diff --git a/core/modules/menu_link/lib/Drupal/menu_link/MenuLinkStorageController.php b/core/modules/menu_link/lib/Drupal/menu_link/MenuLinkStorageController.php
index b29cdca..d25e81d 100644
--- a/core/modules/menu_link/lib/Drupal/menu_link/MenuLinkStorageController.php
+++ b/core/modules/menu_link/lib/Drupal/menu_link/MenuLinkStorageController.php
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@
 class MenuLinkStorageController extends DatabaseStorageController {
 
   /**
+   * Indicates whether the delete operation should re-parent children items.
+   *
    * @var bool
    */
   protected $preventReparenting = FALSE;
@@ -305,7 +307,7 @@ public function loadUpdatedCustomized(array $router_paths) {
   /**
    * Loads system menu link as needed by system_get_module_admin_tasks().
    *
-   * @return array<MenuLink>
+   * @return array
    *   An array of menu link entities indexed by their IDs.
    */
   public function loadModuleAdminTasks() {
diff --git a/core/modules/menu_link/lib/Drupal/menu_link/Plugin/Core/Entity/MenuLink.php b/core/modules/menu_link/lib/Drupal/menu_link/Plugin/Core/Entity/MenuLink.php
index 9d41851..bccbb67 100644
--- a/core/modules/menu_link/lib/Drupal/menu_link/Plugin/Core/Entity/MenuLink.php
+++ b/core/modules/menu_link/lib/Drupal/menu_link/Plugin/Core/Entity/MenuLink.php
@@ -84,56 +84,83 @@ class MenuLink extends Entity implements \ArrayAccess, ContentEntityInterface {
   public $router_path;
 
   /**
+   * The entity label.
+   *
    * @var string
    */
   public $link_title = '';
 
   /**
+   * A serialized array of options to be passed to the url() or l() function,
+   * such as a query string or HTML attributes.
+   *
    * @var array
    */
   public $options = array();
 
   /**
+   * The name of the module that generated this link.
+   *
    * @var string
    */
   public $module = 'menu';
 
   /**
+   * A flag for whether the link should be rendered in menus.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $hidden = 0;
 
   /**
+   * A flag to indicate if the link points to a full URL starting with a
+   * protocol, like http:// (1 = external, 0 = internal).
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $external;
 
   /**
+   * Flag indicating whether any links have this link as a parent.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $has_children = 0;
 
   /**
+   * Flag for whether this link should be rendered as expanded in menus.
+   * Expanded links always have their child links displayed, instead of only
+   * when the link is in the active trail.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $expanded = 0;
 
   /**
+   * Link weight among links in the same menu at the same depth.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $weight = 0;
 
   /**
+   * The depth relative to the top level. A link with plid == 0 will have
+   * depth == 1.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $depth;
 
   /**
+   * A flag to indicate that the user has manually created or edited the link.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $customized = 0;
 
   /**
+   * The first entity ID in the materialized path.
+   *
    * @var int
    *
    * @todo Investigate whether the p1, p2, .. pX properties can be moved to a
@@ -142,41 +169,57 @@ class MenuLink extends Entity implements \ArrayAccess, ContentEntityInterface {
   public $p1;
 
   /**
+   * The second entity ID in the materialized path.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $p2;
 
   /**
+   * The third entity ID in the materialized path.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $p3;
 
   /**
+   * The fourth entity ID in the materialized path.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $p4;
 
   /**
+   * The fifth entity ID in the materialized path.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $p5;
 
   /**
+   * The sixth entity ID in the materialized path.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $p6;
 
   /**
+   * The seventh entity ID in the materialized path.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $p7;
 
   /**
+   * The eighth entity ID in the materialized path.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $p8;
 
