next up previous contents
Next: Compiling problems Up: Compiler usage Previous: Creating an executable for

Reducing the size of your program

When you created your program, it is possible to reduce its size. This is possible, because the compiler leaves a lot of information in the program which, strictly speaking, isn't required for the execution of it. The surplus of information can be removed with a small program called strip. It comes with the GO32 development environment under DOS, and is standard on LINUX machines where you can do development. The usage is simple. Just type

strip prog
On the command line, and the strip program will remove all unnecessary information from your program. This can lead to size reductions of up to 30 %.

You can use the -Xs switch to let the compiler do this stripping automatically at program compile time (the switch has no effect when compiling units).

Another technique to reduce the size of a program is to use smartlinking. Normally, units (including the system unit) are linked in as a whole. It is however possible to compile units such that the can be smartlinked. This means that only the functions and procedures are linked in your program, leaving out any unnecessary code. This technique is described in full in the programmers guide.



Michael Van Canneyt
Thu Sep 10 13:56:17 CEST 1998