The -C linker-plugin-lto flag allows for deferring the LTO optimization to the actual linking step, which in turn allows for performing interprocedural optimizations across programming language boundaries if all the object files being linked were created by LLVM based toolchains. The prime example here would be linking Rust code together with Clang-compiled C/C++ code.

There are two main cases how linker plugin based LTO can be used:

• compiling a Rust staticlib that is used as a C ABI dependency
• compiling a Rust binary where rustc invokes the linker

In both cases the Rust code has to be compiled with -C linker-plugin-lto and the C/C++ code with -flto or -flto=thin so that object files are emitted as LLVM bitcode.

In this case the Rust compiler just has to make sure that the object files in the staticlib are in the right format. For linking, a linker with the LLVM plugin must be used (e.g. LLD).

Using rustc directly:

# Compile the Rust staticlib
rustc --crate-type=staticlib -Clinker-plugin-lto -Copt-level=2 ./lib.rs
# Compile the C code with `-flto=thin`
clang -c -O2 -flto=thin -o main.o ./main.c
# Link everything, making sure that we use an appropriate linker
clang -flto=thin -fuse-ld=lld -L . -l"name-of-your-rust-lib" -o main -O2 ./cmain.o

Using cargo:

# Compile the Rust staticlib
RUSTFLAGS="-Clinker-plugin-lto" cargo build --release
# Compile the C code with `-flto=thin`
clang -c -O2 -flto=thin -o main.o ./main.c
# Link everything, making sure that we use an appropriate linker
clang -flto=thin -fuse-ld=lld -L . -l"name-of-your-rust-lib" -o main -O2 ./cmain.o

In this case the linker will be invoked by rustc. We again have to make sure that an appropriate linker is used.

Using rustc directly:

# Compile C code with `-flto`
clang ./clib.c -flto=thin -c -o ./clib.o -O2
# Create a static library from the C code
ar crus ./libxyz.a ./clib.o

# Invoke `rustc` with the additional arguments
rustc -Clinker-plugin-lto -L. -Copt-level=2 -Clinker=clang -Clink-arg=-fuse-ld=lld ./main.rs

Using cargo directly:

# Compile C code with `-flto`
clang ./clib.c -flto=thin -c -o ./clib.o -O2
# Create a static library from the C code
ar crus ./libxyz.a ./clib.o

# Set the linking arguments via RUSTFLAGS
RUSTFLAGS="-Clinker-plugin-lto -Clinker=clang -Clink-arg=-fuse-ld=lld" cargo build --release

If one wants to use a linker other than LLD, the LLVM linker plugin has to be specified explicitly. Otherwise the linker cannot read the object files. The path to the plugin is passed as an argument to the -Clinker-plugin-lto option:

rustc -Clinker-plugin-lto="/path/to/LLVMgold.so" -L. -Copt-level=2 ./main.rs

In order for this kind of LTO to work, the LLVM linker plugin must be able to handle the LLVM bitcode produced by both rustc and clang.

Best results are achieved by using a rustc and clang that are based on the exact same version of LLVM. One can use rustc -vV in order to view the LLVM used by a given rustc version. Note that the version number given here is only an approximation as Rust sometimes uses unstable revisions of LLVM. However, the approximation is usually reliable.

The following table shows known good combinations of toolchain versions.

Note that the compatibility policy for this feature might change in the future.