From c7a3e1be8fe22b271193840a5b6bdde93da147ae Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Rob Landley Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 04:25:00 +0000 Subject: Fix "nm --size-sort" on the busybox binary and document how to make it work. --- docs/busybox.net/FAQ.html | 87 ++++++++++++++--------------------------------- 1 file changed, 26 insertions(+), 61 deletions(-) (limited to 'docs/busybox.net/FAQ.html') diff --git a/docs/busybox.net/FAQ.html b/docs/busybox.net/FAQ.html index a2264f9..a2d20bf 100644 --- a/docs/busybox.net/FAQ.html +++ b/docs/busybox.net/FAQ.html @@ -246,68 +246,33 @@ have additions to this FAQ document, we would love to add them, trust PayPal...
+
+ To conserve bytes it's good to know where they're being used, and the + size of the final executable isn't always a reliable indicator of + the size of the components (since various structures are rounded up, + so a small change may not even be visible by itself, but many small + savings add up). +
++ To examine a busybox binary with an eye to saving bytes, build an + optimized debug version and run the "nm" command against it, like so: +
++ make clean && make STRIPCMD=/bin/true && nm --size-sort busybox +
++ This gives a list of symbols and the amount of space allocated for + each one, sorted by size. (Note: do not enable CONFIG_DEBUG for this, + as that disables compiler optimization which is great for running gdb + but misleading when trying to figure out how much space each component + is really using under normal circumstances.) +
+