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Merged
merged 11 commits into from
Jul 2, 2023
Merged

Implement most of MCP510 #112910

merged 11 commits into from
Jul 2, 2023

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lqd
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@lqd lqd commented Jun 21, 2023

This implements most of what remains to be done for MCP510:

  • turns -C link-self-contained into a +/- list of components, like -C link-self-contained=+linker,+crto,+libc,+unwind,+sanitizers,+mingw. The scaffolding is present for all these expected components to be implemented and stabilized in the future on their own time. This PR only handles the -Zgcc-ld=lld subset of these link-self-contained components as -Clink-self-contained=+linker
  • handles -C link-self-contained=y|n as-is today, for compatibility with rustc_codegen_ssa::back::link::self_contained's explicit opt-in and opt-out.
  • therefore supports our plan to opt out of rust-lld (when it's enabled by default) even for current -Clink-self-contained users, with e.g. -Clink-self-contained -Clink-self-contained=-linker
  • turns add_gcc_ld_path into its expected final form, by using the -C link-self-contained=+linker CLI flag, and whether the LinkerFlavor has the expected Cc::Yes and Lld::Yes shape (this is not yet the case in practice for any CLI linker flavor)
  • makes the new clean linker flavors selectable in the CLI in addition to the legacy ones, in order to opt-in to using cc and lld to emulate -Zgcc-ld=lld
  • ensure the new -C link-self-contained components, and -C linker-flavors are unstable, and require -Z unstable-options to be used

The up-to-date set of flags for the future stable CLI version of -Zgcc-ld=lld is currently: -Clink-self-contained=+linker -Clinker-flavor=gnu-lld-cc -Zunstable-options.

It's possible we'll also need to do something for distros that don't ship rust-lld, but maybe there are already no tool search paths to be added to cc in this situation anyways.

r? @petrochenkov

@rustbot rustbot added S-waiting-on-review Status: Awaiting review from the assignee but also interested parties. T-compiler Relevant to the compiler team, which will review and decide on the PR/issue. labels Jun 21, 2023
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Linking to the previous PRs: #96827 #96884

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do you want the CLI to be able to select actual LinkerFlavors (directly, without using LinkerFlavorCli)

I actually planned to implement it next weekend.
So, yes, but not necessarily in this PR.

Like this

pub enum LinkerFlavorCli {
    // New
    Gnu(Cc, Lld),
    Darwin(Cc, Lld),
    WasmLld(Cc),
    Unix(Cc),
    Msvc(Lld),
    EmCc,
    Bpf,
    Ptx,
    // Old
    Gcc,
    Ld,
    Lld(LldFlavor),
    Msvc,
    Em,
    BpfLinker,
    PtxLinker,
}

Then some of the old ones can be removed because they are tier 3, and the rest of them will be supported forever (i.e. this is not even a migration).

Then I wanted to add a couple of new "generic" flavors like *-cc or *-lld-* where the unspecified parts would be inferred from the target spec (the actual user-visible names won't contain *s of course).

@petrochenkov petrochenkov marked this pull request as ready for review June 22, 2023 15:56
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rustbot commented Jun 22, 2023

These commits modify compiler targets.
(See the Target Tier Policy.)

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This basically looks nearly ready for merging to me.
@rustbot author

@rustbot rustbot added S-waiting-on-author Status: This is awaiting some action (such as code changes or more information) from the author. and removed S-waiting-on-review Status: Awaiting review from the assignee but also interested parties. labels Jun 22, 2023
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lqd commented Jun 22, 2023

I can definitely add the new flavors to LinkerFlavorCli in this PR if you want, and a few tests, to make it a bit closer to usable for real.

I may miss some subtleties around the conversions, although now everything should be automatic, so I understand if you'd prefer doing it yourself.

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Full implementation of -C link-self-contained will also require modifying bootstrap to put all the things into corresponding subdirectories (and retrieving from there in rustc).

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@lqd
Yes, if you just add the new variants to enum LinkerFlavorCli it will do most of the work.
The only thing I expect breaking is check_compatibility, it may require writing out the match explicitly, because the roundtrip check will no longer work.

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lqd commented Jun 22, 2023

Ok great, I'll do that and report back.

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lqd commented Jun 22, 2023

I've tried adding the new flavors from the end of your old comment, and today's comment:

Like this

pub enum LinkerFlavorCli {
    // New
    Gnu(Cc, Lld),
    Darwin(Cc, Lld),
    WasmLld(Cc),
    Unix(Cc),
    Msvc(Lld),
    EmCc,
    Bpf,
    Ptx,
    // Old
    Gcc,
    Ld,
    Lld(LldFlavor),
    Msvc,
    Em,
    BpfLinker,
    PtxLinker,
}

A wrinkle was that we have both old and new values for Msvc so I merged the two and consider Msvc(Lld::No) as legacy.
That seemed safe to do, especially when keeping the legacy conversion code mostly as-is; but if you want we could have two different variants.

@rustbot ready

@rustbot rustbot added S-waiting-on-review Status: Awaiting review from the assignee but also interested parties. and removed S-waiting-on-author Status: This is awaiting some action (such as code changes or more information) from the author. labels Jun 22, 2023
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lqd commented Jun 28, 2023

rebased to fix conflicts

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petrochenkov commented Jun 29, 2023

It's possible we'll also need to do something for distros that don't ship rust-lld, but maybe there are already no tool search paths to be added to cc in this situation anyways.

I expected this to not require special treatment, even if we add the directory in which rust-lld is usually shipped to search paths, it will be empty and the search will continue to find lld elsewhere on the system.

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lqd commented Jun 29, 2023

Agreed, I had the same opinion. We could also check that the build config has rust.lld enabled for -Clinked-self-contained=+linker to work, and otherwise emit an error, like we do for similar cases.

But indeed it might just be a case of verifying that the fallback to another LLD on the $PATH works as we expect -- e.g. by adding a test in the future.

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In the end we'll probably have to drop bitflags again to accommodate for target defaults and heuristics.

Like

component1: Option<bool>,
...
componentN: Option<bool>,

Some(true) means explicitly enabled, Some(false) means explicitly disabled, and None means use default heuristics.

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Or maybe LinkSelfContainedDefault will use options, and LinkSelfContained keeps using bitflags.
Let's keep things as is for now.

@petrochenkov petrochenkov removed the S-waiting-on-review Status: Awaiting review from the assignee but also interested parties. label Jun 29, 2023
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lqd commented Jun 30, 2023

With a prayer to the MIPS gods of Segfaults:

@bors r=petrochenkov

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bors commented Jun 30, 2023

📌 Commit 38f5a99 has been approved by petrochenkov

It is now in the queue for this repository.

@bors bors added S-waiting-on-bors Status: Waiting on bors to run and complete tests. Bors will change the label on completion. and removed S-waiting-on-author Status: This is awaiting some action (such as code changes or more information) from the author. labels Jun 30, 2023
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bors commented Jul 2, 2023

⌛ Testing commit 38f5a99 with merge 8e2d5e3...

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bors commented Jul 2, 2023

☀️ Test successful - checks-actions
Approved by: petrochenkov
Pushing 8e2d5e3 to master...

@bors bors added the merged-by-bors This PR was explicitly merged by bors. label Jul 2, 2023
@bors bors merged commit 8e2d5e3 into rust-lang:master Jul 2, 2023
@rustbot rustbot added this to the 1.72.0 milestone Jul 2, 2023
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Finished benchmarking commit (8e2d5e3): comparison URL.

Overall result: ✅ improvements - no action needed

@rustbot label: -perf-regression

Instruction count

This is a highly reliable metric that was used to determine the overall result at the top of this comment.

mean range count
Regressions ❌
(primary)
- - 0
Regressions ❌
(secondary)
- - 0
Improvements ✅
(primary)
-0.4% [-0.4%, -0.4%] 3
Improvements ✅
(secondary)
-1.1% [-1.2%, -1.0%] 6
All ❌✅ (primary) -0.4% [-0.4%, -0.4%] 3

Max RSS (memory usage)

Results

This is a less reliable metric that may be of interest but was not used to determine the overall result at the top of this comment.

mean range count
Regressions ❌
(primary)
1.4% [0.5%, 2.7%] 4
Regressions ❌
(secondary)
- - 0
Improvements ✅
(primary)
-2.1% [-2.5%, -1.7%] 2
Improvements ✅
(secondary)
-1.6% [-1.6%, -1.6%] 1
All ❌✅ (primary) 0.2% [-2.5%, 2.7%] 6

Cycles

Results

This is a less reliable metric that may be of interest but was not used to determine the overall result at the top of this comment.

mean range count
Regressions ❌
(primary)
- - 0
Regressions ❌
(secondary)
5.4% [3.7%, 7.2%] 2
Improvements ✅
(primary)
- - 0
Improvements ✅
(secondary)
- - 0
All ❌✅ (primary) - - 0

Binary size

This benchmark run did not return any relevant results for this metric.

Bootstrap: 662.486s -> 661.616s (-0.13%)

@lqd lqd deleted the mcp510 branch July 2, 2023 07:02
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lqd commented Jul 2, 2023

Note for weekly triage: this doesn't change the compiler in any significant way, and requires opt-in flags, so these diesel and wg-grammar perf wins are noise.

matthiaskrgr added a commit to matthiaskrgr/rust that referenced this pull request Jul 13, 2023
make MCP510 behavior opt-in to avoid conflicts between the CLI and target flavors

Fixes rust-lang#113597, which contains more details on how this happens through the code, and showcases an unexpected `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor.

rust-lang#112910 added support to use `lld` when the flavor requests it, but didn't explicitly do so only when using `-Clink-self-contained=+linker` or one of the unstable `-Clinker-flavor`s.

The problem: some targets have a `lld` linker and flavor, e.g. `thumbv6m-none-eabi` from that issue. Users can override the linker but there are no linker flavors precise enough to describe the linker opting out of lld: when using `-Clinker=arm-none-eabi-gcc`, we infer this is a `Cc::Yes` linker flavor, but the `lld` component is unknown and therefore defaulted to the target's linker flavor, `Lld::Yes`.

<details>
<summary>Walkthrough of how this happens</summary>

The linker flavor used is a mix between what can be inferred from the CLI (`-C linker`) and the target's default linker flavor:

- there is no linker flavor on the CLI (and that also offers another workaround on nightly: `-C linker-flavor=gnu-cc -Zunstable-options`), so it will have to be inferred [from here](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs#L1334-L1336) to [here](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs#L1321-L1327).
- in [`infer_linker_hints`](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/mod.rs#L320-L352) `-C linker=arm-none-eabi-gcc` infers a `Some(Cc::Yes)` cc hint, and no hint about lld.
- the target's `linker_flavor` is combined in `with_cli_hints` with these hints. We have our `Cc::Yes`, but there is no hint about lld, [so the target's flavor `lld` component is used](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/mod.rs#L356-L358). It's [`Gnu(Cc::No, Lld::Yes)`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/993deaa0bf8bab9dd3eadfd1fbeb093328e95afe/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/thumb_base.rs#L35).
- so we now have our `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor

</details>

This results in a `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor on a non-lld linker, causing an additional unexpected `-fuse-ld=lld` argument to be passed.

