Enable Link-Time Optimization (LTO) for lnav

[tstack]

Discussed in #1376

^{Originally posted by zamazan4ik January 21, 2025}
Hi!

I suggest enabling Link-Time Optimization (LTO) for lnav (-flto option in GCC and Clang compilers). It allows to the compiler perform better optimizations that results in most cases to higher performance and smaller binaries (I found at least one mention of LTO in this repo). I am not an expert in lnav's build scripts, to be honest but quickly checked build scripts for GitHub CI and scripts like this - as far as I understand, LTO is not enabled.

I see here two options:

• Enable LTO only for published on the official website binaries. In this case, users, who download official binaries from the official website, will get LTO-optimized versions. People who use binaries from repositories - will rely on maintainers. People who build binaries on their own - it's up to them to enable LTO.
• Enable LTO in all build scripts by default. In this case, users, who download official binaries from the official website, will get LTO-optimized versions. People who use binaries from repositories - will rely on maintainers (by default LTO will be enabled in their scripts but maintainers can disable it if they are interested). People who build binaries on their own - by default they'll get an LTO-optimized version but they will be able to disable it if they want to do it.

Thank you.