In this post, I remember how to use the alternatives(8) mechanism to make clang’s lld linker the default. First, tell alternatives that lld is available and set it at a high priority: $ sudo alternatives --install /usr/bin/ld ld /usr/bin/lld 80 $ sudo alternatives --auto ld Then, just verify that it worked: $ alternatives --display ld ld - status is auto. link currently points to /usr/bin/lld /usr/bin/ld.bfd - priority 50 /usr/bin/ld.gold - priority 30 /usr/bin/lld - priority 80 Current `best' version is /usr/bin/lld.