I don't know if this target defaulting to `rust-lld` is expected, but until MCP510's new linker flavor are stable, when people will be able to describe their linker/flavor accurately, this PR keeps the stable behavior of not doing anything when the linker/flavor on the CLI unexpectedly conflict with the target's.

I've tested this on a `no_std` `-C linker=arm-none-eabi-gcc -C link-arg=-nostartfiles --target thumbv6m-none-eabi` example, trying to simulate one of `cortex-m`'s test mentioned in issue rust-lang#113597 (I don't know how to build a local complete  `thumbv6m-none-eabi` toolchain to run the exact test), and checked that `-fuse-lld` was indeed gone and the error disappeared.

r? `@petrochenkov`
matthiaskrgr added a commit to matthiaskrgr/rust that referenced this pull request Jul 13, 2023
make MCP510 behavior opt-in to avoid conflicts between the CLI and target flavors

Fixes rust-lang#113597, which contains more details on how this happens through the code, and showcases an unexpected `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor.

rust-lang#112910 added support to use `lld` when the flavor requests it, but didn't explicitly do so only when using `-Clink-self-contained=+linker` or one of the unstable `-Clinker-flavor`s.

The problem: some targets have a `lld` linker and flavor, e.g. `thumbv6m-none-eabi` from that issue. Users can override the linker but there are no linker flavors precise enough to describe the linker opting out of lld: when using `-Clinker=arm-none-eabi-gcc`, we infer this is a `Cc::Yes` linker flavor, but the `lld` component is unknown and therefore defaulted to the target's linker flavor, `Lld::Yes`.

<details>
<summary>Walkthrough of how this happens</summary>

The linker flavor used is a mix between what can be inferred from the CLI (`-C linker`) and the target's default linker flavor:

- there is no linker flavor on the CLI (and that also offers another workaround on nightly: `-C linker-flavor=gnu-cc -Zunstable-options`), so it will have to be inferred [from here](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs#L1334-L1336) to [here](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs#L1321-L1327).
- in [`infer_linker_hints`](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/mod.rs#L320-L352) `-C linker=arm-none-eabi-gcc` infers a `Some(Cc::Yes)` cc hint, and no hint about lld.
- the target's `linker_flavor` is combined in `with_cli_hints` with these hints. We have our `Cc::Yes`, but there is no hint about lld, [so the target's flavor `lld` component is used](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/mod.rs#L356-L358). It's [`Gnu(Cc::No, Lld::Yes)`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/993deaa0bf8bab9dd3eadfd1fbeb093328e95afe/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/thumb_base.rs#L35).
- so we now have our `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor

</details>

This results in a `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor on a non-lld linker, causing an additional unexpected `-fuse-ld=lld` argument to be passed.

I don't know if this target defaulting to `rust-lld` is expected, but until MCP510's new linker flavor are stable, when people will be able to describe their linker/flavor accurately, this PR keeps the stable behavior of not doing anything when the linker/flavor on the CLI unexpectedly conflict with the target's.

I've tested this on a `no_std` `-C linker=arm-none-eabi-gcc -C link-arg=-nostartfiles --target thumbv6m-none-eabi` example, trying to simulate one of `cortex-m`'s test mentioned in issue rust-lang#113597 (I don't know how to build a local complete  `thumbv6m-none-eabi` toolchain to run the exact test), and checked that `-fuse-lld` was indeed gone and the error disappeared.

r? ``@petrochenkov``
matthiaskrgr added a commit to matthiaskrgr/rust that referenced this pull request Jul 13, 2023
make MCP510 behavior opt-in to avoid conflicts between the CLI and target flavors

Fixes rust-lang#113597, which contains more details on how this happens through the code, and showcases an unexpected `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor.

rust-lang#112910 added support to use `lld` when the flavor requests it, but didn't explicitly do so only when using `-Clink-self-contained=+linker` or one of the unstable `-Clinker-flavor`s.

The problem: some targets have a `lld` linker and flavor, e.g. `thumbv6m-none-eabi` from that issue. Users can override the linker but there are no linker flavors precise enough to describe the linker opting out of lld: when using `-Clinker=arm-none-eabi-gcc`, we infer this is a `Cc::Yes` linker flavor, but the `lld` component is unknown and therefore defaulted to the target's linker flavor, `Lld::Yes`.

<details>
<summary>Walkthrough of how this happens</summary>

The linker flavor used is a mix between what can be inferred from the CLI (`-C linker`) and the target's default linker flavor:

- there is no linker flavor on the CLI (and that also offers another workaround on nightly: `-C linker-flavor=gnu-cc -Zunstable-options`), so it will have to be inferred [from here](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs#L1334-L1336) to [here](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs#L1321-L1327).
- in [`infer_linker_hints`](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/mod.rs#L320-L352) `-C linker=arm-none-eabi-gcc` infers a `Some(Cc::Yes)` cc hint, and no hint about lld.
- the target's `linker_flavor` is combined in `with_cli_hints` with these hints. We have our `Cc::Yes`, but there is no hint about lld, [so the target's flavor `lld` component is used](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/mod.rs#L356-L358). It's [`Gnu(Cc::No, Lld::Yes)`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/993deaa0bf8bab9dd3eadfd1fbeb093328e95afe/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/thumb_base.rs#L35).
- so we now have our `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor

</details>

This results in a `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor on a non-lld linker, causing an additional unexpected `-fuse-ld=lld` argument to be passed.

I don't know if this target defaulting to `rust-lld` is expected, but until MCP510's new linker flavor are stable, when people will be able to describe their linker/flavor accurately, this PR keeps the stable behavior of not doing anything when the linker/flavor on the CLI unexpectedly conflict with the target's.

I've tested this on a `no_std` `-C linker=arm-none-eabi-gcc -C link-arg=-nostartfiles --target thumbv6m-none-eabi` example, trying to simulate one of `cortex-m`'s test mentioned in issue rust-lang#113597 (I don't know how to build a local complete  `thumbv6m-none-eabi` toolchain to run the exact test), and checked that `-fuse-lld` was indeed gone and the error disappeared.

r? ```@petrochenkov```
matthiaskrgr added a commit to matthiaskrgr/rust that referenced this pull request Jul 13, 2023
make MCP510 behavior opt-in to avoid conflicts between the CLI and target flavors

Fixes rust-lang#113597, which contains more details on how this happens through the code, and showcases an unexpected `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor.

rust-lang#112910 added support to use `lld` when the flavor requests it, but didn't explicitly do so only when using `-Clink-self-contained=+linker` or one of the unstable `-Clinker-flavor`s.

The problem: some targets have a `lld` linker and flavor, e.g. `thumbv6m-none-eabi` from that issue. Users can override the linker but there are no linker flavors precise enough to describe the linker opting out of lld: when using `-Clinker=arm-none-eabi-gcc`, we infer this is a `Cc::Yes` linker flavor, but the `lld` component is unknown and therefore defaulted to the target's linker flavor, `Lld::Yes`.

<details>
<summary>Walkthrough of how this happens</summary>

The linker flavor used is a mix between what can be inferred from the CLI (`-C linker`) and the target's default linker flavor:

- there is no linker flavor on the CLI (and that also offers another workaround on nightly: `-C linker-flavor=gnu-cc -Zunstable-options`), so it will have to be inferred [from here](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs#L1334-L1336) to [here](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs#L1321-L1327).
- in [`infer_linker_hints`](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/mod.rs#L320-L352) `-C linker=arm-none-eabi-gcc` infers a `Some(Cc::Yes)` cc hint, and no hint about lld.
- the target's `linker_flavor` is combined in `with_cli_hints` with these hints. We have our `Cc::Yes`, but there is no hint about lld, [so the target's flavor `lld` component is used](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/mod.rs#L356-L358). It's [`Gnu(Cc::No, Lld::Yes)`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/993deaa0bf8bab9dd3eadfd1fbeb093328e95afe/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/thumb_base.rs#L35).
- so we now have our `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor

</details>

This results in a `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor on a non-lld linker, causing an additional unexpected `-fuse-ld=lld` argument to be passed.

I don't know if this target defaulting to `rust-lld` is expected, but until MCP510's new linker flavor are stable, when people will be able to describe their linker/flavor accurately, this PR keeps the stable behavior of not doing anything when the linker/flavor on the CLI unexpectedly conflict with the target's.

I've tested this on a `no_std` `-C linker=arm-none-eabi-gcc -C link-arg=-nostartfiles --target thumbv6m-none-eabi` example, trying to simulate one of `cortex-m`'s test mentioned in issue rust-lang#113597 (I don't know how to build a local complete  `thumbv6m-none-eabi` toolchain to run the exact test), and checked that `-fuse-lld` was indeed gone and the error disappeared.

r? ````@petrochenkov````
matthiaskrgr added a commit to matthiaskrgr/rust that referenced this pull request Jul 13, 2023
make MCP510 behavior opt-in to avoid conflicts between the CLI and target flavors

Fixes rust-lang#113597, which contains more details on how this happens through the code, and showcases an unexpected `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor.

rust-lang#112910 added support to use `lld` when the flavor requests it, but didn't explicitly do so only when using `-Clink-self-contained=+linker` or one of the unstable `-Clinker-flavor`s.

The problem: some targets have a `lld` linker and flavor, e.g. `thumbv6m-none-eabi` from that issue. Users can override the linker but there are no linker flavors precise enough to describe the linker opting out of lld: when using `-Clinker=arm-none-eabi-gcc`, we infer this is a `Cc::Yes` linker flavor, but the `lld` component is unknown and therefore defaulted to the target's linker flavor, `Lld::Yes`.

<details>
<summary>Walkthrough of how this happens</summary>

The linker flavor used is a mix between what can be inferred from the CLI (`-C linker`) and the target's default linker flavor:

- there is no linker flavor on the CLI (and that also offers another workaround on nightly: `-C linker-flavor=gnu-cc -Zunstable-options`), so it will have to be inferred [from here](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs#L1334-L1336) to [here](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs#L1321-L1327).
- in [`infer_linker_hints`](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/mod.rs#L320-L352) `-C linker=arm-none-eabi-gcc` infers a `Some(Cc::Yes)` cc hint, and no hint about lld.
- the target's `linker_flavor` is combined in `with_cli_hints` with these hints. We have our `Cc::Yes`, but there is no hint about lld, [so the target's flavor `lld` component is used](https://github.com/lqd/rust/blob/5dac6b320be868f898a3c753934eabc79ff2e406/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/mod.rs#L356-L358). It's [`Gnu(Cc::No, Lld::Yes)`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/993deaa0bf8bab9dd3eadfd1fbeb093328e95afe/compiler/rustc_target/src/spec/thumb_base.rs#L35).
- so we now have our `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor

</details>

This results in a `Gnu(Cc::Yes, Lld::Yes)` flavor on a non-lld linker, causing an additional unexpected `-fuse-ld=lld` argument to be passed.

