{"slug": "mold", "name": "mold", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 3.144, "rising": 1.67, "first": "2026-05-27", "latest": "2026-10-05", "why": "LLD would work fine for the whole tree, and did previously, but is much much slower than mold which is why we switched to mold.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 2, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "LLD would work fine for the whole tree, and did previously, but is much much slower than mold which is why we switched to mold.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/rui314/mold", "official_url": "https://github.com/rui314/mold", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["mold"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 799509808, "item_id": 49969363, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49969363", "by": "lrvick", "date": "2026-10-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "LLD would work fine for the whole tree, and did previously, but is much much slower than mold which is why we switched to mold.", "excerpt": "We use the llvm linker, lld, to link mold at the earliest point we can, then use mold exclusively after that. We are an LLVM native distro so we build llvm right away as the system compiler used to build the whole tree instead of gcc. LLD would work fine for the whole tree, and did previously, but is much much slower than mold which is why we switched to mold. Having to build all dependencies of rust including python", "context": "distro maintainer with deterministic builds", "use_case": "linking whole distro tree", "switched_from": "LLD", "story": "Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release \u2013 Rewritten in Rust"}, {"id": 791360896, "item_id": 49460056, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49460056", "by": "matheusmoreira", "date": "2026-08-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mold's definitely innovating.", "excerpt": "Mold's definitely innovating. I use mold a lot for code embedding in my lisp. I needed extra null PHT entries in the ELF so I could easily patch in custom segments into the interpreter after the link was done. GNU pretty much ignored the feature request and LLVM probably never even saw the issue, but Rui shipped the --spare-program-headers feature pretty much immediately after I requested it and it immediately restor", "context": "builds a Lisp with embedded code", "use_case": "linking ELF binaries for Lisp", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mold: A Massively Parallel Linker"}, {"id": 791317184, "item_id": 49457324, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49457324", "by": "lrvick", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It shaved hours off our full tree build time.", "excerpt": "We use mold as the default linker in the Stagex linux distribution. It shaved hours off our full tree build time.", "context": "Stagex distribution maintainer", "use_case": "default linker for distro builds", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mold: A Massively Parallel Linker"}, {"id": 772663136, "item_id": 48291446, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48291446", "by": "scns", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have you switched to a faster linker [0] yet?", "excerpt": "Have you switched to a faster linker [0] yet? Do you use sccache? [0] https://github.com/rui314/mold", "context": "", "use_case": "faster Rust linking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Performance of Rust Language [pdf]"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "lrvick", "context": "distro maintainer with deterministic builds", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49969363", "date": "2026-10-05"}, {"by": "matheusmoreira", "context": "builds a Lisp with embedded code", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49460056", "date": "2026-08-27"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["linking whole distro tree", "linker", "linking elf binaries for lisp", "default linker for distro builds", "faster rust linking"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49963385", "title": "Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release \u2013 Rewritten in Rust", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49455530", "title": "Mold: A Massively Parallel Linker", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48273147", "title": "Performance of Rust Language [pdf]", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 799509808, "item_id": 49969363, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49969363", "by": "lrvick", "date": "2026-10-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "LLD would work fine for the whole tree, and did previously, but is much much slower than mold which is why we switched to mold.", "excerpt": "We use the llvm linker, lld, to link mold at the earliest point we can, then use mold exclusively after that. We are an LLVM native distro so we build llvm right away as the system compiler used to build the whole tree instead of gcc. LLD would work fine for the whole tree, and did previously, but is much much slower than mold which is why we switched to mold. Having to build all dependencies of rust including python", "context": "distro maintainer with deterministic builds", "use_case": "linking whole distro tree", "switched_from": "LLD", "story": "Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release \u2013 Rewritten in Rust"}, {"id": 799457904, "item_id": 49966119, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49966119", "by": "Aissen", "date": "2026-10-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I expected this to be a multi-months rewrite, not 3 weeks.", "excerpt": "I expected this to be a multi-months rewrite, not 3 weeks. I almost forgot we live in the agents era now. Edit: this seems to have been cooking for a while when the first commit dropped: https://github.com/rui314/mold/commit/f41bfcd5c72ca30cce6498e912d7513481f55a1f", "context": "", "use_case": "linker", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release \u2013 Rewritten in Rust"}, {"id": 791360896, "item_id": 49460056, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49460056", "by": "matheusmoreira", "date": "2026-08-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Mold's definitely innovating.", "excerpt": "Mold's definitely innovating. I use mold a lot for code embedding in my lisp. I needed extra null PHT entries in the ELF so I could easily patch in custom segments into the interpreter after the link was done. GNU pretty much ignored the feature request and LLVM probably never even saw the issue, but Rui shipped the --spare-program-headers feature pretty much immediately after I requested it and it immediately restor", "context": "builds a Lisp with embedded code", "use_case": "linking ELF binaries for Lisp", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mold: A Massively Parallel Linker"}, {"id": 791317184, "item_id": 49457324, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49457324", "by": "lrvick", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It shaved hours off our full tree build time.", "excerpt": "We use mold as the default linker in the Stagex linux distribution. It shaved hours off our full tree build time.", "context": "Stagex distribution maintainer", "use_case": "default linker for distro builds", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mold: A Massively Parallel Linker"}, {"id": 772663136, "item_id": 48291446, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48291446", "by": "scns", "date": "2026-05-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have you switched to a faster linker [0] yet?", "excerpt": "Have you switched to a faster linker [0] yet? Do you use sccache? [0] https://github.com/rui314/mold", "context": "", "use_case": "faster Rust linking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Performance of Rust Language [pdf]"}]}