From 7c0bd2fbbde7042858ffeeae583cde3523b680fa Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Tropical <42101043+tropicaaal@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2026 10:26:49 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] refactor(build): make `lld` optional and recommend clang/llvm
 in README

---
 README.md               | 36 +++++++++++++++++-------------------
 meson.build             |  3 ---
 scripts/llvm_native.txt |  5 +++++
 3 files changed, 22 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 scripts/llvm_native.txt

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 88d657dd3..9366801a5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -57,29 +57,13 @@ docker run -it -v $(pwd):/workspaces/4jcraft -w /workspaces/4jcraft 4jcraft-dev
 ### Configure & Build
 
 > [!IMPORTANT]
-> GCC 15 or newer is currently *required* to build this project. Ubuntu installations in particular may have older versions preinstalled, so verify your compiler version with `gcc --version`.
+> If you are using GCC, then GCC 15 or newer is currently *required* to build this project. Ubuntu installations in particular may have older versions preinstalled, so verify your compiler version with `gcc --version`.
 
-This project uses the [Meson](https://mesonbuild.com/) (with [Ninja](https://ninja-build.org/)) as a build system and [lld](https://lld.llvm.org/) as a linker.
+This project uses the [Meson](https://mesonbuild.com/) build system (with [Ninja](https://ninja-build.org/)).
 
 #### Install Tooling
 
-1. Follow [this Quickstart guide](https://mesonbuild.com/Quick-guide.html) for installing or building Meson and Ninja on your respective distro.
-2. Install the `lld` linker using your distro's package manager. This may be distributed as part of an [LLVM toolchain](https://llvm.org/).
-  
-   Debian/Ubuntu:
-   ```bash
-   sudo apt-get install lld
-   ```
-
-   RedHat/Fedora:
-   ```bash
-   sudo dnf install lld
-   ```
-
-   Arch/Manjaro:
-   ```bash
-   sudo pacman -S lld
-   ```
+Follow [this Quickstart guide](https://mesonbuild.com/Quick-guide.html) for installing or building Meson and Ninja on your respective distro.
 
 #### Configure & Build
 
@@ -91,6 +75,20 @@ meson setup build
 meson compile -C build
 ```
 
+> [!TIP]
+>
+> For the fastest compilation speeds, you may want to use the compilers and linkers provided by an [LLVM toolchain](https://llvm.org/) (`clang`/`lld`) over your system compiler and linker. To do this, install `clang` and `lld`, and configure your build using the `llvm_native.txt` nativescript in `/scripts`:
+>
+> ```bash
+> meson setup --native-file ./scripts/llvm_native.txt build
+> ```
+>
+> ...or if you've already configured a build directory:
+>
+> ```bash
+> meson setup --native-file ./scripts/llvm_native.txt build --reconfigure
+> ```
+
 The binary is output to:
 
 ```
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 2b78b43bb..14b94a2d1 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -12,9 +12,6 @@ project('4jcraft-chucklegrounds', ['cpp', 'c'],
 
 cc = meson.get_compiler('cpp')
 
-# Use LLD for dramatically faster linking (ld.lld must be installed)
-add_project_link_arguments('-fuse-ld=lld', language : ['c', 'cpp'])
-
 # system deps
 gl_dep     = dependency('gl')
 glu_dep    = dependency('glu')
diff --git a/scripts/llvm_native.txt b/scripts/llvm_native.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..17d5b1824
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/llvm_native.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+[binaries]
+c = 'clang'
+cpp = 'clang++'
+c_ld = 'lld'
+cpp_ld = 'lld'