Prelink
Contents
Method
Most programs require libraries to function. Libraries can be integrated into a program once, by a linker, when it is compiled (static linking) or they can be integrated when the program is run by a loader, (dynamic linking). Dynamic linking has advantages in code size and management, but every time a program is run, the loader needs to find the relevant libraries. Because the libraries can move around in memory, this causes a performance penalty, and the more libraries that need to be resolved, the greater the penalty. prelink reduces this penalty by using the system's dynamic linker to reversibly perform this linking in advance ("prelinking" the executable file) by relocating. Afterward, the program only needs to spend time finding the relevant libraries on being run if, for some reason (perhaps an upgrade), the libraries have changed since being prelinked.
Installing
Prelink is available through pacman
pacman -S prelink
Configuration
All settings are in /etc/prelink.conf
Usage
Prelinking
following command prelink all the binaries in the directories given by /etc/prelink.conf
# prelink -amR
Removing prelink
Removing prelinking from all binaries
# prelink -au
Troubleshooting
Some propritary binaries will crash with prelink (such as flash, skype). You should add eclude list in the /etc/prelink.conf.