Enable Link-Time Optimization (LTO) and codegen-units = 1
- Dominant language
- Rust
- Stars
- 130
- Forks
- 10
- PR merge metrics
- No merged PRs in 30d
Description
Hi!
I noticed that in the `Cargo.toml` file Link-Time Optimization (LTO) for the project is not enabled. I suggest switching it on since it will reduce the binary size (always a good thing to have) and will likely improve the application's performance a bit. If you want to read more about LTO and its possible modes, I recommend starting from [this](https://doc.rust-lang.org/rustc/codegen-options/index.html#lto) Rustc documentation.
I think you can enable LTO only for the Release builds so as not to sacrifice the developers' experience while working on the project since LTO consumes an additional amount of time to finish the compilation routine. If you think that a regular Release build should not be affected by such a change as well, then I suggest adding an additional `dist` or `release-lto` profile where in addition to regular `release` optimizations LTO will also be added. Such a change simplifies life for maintainers and others interested in the project persons who want to build the most optimized version of the application. However, if we enable it on the Cargo profile level for the Release profile, users, who install the application with `cargo install` will get the LTO-optimized version of the game "automatically". E.g., check `cargo-outdated` Release [profile](https://github.com/kbknapp/cargo-outdated/blob/master/Cargo.toml#L48). You also could be interested in other optimization options like `codegen-units = 1`, etc.
Basically, it can be enabled with the following lines:
```
[profile.release]
codegen-units = 1
lto = true
```
I hope you will use these optimizations in all of your current and future Rust projects ;)
Thank you.
Contributor guide
No contributing guide indexed for this repository
Research direction
Start in Cargo.toml and review the existing build profiles alongside the proposed [profile.release] settings. Apply the agreed LTO and codegen-units configuration, then run a release build to confirm it completes successfully and produces the optimized profile.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- build-system, performance
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 1/5
- Estimated time
- Under an hour
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100