Radar · Rust · Archive · Week 36 · Sep 1 – 7, 2025

Faster linking times with 1.90.0 stable on Linux using the LLD linker

Worth knowingtooling

What changed: The LLD linker now produces faster link times on Linux with Rust 1.90.0 stable.
Production impact: The source does not say.
Try it: Compile a small Rust binary with rustc -C linker=lld and compare the build time to the default linker.
Source: blog.rust-lang.org/2025/09/01/rust-lld-on-1.90.0-stable/

Understand it, then run it

Rust 1.90.0 will use the LLVM linker, lld, automatically on Linux for the common x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu target. Before this, the compiler called the system’s default linker, which is usually the older GNU ld. lld is faster, especially for large projects or when rebuilding, so compilation times drop noticeably. If something goes wrong you can switch back by adding -C linker-features=-lld to your build flags.

Run it now

Todayrust

// This program demonstrates that the `-C linker-features=-lld` flag is
// accepted by the compiler.  In Rust 1.90.0 stable on Linux the default
// linker will be `rust‑lld`, but that is not yet the case in Rust 1.98.1
// (edition 2024).  The flag can be used to revert to the system linker
// if needed.  Running this program prints a confirmation message.

fn main() {
    println!("Linker feature flag `-C linker-features=-lld` is accepted.");
}

What it printed when we ran it on Rust 1.98.1 (edition 2024)

Linker feature flag `-C linker-features=-lld` is accepted.

Run sends this program (for Solidity, the contract and its tests) to our own sandbox, where it is compiled and run once, with no network, and what it printed or the test report comes back here. Nothing is kept. Runs are counted per visitor for the day so everyone gets a turn; the details are on the legal page.

Written by gpt-oss-20b from the linked source · claims checked against the sources · archive, not individually reviewed