diff --git a/vlib/v/builder/cc.v b/vlib/v/builder/cc.v
index 803fcf6c400917..e3c7bc79726bed 100644
--- a/vlib/v/builder/cc.v
+++ b/vlib/v/builder/cc.v
@@ -180,21 +180,18 @@ fn (mut v Builder) setup_ccompiler_options(ccompiler string) {
 	ccoptions.debug_mode = v.pref.is_debug
 	ccoptions.guessed_compiler = v.pref.ccompiler
 	if ccoptions.guessed_compiler == 'cc' {
-		if cc_ver := os.execute_opt('cc --version') {
-			if cc_ver.output.replace('\n', '').contains('Free Software Foundation, Inc.This is free software;') {
-				// Also covers `g++`, `g++-9`, `g++-11` etc.
-				ccoptions.cc = .gcc
-			} else if cc_ver.output.contains('clang version ') {
-				ccoptions.cc = .clang
-			} else {
-				if v.pref.is_verbose {
-					eprintln('failed to detect C compiler from version info `${cc_ver.output}`')
-				}
-				eprintln('Compilation with unknown C compiler')
-				ccoptions.cc = .unknown
-			}
+		cc_ver := os.execute('cc --version').output
+		if cc_ver.replace('\n', '').contains('Free Software Foundation, Inc.This is free software;') {
+			// Also covers `g++`, `g++-9`, `g++-11` etc.
+			ccoptions.cc = .gcc
+		} else if cc_ver.contains('clang version ') {
+			ccoptions.cc = .clang
 		} else {
-			panic('unknown C compiler')
+			if v.pref.is_verbose {
+				eprintln('failed to detect C compiler from version info `${cc_ver}`')
+			}
+			eprintln('Compilation with unknown C compiler')
+			ccoptions.cc = .unknown
 		}
 	} else {
 		cc_file_name := os.file_name(ccompiler)