libphobos.a section audit: largest contributors to binary size

[morningstarxcdcode]

Summary

I ran objdump on libphobos.a and sorted all sections by size to identify
the largest contributors. This was done as part of a performance research
prototype for GSoC 2026.

Method

objdump -h libphobos.a | awk '/[0-9a-f]{8} [0-9a-f]{8}/ {print $3, $2}' \
  | sort -rh | head -30

Finding

Template instantiations in std.algorithm and std.range dominate section
sizes. There are multiple near-duplicate instantiation symbols that suggest
redundant template expansion — the linker is not deduplicating them.

Question

Is there an existing effort to reduce template bloat in Phobos?
Is pragma(inline, true) + explicit instantiation the recommended approach,
or is there a better pattern being considered?

I can share the full sorted section dump if useful.