Mail Archives: djgpp/2005/11/16/03:21:00
Schumacher, Gordon wrote:
> Just a heads-up to those out there using UPX to compress their
> executables...
>
> With the v1.25 release of UPX, if I build a particular executable (linked
> with -s to strip debug symbols), and then compress and decompress
> the generated executable, the finished product is 4KB smaller than the
> original compiled program - and crashes in a way that the original does
> not.
>
> If I use version 1.93 beta of UPX, the file compares properly after
> compression and decompression.
>
> I've e-mailed the authors of UPX, and Markus Oberhumer has replied that
> he recalls that v1.93 adds a workaround for a DJGPP linker bug. I don't
> have any more information than that - but I thought I'd give everyone out
> there a warning so you're not tearing at your hair if your executable is
> crashing inexplicably (especially if it's only the "release" build!)
>
Known problem. Long time ago I used UPX (perhaps version 1.23) to
compress release
binaries of GCC which I uploaded for DJGPP distribution. No one
complained, but after some time I found that unpacked gcc.exe crashes. A
safeguards were added beginning with UPX-1.24 to prevent compression of
binaries generated by incompatible binutils versions
(or GCC versions). So it seems strange that You succeeded to compress
executables with
UPX-1.24 and 1.25 at all.
Andris
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