Tips to obtain a very small static elinks binary ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tips to obtain a very small static elinks binary suitable for mini distributions Remove config.cache (previous CC may be cached): $ rm config.cache Use dietlibc (http://www.fefe.de/dietlibc/) or similar stuff (uClibc, ...): $ export CC='diet -Os gcc' Use compilers flags to optimize for size: $ export CFLAGS='-s -fno-inline -nostdinc -fomit-frame-pointer' Note that if you don't use dietlibc, you definitively want to add `-Os` or `-O2` to `CFLAGS`; GCC 2.95 does not know `-Os`, and some say `-O2` gives smaller executables even for GCC 3.x. [NOTE] .Warning =============================================================================== If you use these `CFLAGS` on Cygwin and you get unresolved symbols (`htons` and suite in particular), try removing `-fno-inline` parameter. =============================================================================== Disable some compile-time options: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ $ ./configure --disable-ipv6 --disable-backtrace --disable-nls \ --enable-fastmem --without-zlib --without-bzlib --disable-xbel \ --without-lua --without-gnutls --without-openssl --without-x \ --enable-small --without-spidermonkey --without-gpm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ You can disable bookmarks, globhist and more, too, if you want to. [NOTE] .Notes =============================================================================== - \--disable-backtrace disables internal backtrace code. - \--disable-nls disables i18n support. - \--enable-fastmem disables internal `malloc()` debugging and use `alloca()` wherever possible. - \--enable-small forces to remove some text descriptions in options and keybind stuff (regain 30Kb). =============================================================================== Dependencies over external libs must be removed using the related configure options: `-----------------------`------------------------------------------------------ Option Description ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \--without-zlib removes libz dependency (compression) \--without-bzlib removes libbz2 dependency (compression) \--disable-xbel removes expat dependency (XBEL bookmarks support) \--without-lua removes liblua dependency (Lua scripting) \--without-gnutls removes libtls dependency (SSL support) \--without-openssl removes libssl dependency (SSL support) \--without-x removes libx11 dependency (restoring terminal title) \--without-spidermonkey removes libjs dependency (JavaScript) \--without-gpm removes libgpm dependency (mouse/console) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It seems GCC 2.95.x do not generate as small binaries as GCC 3.2.x with same flags. You can use an executable compressor like UPX link:http://upx.sourceforge.net/[]. Here are some results using gcc 2.95.3, dietlibc-0.23, and previous flags: me$ ls -l src/elinks -rwxr-xr-x 1 zas users 495100 Oct 20 15:53 src/elinks me$ upx --best src/elinks me$ ls -l src/elinks -rwxr-xr-x 1 zas users 217946 Oct 20 15:53 src/elinks Whow ! Around 200kb :) [NOTE] .Details about the `\--enable-small` configure option effects: ============================================================================== - it disables long descriptions of options; - it disables textual descriptions of keybinding options; - it reduces size of some HTTP errors messages; - it disables fastfind feature, reducing performance, but also reducing a lot memory usage, and a bit the executable size. ==============================================================================