How does the gcc -g option affect performance?

[Brian Budge]

Yes, there's a large performance penalty.  (1) most optimizations
can't be done because they foo with the debug data, thereby hurting
debuggability (2) bloated code is slow code.

Normally I expect my code to run about an order of magnitude slower with -g.

  Brian


On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 06:05:21 -0800 (PST), Vishnu Mahadevan Menon
<vishnu_m_menon@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Could someone please help me with the following?
> 
> According to the gcc man page, the -g option "produces
> debugging information in the operating system's native
> format".
> 
> Does anyone know what kind "debugging information" gcc
> produces with the -g option? The binary evidently gets
> bloated, but does gcc actually generate extra
> executable code, or does it merely add static
> information on symbols, lines etc.? Most importantly,
> apart from issues caused by large program size, is
> there a performance penalty to be paid for programs
> compiled using -g?
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
> Regards,
> Vishnu.
> 
> 
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