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