source: clfs-sysroot/BOOK/final-system/common/aboutdebug.xml @ 02095ae

Last change on this file since 02095ae was 02095ae, checked in by Jim Gifford <clfs@…>, 18 years ago

r3633@server (orig r1649): jciccone | 2006-05-25 16:48:42 -0700
Added the Initial clfs-2.0 branch using sysroot builds.

  • Property mode set to 100644
File size: 2.1 KB
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1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
2<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
3  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/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. Additional information on system optimization can be found at
48  <ulink url="&hints-root;optimization.txt"/>.</para>
49
50</sect1>
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