I don't know if this target defaulting to `rust-lld` is expected, but until MCP510's new linker flavor are stable, when people will be able to describe their linker/flavor accurately, this PR keeps the stable behavior of not doing anything when the linker/flavor on the CLI unexpectedly conflict with the target's.

I've tested this on a `no_std` `-C linker=arm-none-eabi-gcc -C link-arg=-nostartfiles --target thumbv6m-none-eabi` example, trying to simulate one of `cortex-m`'s test mentioned in issue rust-lang#113597 (I don't know how to build a local complete  `thumbv6m-none-eabi` toolchain to run the exact test), and checked that `-fuse-lld` was indeed gone and the error disappeared.

r? `````@petrochenkov`````
rust-bors bot added a commit that referenced this pull request Jul 8, 2025
Use lld by default on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` stable

This PR and stabilization report is joint work with `@Kobzol.`

#### Use LLD on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` by default, and stabilize `-Clinker-features=-lld` and `-Clink-self-contained=-linker`

This PR proposes making LLD the default linker on the `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` target for the artifacts we distribute, and also stabilizing the `-Clinker-features=-lld` and `-Clink-self-contained=-linker` codegen options to make it possible to opt out.

LLD has been used as the default linker on nightly and CI on this target since May 2024 ([PR](#124129), [blog post](https://blog.rust-lang.org/2024/05/17/enabling-rust-lld-on-linux.html)), and it seems like it is working fine, so we would like to propose stabilizing it.

The main motivation for using LLD instead of the default BFD linker is improving [compilation times](https://perf.rust-lang.org/compare.html?start=b3e117044c7f707293edc040edb93e7ec5f7040a&end=baed03c51a68376c1789cc373581eea0daf89967&stat=instructions%3Au&tab=compile). For example, in the linked benchmark, it makes incremental recompilation of `ripgrep` in `debug` more than twice faster. Another benefit is that Rust compilation becomes more consistent and self-contained, because we will use a known version of the LLD linker, rather than "whatever GNU ld version is on the user's system".

Due to the performance benefit being so huge, many people already opt into using LLD (or other fast linkers, such as mold) using various approaches ([1](https://github.com/search?type=code&q=%2Flinker-flavor%5B%3D+%5Dgnu-lld-cc%2F), [2](https://github.com/search?type=code&q=%2Flinker-features%5B%3D+%5D%5C%2Blld%2F), [3](https://github.com/search?type=code&q=language%3Atoml+%22-fuse-ld%3Dlld%22), [4](https://github.com/search?type=code&q=language%3Arust+%22-fuse-ld%3Dlld%22)). By making LLD the default linker on the `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` target, we will be able to speed up Rust compilation out of the box, without users having to opt in or know about it.

> You can find an extended version of this stabilization report which includes analysis of crater results and more data [here](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view).

## What is being stabilized
- `rust-lld` being used as the default linker on the `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` target.
    - Note that `rust-lld` is being enabled by default in the compiler artifacts distributed by our CI/rustup. It is still possible to use the system linker by default using `rust.lld = false` in `bootstrap.toml`, which can be useful e.g. for some Linux distros that might not want to use the LLD we distribute.
    - This is done by activating the LLD linker feature and using the self-contained linker on that target. Both of which are also usable on the CLI, if some opt outs are necessary, as described below.
- `-Clinker-features=-lld` on the `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` target. This codegen option tells rustc to disable using the LLD linker.
    - Note that other options for this codegen flag (`cc`) remain unstable.
    - Note that only the opt-out is being stabilized, and only for `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`: opting in, or using the flag on other targets would still need to pass `-Zunstable-options`.
    - This flag is being stabilized so that users can opt out of LLD on stable, which would it turn also opt out of using the self-contained linker (since it's an LLD).
- `-Clink-self-contained=-linker`. This codegen option tells rustc to use the self-contained linker. It's not particularly useful to turn it on by itself, but when enabled and combined with `-Clinker-features=+lld`, rustc will use the `rust-lld` linker wrapper shipped with the compiler toolchain, instead of some `lld` binary that the linker driver will find in the `PATH`.
    - Note that other options for this codegen flag (other than the previously stable `y/yes/n/no`).
    - Note that only the opt-out is being stabilized, and only for `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`: opting in, or using this flag on other targets would still need to pass `-Zunstable-options`.
    - This flag is being stabilized so that users can opt out of using self-contained linking on stable. Doing this would then fall back to using the system `lld`.

To opt out of using LLD, `RUSTFLAGS="-Clinker-features=-lld"` would be used. To opt out of using `rust-lld`, falling back to the LLD installed on the system, `RUSTFLAGS="-Clink-self-contained=-linker"` would be used.

## Tests

When enabling `rust-lld` on nightly, we also switched x64 linux to use it at stage >= 1, meaning that all tests have been running with lld since May 2024, on CI as well as contributors' machines. (Post opt-dist tests also had been using it when running their test subset earlier than that).

There are also a few tests dedicated to the CLI behavior, or ensuring the default linker is indeed the one we expect:

- [link-self-contained-consistency](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/link-self-contained-consistency.rs): Checks that `-Clink-self-contained` options are not inconsistent (i.e. that passing both `+linker` and `-linker` is an error).
- [link-self-contained-unstable](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/link-self-contained-unstable.rs): Checks that only the `-linker` and `y/yes/n/no` options for `-Clink-self-contained` are stable.
- [linker-features-unstable-cc](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/linker-features-unstable-cc.rs): Checks that only the non-lld options of `-Clinker-features` are unstable.
- [linker-features-lld-disallowed](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/linker-features-lld-disallowed.rs): Checks that `-Clinker-features=-lld` is only stable on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`.
- [link-self-contained-linker-disallowed](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/link-self-contained-linker-disallowed.rs): Checks that `-Clink-self-contained=-linker` is only stable on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`.
- [no-gc-encapsulation-symbols](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/no-gc-encapsulation-symbols.rs): Checks that that linker encapsulation symbols are not garbage collected by LLD, so that crates like [linkme](https://github.com/dtolnay/linkme) still work.
- [rust-lld](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/run-make/rust-lld): Checks that LLD is actually used when enabled with `-Clinker-features=+lld` and `-Clink-self-contained=+linker`.
- [rust-lld-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/run-make/rust-lld-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu): Checks that LLD is used by default on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` when the bootstrap `rust.lld` config option is `true`.
- [rust-lld-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-dist](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/run-make/rust-lld-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-dist): Dist test that checks that our distributed `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` archives actually use LLD by default.

## Ecosystem impact
As already stated, LLD has been used as the default linker on x64 Linux on nightly for almost a year, and we haven't seen any blockers to stabilization in that time. There were a handful of issues reported, these are discussed later below.

Furthermore, two crater runs ([November 2023](https://crater-reports.s3.amazonaws.com/pr-117684-2/index.html), [February 2025](https://crater-reports.s3.amazonaws.com/pr-137044-3/index.html)), were performed to test the impact of using LLD as the default linker. A triage of the earlier crater run was previously done [here](https://hackmd.io/OAJxlxc6Te6YUot9ftYSKQ), but all the important findings from both crater runs are reported below.

Below is a list of compatibility differences between BFD and LLD that we have encountered. There is a more thorough list of differences in [this post](https://maskray.me/blog/2020-12-19-lld-and-gnu-linker-incompatibilities) from the current LLD maintainer. From that post, "99.9% pieces of software work with ld.lld without a change".

---

### `.ctors/.dtors` sections
[#128286](#128286) reported an issue where LLD was unable to link certain CUDA library was using these sections that were using the `.ctors/.dtors` ELF sections. These were deprecated a long time ago (https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=46770), replaced with a more modern `.init_array/.fini_array` sections. LLD doesn't (and won't) support these sections ([1](llvm/llvm-project#68071), [2](llvm/llvm-project#30572)), so if they appear in input object files, the linked artifact might produce incorrect behavior, because e.g. some global variables might not get initialized properly.

However, the usage of `.ctors/.dtors` should be very rare in practice. We have performed a [crater run](#137044) to test this. It has identified only 8 crates where the `.ctors/.dtors` section is occurring in the final linked artifact. It was caused by a few crates using the `.ctors` link section manually, and by using a very (~6 year) old version of the [ctor](https://crates.io/crates/ctor) crate.

[Crater run analysis](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view#ctorsdtors-sections)

**Possible workaround**
It is possible to [detect](e5e2316) if `.ctors/.dtors` section is present in the final linked artifact (LLD will keep it there, but it won't be populated), and warn users about it. This check is very cheap and doesn't even appear on [perf](#112049 (comment)). We have benchmarked the check on a 240 MiB Chrome binary, where it took 0.8ms with page cache flushed, and 0.06ms with page cache primed (which should be the common case, as the linked artifact is written to disk just before the check is performed).

In theory, this could be also solved with a linker script that moves `.ctors` to `.init_array`.

We think that these sections should be so rare that it is not worth it to implement any workarounds for now.

---

### Different garbage collection behavior
[#130397](#130397) reported an issue where LLD prunes a local symbol, so it is missing in the linked artifact. However, BFD keeps the same symbol, so it is a regression. This is caused by a difference in linker garbage collection.

Rust uses `--gc-sections` and puts each function into a separate linker section, which prunes unused code. There is some code (specifically the somewhat popular [linkme](https://github.com/dtolnay/linkme) crate) that (arguably ab-)uses so called linker encapsulation symbols to achieve distributed slices.

BFD (2.37+) uses a conservative linking mode that works as intended with this behavior, but it might slightly increase binary size of the linked artifact. LLD does not use this workaround by default, which causes the sections to be eliminated, but it can be made to use the conservative mode using [`-z nostart-stop-gc`](https://lld.llvm.org/ELF/start-stop-gc.html#z-start-stop-gc).

To avoid this issue, we told LLD to use the [conservative mode](#137685), which maintains backwards compatibility with BFD. We found that it has [no effect](#112049 (comment)) on compilation performance and binary size in our benchmark suite. With this change, `linkme` works. Since then, #140872 removed `linkme` distributed slice's dependence on conservative GC behavior, so this PR also removes that conservative mode: no transition period is necessary, as the PR immediately fixed the crate with no source changes.

[Crater run analysis](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view#Different-garbage-collection-behavior)

---

### Various uncommon issues

A small number of issues that only occurred in a handful of instances were found in crater, and it is unclear if LLD is at fault or if there is some other issue that was not detected with BFD.

You can examine these [here](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view#Various-uncommon-issues).

