--- title: "Crystal 1.22.0 is released!" slug: crystal-1-22-0-is-released url: https://listedarticles.com/articles/crystal-1-22-0-is-released canonical_url: https://crystal-lang.org/2026/10/12/1.22.0-released/ content_type: changelog language: en published_at: 2026-10-12T00:00:00.000Z updated_at: 2026-10-22T14:17:42.669Z author: "Johannes Müller" authored_by: human publisher: "The Crystal Programming Language" publisher_url: https://crystal-lang.org/ topics: ["Programming Languages", "Open Source", "Programming"] license: all-rights-reserved word_count: 808 reading_minutes: 4 citation: "Johannes Müller, The Crystal Programming Language. \"Crystal 1.22.0 is released!.\" 12 Oct 2026. https://crystal-lang.org/2026/10/12/1.22.0-released/ (all-rights-reserved)" # The full text follows. The web page shows an extract and sends readers # to the source above; quote the citation and link the canonical URL. --- # Crystal 1.22.0 is released! > Crystal 1.22.0 ships 251 changes from 33 contributors: standard streams now exit on EPIPE like SIGPIPE, revamped DWARF parsing, a native event loop on all targets, LLVM 23 and 24 support, aarch64-linux promoted to Tier 1, and Process.fork removed. # Crystal 1.22.0 is released! 12 Oct 2026 - ![](https://crystal-lang.org/assets/authors/straight-shoota.jpg) Johannes Müller [API Docs](https://crystal-lang.org/api/1.22.0) [Changelog](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/releases/tag/1.22.0) [Source](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/tree/1.22.0) ## Highlights - [Standard streams emulate SIGPIPE](#breaking-exit-on-pipe-error) stdlib/runtime - [Revamped DWARF parsing for performance](#dwarf-refactor) stdlib/runtime - [All targets support native event loop](#eventloop) stdlib/runtime - [Support for LLVM 23 & 24](#dependencies) stdlib/llvm - [`aarch64-linux` promoted to Tier 1](#aarch64-linux-promoted-to-tier-1) platform/linux We are announcing a new Crystal release 1.22.0 with several new features and bug fixes. Pre-built packages are available on [GitHub Releases](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/releases/tag/1.22.0) and our official distribution channels. See [crystal-lang.org/install](https://crystal-lang.org/install/) for installation instructions. ## Stats This release includes [251 changes since 1.21.1](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pulls?q=is%3Apr+milestone%3A1.22.0) by 33 contributors. We thank all the contributors for all the effort put into improving the language! ❤️ ## Changes Below we list the most remarkable changes in the language, compiler, and stdlib. For more details, visit the [full changelog](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/blob/master/doc/changelogs/v1.22.md). ### Breaking: Exit on pipe error Crystal processes exit immediately when writing to STDOUT or STDERR fails with `EPIPE`. This closely resembles the default behaviour of the `SIGPIPE` signal. Previously, the failing write would raise `IO::Error`, which typically prints an error message and exits. This error message is now removed ([#17335](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17335)). You can opt out of this behaviour with `STDOUT.exit_on_broken_pipe = false`. *Thanks, [@straight-shoota](https://github.com/straight-shoota)* ### Constants with type declarations Constants can have type declarations ([#16951](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/16951)). They work exactly as you would expect the combination of constants and type declarations to be. ``` module Foo BAR : Int32 = 1 BAZ : String = "" QUX : Int64 = 123 # autocasts 123 to Int64 end ``` *Thanks, [@stakach](https://github.com/stakach)* ### `aarch64-linux` promoted to Tier 1 The targets `aarch64-linux-gnu` and `aarch64-linux-musl` moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1. The only missing piece was that we were lacking official builds, but we have that since 1.19. ### Breaking: `Process.fork` removed `Process.fork` had been deprecated sine before 1.0 and now we finally removed it ([#17367](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17367)) *Thanks, [@straight-shoota](https://github.com/straight-shoota)* ### New Macros - New macros enable more text operations at compile time: `StringLiteral#bytesize` ([#17176](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17176)), `NumberLiteral#chr` ([#17169](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17169)) and `RangeLiteral#each` supports `CharLiteral` ([#17170](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17170)) *Thanks, [@straight-shoota](https://github.com/straight-shoota)* ### Compiler New constants `Crystal::ALL_FLAGS` and `Crystal::USER_FLAGS` provide access to the compile time flags ([#17392](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17392)). *Thanks, [@straight-shoota](https://github.com/straight-shoota)* ### DWARF refactor We completely revamped DWARF parsing to enhance performance and reduce memory usage. The DWARF parser now scans sections on demand ([#17283](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17283)) and builds an efficient index table once ([#17410](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17410), [#17455](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17455)), which results in blazingly fast look ups. Decoded backtrace lines are cached in an LRU cache ([#17285](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17285)). Also added aupport for DWARF 5 features `DW_FORM_addrx` and `DW_FORM_strx` ([#17445](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17445)). *Thanks, [@ysbaddaden](https://github.com/ysbaddaden)* ### HTTP improvements We merged numerous improvements and bug fixes for HTTP. - `#remote_address` and `#local_address` moved from `HTTP::Request` to `HTTP::Context` ([#17196](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17196)) - Add `HTTP::Headers#merge` ([#17326](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17326)) - Serialize `IO::Memory` in HTTP body with `Content-Length` header ([#17388](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17388)) Bug fixes: - Reject unrecognized HTTP `Transfer-Encoding` header ([#17140](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17140)), invalid `Content-Encoding` ([#17262](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17262)), and invalid HTTP trailer ([#17337](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17337)) - **[breaking]** Fix the return values of `HTTP::Request#body=` and `#content_length=` ([#17257](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17257), [#17273](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17273)) - Fix `HTTP.parse_headers_and_body` to not raise with `without_zlib` ([#17272](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17272)) - Validate properties of `HTTP::WebSocketHandler` ([#17235](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17235)), `HTTP::Request` ([#17255](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17255),[#17304](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17304), [#17374](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17374), [#17310](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17310), [#17312](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17312), [#17258](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17258)), `HTTP::Headers` name ([#17317](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17317)) - Close `HTTP::Client` on `IO::Error` during request ([#17318](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17318)) - Fix `Content-Encoding: deflate` ([#17261](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17261)) - Fix `HTTP::Request.from_io` parsing empty header name ([#17254](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17254)) - Fix `HTTP::Request#form_params?` to ignore invalid content-type ([#17256](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17256)) *Thanks [@straight-shoota](https://github.com/straight-shoota), [@hahwul](https://github.com/hahwul), [@jgaskins](https://github.com/jgaskins), [@Sija](https://github.com/Sija)* ### Eventloop All targets support a native event loop based directly on the system selector and use it by default. We enabled `epoll` on Solaris ([#17370](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17370)) and `kqueue` on all remaining BSD targets ([#17421](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17421), [#17420](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17420)). `libevent` is still available as a fallback, but now it’s strictly opt-in and becoming technically obsolete. We expect to deprecate in a following release. *Thanks, [@ysbaddaden](https://github.com/ysbaddaden)* ### KernelTLS We finally enabled support for Kernel TLS in the OpenSSL bindings by default ([#17059](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17059)) *Thanks, [@ysbaddaden](https://github.com/ysbaddaden)* ### Misc - `File.exists?` ([#17307](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17307)), as well as `File::Info.readable?`, `.writable?`, `.executable?` now receive a `follow_symlinks: false` argument([#17391](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17391)) - Add `Char::Reader.new(Bytes)` ([#17428](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17428)) - Add `Time::Span#to_nanoseconds` etc. ([#17190](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17190)) - Add `GC.syscall(&)` ([#17150](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17150)) - Fixed backtraces when linking with `-static-pie` on musl-libc ([#17316](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17316)) *Thanks, [@straight-shoota](https://github.com/straight-shoota), [@ysbaddaden](https://github.com/ysbaddaden)* ## Deprecations - Uppercase instance and class variables ([#17160](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17160)) - `HTTP::Request#local_address` and `#remote_address` ([#17260](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17260)) - `LLVM::Type#size` and `#alignment` ([#17494](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17494)) ## Dependencies - Support for LLVM 23.1 and 24.0 ([#17432](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17432)) - Updated markd 0.6.0 ([#17269](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17269)) *Thanks, [@straight-shoota](https://github.com/straight-shoota), [@hertzdevil](https://github.com/hertzdevil)* ## Packages Updated distribution-scripts ([#17178](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/17178)) brings upgrades of package dependencies, docker base images etc. *Thanks, [@straight-shoota](https://github.com/straight-shoota)* This is the first release featuring builds for `aarch64-windows-msvc`. *Thanks, [@hertzdevil](https://github.com/hertzdevil)* ## Maintainers Crystal established a forward compatibility policy in [RFC 30](https://github.com/crystal-lang/rfcs/blob/master/text/0030-forward-compatibility.md): Building Crystal 1.22 requires a stage-0 compiler at 1.14 or higher. --- Thanks We have been able to do all of this thanks to the continued support of [84codes](https://www.84codes.com/) and all other [sponsors](https://crystal-lang.org/sponsors/). To maintain and increase the development pace, donations, and sponsorships are essential. [OpenCollective](https://opencollective.com/crystal-lang) is available for that. Reach out to [crystal@manas.tech](mailto:crystal@manas.tech) if you’d like to become a direct sponsor or find other ways to support Crystal. We thank you in advance! [Contribute](https://crystal-lang.org/sponsors#contribute)