mold 3.0 ships its Rust rewrite with a new build process

mold 3.0 is the first Rust release of the high-speed linker, replacing its C++ implementation. The maintainers intend it as a drop-in replacement for 2.42.1, with the same options and architectures plus bug fixes. Building mold itself now uses Cargo instead of CMake. The project reports comparable linking performance and extensive compatibility checks.

mold · Oct 5, 2026

Why it matters

Build-tool maintainers need to update packaging even when application link commands stay the same.

More context

Try the release against representative builds before changing CI. Building from source requires Rust 1.95 or later and a C compiler; review library-directory settings if your distribution uses a non-default installation layout.

Keep in mind

This is a released rewrite. Compatibility and performance statements come from the maintainers; 1min has not reproduced their tests. Broader GNU linker-script compatibility is a goal for the 3.x series, not a completed promise.

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