SATURDAY, JULY 18, 2026
binutils — Proposed
Highlight gold deprecation on binutils frontpage
Suggest updating the binutils website to reflect gold linker's deprecation.
Mindy Batek points out that the GNU Binutils webpage still advertises ‘gold’ as a new, faster linker, despite it being deprecated and excluded from many releases. This is misleading for users who might still consider using it.
In the Thread
- proposer
Requests that the Binutils website be updated to accurately represent the status of the gold linker, noting its deprecation and removal from releases.
In Details
The GNU Binutils project maintains a website that historically promoted its 'gold' linker as a modern alternative. This discussion concerns updating that public-facing information to be accurate, as 'gold' is no longer actively maintained or included in recent versions of the Binutils suite.
For Context
- GNU Binutils
- A collection of programming tools for manipulating binary and object files, including the assembler (as), linker (ld), and binary file manipulator (objdump).
- gold linker
- A high-performance linker developed by the GNU toolchain project, intended as a replacement for the traditional (bfd) linker.
- deprecated
- Software or a feature that is no longer recommended for use, often indicating that it will be removed in future versions. Support may be limited or non-existent.