Let's build small Qt libraries! (Step 2: Optimize build-settings)
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[quote author="Hedge" date="1305654933"]So even qconfig won't help?
I could exclude some widgets in the sourcecode but that is a bit too much (imagine I need to do this for every new qt-version).strip <file> -s didn't really do much. Any other useful parameters?
What I am aiming for is a small download-size for users.[/quote]
No, qconfig does not help. The DLLs will always contain all widgets.
strip regularly does not save very much space on binaries compiled in release mode already.
If you're only after a small download size, use a decent archiver and set it's mode to maximum compression.
[quote author="Hedge" date="1305655290"]Where do I use these flags?
I initially asked where I can apply the compiler-flags:
bq. -Os
-fmerge-all-constants
-fno-default-inline
-fno-inlineNeither configure nor mingw32-make accept them.[/quote]
These are compiler/linker flags, you can try to set them for configure this way:
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CFLAGS="-Os -fmerge-all-constants -fno-default-inline -fno-inline"
./configure -platform win32-g++
your additional flags go here
@But be aware that fiddling with optimization settings (-Os) may make things worse or add a runtime slowdown penalty.
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But they were designed about 20 years before, and probably they will change...
But back to the topic, I don't remember what it was...
I think: http://wiki.wxwidgets.org/Reducing_Executable_Size (--strip-all)
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Thanks for clarifying that CFLAGS-thing. I'm currently writing my BA so I've got time to try some configurations (and also the MSVC-compiler).
I'll post the details here.
However I've a problem atm ...size-wise.
My application, although build in release-mode asks for the debug-DLLs as well (QtGui4d.dll etc.) when I try to execute it on another PC. Any ideas what would could've gone wrong?
The executables size is much smaller than in debug-mode (400kb vs. 2.4MB). -
There's already a thread "here":here http://developer.qt.nokia.com/forums/viewthread/6033/ regarding that question but no one had a good idea yet.
I threw it in b/c it didn't seem to be too off-topic (it's influencing the application-size in a very bad way). -
[quote author="Hedge" date="1305656526"]
However I've a problem atm ...size-wise.
My application, although build in release-mode asks for the debug-DLLs as well (QtGui4d.dll etc.) when I try to execute it on another PC. Any ideas what would could've gone wrong?
The executables size is much smaller than in debug-mode (400kb vs. 2.4MB).
[/quote]
if you're using UPX....
try delete pagefile.sys of your compiler's pc, than run your apps than something going haven...
sadly crash in previous trial... :( -
I've got some results to show off.
I can't run configure with the Microsoft-compiler ("Your text to link here...":http://developer.qt.nokia.com/forums/viewthread/6060/).
For now I built Qt with the following configure-options:
@Configure -L -release -platform win32-g++ -opensource -no-exceptions -no-stl -no-opengl -no-openvg -no-libjpeg -no-libtiff -no-dsp -no-vcproj -no-webkit -no-scripttools -no-native-gestures -qconfig ali@
I checked off as much stuff as possible in my custom config-file but especially didn't know which GUI-components I could remove (I use the qml-desktop-components).
The result is a lower size of around 1MB (6,51MB compared to 7,55MB before)
@default size | self-compiled(gcc) | UPX -9 | Name
2,43MB | 2,04MB | 0,80MB | QTCore4.dll 2,92MB | 2,23MB | 0,67MB | QTDeclarative4.dll 9,39MB | 7,75MB | 3,19MB | QtGui4.dll 1,15MB | 0,77MB | 0,28MB | QTNetwork4.dll 2,07MB | 1,74MB | 0,55MB | QTScript4.dll 0,20MB | 0,20MB | 0,08MB | QTSql4.dll 3,82MB | 3,82MB | 0,94MB | QTXmlPatterns4.dll (wasn't compiled)
21,98MB 18,55MB 6,51MB@These were the old results:
@Uncompressed size | UPX -9 size | Name
2,43MB | 0,91MB | QTCore4.dll 2,92MB | 0,86MB | QTDeclarative4.dll 9,39MB | 3,69MB | QtGui4.dll 1,15MB | 0,40MB | QTNetwork4.dll 2,07MB | 0,65MB | QTScript4.dll 0,20MB | 0,10MB | QTSql4.dll 3,82MB | 0,94MB | QTXmlPatterns4.dll
21,98MB 7,55MB@ -
Now I've compiled using MSVC2010 and excluding just a bit stuff (-no-stl, -no-exceptions etc).
