Mold linker
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 3 linkers
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.
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.
33 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 24
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 73%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 24 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Much faster than other linkers
“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.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release – Rewritten in Rust” “Because mold is faster. Linking is a significant bottleneck when building large projects.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release – Rewritten in Rust” “mold or wild's full link is a few hundred times faster”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Rust is tier-1 language at Microsoft” - Comment from 2 Sep 2026 in “Rui Ueyama: "We are rewriting the mold linker in Rust"”
Saves hours on large builds
“It shaved hours off our full tree build time.”
Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “Mold: A Massively Parallel Linker” “That is where mold saved us a ton of time.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release – Rewritten in Rust” “It is the thing you need mold the most for to speed things up.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release – Rewritten in Rust” Maintainer ships requested features quickly
“Rui shipped the --spare-program-headers feature pretty much immediately after I requested it and it immediately restored my sanity.”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “Mold: A Massively Parallel Linker” “Rui shipped the --spare-program-headers feature pretty much immediately after I requested it”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “Mold: A Massively Parallel Linker” Well-engineered codebase worth studying
“Impressive engineering. The codebase, especially the first versions are a great resource for learning about linkers.”
Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “Mold: A Parallel Linker” “examples of exemplary software”
Comment from 17 Sep 2026 in “Fujitsu launches made-in-Japan next-generation CPU FUJITSU-MONAKA”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Rust rewrite seen as LLM-generated
“If you need it spelled out the LLM rust rewrite is very clearly what is being referred to.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release – Rewritten in Rust” “This project has major issues with an LLM signature in a safety-critical context.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release – Rewritten in Rust” “They just threw out the code base and replaced it with a vibe coded rust port.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release – Rewritten in Rust” Forced forks and extra maintenance
“Now sadly we will have to fork and maintain the c version as mold2 forever.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release – Rewritten in Rust” “it is an extra dependency and chore we must carry and think about forever”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release – Rewritten in Rust” “Sucks that we have to maintain and use both now.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release – Rewritten in Rust” No speed gain over C or lld
“this appears to just be a straight port and no additional performance improvements were gained”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release – Rewritten in Rust” “it didn't make any difference or whatsoever when compared to lld”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Mold Linker Version 3.0.0 Release – Rewritten in Rust”
Other linkers people recommend
The two most recommended other linkers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mold linkerThis page | 24 | 9 | 73% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Wild linker | 10 | 1 | 91% | 4 | — | Approved |
| lld linker | 9 | 1 | 90% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 45 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Thanks for maintaining an amazing linker, and we will surely ship v3 at the last mile for end users.”
“it takes several hours on most machines. Having to do that once to get mold and a second time to then build with the benefits of mold defeats any advantages for us.”
“Both are well ahead of the next best.”
“Pleasantly surprised to see a ~600 lines Cargo.lock”
“you are still going to be subject to backlash if you change course very rapidly”
“it is an extra dependency and chore we must carry and think about forever”
“Sucks that we have to maintain and use both now.”
“this appears to just be a straight port and no additional performance improvements were gained”
“mold3 rust edition is now incompatible with most of our tree which is made up of dependencies of rust”
“That is where mold saved us a ton of time.”
“Mold already was incredible when it still was in C++”
“It is the thing you need mold the most for to speed things up.”
“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.”
“They just threw out the code base and replaced it with a vibe coded rust port.”
“that is precisely the kind of use case where mold shines”
“it didn't make any difference or whatsoever when compared to lld”
“This project has major issues with an LLM signature in a safety-critical context.”
“Because mold is faster. Linking is a significant bottleneck when building large projects.”
“Kind of a bummer in this case, but this is a specialized one.”
“Mold is a reference in the world of linkers and this port is official.”
“Fearless concurrency sounds like a huge benefit for what they're doing”
“Now sadly we will have to fork and maintain the c version as mold2 forever.”
“Rust's guarantees 100% don't save you from broken, unvalidated "business logic."”
“makes it more trustable and more ethical, not less”
“If you need it spelled out the LLM rust rewrite is very clearly what is being referred to.”
“examples of exemplary software”
“mold or wild's full link is a few hundred times faster”
“mold is again ~5-10x faster that lld”
“It has been used in production for years.”
“Rui shipped the --spare-program-headers feature pretty much immediately after I requested it”
“Rui shipped the --spare-program-headers feature pretty much immediately after I requested it and it immediately restored my sanity.”
“This is a wonderful paper that includes many optimization tricks that are generally applicable”
“it seemed like a no-brainer”
“It shaved hours off our full tree build time.”
“Would use this at a fairly large company if we had windows and Mac support”
“Mold is already very fast, however it doesn't do incremental linking”
“really liked the sentiment”
“Impressive engineering. The codebase, especially the first versions are a great resource for learning about linkers.”
“Also set up the mold or wild linker as well as sccache”
“The mold linker even added features to make it easy and optimal.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.