# RFC: Requiring Swift to build the Swift toolchain

**URL:** <https://forums.swift.org/t/rfc-requiring-swift-to-build-the-swift-toolchain/73836>\
**Category:** Compiler\
**Created:** [August 8, 2024, 4:22pm UTC](https://forums.swift.org/t/rfc-requiring-swift-to-build-the-swift-toolchain/73836 "2024-08-08T16:22:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 29

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**Author:** ![itaiferber](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/swift/user_avatar/forums.swift.org/itaiferber/32/33840_2.png) [@itaiferber](https://forums.swift.org/u/itaiferber)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 3:48pm UTC](https://forums.swift.org/t/rfc-requiring-swift-to-build-the-swift-toolchain/73836/29 "2024-11-11T15:48:55Z")

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> [@JordanG](#):
>
> If we are going to intentionally break full bootstrapping in a future release, let's have one final version of Swift where it is properly supported. Let's restore it to a fully working state and release it in 6.0.3 or 6.1.

This is already done — Swift 5.10 is already that last release series where bootstrapping is fully supported. To the best of my knowledge, Swift 6 has never supported bootstrapping, because the compiler pipeline is focused on the Swift-based driver. This isn't something that could be reasonably "temporarily" undone for a release of Swift 6.

I think at this stage, it would make sense to rip out mentions of bootstrapping from the build system, to make this more obviously official (and document this more explicitly to make it clear what the expected process should be like).

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