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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
+<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
+  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [
+  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
+  %general-entities;
+]>
+
+<sect1 id="ch-system-aboutdebug">
+  <?dbhtml filename="aboutdebug.html"?>
+
+  <title>About Debugging Symbols</title>
+
+  <para>Most programs and libraries are, by default, compiled with
+  debugging symbols included (with <command>gcc</command>'s
+  <parameter>-g</parameter> option). This means that when debugging a
+  program or library that was compiled with debugging information
+  included, the debugger can provide not only memory addresses, but also
+  the names of the routines and variables.</para>
+
+  <para>However, the inclusion of these debugging symbols enlarges a
+  program or library significantly. The following is an example of the
+  amount of space these symbols occupy:</para>
+
+  <itemizedlist>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>A <command>bash</command> binary with debugging symbols:
+      1200 KB</para>
+    </listitem>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>A <command>bash</command> binary without debugging symbols:
+      480 KB</para>
+    </listitem>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>Glibc and GCC files (<filename class="directory">/lib</filename>
+      and <filename class="directory">/usr/lib</filename>) with debugging
+      symbols: 87 MB</para>
+    </listitem>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>Glibc and GCC files without debugging symbols: 16 MB</para>
+    </listitem>
+  </itemizedlist>
+
+  <para>Sizes may vary depending on which compiler and C library were used,
+  but when comparing programs with and without debugging symbols, the
+  difference will usually be a factor between two and five.</para>
+
+  <para>Because most users will never use a debugger on their system software,
+  a lot of disk space can be regained by removing these symbols. The next
+  section shows how to strip all debugging symbols from the programs and
+  libraries. Additional information on system optimization can be found at
+  <ulink url="&hints-root;optimization.txt"/>.</para>
+
+</sect1>