size of output libraries on different platforms...

[Ed Hartnett]

Howdy all!

This is not a libtool question per se, but more of a general library
question.

When building a static library I notice that it's size seems to vary a
lot from platform to platform. On my linux box it's about 1MB, on a Sun
it's 3MB. (Building with completely different tools, one set GNU, the
other, Sun.)

Is this expected?

Does it matter?

A recent support request for our library notes that with a recent
version, the size of the static library increased dramatically. But he
says this is not affecting performance.

In general, the size of a static library should only matter at link
time anyway, since the needed functions are copied into the program
executable, right?

Whereas with a shared library, the size of the library might be
important, because the library is loaded at run-time, and larger files
will be harder to keep in buffers than small files, as I understand
it.

My question is: when it comes to libraries, does size matter?

Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

Ed
-- 
Ed Hartnett  -- address@hidden