Compilers

Compilers: Overview — DMD — GDC — LDC ✎

DMD » Digital Mars D compiler The formal D compiler. DMD Portal »

GDC » GCC D compiler Fast and open source. GDC Portal »

LDC » LLVM D compiler Fast and open source. LDC Portal »

Which compiler should I use?

If you're a beginner DMD is the recommended choice, as it is the implementation closest to the D Language Specification. Otherwise it depends on what you need, what platforms you intend to develop for, and your personal preferences. GDC and LDC both generate substantially faster binaries than DMD.

Comparison

	DMD	GDC	LDC
Platforms	Windows Linux OS X FreeBSD Android (source)	Windows (alpha) Linux OS X (untested) FreeBSD (untested)	Windows Linux OS X FreeBSD OpenSolaris iOS (experimental) Android (alpha)
Architectures	i386 amd64	Complete (runtime / standard library) support: i386 amd64 x32 armel armhf Partial or bare-metal only support (packages for gdc in debian): alpha arm64 (aarch64) hppa hurd-i386 kfreebsd-amd64 kfreebsd-i386 m68k mips mipsel ppc pcc64 ppc64el s390x sparc64	Complete (runtime / standard library) support: i386 amd64 armel Near-complete support: arm64 (aarch64) ppc ppc64 ppc64el mips64 Partial or bare-metal only support: armhf mips s390x
Distribution	Source Multi-platform source/binary archive Multi-platform installer (DVM) Windows installer OS X package (.dmg) Debian/Ubuntu package (.deb) Fedora package (.rpm) OpenSUSE (.rpm) package Debian/Ubuntu repository via http://d-apt.sourceforge.net OS-X homebrew and macports repositories	Source Windows / Linux binary archive Debian/Ubuntu repository Gentoo repository Archlinux repository	Source Windows / Linux / OS X binary archive Debian/Ubuntu repository Fedora repository Gentoo repository
Backend	DMD (DMC fork)	GCC	LLVM
License	Frontend: GPL 1 or later / Artistic License Backend: custom	GPL 3 or later	LDC-specific code: 3-clause BSD
Inline assembler	DMD Intel-like syntax (i386/amd64)	GCC syntax (all targets)	DMD Intel-like syntax (i386/amd64) GCC syntax (all targets) LLVM inline IR
SIMD	Partial (?)	Partial (?)	Partial (?)
Phobos as a shared library	Linux FreeBSD ?		Linux
Building D code as shared library	Linux FreeBSD ? Windows ?		Linux
Dynamic loading of D shared libraries	Linux		Linux
Linux specific
Object file format	ELF	ELF	ELF
Mac specific
Object file format	Mach-O	Mach-O	Mach-O
Windows specific
Object file format	OMF (32) / COFF (32 & 64)	COFF	COFF

Package and/or binary availability, by platform and compiler

Version number is given in brackets. Many of the manual download links have 10s of versions available, only the most recent few are listed here.

Some unofficial repositories and downloads are listed here, but of course many more do exist. With a little searching, you may be able to find something more up to date for your chosen OS.

Very old compilers are (mostly) omitted, as they are unlikely to be of interest to users.

Platform	Compiler
	DMD	GDC	LDC
Windows	Manual download (2.068.2) Chocolatey (2.067.0, 2.068.1 available awaiting moderation)	Manual download (5.2.0 w/ dmd frontend 2.066.1)	Manual download (0.15.1, 0.15.2-beta2, 0.16.0-beta1)
OS X	Homebrew (2.068.2) MacPorts (2.068.0) Manual download (2.068.2)		Homebrew (0.16.0) Manual download (0.16.0)
iOS			Manual download (0.17.0-alpha1 experimental)
Android	Source (2.070 git master)		Manual download (0.17.0 alpha) Source (0.17.0 alpha)
Linux (generic)	Manual download (2.068.2)	Manual download (5.2.0 w/ dmd frontend 2.066.1)	Manual download (0.15.1, 0.15.2-beta2, 0.16.0-beta1)
Cross-platform	DVM (Any version)
Distribution-specific packages
Debian	Manual download (2.068.2) APT repository (2.068.0)	Stable (4.8.4, 4.9.2) Testing ((4.8.5, 4.9.3, 5.2.1)) Unstable (4.8.5, 4.9.3, 5.2.1)	Stable/Testing/Unstable (0.14.0) Experimental (0.15.1)
Ubuntu	Manual download (2.068.2) APT repository (2.068.0)	14.04 (4.8.4) 15.04 (4.8.4, 4.9.2) 15.10 (4.8.5, 4.9.3, 5.2.1)	15.04 (0.14.0) 15.10 (0.14.0)
Fedora	Manual download (2.068.2)		See https://apps.fedoraproject.org/packages/ldc 21 (0.13.0) 22 (0.15.1) 23 (0.15.2.beta1) Rawhide (0.16.0.alpha3)
OpenSuse	devel:languages:D (2.068.2)		devel:languages:D (0.15.1) home:marc_schuetz (0.15.2-beta2)
CentOS	Manual download (2.068.2)
Arch Linux	Community (2.068.2)	Community (5.2.0) AUR (git HEAD)	Community (0.15.1)
Gentoo	see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Dlang
FreeBSD	Manual download (2.068.2) Ports (2.067.0)

Experimental compilers and forks

• SDC (Stupid D Compiler) - from-scratch D compiler implementation, written in idiomatic D.
• Calypso - LDC fork which provides direct Clang interoperability, allowing the use of C headers directly.
• LDC for iOS - LDC-based toolkit for cross-compiling to iOS
• D for Android - Toolkit for cross-compiling to Android (x86 using DMD and ARM using LDC)
• MicroD - DMD fork which outputs C source code instead of object files
• dtojs - DMD fork which outputs JavaScript source code instead of object files
• DIL - D compiler written in D2/Tango (inactive project)

Category page: Experimental compilers