   /**
+   * The ninth entity ID in the materialized path.
+   *
    * @var int
    */
   public $p9;
diff --git a/core/modules/menu_link/menu_link.module b/core/modules/menu_link/menu_link.module
index d18598d..ed11c78 100644
--- a/core/modules/menu_link/menu_link.module
+++ b/core/modules/menu_link/menu_link.module
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ function menu_link_uri(MenuLink $menu_link) {
  *   (optional) Whether to reset the menu_link_load_multiple() cache.
  *
  * @return \Drupal\menu_link\Plugin\Core\Entity\MenuLink|false
- *   A menu link entity.
+ *   A menu link entity, or FALSE if there is no entity with the given ID.
  */
 function menu_link_load($mlid = NULL, $reset = FALSE) {
   return entity_load('menu_link', $mlid, $reset);
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ function menu_link_load($mlid = NULL, $reset = FALSE) {
  *   (optional) Whether to reset the internal cache.
  *
  * @return array<\Drupal\menu_link\Plugin\Core\Entity\MenuLink>
- *   An array of menu link entities indexed by mlid.
+ *   An array of menu link entities indexed by entity IDs.
  *
  * @see menu_link_load()
  * @see entity_load_multiple()
@@ -121,34 +121,6 @@ function menu_link_save(MenuLink $menu_link) {
 }
 
 /**
- * Clones an array of menu links.
- *
- * @param array $links
- *   An array of menu links to clone.
- * @param string $menu_name
- *   (optional) The name of a menu that the links will be cloned for. If not
- *   set, the cloned links will be in the same menu as the original set of
- *   links that were passed in.
- *
- * @return array
- *   An array of menu links with the same properties as the passed-in array,
- *   but with the link identifiers removed so that a new link will be created
- *   when any of them is passed into
- *   Drupal\menu_link\MenuLinkStorageController::save().
- *
- * @see Drupal\menu_link\MenuLinkStorageController::save()
- */
-function menu_link_clone($links, $menu_name = NULL) {
-  foreach ($links as &$link) {
-    $link = $link->createDuplicate();
-    if (isset($menu_name)) {
-      $link->menu_name = $menu_name;
-    }
-  }
-  return $links;
-}
-
-/**
  * Inserts, updates, enables, disables, or deletes an uncustomized menu link.
  *
  * @param string $module
diff --git a/core/modules/shortcut/shortcut.module b/core/modules/shortcut/shortcut.module
index c4da3fa..99f67ae 100644
--- a/core/modules/shortcut/shortcut.module
+++ b/core/modules/shortcut/shortcut.module
@@ -338,18 +338,6 @@ function shortcut_set_load($id) {
 }
 
 /**
- * Implements hook_shortcut_load().
- *
- * Loads menu links attached to each of shortcuts.
- */
-function shortcut_shortcut_load($entities) {
-  foreach ($entities as $id => $entity) {
-    // @todo Decide whether we want to load the links dynamically like that.
-//    $entity->set('links', menu_load_links('shortcut-' . $id));
-  }
-}
-
-/**
  * Resets the link weights in a shortcut set to match their current order.
  *
  * This function can be used, for example, when a new shortcut link is added to
diff --git a/core/modules/system/lib/Drupal/system/Tests/Menu/TreeOutputTest.php b/core/modules/system/lib/Drupal/system/Tests/Menu/TreeOutputTest.php
index 7e09d18..01794f0 100644
--- a/core/modules/system/lib/Drupal/system/Tests/Menu/TreeOutputTest.php
+++ b/core/modules/system/lib/Drupal/system/Tests/Menu/TreeOutputTest.php
@@ -7,13 +7,15 @@
 
 namespace Drupal\system\Tests\Menu;
 
-use Drupal\menu_link\Plugin\Core\Entity\MenuLink;
-use Drupal\simpletest\WebTestBase;
+use Drupal\simpletest\DrupalUnitTestBase;
 
 /**
  * Menu tree output related tests.
  */
-class TreeOutputTest extends WebTestBase {
+class TreeOutputTest extends DrupalUnitTestBase {
+
+  public static $modules = array('system', 'menu_link');
+
   /**
    * Dummy link structure acceptable for menu_tree_output().
    */
@@ -29,30 +31,33 @@ public static function getInfo() {
 
   function setUp() {
     parent::setUp();
+
+    $this->installSchema('system', 'menu_router');
   }
 
