Re: Creating really small binaries?

[Stephen Leake <stephen.a.leake.1@gsfc.nasa.gov>]

dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar) writes:

> Stephen Leake <stephen.a.leake.1@gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote in message
> news:<u1yb4zghs.fsf@gsfc.nasa.gov>... 
> 
> > Or -O3, inline options, suppress checks, eliminate unused subprograms, etc.
> 
> -O3 can only make executables larger, same with inlining, so this is
> not a good idea!

I believe I have seen programs where the combination of -O3 with
inlining made things smaller. The inlined program could be better
optimized than the non-inlined program, and the inlined subprogram was
only used in one place. Whole branches of if statements could be
eliminated, because the condition was known to be static in the
inlined case. Well, maybe it was -O2; I'm not sure.

I don't have an example handy.

The point was to try all the options, and measure the result.
Sometimes the results are surprising, so it's worth trying.

-- 
-- Stephe