# Default kotlinc is still JVM 1.6? (well past end of life)

**URL:** <https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/t/default-kotlinc-is-still-jvm-1-6-well-past-end-of-life/21365>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [March 30, 2021, 1:44am UTC](https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/t/default-kotlinc-is-still-jvm-1-6-well-past-end-of-life/21365 "2021-03-30T01:44:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![benjaminhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@benjaminhill](https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/u/benjaminhill)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 1:44am UTC](https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/t/default-kotlinc-is-still-jvm-1-6-well-past-end-of-life/21365/1 "2021-03-30T01:44:46Z")

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I got bitten by this where I suggested users compile and run 3 short .kt files. It broke. After much head-scratching, we finally figured out that it was using JDK 1.6 as the default. This is… really out of date, right? 1.6 is well past end of life. 1.7 is EOL June 2020

It would be nice if the default command line `kotlinc` was -jvm-target 1.8+, then all the `internal` keywords won’t break it.

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**Author:** ![Alexey.Belkov](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.kotlinlang.org/alexey.belkov/32/5215_2.png) [@Alexey.Belkov](https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/u/Alexey.Belkov)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 9:27am UTC](https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/t/default-kotlinc-is-still-jvm-1-6-well-past-end-of-life/21365/2 "2021-03-30T09:27:38Z")

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1.8 will be the default since Kotlin 1.5: [https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-29405](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-29405)

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**Author:** ![benjaminhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@benjaminhill](https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/u/benjaminhill)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 11:08pm UTC](https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/t/default-kotlinc-is-still-jvm-1-6-well-past-end-of-life/21365/3 "2021-03-30T23:08:29Z")

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Yay!

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**Author:** ![dalewking](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.kotlinlang.org/dalewking/32/1496_2.png) [@dalewking](https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/u/dalewking)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2021, 3:28pm UTC](https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/t/default-kotlinc-is-still-jvm-1-6-well-past-end-of-life/21365/4 "2021-04-10T15:28:43Z")

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1.6 target is probably from the fact that Kotlin was mostly used for Android development in the beginning, which for some versions of Android means you are stuck at 1.6