fast question about C

lleb · 06-19-2012, 03:47 PM

I am reading "The C Programing Langues ANSI C" by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie (2nd edition) and working my way through the beginner scripts.

I notice that after i gcc foo.c -o foo.out that the size difference is much larger then I would have expected for something that is now written in "computer" langue for lack of a better term.

Code:

[xxxx@xxxx backup]$ ls -laF count*
-rw-rw-r-- 1 xxxx xxxx  170 Jun 13 10:39 count.c
-rwxrwxr-x 1 xxxx xxxx 5041 Jun 13 10:39 count.out*

Why is this, what am I missing?

jlinkels · 06-19-2012, 04:06 PM

The size has increased because standard libraries (like I/O) have been linked in.

jlinkels

Slackyman · 06-19-2012, 04:10 PM

It can depend on how many includes are in the source, on the fact that the compiled program has much more machine instruction than you expect and it can increase a lot its size if you compile static libraries in it!
To reduce the size of your binary file you can strip it with the strip command.

lleb · 06-19-2012, 04:13 PM

thank you both, that makes sense.

Slackyman, ill read the man strip page to learn about that.