Compiler Explorer's new state storage

Hello! As of today’s update, Compiler Explorer now has its own storage solution for when you click “Share” and pick “Short” from the dropdown. We used to store all the state in the URL itself, then we used goo.gl to shorten it. When Stack Overflow banned goo.gl, we rewrote goo.gl URLs to be godbolt.org/g/blah, where blah was the bit from goo.gl. So, your data was still stored with Google.

That’s all changed! Now short URLs are derived from data stored on the Compiler Explorer website itself. This has some very important changes:

• You’ll get a new Privacy Policy to agree to: we changed the policy to be clear that we will now store your data if you shorten links.
• The limit on URL length which previously prevented some longer code snippets or more complex layouts from being shortened is now lifted. There’s no practical limit any more: though we might pragmatically have to put one in.
• The short link unfurling that happens when you paste a link into Slack, Discord, or Twitter is much improved.
• Compiler Explorer admins are now responsible for your data. We understand this is a huge responsibility and take it very seriously. We have a number of safeguards in place to keep everything as safe and secure as we can.

If you have any issues with the new system please get in contact as soon as possible. You can email me, or tweet at me, or direct message me on the Cpplang Slack.

Over the next few weeks we hope to augment this system with further improvements. Watch this space!

As ever, huge thanks to Compiler Explorer’s main developer, Rubén Rincon!