Trying Out LLVM 4.0's LLD Linker On Ubuntu 17.04 vs. GNU LD, GNU Gold

The tests in this article are looking at the build time / overall install time to be fully-automated using the Phoronix Test Suite. Thus it's not just the linker times being looked at, but still you can get a look at the overall impact of changing the linker. With the timed PHP compilation, 1~2 seconds were shaved off on this i7-6800K system by using LLD 4.0.

Switching to the LLD 4.0 linker caused a much shorter build time for the Apache web-server.

ImageMagick was another big winner when switching to the LLD 4.0 linker.

John The Ripper's link time wasn't any faster than GNU LD/Gold with LLD.

FFTW's build time was slower when pulling in the LLD linker.