---

### Missing jobserver support
LLD doesn't support the jobserver protocol for limiting the number of threads used, it simply defaults to using all available cores, and is one of the reasons why it's faster than BFD. However, this should mostly be a non-issue, because most of the linking done during high parallelism sections of `cargo build` is linking of build scripts and proc macros, which are typically very fast to link (e.g. ~50ms), and a potential oversubscription of cores thus doesn't hurt that much.

When the final artifact is linked (which typically takes the most time), there should be no other sources of parallelism conflicts from compiling other code, so LLD should be able to use all available threads.

That being said, it is a difference of behavior, where previously a `-j` flag was generally not using more cpu than the specified limit. It can be impactful in some resource-constrained systems, but to be clear that is already the case today due to [cargo parallelism](rust-lang/cargo#9157). This could be one reason to opt out of using `rust-lld` on some systems.

LLD has support for limiting the number of threads to use, so in theory rustc could try to get all the jobserver tokens available and use that as lld's thread limit. It'd still be suboptimal as new tokens would not be dynamically detected, and we could be using less threads than available.

We did a benchmark on a real-world crate that shows that using multiple LLD threads for intermediate artifacts doesn't seem to have a performance effect. You can find it [here](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view#Missing-jobserver-support).

---

#### Opting out of LLD in the ecosystem
We have also examined repositories where people opted out of LLD on nightly, using [this GitHub query](https://github.com/search?q=%22linker-features%3D-lld%22&type=code). The summary can be found below:

<details>
<summary>Summary of LLD opt outs</summary>

> This examination was performed on 2025-03-09.

Here we briefly examine the most common reasons why people use `-Zlinker-features=-lld`, based on comments and git history.

- Nix/NixOS ([1](https://github.com/rszyma/vscode-kanata/blob/59d703dff5a238b14ab3759cac27f73fb34bbcfe/flake.nix#L33), [2](https://github.com/sbernauer/breakwater/blob/3cc3449fc126c5c99d4a971733fd32be589884e0/.cargo/config.toml#L4), [3](https://github.com/tiiuae/ebpf-firewall/blame/32bdb17cedd1c9bea1ab3482623de458d95da7d0/.cargo/config.toml#L2), [4](https://github.com/jules-sommer/wavetheme-gen/blob/f5f657d014d4a30607625afb70f810c229c0294e/Cargo.toml#L4), [5](https://github.com/LayerTwo-Labs/zside-rust/blob/e4266f5c5571a1b180a9c70cf0939c7070e410c7/.cargo/config.toml#L10), [6](https://github.com/przyjacielpkp/zkml/blob/22a4aef24e9d2c77789229d7c634fc67e9eb1184/README.md?plain=1#L78), [7](https://github.com/LayerTwo-Labs/thunder-rust/blob/2222d53474c8d2d0428b4c56f8157095dced6d5a/.cargo/config.toml#L2), [8](https://github.com/enesoztrk/nixos-tc-aya-test/blob/b2ffa59d3eba8b60fd04b0a4c8bbe047400eb981/.cargo/config.toml#L4), [9](https://github.com/lowRISC/container-hotplug/blob/3ead4ef9c7f79c303392178c99677dbecff1aea6/.cargo/config.toml#L2), [10](https://github.com/Eliah-Lakhin/ad-astra/blob/ca6b8c8a5dba7bb5e894f3f1013f17876962a021/work/examples/lsp-client/src/extension.ts#L94))
    - There was an [issue](NixOS/nixpkgs#312661) with LLD, which seems to have been fixed with NixOS/nixpkgs#314268.
 It's unclear whether that fixed all the Nix issues though.
- Issues with linkme ([1](https://github.com/0xPolygonZero/zk_evm/blob/ef388619ffbd5305209519a3a5bc0396185d68ac/.cargo/config.toml#L4), [2](https://github.com/conjure-cp/conjure-oxide/blob/be0fc5827ff90e8486d416cc184b6ce24f73bf01/README.md?plain=1#L20), [3](https://github.com/clchiou/garage/blob/c5d8444d56bb6ee24ca95e5c6b9880ed996f4918/rust/.cargo/config.toml#L6), [4](https://github.com/PonasKovas/craftflow/blob/5b4cc1a5196e08a975368399fefda4b71f3a2f6f/.cargo/config.toml#L3), [5](https://github.com/kezhuw/zookeeper-client-rust/blob/4e27c7de2a7cc5e709af012b791c8fea9bb47f1f/.github/workflows/ci.yml#L82), [6](https://github.com/niklasdewally/conjure-oxide/blob/8fe60c12bca7011a2f9eded4b7c95ad0e77b6f44/.github/workflows/code-coverage.yml#L48), [7](https://github.com/kezhuw/spawns/blob/c8b468379805de9df3287c01b94b4ed3db6b61ed/.github/workflows/ci.yml#L74))
    - These should be resolved with the conservative garbage collection ([#137685](#137685)).
- Bazel ([1](https://github.com/google-parfait/confidential-federated-compute/blob/1823f69ed8f5f4f819f7bfa21da1ca629fdc826b/.bazelrc#L71)), WASM ([1](https://github.com/Eliah-Lakhin/ad-astra/blob/ca6b8c8a5dba7bb5e894f3f1013f17876962a021/work/examples/wasm-build.sh#L37), [2](https://github.com/yacineb/pgrx-wasi-test/blob/2bf99037ca1b650b2cbc35f1257a87fb6ead0920/build.sh#L21)), uncategorized ([2](https://github.com/nbdd0121/r2vm/blob/5118be6b9e757c6fef2f019385873f403c23c548/.cargo/config.toml#L3), [3](https://github.com/Wyvern/Img/blame/45020c7e1dc4926c8129647014c708db0c13f463/.cargo/config.toml#L209), [4](https://github.com/arnaudpoullet/leptos-i18n-compile-error/blob/042eb835f7ca0dc36be67cf7fe65b35b22b6059f/README.md?plain=1#L89), [5](https://github.com/JonLeeCon/numerical-rust-cpu/blob/fd0b3006768ed81c56147044dc05c92b11b7b6f0/exercises/.cargo/config.toml#L13), [6](https://github.com/PonasKovas/shallowclone/blob/be65f2ec923cac6ceedbc8db520c89969ebfce7c/.github/workflows/rust.yml#L20))
    - Reason unclear.
</details>

## History
The idea to use a faster linker by default has been on the radar for quite some time ([#39915](#39915), [#71515](#71515)). There were [very early attempts](#29974) to use the gold linker by default, but these had to be [reverted](#30913) because of compatibility issues. Support for LLD was implemented back in [2017](#40018), but it has not been made default yet, except for some more niche targets, such as [WASM](#48125), [ARM Cortex](#53648) or [RISC-V](#53822).

It took quite some time to figure out how should the interface for selecting the linker (and the way it is invoked) look like, as it differs a lot between different platforms, linkers and compiler drivers. During that time, LLD has matured and achieved [almost perfect compatibility](https://maskray.me/blog/2020-12-19-lld-and-gnu-linker-incompatibilities) with the default Linux linker (BFD).

- [#56351](#56351) stabilized `-Clinker-flavor`, which is used to determine how to invoke the linker. It is especially useful on targets where selecting the linker directly with `-Clinker` is not possible or is impractical.
    - December 2018, author `@davidtwco,` reviewer `@nagisa`
- [#76158](#76158) stabilized `-Clink-self-contained=[y|n]`, which allows overriding the compiler's heuristic for deciding whether it should use self-contained or external tools (linker, sanitizers, libc, etc.). It only allowed using the self-contained mode either for everything (`y`) or nothing (`n`), but did not allow granular choice.
    - September 2020, author `@mati864,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`
- [#85961](#85961) implemented the `-Zgcc-ld` flag, which was a hacky way of opting into LLD usage.
    - June 2021, author `@sledgehammervampire,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`
- [MCP 510](rust-lang/compiler-team#510) proposed stabilizing the behavior of `-Zgcc-ld` using more granular flags (`-Clink-self-contained=linker -Clinker-flavor=gcc-lld`).
    - Initially implemented in [#96827](#96827), but `@petrochenkov` [suggested](#96827 (comment)) a slightly different approach.
    - The PR was split into [#96884](#96884), where it was decided what will be the individual components of `-Clink-self-contained=linker`.
    - And [#96401](#96401), which implemented the `-Clinker-flavor` part.
    - The MCP was finally implemented in [#112910](#112910).
    - [#116514](#116514) then removed `-Zgcc-ld`, as it was replaced by `-Clinker-flavor=gnu-lld-cc` + `-Clink-self-contained=linker`.
    - April 2022 - October 2023, author `@lqd,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`

- Various linker handling refactorings were performed in the meantime: [#97375](#97375), [#98212](#98212), [#100126](#100126), [#100552](#100552), [#102836](#102836), [#110807](#110807), [#101988](#101988), [#116515](#116515)

- The implementation of linker flavors with LLD was causing a sort of a combinatorial explosion of various options.
[#119906](#119906) suggested a different approach for linker flavors (described [here](#119906 (comment))), where the individual flavors could be enabled separately using `+/-` (e.g. `+lld`).
    - After some back and forth, this idea was moved to `-Clinker-features` (see [comment 1](#119906 (comment)) and [comment 2](#119906 (comment))), which was implemented in [#123656](#123656).
    - April 2024, author `@lqd,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`
- [#124129](#124129) enabled LLD by default on nightly.
    - April 2024, author `@lqd,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`
- [#137685](#137685), [#137926](#137926) enabled the conservative gargage collection mode (`-znostart-stop-gc`) to improve compatibility with BFD.
    - February 2025, author `@lqd,` reviewer `@petrochenkov` (implementation), author `@kobzol,` reviewer `@lqd` (test)
- [#96025](#96025) (April 2022), [#117684](#117684) (November 2023), [#137044](#137044) (February 2025): crater runs.

## Unresolved questions/concerns
- Is changing the linker considered a breaking change? In (hopefully very rare) cases, it might break some existing code. It should mostly only affect the final linked artifact, so it should be easy to opt out.
- Similarly, is the single-threaded behavior of such tools encompassed in our stability guarantee: it can be observed via the `-j` job limit (though I believe we have/had some open issues on sometimes using more CPU resources than the job count limit implied). As mentioned above, LLD does not support the jobserver protocol.
- A concern [was raised](#71515 (comment)) about increased memory usage of LLD. We should probably let users know about the possibly increased memory usage, and jobserver incompatibility: we did so when announcing this landing on nightly.
- LLD seems to produce [slightly larger](https://perf.rust-lang.org/compare.html?start=b3e117044c7f707293edc040edb93e7ec5f7040a&end=baed03c51a68376c1789cc373581eea0daf89967&stat=size%3Alinked_artifact&tab=compile) binary artifacts. This can be partially clawed back using Identical Code Folding (`-Clink-args=-Wl,--icf=all`).
- Should we detect the outdated `.ctors/.dtors` sections to provide a better error message, even if that should be rare in practice?

