Time to stop stripping binaries?

[Kostik Belousov]

On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 03:26:30PM -0600, M. Warner Losh wrote:
> In message: <4C1A8C0C.8010207 at delphij.net>
>             Xin LI <delphij at delphij.net> writes:
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> : On 2010/06/17 13:33, M. Warner Losh wrote:
> : > Greetings,
> : > 
> : > Now that disks are big, can we stop stripping binaries by default?
> : > 
> : > I've worked up a patch that lets you set WITH_BINARY_SYMBOLS or
> : > WITHOUT_BINARY_SYMBOLS as you see fit.  We should commit it regardless
> : > of the outcome of this discussion (well, defaulting to yes or no
> : > depending on the outcome).
> : > 
> : > Why symbols: it makes core dumps easier to debug.
> : > Why no symbols: makes the system footprint bigger.
> : > 
> : > Since there's good arguments both ways, I thought I'd make this a
> : > knob.
> : 
> : I think this is a good idea.
> : 
> : A related quick question: is there any performance penalty if we ship
> : non-stripped binaries?  I think we would probably have to map the whole
> : image (including the symbols) into memory?
> 
> No.  The symbols are tacked on the end of the file.  The system only
No, the symbols can be not at the end of the file, but this is indeed
irrelevant.

What would be very very nice to have is ability to install libraries
with symbols, while strip the binaries. Or, since even our in-tree
binutils support detached .debug files, the separate debug/ directory
with debug symbol files might be more useful in future.

For now, please, make the knob recognize three states: no symbols, only
libraries, all binaries with symbols.
> maps in the header of the binary.  It then allocates virtual memory
> space for the various sections, and then jumps to the binary[*].  It
> ignores the symbols.
> 
> Warner
> 
> [*] Yes, I know this grossly oversimplifies things, but the other
> details aren't relevant to this discussion...
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