A Historic Moment for The Intel® Fortran Compiler Classic (ifort)

This Is The Last Planned Version of The Intel® Fortran Compiler Classic (ifort), as The Intel® Fortran Compiler (ifx) Becomes our Primary Compiler

In the second half of 2023 Intel announced the Deprecation and Removal for the Intel® Fortran Compiler Classic, (ifort).  The deprecation and removal notice appeared in the Intel® Fortran Compiler Release Notes,  in the product launch announcement, in meetings with our customers, in various blogs and webinars, and on our User Community Forum.  We hope you received the notice.  While you can still download ifort today ( Summer 2024 ), the time is soon approaching when there will be no more access to ifort downloads.  Also, the work that went into ifort 2021.13.0 that was released with Intel® oneAPI version 2024.2.0 in late June 2024 marked the last snapshot in the development of ifort that is planned for public release.  But be assured that our support for Intel® Fortran and support for Fortran in general is as strong as ever as we make the transition to our new compiler.  At this time, all users are asked to migrate from ifort to the Intel® Fortran Compiler, (ifx).  Here are some more details to help answer your questions and concerns.

The End of Development for ifort

It can be confusing to map package versions of Intel® oneAPI to compiler versions for ifort.  Understand that the compiler versions for ifort do not match the product versions for ifx and oneAPI Toolkits.  We have this article for all the details in mapping oneAPI releases to specific ifort and ifx versions.  Here is a more brief table of recent releases and the upcoming 2025.0 release that will be helpful for the remainder of this article:

With the recent release of Intel® oneAPI 2024.2 products and packages we begin to say goodbye to ifort and strongly urge users to move to ifx.  The 2024.2.0 release marked the last planned version in the development of ifort.  The version of this ifort compiler is version 2021.13.0.  While there may be minor patch updates, such as 2021.13.1 or 2021.13.2, going forward there is no further planned builds for ifort.  So as of today, the features and capabilities of ifort are frozen until such time as it is removed from public distribution.

Now is a Great Time to Migrate to the Intel® Fortran Compiler, ifx

The Intel® Fortran Compiler team has made great strides launching and stabilizing our next generation compiler, ifx.  And in 2024 we will continue to actively implement new features from the Fortran 2023 Standard.  And we will continue to fix any bugs found as users migrate from ifort to ifx.  As for the future of ifort, you can continue to download it and use it today.  However, time is near when we have this will no longer be true.  

Can I Still Download ifort?  And When Will It Be Removed?

Priority Customers with active Priority Support : ifort will be available through your account in the Intel® Registration Center (IRC) as a prior version download following our normal product availability model for Priority customers.  Priority Support customers get access to Previous Versions, as outlined in this article.  The versions provided by IRC follow our existing "current -2" support plan and are listed in our Supported and Unsupported Product Versions web page which is updated with every release.  

Free downloads: Ifort is available with free downloads for Intel®oneAPI packages containing ifort until the release of Intel® oneAPI version 2025.0.  This 2025.0 product is due to release in the last quarter of calendar year 2024. After the launch of oneAPI 2025.0 there will be no free downloads containing ifort. Until that time, Ifort is included in the 2024.2 versions of Intel® HPC Toolkit, and the component downloads and package manager repositories for Intel® Fortran Compiler.  Here is an article on the component downloads. Once version 2025.0 releases, you will not find free downloads for ifort.  If you want to use and keep a copy of a package containing ifort , please download a 2024.2 or older package before the release of oneAPI 2025.0

Will the ifort Compiler Get Fortran Language Features or Other Enhancements in Patch Releases?

No.  Development of ifort ended with version 2021.13.  With this release (oneAPI packages version 2024.2) we took the final code branch for ifort.  There will be no further feature, optimization, or language development for ifort.  The last feature changes to ifort occurred in late April, 2024.  All new development since April has gone into the Intel® Fortran Compiler, ifx. 

What if I Find a Bug in ifort?

With the Deprecation Announcement for Intel Fortran Compiler Classic on November 20th 2023, ifort officially entered "Legacy Product Support (LPS)" status.  Intel's support policy for LPS products limits support to fix only critical bugs (language, regressions) from Priority Customers and CVE issues. 

All customers: If we can reproduce the bug in ifx, we will fix that bug in ifx no matter whether or not you have Priority Support. 

Priority Support customers: If a bug with either ifx or ifort and you have Priority Support, you may submit a bug report using our Online Service Center. As a Priority Customer, if a reported bug affects ifort and not ifx, a determination will be made as to the criticality of the bug and impact.  The analysis of criticality involves consideration of many factors.  Criticality is evaluated in collaboration and discussion between the customer and the Intel Support and Development teams and is decided on a case-by-case basis.  Intel will work with you for a workaround or solution if LPS criticality criteria are met.

Non-Priority Support customers: If you do not have Priority Support, please try to reproduce the issue with the latest ifx compiler.  If the issue exists in the latest ifx version, please report the issue on our Intel Fortran Community Forum.  Bugs reported against ifx on the Community User Forum will only go into ifx.

What Will Patch Releases for ifort Contain?

While Intel may release “patch” updates after the 2024.2.0 packages, the core compiler will have no new features.  For processor support, ifort processor support ended with partial support for Sapphire Rapids. All processors after Sapphire Rapids, new Fortran Language Standard features, and new any features are all going exclusively into ifx and not into ifort.

Patch releases increment the last digit in the 3-digit version number.  For example, the first patch to 2021.13.0 would carry version number 2021.13.1.  Patch releases are not scheduled and only occur for fixes of the highest importance, such as critical security fixes.  It is also possible there will be no further Patch release for ifort.

History of the Deprecation and Removal of ifort:

The Intel® Fortran Compiler Classic, also known as ‘ifort’, was deprecated with the release of the Intel® oneAPI products in November, 2023. This notice contained both a notice for deprecation and a notice of the eventual removal of ifort from our product packages.

The deprecation and removal notice appeared in the Intel® Fortran Compiler Release Notes and on our User Community Forum.  I also wrote this blog with details on the deprecation and removal of ifort from our products.

Going Forward for Intel® Fortran Compiler

The Intel® Fortran Compiler Classic, ifort, has been the most popular commercial compiler since its evolution from Digital/Compaq Fortran.  Fortunately, the same code for the language parsing for ifort is the basis for our Intel® Fortran Compiler, ifx.  All of the language features, legacy features, and Fortran extensions you know from ifort are supported in ifx.  Going forward, ifx will carry these forward while at the same time implementing new Fortran Standard support alongside support for OpenMP Standards. And of course, ifx supports acceleration on Intel GPUs with best-in-class OpenMP 5.x and 6.0 features.  And so we begin to say “Goodbye” to ifort, with thanks for the many years it has supported the Fortran community.

 Concerns and Feedback

If you have further concerns or questions not answered here, please visit our Community User Forum.

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Ron Green #IAmIntel

Ron Green is manager for the Intel® Fortran Compiler development team. He is a customer advocate for Intel® Fortran and the larger Software and Advanced Technology Group (SATG) at Intel Corporation.  Ron is a moderator of the Intel Fortran Community Forum and is an Intel Developer Zone Black Belt Developer.  He has extensive experience as a Fortran developer and consultant in HPC for the past 31+ years and has been with Intel’s developer tools and compiler team for 16+ years.