---

### Next steps

After the FCP completes:
- we should land this PR at the beginning of a beta cycle, to maximize time for testing
- keep an eye on the beta crater run results for possible linker issues (or do a dedicated beta crater run with only this change)
- release a blog post announcing the change, and asking for testing feedback of the appropriate beta
- depending on feedback, or if a period of testing of 6 weeks is not long enough, we could keep this change on beta for another cycle

---

Development, testing, try builds were done in #138645.

r? `@petrochenkov`
`@rustbot` label +needs-fcp +T-compiler
try-job: aarch64-gnu
try-job: i686-gnu-*
bors added a commit that referenced this pull request Jul 8, 2025
Use lld by default on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` stable

This PR and stabilization report is joint work with `@Kobzol.`

#### Use LLD on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` by default, and stabilize `-Clinker-features=-lld` and `-Clink-self-contained=-linker`

This PR proposes making LLD the default linker on the `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` target for the artifacts we distribute, and also stabilizing the `-Clinker-features=-lld` and `-Clink-self-contained=-linker` codegen options to make it possible to opt out.

LLD has been used as the default linker on nightly and CI on this target since May 2024 ([PR](#124129), [blog post](https://blog.rust-lang.org/2024/05/17/enabling-rust-lld-on-linux.html)), and it seems like it is working fine, so we would like to propose stabilizing it.

The main motivation for using LLD instead of the default BFD linker is improving [compilation times](https://perf.rust-lang.org/compare.html?start=b3e117044c7f707293edc040edb93e7ec5f7040a&end=baed03c51a68376c1789cc373581eea0daf89967&stat=instructions%3Au&tab=compile). For example, in the linked benchmark, it makes incremental recompilation of `ripgrep` in `debug` more than twice faster. Another benefit is that Rust compilation becomes more consistent and self-contained, because we will use a known version of the LLD linker, rather than "whatever GNU ld version is on the user's system".

Due to the performance benefit being so huge, many people already opt into using LLD (or other fast linkers, such as mold) using various approaches ([1](https://github.com/search?type=code&q=%2Flinker-flavor%5B%3D+%5Dgnu-lld-cc%2F), [2](https://github.com/search?type=code&q=%2Flinker-features%5B%3D+%5D%5C%2Blld%2F), [3](https://github.com/search?type=code&q=language%3Atoml+%22-fuse-ld%3Dlld%22), [4](https://github.com/search?type=code&q=language%3Arust+%22-fuse-ld%3Dlld%22)). By making LLD the default linker on the `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` target, we will be able to speed up Rust compilation out of the box, without users having to opt in or know about it.

> You can find an extended version of this stabilization report which includes analysis of crater results and more data [here](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view).

## What is being stabilized
- `rust-lld` being used as the default linker on the `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` target.
    - Note that `rust-lld` is being enabled by default in the compiler artifacts distributed by our CI/rustup. It is still possible to use the system linker by default using `rust.lld = false` in `bootstrap.toml`, which can be useful e.g. for some Linux distros that might not want to use the LLD we distribute.
    - This is done by activating the LLD linker feature and using the self-contained linker on that target. Both of which are also usable on the CLI, if some opt outs are necessary, as described below.
- `-Clinker-features=-lld` on the `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` target. This codegen option tells rustc to disable using the LLD linker.
    - Note that other options for this codegen flag (`cc`) remain unstable.
    - Note that only the opt-out is being stabilized, and only for `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`: opting in, or using the flag on other targets would still need to pass `-Zunstable-options`.
    - This flag is being stabilized so that users can opt out of LLD on stable, which would it turn also opt out of using the self-contained linker (since it's an LLD).
- `-Clink-self-contained=-linker`. This codegen option tells rustc to use the self-contained linker. It's not particularly useful to turn it on by itself, but when enabled and combined with `-Clinker-features=+lld`, rustc will use the `rust-lld` linker wrapper shipped with the compiler toolchain, instead of some `lld` binary that the linker driver will find in the `PATH`.
    - Note that other options for this codegen flag (other than the previously stable `y/yes/n/no`).
    - Note that only the opt-out is being stabilized, and only for `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`: opting in, or using this flag on other targets would still need to pass `-Zunstable-options`.
    - This flag is being stabilized so that users can opt out of using self-contained linking on stable. Doing this would then fall back to using the system `lld`.

To opt out of using LLD, `RUSTFLAGS="-Clinker-features=-lld"` would be used. To opt out of using `rust-lld`, falling back to the LLD installed on the system, `RUSTFLAGS="-Clink-self-contained=-linker"` would be used.

## Tests

When enabling `rust-lld` on nightly, we also switched x64 linux to use it at stage >= 1, meaning that all tests have been running with lld since May 2024, on CI as well as contributors' machines. (Post opt-dist tests also had been using it when running their test subset earlier than that).

There are also a few tests dedicated to the CLI behavior, or ensuring the default linker is indeed the one we expect:

- [link-self-contained-consistency](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/link-self-contained-consistency.rs): Checks that `-Clink-self-contained` options are not inconsistent (i.e. that passing both `+linker` and `-linker` is an error).
- [link-self-contained-unstable](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/link-self-contained-unstable.rs): Checks that only the `-linker` and `y/yes/n/no` options for `-Clink-self-contained` are stable.
- [linker-features-unstable-cc](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/linker-features-unstable-cc.rs): Checks that only the non-lld options of `-Clinker-features` are unstable.
- [linker-features-lld-disallowed](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/linker-features-lld-disallowed.rs): Checks that `-Clinker-features=-lld` is only stable on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`.
- [link-self-contained-linker-disallowed](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/link-self-contained-linker-disallowed.rs): Checks that `-Clink-self-contained=-linker` is only stable on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`.
- [no-gc-encapsulation-symbols](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/no-gc-encapsulation-symbols.rs): Checks that that linker encapsulation symbols are not garbage collected by LLD, so that crates like [linkme](https://github.com/dtolnay/linkme) still work.
- [rust-lld](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/run-make/rust-lld): Checks that LLD is actually used when enabled with `-Clinker-features=+lld` and `-Clink-self-contained=+linker`.
- [rust-lld-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/run-make/rust-lld-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu): Checks that LLD is used by default on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` when the bootstrap `rust.lld` config option is `true`.
- [rust-lld-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-dist](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/run-make/rust-lld-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-dist): Dist test that checks that our distributed `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` archives actually use LLD by default.

## Ecosystem impact
As already stated, LLD has been used as the default linker on x64 Linux on nightly for almost a year, and we haven't seen any blockers to stabilization in that time. There were a handful of issues reported, these are discussed later below.

Furthermore, two crater runs ([November 2023](https://crater-reports.s3.amazonaws.com/pr-117684-2/index.html), [February 2025](https://crater-reports.s3.amazonaws.com/pr-137044-3/index.html)), were performed to test the impact of using LLD as the default linker. A triage of the earlier crater run was previously done [here](https://hackmd.io/OAJxlxc6Te6YUot9ftYSKQ), but all the important findings from both crater runs are reported below.

Below is a list of compatibility differences between BFD and LLD that we have encountered. There is a more thorough list of differences in [this post](https://maskray.me/blog/2020-12-19-lld-and-gnu-linker-incompatibilities) from the current LLD maintainer. From that post, "99.9% pieces of software work with ld.lld without a change".

---

### `.ctors/.dtors` sections
[#128286](#128286) reported an issue where LLD was unable to link certain CUDA library was using these sections that were using the `.ctors/.dtors` ELF sections. These were deprecated a long time ago (https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=46770), replaced with a more modern `.init_array/.fini_array` sections. LLD doesn't (and won't) support these sections ([1](llvm/llvm-project#68071), [2](llvm/llvm-project#30572)), so if they appear in input object files, the linked artifact might produce incorrect behavior, because e.g. some global variables might not get initialized properly.

However, the usage of `.ctors/.dtors` should be very rare in practice. We have performed a [crater run](#137044) to test this. It has identified only 8 crates where the `.ctors/.dtors` section is occurring in the final linked artifact. It was caused by a few crates using the `.ctors` link section manually, and by using a very (~6 year) old version of the [ctor](https://crates.io/crates/ctor) crate.

[Crater run analysis](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view#ctorsdtors-sections)

**Possible workaround**
It is possible to [detect](e5e2316) if `.ctors/.dtors` section is present in the final linked artifact (LLD will keep it there, but it won't be populated), and warn users about it. This check is very cheap and doesn't even appear on [perf](#112049 (comment)). We have benchmarked the check on a 240 MiB Chrome binary, where it took 0.8ms with page cache flushed, and 0.06ms with page cache primed (which should be the common case, as the linked artifact is written to disk just before the check is performed).

In theory, this could be also solved with a linker script that moves `.ctors` to `.init_array`.

We think that these sections should be so rare that it is not worth it to implement any workarounds for now.

---

### Different garbage collection behavior
[#130397](#130397) reported an issue where LLD prunes a local symbol, so it is missing in the linked artifact. However, BFD keeps the same symbol, so it is a regression. This is caused by a difference in linker garbage collection.

Rust uses `--gc-sections` and puts each function into a separate linker section, which prunes unused code. There is some code (specifically the somewhat popular [linkme](https://github.com/dtolnay/linkme) crate) that (arguably ab-)uses so called linker encapsulation symbols to achieve distributed slices.

BFD (2.37+) uses a conservative linking mode that works as intended with this behavior, but it might slightly increase binary size of the linked artifact. LLD does not use this workaround by default, which causes the sections to be eliminated, but it can be made to use the conservative mode using [`-z nostart-stop-gc`](https://lld.llvm.org/ELF/start-stop-gc.html#z-start-stop-gc).

To avoid this issue, we told LLD to use the [conservative mode](#137685), which maintains backwards compatibility with BFD. We found that it has [no effect](#112049 (comment)) on compilation performance and binary size in our benchmark suite. With this change, `linkme` works. Since then, #140872 removed `linkme` distributed slice's dependence on conservative GC behavior, so this PR also removes that conservative mode: no transition period is necessary, as the PR immediately fixed the crate with no source changes.

[Crater run analysis](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view#Different-garbage-collection-behavior)

---

### Various uncommon issues

A small number of issues that only occurred in a handful of instances were found in crater, and it is unclear if LLD is at fault or if there is some other issue that was not detected with BFD.

You can examine these [here](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view#Various-uncommon-issues).

---

### Missing jobserver support
LLD doesn't support the jobserver protocol for limiting the number of threads used, it simply defaults to using all available cores, and is one of the reasons why it's faster than BFD. However, this should mostly be a non-issue, because most of the linking done during high parallelism sections of `cargo build` is linking of build scripts and proc macros, which are typically very fast to link (e.g. ~50ms), and a potential oversubscription of cores thus doesn't hurt that much.

