they haven't prioritized that work yet. Patches welcome!

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washbear an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is not the reason. We created this branch in July 2025 (GCC 12.5 was released on 11 July, 2025) and spent a year stabilizing it. A new system compiler is considered far too much of a risky, incompatible change to backport. Especially since lots of C code no longer compiles with GCC 14+ without significant changes.

Each time we upgrade the system compiler, it requires extensive work to keep all of our supported architectures in working order, and adjust our code for compatibility.

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hexagonwin 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

wasn't that around gcc4 or something era? gcc12 is pretty new

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jmclnx 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

gcc 15.1 is in pkgsrc 2026Q2:

gcc15-15.2.0nb1 - The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) - 15.0 Release Series

As others said, I think it has to do with all the platforms NetBSD supports.