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Ladybird: Closing this as we are no longer pursuing Swift adoption

February 18, 2026
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Ladybird: Closing this as we are no longer pursuing Swift adoption

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List of issues preventing moving forward on moving Swift 6.0 support out of an experimental state:

Swift issues:

Please backport d8352e93c1c8042d9166eab3d76d6c07ef585b6d swiftlang/llvm-project#8998

Details: Swift's version of LLVM is missing the fix for [Clang] ICE in CheckPointerToMemberOperands passing decltype of lambda llvm/llvm-project#53815. This means that any assertions build of llvm from the swift open source project cannot build our code. Snapshot builds are released with assertions on.

Workaround: Build swift from source on Linux without llvm assertions, or use macOS.

PR: 🍒 [Clang] [Sema] Handle placeholders in '.*' expressions (#83103) swiftlang/llvm-project#9038

Fixed in Swift 6.0.0 release

Interop: Compiler and C++ Bridging header disagree on ABI of Optional<CxxValueType> swiftlang/swift#75593

Details: It is not currently possible to return a swift optional of a small C++ type back to C++. The compiler and the generated bridging header disagree on how that is supposed to be done.

Workaround: Don't use Optional, use a return type that forces the C++ type to be heap allocated. Array is one alternative.

Interop: Compiling with C++17 or higher on Ubuntu 22.04 fails with cyclic header dependencies in libstdc++ swiftlang/swift#75661

Details: Swift's clang module map for libstdc++ contains cycles when <execution> is included. See https://forums.swift.org/t/swift-5-9-release-on-ubuntu-22-04-fails-to-build-std-module/67659

Workaround: Edit <prefix>/lib/swift/linux/libstdcxx.h to comment out the #include <execution> line.

PR: [cxx-interop] Disable c++ execution header with libstdcxx versions >= 11 swiftlang/swift#75662 (Just a workaround, not a fix)

6.0 Backport: 🍒 [cxx-interop] Disable c++ execution header with libstdcxx versions >= 11 swiftlang/swift#75971

Fixed in swiftlang/swift:main and release/6.0, but not in 6.0.0 or 6.0.1

Interop: Cannot return swift::Optional<swift::String> from C++ function swiftlang/swift#76024

Details: Returning binding types swift::Optional<T> or swift::String from a C++ function is not supported

Workaround: Return std:: types?

Swift cannot import libstdc++-13 chrono header in C++23 mode swiftlang/swift#76809

Details: Swift 6.0 cannot import libstdc++-13 or higher <chrono> header.

Workaround: Use libc++ or a lower libstdc++ version. libstdc++-13 is default on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Fixed in swiftlang/swift:main as of Oct 18, 2024

[cxx-interop] SIL verifier crash in Unmanaged.passUnretained() on SWIFT_UNSAFE_REFERENCE type swiftlang/swift#80065

Details: SIL verifier crash when trying to compare unsafe reference types by pointer

Workaround: Disable SIL verification (!! yikes)

Fixed in [cxx-interop] Relax a SILVerifier assertion for immortal reference types swiftlang/swift#81614

[cxx-interop] Bitfield setter/getter for SWIFT_UNSAFE_REFERENCE crashes frontend swiftlang/swift#80182

Details: SWIFT_UNSAFE_REFERENCE types with getters/setters for bitfields crash the frontend

Workaround: ... don't use SWIFT_UNSAFE_REFERENCE? unsure. Need guidance

Fixed in [cxx-interop] Do not create mutating properties for classes swiftlang/swift#80197

CxxInterop: Swift does not synthesize CxxConvertibleToContainer iterator operator== in some cases swiftlang/swift#77607

Details: Vector<u32, 2> is not recognized as CxxConvertibleToContainer

Workaround: Treat it as a sequence instead, and any transfer to a swift type requires manual copying of elements

Enabling cxx interop on Arch with GCC 15 causes lots of errors swiftlang/swift#81774

Details: Swift fails to import clang modules with #include <math.h> with libstdc++-15 installed.

