Why is GNU/Linux so Bloated?

[Shlomi Fish]

On Friday 12 June 2009 00:13:45 Ori Berger wrote:
> Shlomi Fish wrote:
> > I've compared the size of the Linux .so file (after -Os and strip) to the
> > size of the Windows MSVC-generated .dll.
> >
> > With gcc -Os before strip - 86,464 bytes
> > same after strip - 74,584
> >
> > With gcc -Os that can solve Freecell only - before strip: 71,440
> > After strip - 60,312
> >
> > Now on Windows, Visual C++ generated the files in:
> >
> > http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/fc-solve-discuss/message/999
> >
> > I have some freecell-solver.dll's there and since it is the output of
> > cygwin's "ls -l", you can determine their size. The Freecell-only DLL
> > after strip is 18,944 bytes long.
>
> http://www.nedprod.com/programs/gccvisibility.html
>
> This is a good description of what might be causing this, and how to
> solve it. As the page notes, the "visibility" option has been integrated
> into gcc 4, but you do have to use it.
>

Implementing this for libfreecell-solver.so (in a separate branch for the time 
being) has made the situation a bit better: 53,332 bytes instead of 59,492 
bytes. Reportedly (in your link), it should also make the library more 
performant, which I'd like to try out.

Nevertheless, the MSVC .dll is still much smaller.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

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Shlomi Fish       http://www.shlomifish.org/
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