What is "stripping" in binary compilations ?

["Maxim Vexler" <hq4ever@gmail.com>]

Hello everyone.

I'm reading the "New maintainer's guide".

On page  28 (version 1.2.3,18 January2005) the author speaks about
`stripping' executable and the dh_strip(1) script. Surprisingly, no
where was the reader informed about the purpose of `striping'. Am I
supposed to know this as part of "basic knowledge" ? If so where can I
learn more about stripping I've tried to search the Debian developers
reference guide and the gcc online documentations, as well as google
but no useful information has turned up.

Is stripping important when packaging an application for debian ?
How can I tell if an application was meant to be stripped by upstream ?

Thank you for helping.

--
Cheers,
Maxim Vexler (hq4ever).

Do u GNU ?