diff --git a/configure b/configure
index f62fbc5d0f5..4b24e36a93b 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -693,7 +693,6 @@ STRIP_SHARED_LIB
 STRIP_STATIC_LIB
 STRIP
 with_gnu_ld
-LD
 LDFLAGS_SL
 LDFLAGS_EX
 ZSTD_LIBS
@@ -9645,7 +9644,6 @@ with_gnu_ld=$ac_cv_prog_gnu_ld
 
 
 
-
   if test -n "$ac_tool_prefix"; then
   # Extract the first word of "${ac_tool_prefix}strip", so it can be a program name with args.
 set dummy ${ac_tool_prefix}strip; ac_word=$2
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 6e7c8e09411..61e6da6eb37 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1132,7 +1132,6 @@ AC_ARG_VAR(LDFLAGS_EX, [extra linker flags for linking executables only])
 AC_ARG_VAR(LDFLAGS_SL, [extra linker flags for linking shared libraries only])
 
 PGAC_PROG_LD
-AC_SUBST(LD)
 AC_SUBST(with_gnu_ld)
 PGAC_CHECK_STRIP
 AC_CHECK_TOOL(AR, ar, ar)
diff --git a/src/Makefile.global.in b/src/Makefile.global.in
index 346b73260fc..6ee0f513018 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.global.in
+++ b/src/Makefile.global.in
@@ -289,7 +289,6 @@ LDAP_LIBS_FE = @LDAP_LIBS_FE@
 LDAP_LIBS_BE = @LDAP_LIBS_BE@
 UUID_LIBS = @UUID_LIBS@
 LLVM_LIBS=@LLVM_LIBS@
-LD = @LD@
 with_gnu_ld = @with_gnu_ld@
 
 # It's critical that within LDFLAGS, all -L switches pointing to build-tree
@@ -316,8 +315,6 @@ LDFLAGS = $(LDFLAGS_INTERNAL) @LDFLAGS@
 LDFLAGS_EX = @LDFLAGS_EX@
 # LDFLAGS_SL might have already been assigned by calling makefile
 LDFLAGS_SL += @LDFLAGS_SL@
-LDREL = -r
-LDOUT = -o
 WINDRES = @WINDRES@
 X = @EXEEXT@
 
diff --git a/src/backend/Makefile b/src/backend/Makefile
index 181c217fae4..efd4d30a28d 100644
--- a/src/backend/Makefile
+++ b/src/backend/Makefile
@@ -100,8 +100,14 @@ ifeq ($(PORTNAME), aix)
 postgres: $(POSTGRES_IMP)
 	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(call expand_subsys,$(OBJS)) $(LDFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS_EX) -Wl,-bE:$(top_builddir)/src/backend/$(POSTGRES_IMP) $(LIBS) -Wl,-brtllib -o $@
 
+# Linking to a single .o with -r is a lot faster than building a .a or passing
+# all objects to MKLDEXPORT.
+#
+# It looks alluring to use $(CC) -r instead of ld -r, but that doesn't
+# trivially work with gcc, due to gcc specific static libraries linked in with
+# -r.
 $(POSTGRES_IMP): $(OBJS)
-	$(LD) $(LDREL) $(LDOUT) SUBSYS.o $(call expand_subsys,$^)
+	ld -r -o SUBSYS.o $(call expand_subsys,$^)
 	$(MKLDEXPORT) SUBSYS.o . > $@
 	@rm -f SUBSYS.o