Re: statically linked executable size

[Marco Trudel <mtrudel at gmx dot ch>]

Per Bothner wrote:
> Tom Tromey wrote:
> > We've talked about splitting libgcj.so into a few libraries before.
> > ...
> > The drawbacks that I know of are:
> > ...
> > * Users would have to know to link in these libraries if they wanted
> >   to use them from CNI-style compiled program (or statically linked
> >   program)
>
> Does Elf have a mechanism to specify that this object/library requires
> some other library?  If so, then we can use that mechanism.

If I understand you right, then you suggest what actually happens right 
now and is the source of the problem: java is that heavily 
interconnected, we end up with executables which include a big part of 
the API.

What about an additional linker flag which takes a list of packages that 
shouldn't be included? gcj --omitPackages=@list --main=... ...
with the file list e.g.: javax.swing java.awt
Sounds to me like hell to implement (I read that there are single object 
files which are included as whole), but it would be really flexible...


> The idea that users should have to specify which libraries to link
> with is something I find totally lame.  That people needed to do this
> 20 years ago is no excuse to continue such nonsense.  I.e. if my C/C++
> program includes <math.h> that should be enough information that the
> linker can figure out we need libm.

...


regards
Marco