On Mon, May 02, 2022 at 02:46:27PM +0600, NRK wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Was wondering why most suckless program doesn't seem to strip the
> installed binary. strip (1p) is specified by POSIX so it should be
> portable.
>
> I noticed the binary size dropping a fair bit after stripping; the
> following result is with vanilla/upstream Makefile and CFLAGS etc.
>
> dwm 60K -> 50K
> dmenu 42K -> 35K
> st 100K -> 87K
>
> Attached patches to strip the binary on installation for dwm, dmenu and
> st.
>
> - NRK
> From c3df2f8f35e2f223505eb1091ed079b20ab8784e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: NRK <n...@disroot.org>
> Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2022 21:40:11 +0600
> Subject: [PATCH] strip the installed binary
>
> ---
> Makefile | 1 +
> config.mk | 1 +
> 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
> index 77bcbc0..b5acd11 100644
> --- a/Makefile
> +++ b/Makefile
> @@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ install: all
> mkdir -p ${DESTDIR}${PREFIX}/bin
> cp -f dwm ${DESTDIR}${PREFIX}/bin
> chmod 755 ${DESTDIR}${PREFIX}/bin/dwm
> + ${STRIP} ${DESTDIR}${PREFIX}/bin/dwm
> mkdir -p ${DESTDIR}${MANPREFIX}/man1
> sed "s/VERSION/${VERSION}/g" < dwm.1 > ${DESTDIR}${MANPREFIX}/man1/dwm.1
> chmod 644 ${DESTDIR}${MANPREFIX}/man1/dwm.1
> diff --git a/config.mk b/config.mk
> index b6eb7e0..6e3c725 100644
> --- a/config.mk
> +++ b/config.mk
> @@ -36,3 +36,4 @@ LDFLAGS = ${LIBS}
>
> # compiler and linker
> CC = cc
> +STRIP = strip
> --
> 2.35.1
>
> From f6e51ed0a6b287f183373cd21032b90c035152e4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: NRK <n...@disroot.org>
> Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2022 18:40:47 +0600
> Subject: [PATCH] strip the installed binary
>
> ---
> Makefile | 1 +
> config.mk | 1 +
> 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
> index 470ac86..bbfe6d2 100644
> --- a/Makefile
> +++ b/Makefile
> @@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ install: st
> mkdir -p $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/bin
> cp -f st $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/bin
> chmod 755 $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/bin/st
> + $(STRIP) $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/bin/st
> mkdir -p $(DESTDIR)$(MANPREFIX)/man1
> sed "s/VERSION/$(VERSION)/g" < st.1 > $(DESTDIR)$(MANPREFIX)/man1/st.1
> chmod 644 $(DESTDIR)$(MANPREFIX)/man1/st.1
> diff --git a/config.mk b/config.mk
> index 4c4c5d5..a38f120 100644
> --- a/config.mk
> +++ b/config.mk
> @@ -33,3 +33,4 @@ STLDFLAGS = $(LIBS) $(LDFLAGS)
>
> # compiler and linker
> # CC = c99
> +STRIP = strip
> --
> 2.35.1
>
> From fc982f669e2d436226467a928e02be8eb507bfab Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: NRK <n...@disroot.org>
> Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2022 23:14:33 +0600
> Subject: [PATCH] strip the installed binary
>
> ---
> Makefile | 2 ++
> config.mk | 1 +
> 2 files changed, 3 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
> index a03a95c..7d21307 100644
> --- a/Makefile
> +++ b/Makefile
> @@ -44,9 +44,11 @@ install: all
> mkdir -p $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/bin
> cp -f dmenu dmenu_path dmenu_run stest $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/bin
> chmod 755 $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/bin/dmenu
> + $(STRIP) $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/bin/dmenu
> chmod 755 $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/bin/dmenu_path
> chmod 755 $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/bin/dmenu_run
> chmod 755 $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/bin/stest
> + $(STRIP) $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/bin/stest
> mkdir -p $(DESTDIR)$(MANPREFIX)/man1
> sed "s/VERSION/$(VERSION)/g" < dmenu.1 >
> $(DESTDIR)$(MANPREFIX)/man1/dmenu.1
> sed "s/VERSION/$(VERSION)/g" < stest.1 >
> $(DESTDIR)$(MANPREFIX)/man1/stest.1
> diff --git a/config.mk b/config.mk
> index 0df3fc8..508327e 100644
> --- a/config.mk
> +++ b/config.mk
> @@ -29,3 +29,4 @@ LDFLAGS = $(LIBS)
>
> # compiler and linker
> CC = cc
> +STRIP = strip
> --
> 2.35.1
>
Hi NRK,
I don't like this.
I'd rather have it so the Makefile respects the system or package system CFLAGS
and LDFLAGS by default. Then someone can do: make CFLAGS="-Os" LDFLAGS="-s"
etc.
LDFLAGS="-s" is practically the same as calling strip and stripping it.
It is up to the distro package/ports maintainer to strip symbols (or not).
This can be an additional packaging step.
As a off-topic side-note I think we removing config.mk and just having the
Makefile is simpler too.
--
Kind regards,
Hiltjo
