How is Mono AOT / mkbundle used and optimized? (for reducing VM startup latencies)

Question

I'd like to see if I can reduce VM latencies by using Mono's AOT (ahead of time compiler). How does one run the .so files? (Sorry this is question is so rudimentary; I couldn't find a simple answer on Mono's documentation).

I figured out how to use mkbundle (mkbundle2 in this case), but are the resulting files being optimized? The Mono AOT documentation mentions "-O=all,-shared" flags, but I don't see these for mkbundle.

Though it's probably a much different answer, if there are good ways of keeping the VM open (with something more natural / platform neutral than a fifo special file), that might be best.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

If the AOT .so files exist beside the exe/dll files, Mono will use them when you run the exe. But you still need the dll/exe files for metadata and things that cannot be AOT-compiled.

Answer 2

Not sure if it's exactly related to your question, but see the final note here

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dsyme/archive/2010/02/10/detailed-release-notes-for-f-february-2010-release.aspx

about the --resident flag to the compiler, to make fsc.exe faster on Mono.