1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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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>Most programs and libraries are, by default, compiled with
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14 | debugging symbols included (with <command>gcc</command>'s
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15 | <parameter>-g</parameter> option). This means that when debugging a
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16 | program or library that was compiled with debugging information,
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17 | the debugger can provide not only memory addresses, but also
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18 | the names of the routines and variables.</para>
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19 |
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20 | <para>The inclusion of these debugging symbols enlarges a
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21 | program or library significantly. Here are two examples of the
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22 | amount of space these symbols occupy:</para>
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23 |
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24 | <itemizedlist>
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25 | <listitem>
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26 | <para>A <command>bash</command> binary with debugging symbols:
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27 | 1200 KB</para>
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28 | </listitem>
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29 | <listitem>
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30 | <para>A <command>bash</command> binary without debugging symbols:
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31 | 480 KB (60% smaller)</para>
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32 | </listitem>
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33 | <listitem>
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34 | <para>Glibc and GCC files (<filename class="directory">/lib</filename>
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35 | and <filename class="directory">/usr/lib</filename>) with debugging
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36 | symbols: 87 MB</para>
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37 | </listitem>
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38 | <listitem>
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39 | <para>Glibc and GCC files without debugging symbols: 16 MB (82% smaller)</para>
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40 | </listitem>
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41 | </itemizedlist>
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42 |
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43 | <para>Sizes will vary depending on which compiler and C library were used,
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44 | but a program that has been stripped of debugging symbols is usually some
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45 | 50% to 80% smaller than its unstripped counterpart.
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46 | Because most users will never use a debugger on their system software,
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47 | a lot of disk space can be regained by removing these symbols. The next
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48 | section shows how to strip all debugging symbols from the programs and
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49 | libraries.</para>
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50 |
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51 | </sect1>
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