From fe3c089fd5db62e2013d0ff1c05511d67f98c9ad Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: pajlada <rasmus.karlsson@pajlada.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2025 12:16:52 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] chore: simplify `USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER` code (#6692)

---
 CHANGELOG.md   |  1 +
 CMakeLists.txt | 27 ++++++++++-----------------
 2 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index da2d00a0..ba45c2dc 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@
 - Dev: Disabled `llvm-prefer-static-over-anonymous-namespace` in clang-tidy. (#6610)
 - Dev: Added Clazy linting in CI. (#6623)
 - Dev: Added custom clang-tidy module linting in CI. (#6626)
+- Dev: CMake option `USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER` now errors if the given linker can't be found. (#6692)
 - Dev: Moved Twitch PubSub to liveupdates. (#6638)
 
 ## 2.5.4
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 38a2cbfa..8d4d3d64 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.15)
+# CMake upgrade notes:
+#  - In CMake >= 3.29, we should deprecate USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER in favour of CMake's CMAKE_LINKER_TYPE
 set(CMAKE_EXPORT_NO_PACKAGE_REGISTRY On) # For rapidjson
 cmake_policy(SET CMP0087 NEW) # evaluates generator expressions in `install(CODE/SCRIPT)`
 cmake_policy(SET CMP0091 NEW) # select MSVC runtime library through `CMAKE_MSVC_RUNTIME_LIBRARY`
@@ -37,6 +39,8 @@ add_feature_info("Chatterino code sanitizer support" CHATTERINO_SANITIZER_SUPPOR
 option(CHATTERINO_UPDATER "Enable update checks" ON)
 mark_as_advanced(CHATTERINO_UPDATER)
 
+set(USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER "" CACHE STRING "Use alternate linker. Leave empty for system default. CMake 3.29 users can use CMAKE_LINKER_TYPE instead.")
+
 if(CHATTERINO_SANITIZER_SUPPORT)
     list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH
         "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/sanitizers-cmake/cmake"
@@ -90,25 +94,14 @@ elseif (CCACHE_PROGRAM)
     set(_compiler_launcher ${CCACHE_PROGRAM})
 endif ()
 
-
-# Alternate linker code taken from heavyai/heavydb
-# https://github.com/heavyai/heavydb/blob/0517d99b467806f6af7b4c969e351368a667497d/CMakeLists.txt#L87-L103
-macro(set_alternate_linker linker)
-  find_program(LINKER_EXECUTABLE ld.${USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER} ${USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER})
-  if(LINKER_EXECUTABLE)
-    if("${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID}" STREQUAL "Clang" AND "${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_VERSION}" VERSION_LESS 12.0.0)
-      add_link_options("-ld-path=${USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER}")
+if(USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER)
+    find_program(LINKER_EXECUTABLE ld.${USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER} ${USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER})
+    if(LINKER_EXECUTABLE)
+        message(STATUS "Using alternate linker '${USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER}'")
+        add_link_options("-fuse-ld=${USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER}")
     else()
-      add_link_options("-fuse-ld=${USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER}")
+        message(FATAL_ERROR "Alternate linker ${USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER} could not be found under ld.${USE_ALTERNATIVE_LINKER} or ${USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER}")
     endif()
-  else()
-    set(USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER "" CACHE STRING "Use alternate linker" FORCE)
-  endif()
-endmacro()
-
-set(USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER "" CACHE STRING "Use alternate linker. Leave empty for system default; alternatives are 'gold', 'lld', 'bfd', 'mold'")
-if(NOT "${USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER}" STREQUAL "")
-  set_alternate_linker(${USE_ALTERNATE_LINKER})
 endif()
 
 if (_compiler_launcher)