GCC Prepares For C17 Language Support

Not to be confused with C++17 that brings many notable additions and improvements, C17 is also coming soon as an update to the C programming language.

The C17 programming language update is just a "bug fix version" to the C11 standard. C17 will soon go to ballot for voting and still might end up being known as C18, but for now the GNU Compiler Collection is getting prepped with patches as C17.

Joseph Myers of Code Sourcery posted the initial patch this weekend introducing C17/GNU17 and also making C17/GNU17 the new default standard for this C compiler front-end. There still are a few other compiler changes needed for the C17 changes, those patches will come following the introduction of this current patch for introducing -std=c17 and -std=gnu17.

The initial patch and commentary about C17 can be found on gcc-patches. This C17 support should be buttoned up in plenty of time for next year's GCC 8 stable compiler update.