I'm really curious what you were compiling, and if you remember the machine specs (and was the machine under other load at the time). Two hours seems beyond ridiculous.
Also, I'm assuming it was a full (as opposed to an incremental) release build? But even then, I've never had to wait for that long.
Two hours is not beyond ridiculous. A lot of projects in the past compiled for way longer than that, days even.
In 90s and early 2000s if you worked on a large desktop application (the size of Office or Photoshop) you could expect to spend a business day waiting for compilation results.
Sorry, I should've clarified that I meant specifically meant in recent versions of Rust. I wasn't speaking in the general sense. I've experienced slow compilation times in C++ projects, although not of the same magnitude you describe (ie having to wait days)!
Also, I'm assuming it was a full (as opposed to an incremental) release build? But even then, I've never had to wait for that long.