On: I wrote a self-hosting C compiler in 40 days (2015...

[kardos]

So does this mean that we can put to rest the 'trusting trust' paradigm? As in, use 8cc to bootstrap our way into compiling gcc without using gcc?

[akkartik → kardos]

Indeed, a small trusted compiler is part of the solution. There's still some subtlety in how you use it, though: http://www.dwheeler.com/trusting-trust/dissertation/html/whe...

[rocqua → kardos]

Only if your version of the 8cc binary doesn't have GCC in it's compiler heritage, which it probably does.

The blog actually goes into this a bit, stating that the byte-value of '\n' never occurs in the source-code of 8cc. Instead, that value comes from gcc. It is entirely possible that gcc has the same property, eventually the source could be a hand-written compiler.

Really, to get around trusting trust, you need a compiler who's entire lineage you know (up to the hand-written compiler) and trust.