Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!pyramid!decwrl!hillst.dec.com!kaiser
From: kaiser@hillst.dec.com (Systems Consultant; DTN 297-4445)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: RE: Vax C Sucks Wind
Message-ID: <8802251456.AA15795@decwrl.dec.com>
Date: 25 Feb 88 18:02:00 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 35

I'm sorry for the acerbic non-comment on WISDOM.BITNET!aharon's original note; I
regretted it perhaps .03 milliseconds after it was committed to mail.

I read "image" as *.EXE.  Is there any way to patch an image to get rid of
unnecessary debug records?  There is.  But why build it with debugging
information in the first place?  Do you want some, but not all, debugging
information?  Different problem.

The nature of the debug information records is documented in the VAX/VMS micro-
fiche for VMS V4.n, so you should be able to figure out how to rewrite an image
with only selected kinds of records.  If you want to get rid of all debug and
trace information, that's also well documented, and is even made visible with
ANALYZE/IMAGE, e.g.,

	$ ANALYZE /IMAGE
	Analyze Image	25-FEB-1988 09:56:20.05	  Page 1
	DISK$USER:[KAISER.EXE]SAMPLE-IMAGE.EXE;1

	[...]
		Global Symbol Table & Debug Symbol Table Information

			debug symbol table VBN:	 64, block count: 6
			global symbol table VBN: 0, record count: 0
	[...]

Just truncate at the proper place (or rewrite, omitting the debug symbol table).

Judging by the responses to the original message, it was ambiguous, and I wasn't
alone in not perceiving that all their "own kernel stuff is built as shareable
libraries."

---Pete

Kaiser%hillst.dec@decwrl.dec.com
decwrl!hillst.dec.com!kaiser
DEC, 3 Results Way (MRO3-3/G20), Marlboro MA 01752  617-467-4445