   /**
    * Validate the generation of a proper menu tree output.
    */
   function testMenuTreeData() {
+    $storage_controller = $this->container->get('plugin.manager.entity')->getStorageController('menu_link');
     // @todo Prettify this tree buildup code, it's very hard to read.
     $this->tree_data = array(
       '1'=> array(
-        'link' => new MenuLink(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 1, 'hidden' => 0, 'has_children' => 1, 'title' => 'Item 1', 'in_active_trail' => 1, 'access' => 1, 'href' => 'a', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>''))), 'menu_link'),
+        'link' => $storage_controller->create(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 1, 'hidden' => 0, 'has_children' => 1, 'title' => 'Item 1', 'in_active_trail' => 1, 'access' => 1, 'href' => 'a', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>'')))),
         'below' => array(
-          '2' => array('link' => new MenuLink(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 2, 'hidden' => 0, 'has_children' => 1, 'title' => 'Item 2', 'in_active_trail' => 1, 'access' => 1, 'href' => 'a/b', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>''))), 'menu_link'),
+          '2' => array('link' => $storage_controller->create(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 2, 'hidden' => 0, 'has_children' => 1, 'title' => 'Item 2', 'in_active_trail' => 1, 'access' => 1, 'href' => 'a/b', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>'')))),
             'below' => array(
-              '3' => array('link' => new MenuLink(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 3, 'hidden' => 0, 'has_children' => 0, 'title' => 'Item 3', 'in_active_trail' => 0, 'access' => 1, 'href' => 'a/b/c', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>''))), 'menu_link'),
+              '3' => array('link' => $storage_controller->create(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 3, 'hidden' => 0, 'has_children' => 0, 'title' => 'Item 3', 'in_active_trail' => 0, 'access' => 1, 'href' => 'a/b/c', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>'')))),
                 'below' => array() ),
-              '4' => array('link' => new MenuLink(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 4, 'hidden' => 0, 'has_children' => 0, 'title' => 'Item 4', 'in_active_trail' => 0, 'access' => 1, 'href' => 'a/b/d', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>''))), 'menu_link'),
+              '4' => array('link' => $storage_controller->create(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 4, 'hidden' => 0, 'has_children' => 0, 'title' => 'Item 4', 'in_active_trail' => 0, 'access' => 1, 'href' => 'a/b/d', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>'')))),
                 'below' => array() )
               )
             )
           )
         ),
-      '5' => array('link' => new MenuLink(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 5, 'hidden' => 1, 'has_children' => 0, 'title' => 'Item 5', 'in_active_trail' => 0, 'access' => 1, 'href' => 'e', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>''))), 'menu_link'), 'below' => array()),
-      '6' => array('link' => new MenuLink(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 6, 'hidden' => 0, 'has_children' => 0, 'title' => 'Item 6', 'in_active_trail' => 0, 'access' => 0, 'href' => 'f', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>''))), 'menu_link'), 'below' => array()),
-      '7' => array('link' => new MenuLink(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 7, 'hidden' => 0, 'has_children' => 0, 'title' => 'Item 7', 'in_active_trail' => 0, 'access' => 1, 'href' => 'g', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>''))), 'menu_link'), 'below' => array())
+      '5' => array('link' => $storage_controller->create(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 5, 'hidden' => 1, 'has_children' => 0, 'title' => 'Item 5', 'in_active_trail' => 0, 'access' => 1, 'href' => 'e', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>'')))), 'below' => array()),
+      '6' => array('link' => $storage_controller->create(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 6, 'hidden' => 0, 'has_children' => 0, 'title' => 'Item 6', 'in_active_trail' => 0, 'access' => 0, 'href' => 'f', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>'')))), 'below' => array()),
+      '7' => array('link' => $storage_controller->create(array('menu_name' => 'main-menu', 'mlid' => 7, 'hidden' => 0, 'has_children' => 0, 'title' => 'Item 7', 'in_active_trail' => 0, 'access' => 1, 'href' => 'g', 'localized_options' => array('attributes' => array('title' =>'')))), 'below' => array())
     );
 
