Re-compiling Lazarus hangs at "Linking"

[edvard]

Hopefully, I'm posting in the right spot...
My system: Debian Linux "Testing", FreePascal 3.0.0, Lazarus 1.4.4 and 1.6RC2

OK, I prefer to use the Qt toolkit, so as soon as I got 1.4.4 and 1.6RC2 downloaded and installed, I configured "Build Lazarus" with the 'qt' option.  Compiling went as normal, but hung for half an hour before I finally killed it.  The last thing in the Messages window was "Linking ../lazarus"

Trying the advice of someone else, I tried opening a terminal in the Lazarus folder and typed:
make clean bigide LCL_PLATFORM=qt
Compiling goes as normal, but it hangs at "Linking ../lazbuild"

The only unusual thing I can see is the two dots in front of the filename instead of the normal one; other files that compile and link successfully report "Linking ./[file to be linked]" before it moves on to the the next bit to be assembled.  Linking usually takes a bit of a pause before continuing, but I let it go for half an hour before giving up.

It does this for both 1.4.4 and 1.6RC2.  I've searched the forum and can't find anybody else with this problem. Any clues?

[Leledumbo]

What is your computer spec? Linking is indeed the heaviest process among every compilation phases, it also eats huge amount of RAM (200-300 MB). First time should take up to 10 seconds on my core i5-4200u with 7.6 GB of RAM, subsequent build takes 1-3 seconds.

[edvard]

I have a 64-bit 3GHz AMD Phenom II (Dual core) with 4 Gigs of RAM.  Not the speediest of rigs, but easily out paces my single-core machine of just a few months ago, and I don't remember it building this slow on that one..

I left the 1.4.4 compiling overnight, and it looks like it did indeed finish at some point, so hopefully you're right that the next build will go faster.  Trying compiling the 1.6RC now... It has hung at "Linking ../lazbuild".  I'll let it go and see how long it takes.

Start: 7:09 pm

[Martin_fr]

If linking is too slow, then make sure you do not compile with smartlinking enabled. (units can be build for smartlinking, just dont actually smartlink the IDE)

It saves hardly anything in the IDE, but it dramatically increases memory usage, and if you are a few bytes short swapping can really make it slow.

[edvard]

Finished compiling about 8:00, give or take 5 minutes or so..

If linking is too slow, then make sure you do not compile with smartlinking enabled. (units can be build for smartlinking, just dont actually smartlink the IDE)

It saves hardly anything in the IDE, but it dramatically increases memory usage, and if you are a few bytes short swapping can really make it slow.

Good advice, but I don't see options for whether or not to do smart linking in the 'Tools->Configure "Build Lazarus"'  dialog.

[Leledumbo]

I have a 64-bit 3GHz AMD Phenom II (Dual core) with 4 Gigs of RAM.  Not the speediest of rigs, but easily out paces my single-core machine of just a few months ago, and I don't remember it building this slow on that one..

It's a more than enough spec. Something else, must be wrong, could be the linker. You can try building on different distro, I don't use debian but here in manjaro is as what I said above.

Good advice, but I don't see options for whether or not to do smart linking in the 'Tools->Configure "Build Lazarus"'  dialog.

Put -XS in the option box (note that it's case sensitive)

[engkin]

Probably I am wrong, but just in case.

Linking deals extensively with the HDD. If the drive started to take longer time for usual activities, then it is time to consider preparing a backup of your important data.

[jujibo]

I installed Sparky linux (debian testing based) and there is a serious problem while linking, is not Lazarus. It happens also compiling FreePascal and every project. Linking takes very long time (linking lazarus takes too much time).

All is pointing to Binutils 2.26. I don't know if this happen only in Debian Testing or also other Linux distros using Binutils 2.26 suffer this issue.

[Windsurfer]

Binutils 2.24 in Linux Mint 17.3 gives no trouble.

[jujibo]

Yes, I also have Linux Mint 17.3 Mate and no problems.

I also have observed that projects running fine in Linux Mint, throws an exception in libpthread when closing the application in Debian Testing. For this reason, I'm not using it for now.

[hallenberger]

I installed Sparky linux (debian testing based) and there is a serious problem while linking, is not Lazarus. It happens also compiling FreePascal and every project. Linking takes very long time (linking lazarus takes too much time).

All is pointing to Binutils 2.26. I don't know if this happen only in Debian Testing or also other Linux distros using Binutils 2.26 suffer this issue.

Here same situation. Sparky: long time linking,  "normal" Debian: normal time linking.

[marcov]

Try if you see difference between dwarf and stabs debug info

[jujibo]

Try if you see difference between dwarf and stabs debug info

I'm at work right now (no SparkyLinux/Debian testing here). I'll check it later. In my case I have compiled for production so no debug info. FPC is also compiled with NOGDB=1 and takes really long linking everything.

[jujibo]

After last Debian testing upgrade: Binutils 2.26-2 to 2.26-3, linking is fast again so don't panic

For something is 'testing'

[hallenberger]

Yes. Everything links fast