source: BOOK/final-system/common/aboutdebug.xml @ 47eeca5

clfs-3.0.0-systemdclfs-3.0.0-sysvinitsystemdsysvinit
Last change on this file since 47eeca5 was 02ad08d, checked in by Joe Ciccone <jciccone@…>, 16 years ago

Dropped link to optimizations that doesn't exist.

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File size: 2.0 KB
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1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
2<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
4  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
5  %general-entities;
6]>
7
8<sect1 id="ch-system-aboutdebug">
9  <?dbhtml filename="aboutdebug.html"?>
10
11  <title>About Debugging Symbols</title>
12
13  <para os="a">Most programs and libraries are, by default, compiled with debugging
14  symbols included (with <command>gcc</command>'s <option>-g</option> option).
15  This means that when debugging a program or library that was compiled with
16  debugging information included, the debugger can provide not only memory
17  addresses, but also the names of the routines and variables.</para>
18
19  <para os="b">However, the inclusion of these debugging symbols enlarges a
20  program or library significantly. The following is an example of the
21  amount of space these symbols occupy:</para>
22
23  <itemizedlist os="c">
24    <listitem os="c1">
25      <para>a bash binary with debugging symbols: 1200 KB</para>
26    </listitem>
27    <listitem os="c2">
28      <para>a bash binary without debugging symbols: 480 KB</para>
29    </listitem>
30    <listitem os="c3">
31      <para>Glibc and GCC files (<filename class="directory">/lib</filename>
32      and <filename class="directory">/usr/lib</filename>) with debugging
33      symbols: 87 MB</para>
34    </listitem>
35    <listitem os="c4">
36      <para>Glibc and GCC files without debugging symbols: 16 MB</para>
37    </listitem>
38  </itemizedlist>
39
40  <para os="d">Sizes may vary depending on which compiler and C library were used,
41  but when comparing programs with and without debugging symbols, the
42  difference will usually be a factor between two and five.</para>
43
44  <para os="e">Because most users will never use a debugger on their system software,
45  a lot of disk space can be regained by removing these symbols. The next
46  section shows how to strip all debugging symbols from the programs and
47  libraries.</para>
48
49</sect1>
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