cmd/ld: A program cannot run when linker flag "-s" is used.

[gopherbot]

by lubos.pintes:

When I build a program with -ldflags "-s", and then run it, the following
error is generated:
runtime: function symbol table header: 0x0x0 0x0x0
fatal error: invalid function symbol table

OSis Windows 7 64-bit, Go built from source as 32-bit application.
go version devel +bb2db1e233b2 Sun Aug 25 23:50:44 2013 +1000 windows/386

Also tried with several random previous builds.

[alexbrainman]

Comment 1:

Same on linux. We need to either remove "-s" linker flag, or make runtime to handle "no
symbols" situation. I think the former.
Alex

Status changed to Accepted.

[alexbrainman]

Comment 2:

Issue #6274 has been merged into this issue.

[gopherbot]

Comment 3 by emilliken:

The -s linker flag is very useful for creating lean executables.  Please keep this
feature.

[alexbrainman]

Comment 4:

Issue #6371 has been merged into this issue.

[minux]

Comment 5:

yeah, perhaps the best solution is to remove the feature.
the runtime needs the symbols for precise stack GC (it needs stack walking), for example.
we can remove some info in the symbol table (for example, function name and
pc<->line
table?), but not the entire symbol table.

Labels changed: added priority-later, removed priority-triage.

[gopherbot]

Comment 6 by lubos.pintes:

I would vote for removing as many bloat as possible.
Dňa 12. 9. 2013 5:44 go@googlecode.com wrote / napísal(a):

[gopherbot]

Comment 7 by Michael.Henke.42:

And I would like to be able to remove bloat I don't need in go produced executables.
I vote to keep the -s flag.

[josharian]

Comment 8:

Being able to trim down executables is very valuable for me.
Regarding the immediate question of what to do with -s, how about something like:
(1) Make passing -s a noop right now
(2) Update the documentation for -s
(3) Add a basic test that fails when -s produces broken binaries, so that we get CI
watching over it
(4) Revisit safe ways to shrink binaries after 1.2
With a bit of steering in the right direction, I'd be happy to submit a CL for 1-3. At
the very least, the docs should get updated. Feedback requested.

[niemeyer]

Comment 9:

Note that running "strip" on Go binaries hopefully still works (it should, unless there
are new bugs in the ELF definition).

[davecheney]

Comment 10:

FWIW we (Canonical) had to disable stripping (dh_strip) when we build software on our
armhf builders because it does produce strangely broken binaries.

[alexbrainman]

Comment 11:

Issue #6411 has been merged into this issue.

[minux]

Comment 12:

This issue was closed by revision 0d85d54.

Status changed to Fixed.