Big problem with Small programs

[Frits van Bommel]

Sean Kelly wrote:
> Walter Bright wrote:
>> Try using enums instead of const variables, they don't take up any 
>> space in the object file.
> 
> That shaved off maybe 30k.  I think the remaining 40k are mostly static 
> struct initializers, all of which are unused in the final app.  As 
> optlink is an optimizing linker, shouldn't it discard whatever is unused 
> by the application?  Or does that only apply to certain classes of 
> information?

I'm not sure about Windows, but I just tried it on Linux. It seems 
struct init data is stored in .rodata instead of some separate 
section[1]. That means if *any* read-only data from a module is 
referenced, all of its struct initializers are kept, presuming optlink 
works similarly to 'ld --gc-sections'.


[1]: Like .gnu.linkonce.*, where TypeInfo init data is stored (as well 
as functions).