Upgrading Macos Broke My C Compiler So I* Fixed It
Posted3 months ago
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The author fixed their C compiler after it broke following a macOS upgrade, sharing their solution in a blog post that received a positive reception from the HN community.
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Sep 26, 2025 at 1:17 PM EDT
3 months ago
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Yesterday, I seemingly became 'patient zero' of a bug in conda-forge's C compiler toolchain with the new macOS 26, where executables it compiled would immediately crash. Thankfully, the conda-forge core team were on hand to find the one-line patch needed to fix the problem, and guide me through the process of contributing the fix! I wrote a blog post describing the problem and how we fixed it on the same day it was found.
The takeaway for me is the evident power of free and open-source software — and especially of community-owned software distributions like conda-forge — that if somebody (or some big company) breaks your software, you can go and fix it yourself (/with the help of the conda-forge core team, who keep conda-forge running, often on a volunteer basis!), right down to the fundamental tools like the C compiler!