These are the new results:
The result is a lower size of around 0,71 MB compared to the GCC-built libraries.
I'm trying to compile with exceptions now so I can get XMLPatterns built.
@default size | self-compiled(MSVC)| UPX -9 | Name
2,43MB | 1,85MB | 0,82MB | QTCore4.dll 2,92MB | 1,71MB | 0,58MB | QTDeclarative4.dll 9,39MB | 6,57MB | 3,02MB | QtGui4.dll 1,15MB | 0,59MB | 0,24MB | QTNetwork4.dll 2,07MB | 1,05MB | 0,37MB | QTScript4.dll 0,20MB | 0,13MB | 0,07MB | QTSql4.dll 3,82MB | 2,52MB | 0,60MB | QTXmlPatterns4.dll
21,98MB 14,32MB 5,70MB@These were the old results:
@Uncompressed size | UPX -9 size | Name
2,43MB | 0,91MB | QTCore4.dll 2,92MB | 0,86MB | QTDeclarative4.dll 9,39MB | 3,69MB | QtGui4.dll 1,15MB | 0,40MB | QTNetwork4.dll 2,07MB | 0,65MB | QTScript4.dll 0,20MB | 0,10MB | QTSql4.dll 3,82MB | 0,94MB | QTXmlPatterns4.dll
21,98MB 7,55MB@ -
Hi,
I'm using Qt on WinCE 5, and using qconfig to rip out all of the QWidgets that I don't use, and compiling for optimize for size rather than speed I've managed to get QtGui down to between 5 and 6MB depending on the platform.
I've also remove QtSql and QtSvg support from QtDeclarative (as I don't use them) and that means another couple of hundred K that's saved. These changes are very minor code changes to the library.
Steve
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Actually, I think some (groups of) widgets can be left out, by using the right #defines. In qabstractitemview.h, line 56, for instance, there is a conditional compilation like this:
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#ifndef QT_NO_ITEMVIEWS
@Another example is for XML (xmlstream.h, line 47):
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#ifndef QT_NO_XMLSTREAM
@I think that many Qt features can be compiled out this way, thus reducing the size of the Qt libraries.
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@SteveKing, could you upload your qconfig somewhere? The example-ones distributed with Qt don't work at all and I couldn't get my own to compile past QtDeclarative.
I'm also intersted in the changes you made to leave out QtSql and QtSvg in QtDeclarative.
@Andre: That's the purpose of qconfig.
It adds define QT_NO_WHATEVER statements, but I found it difficulty to find a fully compiling configuration. -
@Hedge. Our "company website":http://www.domino-printing.com/Global/en/QuickStepQTFiles/QuickStepQTFiles.aspx has all of the Qt files we're using on it. The things you'll be interested in are:
4.7.2 Changed Files: This zip has the source I modified in Qt Declarative to remove the Sql support and the configuration files. It also includes a change to the Pixmap cache class to allow us to define the cache size.
4.7.2 Configuration Batch Files: This has the mkspecs for our WinCE platforms and also the configure batch files we use. Some of the configure options I've used don't do anything (-nomake), but I threw everything at it and haven't tidied them up yet!
The qconfig-QML.h is the minimum config for our WinCE application. _QML-http-html _and _QML-IC _are variations on this adding in some extra features as required. _QML-PC _is the minimum config I managed for a PC build, although even with this I hit problems building the active Qt components. I tried to fix this by modifying .pro files etc, but got nowhere and everything I use has been built by then so I stopped. The main reason the _qconfig-QML _didn't work with the PC build was because of all the tools that build with it, again I didn't investigate how to disable these.
If you find any of this useful and need to ask any more questions feel free to mail me.
Steve