From:	Ron House <house AT usq DOT edu DOT au>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: DJGPP EXE file size vs Linux
Date:	Tue, 07 Nov 2000 15:10:40 +0000
Organization:	University of Queensland
Lines:	30
Message-ID:	<3A081B70.2C046716@usq.edu.au>
References:	<Pine DOT SUN DOT 3 DOT 91 DOT 1001101103635 DOT 7517O-100000 AT is>
NNTP-Posting-Host:	heracles.usq.edu.au
Mime-Version:	1.0
X-Trace:	bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au 973609933 22130 139.86.208.29 (7 Nov 2000 15:12:13 GMT)
X-Complaints-To:	news AT uq DOT edu DOT au
NNTP-Posting-Date:	7 Nov 2000 15:12:13 GMT
X-Mailer:	Mozilla 3.04 (X11; I; Linux 2.0.36 i586)
X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host:	139.86.23.19
X-Original-Trace:	8 Nov 2000 01:12:07 +1000, 139.86.23.19
X-Abuse:	abuse AT usq DOT edu DOT au
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Reply-To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com

Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 1 Nov 2000, Prashant Ramachandra wrote:
> 
> > Besides, DJGPP generates COFF while linux generates ELF.
> 
> The object file format does not have any significant effect on the
> executable file's size, once you strip the debugging info.  So the
> COFF vs ELF issue is irrelevant here.  (I think ELF debug info is more
> voluminous, especially in C++ programs, btw.)

Hi Eli, thanks for your help with this problem, and your great kindness
in writing privately with suggestions. I have now solved the problem. I
looked into my setup expecting the problem there, but eventually I
noticed a strange file in my directory called bb.out, and it was huge (6
Mb). It contained lots of tracing information. I subsequently had a very
close look at the switches RHIDE was putting on my compilation and
discovered "-a". (Not that I hadn't looked before, but you sometimes
simply don't see things you don't expect - this was a good lesson in
being extra careful.) When I ferreted around in the RHIDE option menus
and got rid of that, the program stopped creating bb.out and shrank to
almost an identical stripped size to the Linux binary.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out with this puzzle.

-- 
Ron House     house AT usq DOT edu DOT au
              http://www.sci.usq.edu.au/staff/house
Whoever tells a lie cannot be pure in heart -- and only the
pure in heart can make a good soup.  -- Ludwig Van Beethoven

- Raw text -