Swift 6.4 introduces a significant change to the Swift toolchain: Swift Build is now the default engine for the Swift Package Manager. According to The Register, this update unifies building across Linux, macOS, and Windows, giving developers on all three operating systems a common build pipeline.
The unification means that Swift package builds will behave consistently across platforms, reducing the need to account for platform-specific build quirks. The Register notes that the change is part of Swift 6.4, which continues the language's push toward broader cross-platform adoption beyond Apple's ecosystem.
With Swift Build as the default, the Swift Package Manager now has a single engine for handling builds on the three major desktop and server operating systems. This should make cross-platform Swift development more predictable and easier to manage.