Dead Code Elimination

[libxmoc]

On Thursday, 22 October 2026 at 08:04:09 UTC, Richard (Rikki) 
Andrew Cattermole wrote:
> On 22/10/2026 8:50 PM, libxmoc wrote:
>> On Wednesday, 21 October 2026 at 19:34:17 UTC, Walter Bright 
>> wrote:
>>> On 10/21/2026 12:10 AM, libxmoc wrote:
>>>> I disassembled both app and app.o, and `removeme` exists in 
>>>> both
>>>
>>> It's the job of the linker to remove uncalled functions.
>>>
>>> The compiler does not know what other code the result may be 
>>> linked with, and what functions that other code calls.
>> 
>> So why didn't the linker remove the `removeme` function from 
>> the executable?
>
> For MSVC link `/OPT:REF` is only enabled with -release (uck).
>
> https://github.com/dlang/dmd/blob/21cf5b1ae5510eb7566812b065db582024e89cd0/compiler/src/dmd/link.d#L283
>
> https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/reference/opt-optimizations?view=msvc-170
>
> Other linkers may not be doing it by default as well.

Interesting.. 
https://github.com/dlang/dmd/blob/21cf5b1ae5510eb7566812b065db582024e89cd0/compiler/src/dmd/link.d#L517-L531