Workaround: None (!!)

CMake issues:

https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues/26174

Details: Swift + Ninja doesn't respect CMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET. This results in a mismatched LC_BUILD_VERSION on swift and c++ object files, spamming the console with warnings.

Workaround:

ladybird/Meta/CMake/Swift/swift-settings.cmake

Lines 21 to 24

in

113b4da

https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues/26175

Details: With CMP0157 enabled, swiftc does not set install_name directory to "@rpath" per CMAKE_INSTALL_NAME_DIR

Workaround:

ladybird/Userland/Libraries/LibGfx/CMakeLists.txt

Lines 123 to 128

in

113b4da

PR: https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/merge_requests/9692. Merged Aug 2, 2024 to be backported to CMake 3.29, 3.30.

https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues/26195

Details: Imported targets from dependencies can have INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS or INTERFACE_LINK_OPTIONS that swiftc doesn't understand.

Workaround: Swizzle the flags just after import, for every single imported library.

Ladybird issues:

AK+LibGfx: Explicitly spell out headers in the clang module map #965

Details: Creating a modulemap for larger libraries can cause issues with libc headers. For example, creating an umbrella directory entry for LibGfx causes issues with <math.h>, which is clearly included in every file that is complaining about it. Needs more module.modulemap massaging to get the clang frontend/swiftc to properly associate system headers with system modules and not our own modules

Workaround: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Resolution: Generate module maps for each library

Swift: Importing AK and querying type properties crashes swift-frontend in Debug build #1101

Details: Building the CxxSequence protocol conformance test for AK containers crashes the swift frontend process in debug mode

Workaround: Build in release mode lmao

Upstream bug: Not yet reduced

Swift: Using un-namespaced 'String' type after importing AK crashes swift frontend #1102

Details: A function that takes an unnamespaced String argument will crash the swift frontend if AK is imported

Workaround: Qualify all references to String as AK.String or Swift.String

Upstream bug: [cxxinterop] UNREACHABLE in AstMangler when mangling C++ type imported via global using declaration swiftlang/swift#82108

Swift: Building AK swift test with Testing module crashes compiler frontend #1201

Details: Using swift-testing to test AK container conformance to swift interop protocols crashes the frontend

Workaround: Keep custom test runner code

Upstream bug: Not yet reduced

Swift: AK::StringView is no longer a CxxSequenceType on swift/main #2168

Details: AK::StringView fails to conform to CxxSequenceType on swift/main

Workaround: Reach into the bytesUnsafe() in order to iterate over the bytes of the view as a sequence

Upstream bug: Not yet reduced

Nice-to-have:

Interop: Application crash when returning Optional<CxxType> swiftlang/swift#79767

Details: Returning MyCxx.CxxType? from a swift function that is called from C++ crashes on call.

Workaround: Return as [MyCxx.CxxType] instead, with a 0 or 1-sized array

Root-level compile_commands.json required for simple CMake projects swiftlang/vscode-swift#1449

Details: Top-level compile_commands.json is required for SourceKit-LSP and vscode-swift to grok the project

Workaround: Create a symlink ln -s Build/release/compile_commands.json compile_commands.json

Automatically include path to <swift/bridging> in SDK installs swiftlang/swift#80142

Details: An extra include path is required to include <swift/bridging> on Linux

Workaround: Grab the path from swiftc -print-target-info

Open questions:

Unclear how to pass view types or byte slices to swift without creating a copy.

Unclear how to convince Swift that our types are just as good as std:: ones.

How to integrate with our garbage collector? https://forums.swift.org/t/ladybird-browser-and-swift-garbage-collection/76084

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Alex Chen

Alex Chen

Senior Tech Editor

Covering the latest in consumer electronics and software updates. Obsessed with clean code and cleaner desks.