When the final artifact is linked (which typically takes the most time), there should be no other sources of parallelism conflicts from compiling other code, so LLD should be able to use all available threads.

That being said, it is a difference of behavior, where previously a `-j` flag was generally not using more cpu than the specified limit. It can be impactful in some resource-constrained systems, but to be clear that is already the case today due to [cargo parallelism](rust-lang/cargo#9157). This could be one reason to opt out of using `rust-lld` on some systems.

LLD has support for limiting the number of threads to use, so in theory rustc could try to get all the jobserver tokens available and use that as lld's thread limit. It'd still be suboptimal as new tokens would not be dynamically detected, and we could be using less threads than available.

We did a benchmark on a real-world crate that shows that using multiple LLD threads for intermediate artifacts doesn't seem to have a performance effect. You can find it [here](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view#Missing-jobserver-support).

---

#### Opting out of LLD in the ecosystem
We have also examined repositories where people opted out of LLD on nightly, using [this GitHub query](https://github.com/search?q=%22linker-features%3D-lld%22&type=code). The summary can be found below:

<details>
<summary>Summary of LLD opt outs</summary>

> This examination was performed on 2025-03-09.

Here we briefly examine the most common reasons why people use `-Zlinker-features=-lld`, based on comments and git history.

- Nix/NixOS ([1](https://github.com/rszyma/vscode-kanata/blob/59d703dff5a238b14ab3759cac27f73fb34bbcfe/flake.nix#L33), [2](https://github.com/sbernauer/breakwater/blob/3cc3449fc126c5c99d4a971733fd32be589884e0/.cargo/config.toml#L4), [3](https://github.com/tiiuae/ebpf-firewall/blame/32bdb17cedd1c9bea1ab3482623de458d95da7d0/.cargo/config.toml#L2), [4](https://github.com/jules-sommer/wavetheme-gen/blob/f5f657d014d4a30607625afb70f810c229c0294e/Cargo.toml#L4), [5](https://github.com/LayerTwo-Labs/zside-rust/blob/e4266f5c5571a1b180a9c70cf0939c7070e410c7/.cargo/config.toml#L10), [6](https://github.com/przyjacielpkp/zkml/blob/22a4aef24e9d2c77789229d7c634fc67e9eb1184/README.md?plain=1#L78), [7](https://github.com/LayerTwo-Labs/thunder-rust/blob/2222d53474c8d2d0428b4c56f8157095dced6d5a/.cargo/config.toml#L2), [8](https://github.com/enesoztrk/nixos-tc-aya-test/blob/b2ffa59d3eba8b60fd04b0a4c8bbe047400eb981/.cargo/config.toml#L4), [9](https://github.com/lowRISC/container-hotplug/blob/3ead4ef9c7f79c303392178c99677dbecff1aea6/.cargo/config.toml#L2), [10](https://github.com/Eliah-Lakhin/ad-astra/blob/ca6b8c8a5dba7bb5e894f3f1013f17876962a021/work/examples/lsp-client/src/extension.ts#L94))
    - There was an [issue](NixOS/nixpkgs#312661) with LLD, which seems to have been fixed with NixOS/nixpkgs#314268.
 It's unclear whether that fixed all the Nix issues though.
- Issues with linkme ([1](https://github.com/0xPolygonZero/zk_evm/blob/ef388619ffbd5305209519a3a5bc0396185d68ac/.cargo/config.toml#L4), [2](https://github.com/conjure-cp/conjure-oxide/blob/be0fc5827ff90e8486d416cc184b6ce24f73bf01/README.md?plain=1#L20), [3](https://github.com/clchiou/garage/blob/c5d8444d56bb6ee24ca95e5c6b9880ed996f4918/rust/.cargo/config.toml#L6), [4](https://github.com/PonasKovas/craftflow/blob/5b4cc1a5196e08a975368399fefda4b71f3a2f6f/.cargo/config.toml#L3), [5](https://github.com/kezhuw/zookeeper-client-rust/blob/4e27c7de2a7cc5e709af012b791c8fea9bb47f1f/.github/workflows/ci.yml#L82), [6](https://github.com/niklasdewally/conjure-oxide/blob/8fe60c12bca7011a2f9eded4b7c95ad0e77b6f44/.github/workflows/code-coverage.yml#L48), [7](https://github.com/kezhuw/spawns/blob/c8b468379805de9df3287c01b94b4ed3db6b61ed/.github/workflows/ci.yml#L74))
    - These should be resolved with the conservative garbage collection ([#137685](#137685)).
- Bazel ([1](https://github.com/google-parfait/confidential-federated-compute/blob/1823f69ed8f5f4f819f7bfa21da1ca629fdc826b/.bazelrc#L71)), WASM ([1](https://github.com/Eliah-Lakhin/ad-astra/blob/ca6b8c8a5dba7bb5e894f3f1013f17876962a021/work/examples/wasm-build.sh#L37), [2](https://github.com/yacineb/pgrx-wasi-test/blob/2bf99037ca1b650b2cbc35f1257a87fb6ead0920/build.sh#L21)), uncategorized ([2](https://github.com/nbdd0121/r2vm/blob/5118be6b9e757c6fef2f019385873f403c23c548/.cargo/config.toml#L3), [3](https://github.com/Wyvern/Img/blame/45020c7e1dc4926c8129647014c708db0c13f463/.cargo/config.toml#L209), [4](https://github.com/arnaudpoullet/leptos-i18n-compile-error/blob/042eb835f7ca0dc36be67cf7fe65b35b22b6059f/README.md?plain=1#L89), [5](https://github.com/JonLeeCon/numerical-rust-cpu/blob/fd0b3006768ed81c56147044dc05c92b11b7b6f0/exercises/.cargo/config.toml#L13), [6](https://github.com/PonasKovas/shallowclone/blob/be65f2ec923cac6ceedbc8db520c89969ebfce7c/.github/workflows/rust.yml#L20))
    - Reason unclear.
</details>

## History
The idea to use a faster linker by default has been on the radar for quite some time ([#39915](#39915), [#71515](#71515)). There were [very early attempts](#29974) to use the gold linker by default, but these had to be [reverted](#30913) because of compatibility issues. Support for LLD was implemented back in [2017](#40018), but it has not been made default yet, except for some more niche targets, such as [WASM](#48125), [ARM Cortex](#53648) or [RISC-V](#53822).

It took quite some time to figure out how should the interface for selecting the linker (and the way it is invoked) look like, as it differs a lot between different platforms, linkers and compiler drivers. During that time, LLD has matured and achieved [almost perfect compatibility](https://maskray.me/blog/2020-12-19-lld-and-gnu-linker-incompatibilities) with the default Linux linker (BFD).

- [#56351](#56351) stabilized `-Clinker-flavor`, which is used to determine how to invoke the linker. It is especially useful on targets where selecting the linker directly with `-Clinker` is not possible or is impractical.
    - December 2018, author `@davidtwco,` reviewer `@nagisa`
- [#76158](#76158) stabilized `-Clink-self-contained=[y|n]`, which allows overriding the compiler's heuristic for deciding whether it should use self-contained or external tools (linker, sanitizers, libc, etc.). It only allowed using the self-contained mode either for everything (`y`) or nothing (`n`), but did not allow granular choice.
    - September 2020, author `@mati864,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`
- [#85961](#85961) implemented the `-Zgcc-ld` flag, which was a hacky way of opting into LLD usage.
    - June 2021, author `@sledgehammervampire,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`
- [MCP 510](rust-lang/compiler-team#510) proposed stabilizing the behavior of `-Zgcc-ld` using more granular flags (`-Clink-self-contained=linker -Clinker-flavor=gcc-lld`).
    - Initially implemented in [#96827](#96827), but `@petrochenkov` [suggested](#96827 (comment)) a slightly different approach.
    - The PR was split into [#96884](#96884), where it was decided what will be the individual components of `-Clink-self-contained=linker`.
    - And [#96401](#96401), which implemented the `-Clinker-flavor` part.
    - The MCP was finally implemented in [#112910](#112910).
    - [#116514](#116514) then removed `-Zgcc-ld`, as it was replaced by `-Clinker-flavor=gnu-lld-cc` + `-Clink-self-contained=linker`.
    - April 2022 - October 2023, author `@lqd,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`

- Various linker handling refactorings were performed in the meantime: [#97375](#97375), [#98212](#98212), [#100126](#100126), [#100552](#100552), [#102836](#102836), [#110807](#110807), [#101988](#101988), [#116515](#116515)

- The implementation of linker flavors with LLD was causing a sort of a combinatorial explosion of various options.
[#119906](#119906) suggested a different approach for linker flavors (described [here](#119906 (comment))), where the individual flavors could be enabled separately using `+/-` (e.g. `+lld`).
    - After some back and forth, this idea was moved to `-Clinker-features` (see [comment 1](#119906 (comment)) and [comment 2](#119906 (comment))), which was implemented in [#123656](#123656).
    - April 2024, author `@lqd,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`
- [#124129](#124129) enabled LLD by default on nightly.
    - April 2024, author `@lqd,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`
- [#137685](#137685), [#137926](#137926) enabled the conservative gargage collection mode (`-znostart-stop-gc`) to improve compatibility with BFD.
    - February 2025, author `@lqd,` reviewer `@petrochenkov` (implementation), author `@kobzol,` reviewer `@lqd` (test)
- [#96025](#96025) (April 2022), [#117684](#117684) (November 2023), [#137044](#137044) (February 2025): crater runs.

## Unresolved questions/concerns
- Is changing the linker considered a breaking change? In (hopefully very rare) cases, it might break some existing code. It should mostly only affect the final linked artifact, so it should be easy to opt out.
- Similarly, is the single-threaded behavior of such tools encompassed in our stability guarantee: it can be observed via the `-j` job limit (though I believe we have/had some open issues on sometimes using more CPU resources than the job count limit implied). As mentioned above, LLD does not support the jobserver protocol.
- A concern [was raised](#71515 (comment)) about increased memory usage of LLD. We should probably let users know about the possibly increased memory usage, and jobserver incompatibility: we did so when announcing this landing on nightly.
- LLD seems to produce [slightly larger](https://perf.rust-lang.org/compare.html?start=b3e117044c7f707293edc040edb93e7ec5f7040a&end=baed03c51a68376c1789cc373581eea0daf89967&stat=size%3Alinked_artifact&tab=compile) binary artifacts. This can be partially clawed back using Identical Code Folding (`-Clink-args=-Wl,--icf=all`).
- Should we detect the outdated `.ctors/.dtors` sections to provide a better error message, even if that should be rare in practice?

