Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!hubcap!ncrcae!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!hpfcdc!hpfelg!jk
From: jk@hpfelg.HP.COM (John Kessenich)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: relative value of stripping symbols
Message-ID: <690011@hpfelg.HP.COM>
Date: 24 Apr 89 19:11:20 GMT
References: <17615@cisunx.UUCP>
Organization: HP Elec. Design Div. -FtCollins
Lines: 18



>/ hpfelg:comp.lang.c / jcbst3@cisunx.UUCP (James C. Benz) / 12:32 pm  Apr 19, 1989 /

>                                        If the program is well written and
>all other things being equal, will the program take longer to load and will
>it run slower with the symbols in?  

There may be another issue:  security.  Consider a program secured through
some mechanism (e.g. CPU serial number) by a function in the executable 
that checks the security mechanism and returns an appropriate value to 
its calling function, which then acts on the result.  If the security 
function has a meaningful name, having the symbol table present greatly 
simplifies the task of a user editing the executable to effectively turn 
off security checks.

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John "planning to get a real signature" Kessenich