Auto merge of #140872 - bjorn3:elf_use_used_linker, r=nikic

Make #[used(linker)] the default on ELF too

`#[used]` currently is an alias for `#[used(linker)]` on all platforms except ELF based ones where it is an alias for `#[used(compiler)]`. The latter has surprising behavior and the LLVM LangRef explicitly states that it "should only be used in rare circumstances, and should not be exposed to source languages." [^2]

The reason `#[used]` still was an alias to `#[used(compiler)]` on ELF is because the gold linker has issues with it. Luckily gold has been deprecated with GCC 15 [^1] and seems to be unable to bootstrap rustc anyway [^3]. As such we shouldn't really care about supporting gold.

This would also allow re-enabling start-stop-gc with lld.

cc https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/93798
Likely fixes https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/85045

[^1]: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2025-02/msg00001.html
[^2]: https://llvm.org/docs/LangRef.html#the-llvm-compiler-used-global-variable
[^3]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/139425

3 files changed, 13 insertions, 37 deletions

diff --git a/compiler/rustc_codegen_llvm/src/consts.rs b/compiler/rustc_codegen_llvm/src/consts.rs
index 4234352c93a..73def2711dc 100644
--- a/compiler/rustc_codegen_llvm/src/consts.rs
+++ b/compiler/rustc_codegen_llvm/src/consts.rs
@@ -541,12 +541,12 @@ impl<'ll> CodegenCx<'ll, '_> {
                 // in the handling of `.init_array` (the static constructor list) in versions of
                 // the gold linker (prior to the one released with binutils 2.36).
                 //
-                // That said, we only ever emit these when compiling for ELF targets, unless
-                // `#[used(compiler)]` is explicitly requested. This is to avoid similar breakage
-                // on other targets, in particular MachO targets have *their* static constructor
-                // lists broken if `llvm.compiler.used` is emitted rather than `llvm.used`. However,
-                // that check happens when assigning the `CodegenFnAttrFlags` in
-                // `rustc_hir_analysis`, so we don't need to take care of it here.
+                // That said, we only ever emit these when `#[used(compiler)]` is explicitly
+                // requested. This is to avoid similar breakage on other targets, in particular
+                // MachO targets have *their* static constructor lists broken if `llvm.compiler.used`
+                // is emitted rather than `llvm.used`. However, that check happens when assigning
+                // the `CodegenFnAttrFlags` in the `codegen_fn_attrs` query, so we don't need to
+                // take care of it here.
                 self.add_compiler_used_global(g);
             }
             if attrs.flags.contains(CodegenFnAttrFlags::USED_LINKER) {
diff --git a/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs b/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs
index 1a39a0c3fda..168077260a6 100644
--- a/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs
+++ b/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/back/link.rs
@@ -1961,7 +1961,7 @@ fn add_post_link_args(cmd: &mut dyn Linker, sess: &Session, flavor: LinkerFlavor
 /// This method creates a synthetic object file, which contains undefined references to all symbols
 /// that are necessary for the linking. They are only present in symbol table but not actually
 /// used in any sections, so the linker will therefore pick relevant rlibs for linking, but
-/// unused `#[no_mangle]` or `#[used]` can still be discard by GC sections.
+/// unused `#[no_mangle]` or `#[used(compiler)]` can still be discard by GC sections.
 ///
 /// There's a few internal crates in the standard library (aka libcore and
 /// libstd) which actually have a circular dependence upon one another. This
@@ -1995,7 +1995,8 @@ fn add_linked_symbol_object(
 
     if file.format() == object::BinaryFormat::MachO {
         // Divide up the sections into sub-sections via symbols for dead code stripping.
-        // Without this flag, unused `#[no_mangle]` or `#[used]` cannot be discard on MachO targets.
+        // Without this flag, unused `#[no_mangle]` or `#[used(compiler)]` cannot be
+        // discard on MachO targets.
         file.set_subsections_via_symbols();
     }
 
diff --git a/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/codegen_attrs.rs b/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/codegen_attrs.rs
index 4bcafa3be36..0b31fa8fa88 100644
--- a/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/codegen_attrs.rs
+++ b/compiler/rustc_codegen_ssa/src/codegen_attrs.rs
@@ -195,35 +195,10 @@ fn codegen_fn_attrs(tcx: TyCtxt<'_>, did: LocalDefId) -> CodegenFnAttrs {
                         tcx.dcx().emit_err(errors::ExpectedUsedSymbol { span: attr.span() });
                     }
                     None => {
-                        // Unfortunately, unconditionally using `llvm.used` causes
-                        // issues in handling `.init_array` with the gold linker,
-                        // but using `llvm.compiler.used` caused a nontrivial amount
-                        // of unintentional ecosystem breakage -- particularly on
-                        // Mach-O targets.
-                        //
-                        // As a result, we emit `llvm.compiler.used` only on ELF
-                        // targets. This is somewhat ad-hoc, but actually follows
-                        // our pre-LLVM 13 behavior (prior to the ecosystem
-                        // breakage), and seems to match `clang`'s behavior as well
-                        // (both before and after LLVM 13), possibly because they
-                        // have similar compatibility concerns to us. See
-                        // https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/47384#issuecomment-1019080146
-                        // and following comments for some discussion of this, as
-                        // well as the comments in `rustc_codegen_llvm` where these
-                        // flags are handled.
-                        //
-                        // Anyway, to be clear: this is still up in the air
-                        // somewhat, and is subject to change in the future (which
-                        // is a good thing, because this would ideally be a bit
-                        // more firmed up).
-                        let is_like_elf = !(tcx.sess.target.is_like_darwin
-                            || tcx.sess.target.is_like_windows
-                            || tcx.sess.target.is_like_wasm);
-                        codegen_fn_attrs.flags |= if is_like_elf {
-                            CodegenFnAttrFlags::USED_COMPILER
-                        } else {
-                            CodegenFnAttrFlags::USED_LINKER
-                        };
+                        // Unconditionally using `llvm.used` causes issues in handling
+                        // `.init_array` with the gold linker. Luckily gold has been
+                        // deprecated with GCC 15 and rustc now warns about using gold.
+                        codegen_fn_attrs.flags |= CodegenFnAttrFlags::USED_LINKER
                     }
                 }
             }