# Mold linker

24 Hacker News commenters recommended Mold linker and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Fast open-source linker that people credit with cutting large project build times. Common caveat: the Rust rewrite draws LLM-origin concerns and forced forks.

## Why people recommend it

- Much faster than other linkers (4 comments): "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." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49969363)) "Because mold is faster. Linking is a significant bottleneck when building large projects." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967640)) "mold or wild's full link is a few hundred times faster" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49646447))
- Saves hours on large builds (3 comments): "It shaved hours off our full tree build time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49457324)) "That is where mold saved us a ton of time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49969520)) "It is the thing you need mold the most for to speed things up." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49969446))
- Maintainer ships requested features quickly (2 comments): "Rui shipped the --spare-program-headers feature pretty much immediately after I requested it and it immediately restored my sanity." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49460056)) "Rui shipped the --spare-program-headers feature pretty much immediately after I requested it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49464981))
- Well-engineered codebase worth studying (2 comments): "Impressive engineering. The codebase, especially the first versions are a great resource for learning about linkers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49444727)) "examples of exemplary software" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49743612))

## What people warn about

- Rust rewrite seen as LLM-generated (3 comments): "If you need it spelled out the LLM rust rewrite is very clearly what is being referred to." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49966291)) "This project has major issues with an LLM signature in a safety-critical context." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967641)) "They just threw out the code base and replaced it with a vibe coded rust port." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49968783))
- Forced forks and extra maintenance (3 comments): "Now sadly we will have to fork and maintain the c version as mold2 forever." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967270)) "it is an extra dependency and chore we must carry and think about forever" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49970735)) "Sucks that we have to maintain and use both now." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49969776))
- No speed gain over C or lld (2 comments): "this appears to just be a straight port and no additional performance improvements were gained" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49969646)) "it didn't make any difference or whatsoever when compared to lld" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967726))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Wild linker](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wild-linker.md): 10 recommend
- [lld linker](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lld-linker.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Mold linker", https://hackerapproved.com/p/mold-linker/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).