FYI: dh_upx compresses i386 executables
What is dh_upx?
dh_upx is a debhelper extention and is provided by the upx-ucl package.
dh_upx compresses all binaries (i386 only!) in the mentioned package.
The idea is similar to gzexe, but upx uses a built-in decompressor,
installing a new header into executables. It can also compress scripts.
What is upx good for?
For all applications that are not used in critical environment, i.e.
without enough free disc space, or when they are started to often, so
the decompression time may be too long.
For example, I will compress SDK example programs in my allegro-examples
package. These are 52 executables with ~100k pro file => 4739kB.
Compressed with upx the need only 1214kB. The user won't use them
frequently and when he/she starts them, there will be no difference
between compressed and uncompressed apps so we can save this space.
Comments: the decompression time is not tragical, its about 0.15s for
ddd (3.15meg) on Athlon-1000. Or 0.002s on a small application (exmidi,
88kB).
Limitations: linux/i386 only, dh_upx won't compress package for other
plattforms.
Usage: like any debhelper script. To be used after dh_shlibdeps
(dependencies must be resolved before compression) and dh_strip (strip
unneeded stuff before compression). More info: man dh_upx
Gr{us,eeting}s,
Eduard.
--
====================================================================
Eduard Bloch <blade@debian.org>; HP: http://eduard.bloch.com/edecosi
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The computer revolution is over. The computers won.
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