---

### Next steps

After the FCP completes:
- we should land this PR at the beginning of a beta cycle, to maximize time for testing
- keep an eye on the beta crater run results for possible linker issues (or do a dedicated beta crater run with only this change)
- release a blog post announcing the change, and asking for testing feedback of the appropriate beta
- depending on feedback, or if a period of testing of 6 weeks is not long enough, we could keep this change on beta for another cycle

---

Development, testing, try builds were done in #138645.

r? `@petrochenkov`
`@rustbot` label +needs-fcp +T-compiler
bors added a commit that referenced this pull request Jul 8, 2025
Use lld by default on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` stable

This PR and stabilization report is joint work with `@Kobzol.`

#### Use LLD on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` by default, and stabilize `-Clinker-features=-lld` and `-Clink-self-contained=-linker`

This PR proposes making LLD the default linker on the `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` target for the artifacts we distribute, and also stabilizing the `-Clinker-features=-lld` and `-Clink-self-contained=-linker` codegen options to make it possible to opt out.

LLD has been used as the default linker on nightly and CI on this target since May 2024 ([PR](#124129), [blog post](https://blog.rust-lang.org/2024/05/17/enabling-rust-lld-on-linux.html)), and it seems like it is working fine, so we would like to propose stabilizing it.

The main motivation for using LLD instead of the default BFD linker is improving [compilation times](https://perf.rust-lang.org/compare.html?start=b3e117044c7f707293edc040edb93e7ec5f7040a&end=baed03c51a68376c1789cc373581eea0daf89967&stat=instructions%3Au&tab=compile). For example, in the linked benchmark, it makes incremental recompilation of `ripgrep` in `debug` more than twice faster. Another benefit is that Rust compilation becomes more consistent and self-contained, because we will use a known version of the LLD linker, rather than "whatever GNU ld version is on the user's system".

Due to the performance benefit being so huge, many people already opt into using LLD (or other fast linkers, such as mold) using various approaches ([1](https://github.com/search?type=code&q=%2Flinker-flavor%5B%3D+%5Dgnu-lld-cc%2F), [2](https://github.com/search?type=code&q=%2Flinker-features%5B%3D+%5D%5C%2Blld%2F), [3](https://github.com/search?type=code&q=language%3Atoml+%22-fuse-ld%3Dlld%22), [4](https://github.com/search?type=code&q=language%3Arust+%22-fuse-ld%3Dlld%22)). By making LLD the default linker on the `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` target, we will be able to speed up Rust compilation out of the box, without users having to opt in or know about it.

> You can find an extended version of this stabilization report which includes analysis of crater results and more data [here](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view).

## What is being stabilized
- `rust-lld` being used as the default linker on the `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` target.
    - Note that `rust-lld` is being enabled by default in the compiler artifacts distributed by our CI/rustup. It is still possible to use the system linker by default using `rust.lld = false` in `bootstrap.toml`, which can be useful e.g. for some Linux distros that might not want to use the LLD we distribute.
    - This is done by activating the LLD linker feature and using the self-contained linker on that target. Both of which are also usable on the CLI, if some opt outs are necessary, as described below.
- `-Clinker-features=-lld` on the `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` target. This codegen option tells rustc to disable using the LLD linker.
    - Note that other options for this codegen flag (`cc`) remain unstable.
    - Note that only the opt-out is being stabilized, and only for `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`: opting in, or using the flag on other targets would still need to pass `-Zunstable-options`.
    - This flag is being stabilized so that users can opt out of LLD on stable, which would it turn also opt out of using the self-contained linker (since it's an LLD).
- `-Clink-self-contained=-linker`. This codegen option tells rustc to use the self-contained linker. It's not particularly useful to turn it on by itself, but when enabled and combined with `-Clinker-features=+lld`, rustc will use the `rust-lld` linker wrapper shipped with the compiler toolchain, instead of some `lld` binary that the linker driver will find in the `PATH`.
    - Note that other options for this codegen flag (other than the previously stable `y/yes/n/no`).
    - Note that only the opt-out is being stabilized, and only for `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`: opting in, or using this flag on other targets would still need to pass `-Zunstable-options`.
    - This flag is being stabilized so that users can opt out of using self-contained linking on stable. Doing this would then fall back to using the system `lld`.

To opt out of using LLD, `RUSTFLAGS="-Clinker-features=-lld"` would be used. To opt out of using `rust-lld`, falling back to the LLD installed on the system, `RUSTFLAGS="-Clink-self-contained=-linker"` would be used.

## Tests

When enabling `rust-lld` on nightly, we also switched x64 linux to use it at stage >= 1, meaning that all tests have been running with lld since May 2024, on CI as well as contributors' machines. (Post opt-dist tests also had been using it when running their test subset earlier than that).

There are also a few tests dedicated to the CLI behavior, or ensuring the default linker is indeed the one we expect:

- [link-self-contained-consistency](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/link-self-contained-consistency.rs): Checks that `-Clink-self-contained` options are not inconsistent (i.e. that passing both `+linker` and `-linker` is an error).
- [link-self-contained-unstable](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/link-self-contained-unstable.rs): Checks that only the `-linker` and `y/yes/n/no` options for `-Clink-self-contained` are stable.
- [linker-features-unstable-cc](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/linker-features-unstable-cc.rs): Checks that only the non-lld options of `-Clinker-features` are unstable.
- [linker-features-lld-disallowed](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/linker-features-lld-disallowed.rs): Checks that `-Clinker-features=-lld` is only stable on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`.
- [link-self-contained-linker-disallowed](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/link-self-contained-linker-disallowed.rs): Checks that `-Clink-self-contained=-linker` is only stable on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu`.
- [no-gc-encapsulation-symbols](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/ui/linking/no-gc-encapsulation-symbols.rs): Checks that that linker encapsulation symbols are not garbage collected by LLD, so that crates like [linkme](https://github.com/dtolnay/linkme) still work.
- [rust-lld](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/run-make/rust-lld): Checks that LLD is actually used when enabled with `-Clinker-features=+lld` and `-Clink-self-contained=+linker`.
- [rust-lld-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/run-make/rust-lld-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu): Checks that LLD is used by default on `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` when the bootstrap `rust.lld` config option is `true`.
- [rust-lld-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-dist](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/1117bc1e6ce049495b0044dfe756afafc817d2d7/tests/run-make/rust-lld-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-dist): Dist test that checks that our distributed `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` archives actually use LLD by default.

## Ecosystem impact
As already stated, LLD has been used as the default linker on x64 Linux on nightly for almost a year, and we haven't seen any blockers to stabilization in that time. There were a handful of issues reported, these are discussed later below.

Furthermore, two crater runs ([November 2023](https://crater-reports.s3.amazonaws.com/pr-117684-2/index.html), [February 2025](https://crater-reports.s3.amazonaws.com/pr-137044-3/index.html)), were performed to test the impact of using LLD as the default linker. A triage of the earlier crater run was previously done [here](https://hackmd.io/OAJxlxc6Te6YUot9ftYSKQ), but all the important findings from both crater runs are reported below.

Below is a list of compatibility differences between BFD and LLD that we have encountered. There is a more thorough list of differences in [this post](https://maskray.me/blog/2020-12-19-lld-and-gnu-linker-incompatibilities) from the current LLD maintainer. From that post, "99.9% pieces of software work with ld.lld without a change".

---

### `.ctors/.dtors` sections
[#128286](#128286) reported an issue where LLD was unable to link certain CUDA library was using these sections that were using the `.ctors/.dtors` ELF sections. These were deprecated a long time ago (https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=46770), replaced with a more modern `.init_array/.fini_array` sections. LLD doesn't (and won't) support these sections ([1](llvm/llvm-project#68071), [2](llvm/llvm-project#30572)), so if they appear in input object files, the linked artifact might produce incorrect behavior, because e.g. some global variables might not get initialized properly.

However, the usage of `.ctors/.dtors` should be very rare in practice. We have performed a [crater run](#137044) to test this. It has identified only 8 crates where the `.ctors/.dtors` section is occurring in the final linked artifact. It was caused by a few crates using the `.ctors` link section manually, and by using a very (~6 year) old version of the [ctor](https://crates.io/crates/ctor) crate.

[Crater run analysis](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view#ctorsdtors-sections)

**Possible workaround**
It is possible to [detect](e5e2316) if `.ctors/.dtors` section is present in the final linked artifact (LLD will keep it there, but it won't be populated), and warn users about it. This check is very cheap and doesn't even appear on [perf](#112049 (comment)). We have benchmarked the check on a 240 MiB Chrome binary, where it took 0.8ms with page cache flushed, and 0.06ms with page cache primed (which should be the common case, as the linked artifact is written to disk just before the check is performed).

In theory, this could be also solved with a linker script that moves `.ctors` to `.init_array`.

We think that these sections should be so rare that it is not worth it to implement any workarounds for now.

---

### Different garbage collection behavior
[#130397](#130397) reported an issue where LLD prunes a local symbol, so it is missing in the linked artifact. However, BFD keeps the same symbol, so it is a regression. This is caused by a difference in linker garbage collection.

Rust uses `--gc-sections` and puts each function into a separate linker section, which prunes unused code. There is some code (specifically the somewhat popular [linkme](https://github.com/dtolnay/linkme) crate) that (arguably ab-)uses so called linker encapsulation symbols to achieve distributed slices.

BFD (2.37+) uses a conservative linking mode that works as intended with this behavior, but it might slightly increase binary size of the linked artifact. LLD does not use this workaround by default, which causes the sections to be eliminated, but it can be made to use the conservative mode using [`-z nostart-stop-gc`](https://lld.llvm.org/ELF/start-stop-gc.html#z-start-stop-gc).

To avoid this issue, we told LLD to use the [conservative mode](#137685), which maintains backwards compatibility with BFD. We found that it has [no effect](#112049 (comment)) on compilation performance and binary size in our benchmark suite. With this change, `linkme` works. Since then, #140872 removed `linkme` distributed slice's dependence on conservative GC behavior, so this PR also removes that conservative mode: no transition period is necessary, as the PR immediately fixed the crate with no source changes.

[Crater run analysis](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view#Different-garbage-collection-behavior)

---

### Various uncommon issues

A small number of issues that only occurred in a handful of instances were found in crater, and it is unclear if LLD is at fault or if there is some other issue that was not detected with BFD.

You can examine these [here](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view#Various-uncommon-issues).

---

### Missing jobserver support
LLD doesn't support the jobserver protocol for limiting the number of threads used, it simply defaults to using all available cores, and is one of the reasons why it's faster than BFD. However, this should mostly be a non-issue, because most of the linking done during high parallelism sections of `cargo build` is linking of build scripts and proc macros, which are typically very fast to link (e.g. ~50ms), and a potential oversubscription of cores thus doesn't hurt that much.

When the final artifact is linked (which typically takes the most time), there should be no other sources of parallelism conflicts from compiling other code, so LLD should be able to use all available threads.

That being said, it is a difference of behavior, where previously a `-j` flag was generally not using more cpu than the specified limit. It can be impactful in some resource-constrained systems, but to be clear that is already the case today due to [cargo parallelism](rust-lang/cargo#9157). This could be one reason to opt out of using `rust-lld` on some systems.

