Why is the binary much larger than the object files?

[Henrik Mannerström]

Hello,

My binary is some 13 times larger than the object files combined. Am I
doing something wrong or is there a way to reduce the binary size? GCC
version is 4.8.1.


When compiled with -O2 -flto, the object file sizes are:
 13216 Jul  9 14:57 RR-jump.o
 38864 Jul  9 14:57 RR.o
238496 Jul  9 14:57 main.o
 41560 Jul  9 14:57 random.o

Linked with
gcc -L/usr/lib64/atlas -O2 -flto -msse4  main.o random.o RR.o RR-jump.o 
-lgsl -lcblas -latlas -lstdc++ -o main
the binary size is
4712993 Jul  9 14:57 main


When compiled with -O3 -flto, the object files size are:
 13440 Jul  9 13:31 RR-jump.o
 39216 Jul  9 13:31 RR.o
246752 Jul  9 13:31 main.o
 41560 Jul  9 13:31 random.o

Linked with
gcc -L/usr/lib64/atlas -O3 -flto -msse4  main.o random.o RR.o RR-jump.o 
-lgsl -lcblas -latlas -lstdc++ -o main
the binary size is
4718392 Jul  9 13:31 main