Skip to content

Post about x86_64-apple-darwin demotion #1676

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
wants to merge 1 commit into
base: master
Choose a base branch
from
Open

Post about x86_64-apple-darwin demotion #1676

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
1 commit
Select commit
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
50 changes: 50 additions & 0 deletions content/demoting-x8664-apple-darwin-to-tier-2-with-host-tools.md
View file
Open in desktop
Copy link
Member

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more. 

- content/demoting-x8664-apple-darwin-to-tier-2-with-host-tools.md
+ content/demoting-x86-64-apple-darwin-to-tier-2-with-host-tools.md

:)

Copy link
Member Author

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I followed the directions to create the post which picked this file name. How tied is the file name to anything else? Should I use x86_64 which is more correct instead?

Copy link
Member

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

If the generator made it then that sounds okay, it just looked a bit strange to me.

Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+++
path = "9999/12/31/demoting-x8664-apple-darwin-to-tier-2-with-host-tools"
title = "Demoting x86_64-apple-darwin to Tier 2 with host tools"
authors = ["Jake Goulding"]

[extra]
team = "the Infrastructure team"
team_url = "https://www.rust-lang.org/governance/teams/infra#team-infra"
+++

In Rust 1.90.0, the target `x86_64-apple-darwin` will be demoted to Tier 2 with host tools.
The standard library and the compiler will continue to be built and distributed,
but automated tests of these components are no longer guaranteed to be run.

## Background

Rust has supported macOS for a long time,
with some amount of support dating back to Rust 0.1 and likely before that.
During that time period,
Apple has changed CPU architectures from x86 to x86\_64 and now to Apple silicon,
ultimately announcing the [end of support][timeline] for the x86\_64 architecture.

Similarly,
[GitHub has announced][gha] that they will no longer provide free macOS x86\_64 runners for public repositories.
The Rust Project uses these runners to execute automated tests for the `x86_64-apple-darwin` target.
Since the [target tier policy][policy] requires that Tier 1 platforms must run tests in CI,
the `x86_64-apple-darwin` target must be demoted to Tier 2.

## What changes?

Starting with Rust 1.90.0, `x86_64-apple-darwin` will be Tier 2 with host tools.
For users,
nothing will change immediately;
builds of both the standard library and the compiler will still be distributed by the Rust Project for use via `rustup` or alternative installation methods.

Over time,
this target will likely accumulate bugs faster due to reduced testing.

## Future

If the `x86_64-apple-darwin` target causes concrete problems,
it may be demoted further.
No plans for further demotion have been made yet.

For more details on the motivation of the demotion, see [RFC 3841][].

[policy]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/rustc/target-tier-policy.html
[timeline]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_transition_to_Apple_silicon#Timeline
[gha]: https://github.blog/changelog/2025-07-11-upcoming-changes-to-macos-hosted-runners-macos-latest-migration-and-xcode-support-policy-updates/#macos-13-is-closing-down
[RFC 3841]: https://rust-lang.github.io/rfcs/3841-demote-x86_64-apple-darwin.html