LLD has support for limiting the number of threads to use, so in theory rustc could try to get all the jobserver tokens available and use that as lld's thread limit. It'd still be suboptimal as new tokens would not be dynamically detected, and we could be using less threads than available.

We did a benchmark on a real-world crate that shows that using multiple LLD threads for intermediate artifacts doesn't seem to have a performance effect. You can find it [here](https://hackmd.io/tFDifkUcSLGoHPBRIl0z8w?view#Missing-jobserver-support).

---

#### Opting out of LLD in the ecosystem
We have also examined repositories where people opted out of LLD on nightly, using [this GitHub query](https://github.com/search?q=%22linker-features%3D-lld%22&type=code). The summary can be found below:

<details>
<summary>Summary of LLD opt outs</summary>

> This examination was performed on 2025-03-09.

Here we briefly examine the most common reasons why people use `-Zlinker-features=-lld`, based on comments and git history.

- Nix/NixOS ([1](https://github.com/rszyma/vscode-kanata/blob/59d703dff5a238b14ab3759cac27f73fb34bbcfe/flake.nix#L33), [2](https://github.com/sbernauer/breakwater/blob/3cc3449fc126c5c99d4a971733fd32be589884e0/.cargo/config.toml#L4), [3](https://github.com/tiiuae/ebpf-firewall/blame/32bdb17cedd1c9bea1ab3482623de458d95da7d0/.cargo/config.toml#L2), [4](https://github.com/jules-sommer/wavetheme-gen/blob/f5f657d014d4a30607625afb70f810c229c0294e/Cargo.toml#L4), [5](https://github.com/LayerTwo-Labs/zside-rust/blob/e4266f5c5571a1b180a9c70cf0939c7070e410c7/.cargo/config.toml#L10), [6](https://github.com/przyjacielpkp/zkml/blob/22a4aef24e9d2c77789229d7c634fc67e9eb1184/README.md?plain=1#L78), [7](https://github.com/LayerTwo-Labs/thunder-rust/blob/2222d53474c8d2d0428b4c56f8157095dced6d5a/.cargo/config.toml#L2), [8](https://github.com/enesoztrk/nixos-tc-aya-test/blob/b2ffa59d3eba8b60fd04b0a4c8bbe047400eb981/.cargo/config.toml#L4), [9](https://github.com/lowRISC/container-hotplug/blob/3ead4ef9c7f79c303392178c99677dbecff1aea6/.cargo/config.toml#L2), [10](https://github.com/Eliah-Lakhin/ad-astra/blob/ca6b8c8a5dba7bb5e894f3f1013f17876962a021/work/examples/lsp-client/src/extension.ts#L94))
    - There was an [issue](NixOS/nixpkgs#312661) with LLD, which seems to have been fixed with NixOS/nixpkgs#314268.
 It's unclear whether that fixed all the Nix issues though.
- Issues with linkme ([1](https://github.com/0xPolygonZero/zk_evm/blob/ef388619ffbd5305209519a3a5bc0396185d68ac/.cargo/config.toml#L4), [2](https://github.com/conjure-cp/conjure-oxide/blob/be0fc5827ff90e8486d416cc184b6ce24f73bf01/README.md?plain=1#L20), [3](https://github.com/clchiou/garage/blob/c5d8444d56bb6ee24ca95e5c6b9880ed996f4918/rust/.cargo/config.toml#L6), [4](https://github.com/PonasKovas/craftflow/blob/5b4cc1a5196e08a975368399fefda4b71f3a2f6f/.cargo/config.toml#L3), [5](https://github.com/kezhuw/zookeeper-client-rust/blob/4e27c7de2a7cc5e709af012b791c8fea9bb47f1f/.github/workflows/ci.yml#L82), [6](https://github.com/niklasdewally/conjure-oxide/blob/8fe60c12bca7011a2f9eded4b7c95ad0e77b6f44/.github/workflows/code-coverage.yml#L48), [7](https://github.com/kezhuw/spawns/blob/c8b468379805de9df3287c01b94b4ed3db6b61ed/.github/workflows/ci.yml#L74))
    - These should be resolved with the conservative garbage collection ([#137685](#137685)).
- Bazel ([1](https://github.com/google-parfait/confidential-federated-compute/blob/1823f69ed8f5f4f819f7bfa21da1ca629fdc826b/.bazelrc#L71)), WASM ([1](https://github.com/Eliah-Lakhin/ad-astra/blob/ca6b8c8a5dba7bb5e894f3f1013f17876962a021/work/examples/wasm-build.sh#L37), [2](https://github.com/yacineb/pgrx-wasi-test/blob/2bf99037ca1b650b2cbc35f1257a87fb6ead0920/build.sh#L21)), uncategorized ([2](https://github.com/nbdd0121/r2vm/blob/5118be6b9e757c6fef2f019385873f403c23c548/.cargo/config.toml#L3), [3](https://github.com/Wyvern/Img/blame/45020c7e1dc4926c8129647014c708db0c13f463/.cargo/config.toml#L209), [4](https://github.com/arnaudpoullet/leptos-i18n-compile-error/blob/042eb835f7ca0dc36be67cf7fe65b35b22b6059f/README.md?plain=1#L89), [5](https://github.com/JonLeeCon/numerical-rust-cpu/blob/fd0b3006768ed81c56147044dc05c92b11b7b6f0/exercises/.cargo/config.toml#L13), [6](https://github.com/PonasKovas/shallowclone/blob/be65f2ec923cac6ceedbc8db520c89969ebfce7c/.github/workflows/rust.yml#L20))
    - Reason unclear.
</details>

## History
The idea to use a faster linker by default has been on the radar for quite some time ([#39915](#39915), [#71515](#71515)). There were [very early attempts](#29974) to use the gold linker by default, but these had to be [reverted](#30913) because of compatibility issues. Support for LLD was implemented back in [2017](#40018), but it has not been made default yet, except for some more niche targets, such as [WASM](#48125), [ARM Cortex](#53648) or [RISC-V](#53822).

It took quite some time to figure out how should the interface for selecting the linker (and the way it is invoked) look like, as it differs a lot between different platforms, linkers and compiler drivers. During that time, LLD has matured and achieved [almost perfect compatibility](https://maskray.me/blog/2020-12-19-lld-and-gnu-linker-incompatibilities) with the default Linux linker (BFD).

- [#56351](#56351) stabilized `-Clinker-flavor`, which is used to determine how to invoke the linker. It is especially useful on targets where selecting the linker directly with `-Clinker` is not possible or is impractical.
    - December 2018, author `@davidtwco,` reviewer `@nagisa`
- [#76158](#76158) stabilized `-Clink-self-contained=[y|n]`, which allows overriding the compiler's heuristic for deciding whether it should use self-contained or external tools (linker, sanitizers, libc, etc.). It only allowed using the self-contained mode either for everything (`y`) or nothing (`n`), but did not allow granular choice.
    - September 2020, author `@mati864,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`
- [#85961](#85961) implemented the `-Zgcc-ld` flag, which was a hacky way of opting into LLD usage.
    - June 2021, author `@sledgehammervampire,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`
- [MCP 510](rust-lang/compiler-team#510) proposed stabilizing the behavior of `-Zgcc-ld` using more granular flags (`-Clink-self-contained=linker -Clinker-flavor=gcc-lld`).
    - Initially implemented in [#96827](#96827), but `@petrochenkov` [suggested](#96827 (comment)) a slightly different approach.
    - The PR was split into [#96884](#96884), where it was decided what will be the individual components of `-Clink-self-contained=linker`.
    - And [#96401](#96401), which implemented the `-Clinker-flavor` part.
    - The MCP was finally implemented in [#112910](#112910).
    - [#116514](#116514) then removed `-Zgcc-ld`, as it was replaced by `-Clinker-flavor=gnu-lld-cc` + `-Clink-self-contained=linker`.
    - April 2022 - October 2023, author `@lqd,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`

- Various linker handling refactorings were performed in the meantime: [#97375](#97375), [#98212](#98212), [#100126](#100126), [#100552](#100552), [#102836](#102836), [#110807](#110807), [#101988](#101988), [#116515](#116515)

- The implementation of linker flavors with LLD was causing a sort of a combinatorial explosion of various options.
[#119906](#119906) suggested a different approach for linker flavors (described [here](#119906 (comment))), where the individual flavors could be enabled separately using `+/-` (e.g. `+lld`).
    - After some back and forth, this idea was moved to `-Clinker-features` (see [comment 1](#119906 (comment)) and [comment 2](#119906 (comment))), which was implemented in [#123656](#123656).
    - April 2024, author `@lqd,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`
- [#124129](#124129) enabled LLD by default on nightly.
    - April 2024, author `@lqd,` reviewer `@petrochenkov`
- [#137685](#137685), [#137926](#137926) enabled the conservative gargage collection mode (`-znostart-stop-gc`) to improve compatibility with BFD.
    - February 2025, author `@lqd,` reviewer `@petrochenkov` (implementation), author `@kobzol,` reviewer `@lqd` (test)
- [#96025](#96025) (April 2022), [#117684](#117684) (November 2023), [#137044](#137044) (February 2025): crater runs.

## Unresolved questions/concerns
- Is changing the linker considered a breaking change? In (hopefully very rare) cases, it might break some existing code. It should mostly only affect the final linked artifact, so it should be easy to opt out.
- Similarly, is the single-threaded behavior of such tools encompassed in our stability guarantee: it can be observed via the `-j` job limit (though I believe we have/had some open issues on sometimes using more CPU resources than the job count limit implied). As mentioned above, LLD does not support the jobserver protocol.
- A concern [was raised](#71515 (comment)) about increased memory usage of LLD. We should probably let users know about the possibly increased memory usage, and jobserver incompatibility: we did so when announcing this landing on nightly.
- LLD seems to produce [slightly larger](https://perf.rust-lang.org/compare.html?start=b3e117044c7f707293edc040edb93e7ec5f7040a&end=baed03c51a68376c1789cc373581eea0daf89967&stat=size%3Alinked_artifact&tab=compile) binary artifacts. This can be partially clawed back using Identical Code Folding (`-Clink-args=-Wl,--icf=all`).
- Should we detect the outdated `.ctors/.dtors` sections to provide a better error message, even if that should be rare in practice?

---

### Next steps

After the FCP completes:
- we should land this PR at the beginning of a beta cycle, to maximize time for testing
- keep an eye on the beta crater run results for possible linker issues (or do a dedicated beta crater run with only this change)
- release a blog post announcing the change, and asking for testing feedback of the appropriate beta
- depending on feedback, or if a period of testing of 6 weeks is not long enough, we could keep this change on beta for another cycle

---

Development, testing, try builds were done in #138645.

r? `@petrochenkov`
`@rustbot` label +needs-fcp +T-compiler
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