Bug#256900: Ocaml compiled programs cannot be stripped

[Xavier Leroy <Xavier.Leroy@inria.fr>]

> First, a few reminders:
> 
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=256900
> http://caml.inria.fr/pub/ml-archives/caml-list/2004/07/181268104b59b10ed1624cb92ed996c4.fr.html
> 
> Is there any news on this issue? It seems it is still on topic in OCaml
> 3.10.2...

First, the bug summary is incorrect: it's not all ocaml-generated
executables that cannot be stripped, but only those generated by the
now-obsolete "ocamlc -custom" option.  The latter builds a mixed
bytecode/native C executable, but this approach has been deprecated in
favor of putting the C stub code in shared libraries which are then
loaded by the pure bytecode executable.

The plan of action that Sylvain Le Gall discussed with me a while ago
was to track down the OCaml packages that use "ocamlc -custom" and fix
them to use shared libraries instead.  Many mature Caml sources still
use the -custom option although it is no longer necessary.  I can
provide assistance tracking down the mixed bytecode/native executables
that are a problem.

To summarize, my take on this issue is:

1- "ocamlc -custom" is deprecated and packages that use it should be fixed.

2- If this isn't practical, it's not a big deal that a couple of
   executables cannot be stripped.  Other packagers (e.g. RedHat and
   Mandriva) have had no problems in the past turning stripping off on
   a case-by-case basis.

3- For these reasons, I won't merge Stéphane's patch in the upstream
   sources. Use in Debian at your own risk.


- Xavier Leroy