Bloated EXEs (reprise)

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

Anybody could tell me why the following sample generates an EXE of 3208192 bytes?

Code: Select all  Expand view  RUN

FUNCTION MAIN()

    RETURN NIL

The same compiled with xHarbour console (without FWH) is 842240 bytes. The difference is surprisingly high.

EMG

[gkuhnert]

Which libs do you have included? I think the libraries full of functionality make the .exe bigger

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

Only the standard libs: fivehx.lib and fivehc.lib. But please note that I make no call to any of the FWH functions or classes (see my sample). 2.4 MB size bigger is too much for doing nothing, isn't it?

EMG

[gkuhnert]

It definitely are the fwh-libs. If I comment these file out of the samples buildx.bat, my .exe is 831kb, with these libs it is 3404kb.

The commented lines are:
echo %fwh%\lib\Fivehx.lib %fwh%\lib\FiveHC.lib %fwh%\lib\libmysql.lib + >> b32.bc
echo %fwh%\lib\pgsql.lib %hdir%\lib\libpq.lib + >> b32.bc

So, as long as you don't need functionality provided by these libs, you can keep them out of the compiling.

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

Gilbert,

you definitely missed the point. As the linker put a module in the EXE only if at least one of the symbols contained in that module is referenced, why we have 2.4 MB of modules linked to the EXE if it's only an empty program?

EMG

[Antonio Linares]

Enrico,

Comparing the generated .map files we can see which modules are getting linked into the EXE

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

Antonio,

thank you. I just send the map to your private email. Any thoughts?

EMG

[Antonio Linares]

Enrico,

Please don't link FWH libraries and check the EXE size that you get

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

829440 bytes

EMG

[gkuhnert]

Enrico,

sorry, I assumed the key fwh libs were a kind of a framework which always would be linked, because this these libs at least for some years now make the exe bigger. (At least from fwh1202 I can confirm with a test I made today: 839kb vs. 1772kb.
The file size with actual fivewin/xharbour is simular to yours: 831kb vs. 3404kb, which I wrote some a little further down.

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

This is something I don't understand:

- fivehx.lib specified to the linker --> EXE size: 3208192
- fivehx.lib do not specified to the linker --> EXE size: 829440

In both cases I get no linker errors! So the sample is not using any of the FWH symbols. Then why the EXE size grows when fivehx.lib is specified but not used?

EMG

[Antonio Linares]

Because FWH libs replace Harbour errorsys

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

The following sample is still 3195904:

Code: Select all  Expand view  RUN

FUNCTION MAIN()

    RETURN NIL


FUNCTION ERRORSYS()

    RETURN NIL

EMG

[hmpaquito]

you should review fwh sources one to one searching not static function which reescribe harbour system, in order to understand that size increase.

[Enrico Maria Giordano]

Please note that I'm not using any Harbour functions in my sample so EXE size should not increase even if FWH redefines any of those.

EMG