Re: LYNX-DEV 2.8pre3 compiles effortlessly on Digital Unix 4.0

[T.E.Dickey]

> 980305 Michael Warner wrote: 
> > 2.8pre3, on: (uname -a) OSF1 unicorn V4.0 564 alpha, configure run
> > people were discussing lynx's footprint.
> > 
> > Unstripped: 2,072,576
> >   Stripped: 1,417,216   (no change from ac-105)
>  
> several people have used the term `stripped' recently:
> could anyone enlighten the ignorant -- ie me -- what this means?
> is there a piece of software involved which they/i should know about?
On Unix (and systems that have similar software, such as the DJGPP
and EMX environments), there is a utility called 'strip' which removes
the debugging information from an executable binary file.  (Executables
are, for this purpose, generated in several sections, so that line numbers
and symbol tables are in separate sections).  What's left is all that is
needed to run the program (but if there is a core dump, you have little or
no auxiliary information to diagnose it).

That information is added by compiling and linking with the -g option.
C compilers also recognize a -O (which may have a number following, as in -O2)
to direct them to "optimize" (rearrange/reduce) the generated code.  Some
compilers have noticeable bugs in the optimizer (_all_ compilers have some
bugs).  So the inclination of the people who designed the autoconf package
is to add -g and sometimes -O, depending on how strongly they felt about it.

> SUPPORT     ___________//___,  Philip Webb : address@hidden

-- 
Thomas E. Dickey
address@hidden
http://www.clark.net/pub/dickey