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Mold/macOS is 11 times faster than the Apple's default linker to link Chrome

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Re: Mold/macOS is 11 times faster than the Apple's default linker to link Chrome

#51
post #48

A linker seems like it ought to be a simple piece of software. What is a linker doing that takes so long?

Well at a minimum it has to load into RAM all the built objects, which probably include debugging symbols. For something like Chrome, thats probably 20 Gigs...

Re: Mold/macOS is 11 times faster than the Apple's default linker to link Chrome

#52
post #2

Author here. If you have any questions about mold/macOS, feel free to ask me as a reply.

It might be asking for too much, but this project would be a nice addition to http://aosabook.org

Thanks for your good work! I still remember the O(n^2) complexity of ld.bfd when linking C++ code.

Re: Mold/macOS is 11 times faster than the Apple's default linker to link Chrome

#53
post #2

Author here. If you have any questions about mold/macOS, feel free to ask me as a reply.

Your tweet shows quicker linking on a Mac yet you say down-thread that Mac executable linking is still not fully supported. So can we or can we not use it today on a Mac? (My main use-case is Rust.)

Re: Mold/macOS is 11 times faster than the Apple's default linker to link Chrome

#55
post #2

Author here. If you have any questions about mold/macOS, feel free to ask me as a reply.

It might be asking for too much, but this project would be a nice addition to http://aosabook.org Thanks for your good work! I still remember the O(n^2) complexity of ld.bfd when linking C++ code.

I want to write a book about linkers so that the knowledge I earned during the development of the lld and mold linkers wouldn't lost, but I don't have enough time to do that!

Re: Mold/macOS is 11 times faster than the Apple's default linker to link Chrome

#56
post #54
post #2

Author here. If you have any questions about mold/macOS, feel free to ask me as a reply.

When are you going to start working on a 10x faster clang++? :-)

That's an even crazier goal which is probably 100x harder than writing a 10x faster linker. But I believe it's technically doable. At least, the world needs more crazy people who believe it is technically doable and take it as a challenge. If I get $$$ by selling the mold project to a big tech, I might be able to create a team with that money to tackle that crazy goal...

Re: Mold/macOS is 11 times faster than the Apple's default linker to link Chrome

#58
post #2

Author here. If you have any questions about mold/macOS, feel free to ask me as a reply.

Your tweet shows quicker linking on a Mac yet you say down-thread that Mac executable linking is still not fully supported. So can we or can we not use it today on a Mac? (My main use-case is Rust.)

It can create Mac executables, but mold/macOS is still in pre-alpha and no one should expect it to work for their programs. Once it becomes out of beta, I'll release it as mold 2.0, so please wait for it.

Re: Mold/macOS is 11 times faster than the Apple's default linker to link Chrome

#59
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be asking for too much, but this project would be a nice addition to http://aosabook.org Thanks for your good work! I still remember the O(n^2) complexity of ld.bfd when linking C++ code.

I want to write a book about linkers so that the knowledge I earned during the development of the lld and mold linkers wouldn't lost, but I don't have enough time to do that!

> I want to write a book about linkers so that the knowledge I earned during the development of the lld and mold linkers wouldn't lost, but I don't have enough time to do that!

I know this is a type, but it is interesting to see knowledge as a score or commodity you can "earn".

Re: Mold/macOS is 11 times faster than the Apple's default linker to link Chrome

#60
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your tweet shows quicker linking on a Mac yet you say down-thread that Mac executable linking is still not fully supported. So can we or can we not use it today on a Mac? (My main use-case is Rust.)

It can create Mac executables, but mold/macOS is still in pre-alpha and no one should expect it to work for their programs. Once it becomes out of beta, I'll release it as mold 2.0, so please wait for it.

Thanks. I will wait for an official announcement then. Just subscribed to release notifications on GitHub, too.
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