     $output = menu_tree_output($this->tree_data);
diff --git a/core/modules/system/system.admin.inc b/core/modules/system/system.admin.inc
index cd84470..38eac66 100644
--- a/core/modules/system/system.admin.inc
+++ b/core/modules/system/system.admin.inc
@@ -29,29 +29,29 @@ function system_admin_config_page() {
     $result = $query->execute();
     if (!empty($result)) {
       $menu_links = menu_link_load_multiple($result);
-    }
 
-    foreach ($menu_links as $item) {
-      _menu_link_translate($item);
-      if (!$item['access']) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      // The link description, either derived from 'description' in hook_menu()
-      // or customized via menu module is used as title attribute.
-      if (!empty($item['localized_options']['attributes']['title'])) {
-        $item['description'] = $item['localized_options']['attributes']['title'];
-        unset($item['localized_options']['attributes']['title']);
-      }
-      $block = $item;
-      $block['content'] = '';
-      $block['content'] .= theme('admin_block_content', array('content' => system_admin_menu_block($item)));
-      if (!empty($block['content'])) {
-        $block['show'] = TRUE;
-      }
+      foreach ($menu_links as $item) {
+        _menu_link_translate($item);
+        if (!$item['access']) {
+          continue;
+        }
+        // The link description, either derived from 'description' in hook_menu()
+        // or customized via menu module is used as title attribute.
+        if (!empty($item['localized_options']['attributes']['title'])) {
+          $item['description'] = $item['localized_options']['attributes']['title'];
+          unset($item['localized_options']['attributes']['title']);
+        }
+        $block = $item;
+        $block['content'] = '';
+        $block['content'] .= theme('admin_block_content', array('content' => system_admin_menu_block($item)));
+        if (!empty($block['content'])) {
+          $block['show'] = TRUE;
+        }
 
-      // Prepare for sorting as in function _menu_tree_check_access().
-      // The weight is offset so it is always positive, with a uniform 5-digits.
-      $blocks[(50000 + $item['weight']) . ' ' . $item['title'] . ' ' . $item['mlid']] = $block;
+        // Prepare for sorting as in function _menu_tree_check_access().
+        // The weight is offset so it is always positive, with a uniform 5-digits.
+        $blocks[(50000 + $item['weight']) . ' ' . $item['title'] . ' ' . $item['mlid']] = $block;
+      }
     }
   }
   if ($blocks) {
diff --git a/core/modules/user/user.module b/core/modules/user/user.module
index a3f76a5..7f0fe42 100644
--- a/core/modules/user/user.module
+++ b/core/modules/user/user.module
@@ -1121,7 +1121,7 @@ function user_menu_site_status_alter(&$menu_site_status, $path) {
 /**
  * Implements hook_menu_link_presave().
  */
-function user_menu_link_presave($link) {
+function user_menu_link_alter(&$link) {
   // The path 'user' must be accessible for anonymous users, but only visible
   // for authenticated users. Authenticated users should see "My account", but
   // anonymous users should not see it at all. Therefore, invoke
diff --git a/core/profiles/minimal/minimal.info b/core/profiles/minimal/minimal.info
index 5276bb2..545e85c 100644
--- a/core/profiles/minimal/minimal.info
+++ b/core/profiles/minimal/minimal.info
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ name = Minimal
 description = Build a custom site without pre-configured functionality. Suitable for advanced users.
 version = VERSION
 core = 8.x
-dependencies[] = menu_link
 dependencies[] = node
 dependencies[] = block
 dependencies[] = dblog
diff --git a/core/profiles/testing/testing.info b/core/profiles/testing/testing.info
index fcbe479..fff3df2 100644
--- a/core/profiles/testing/testing.info
+++ b/core/profiles/testing/testing.info
@@ -3,6 +3,5 @@ description = Minimal profile for running tests. Includes absolutely required mo
 version = VERSION
 core = 8.x
 hidden = TRUE
-dependencies[] = menu_link
 ; @todo Remove dependency on Node module.
 dependencies[] = node