Stabs+ debug bloat from gcc 2.95.3 to gcc 3.3.1

[Philip Walford <philip_walford@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Our company is considering upgrading from gcc 2.95.3 to one of the 3.x
series, but we're rather concerned by the growth in debug symbols size.
 
Following previous discussions, I have tried the -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
(still unsupported by GDB) and -gstabs+.  Both of these are better than
the default, but the result is still far worse than gcc 2.95.3.

Can anyone help me to understand why gcc 3.3.1 (for instance) produces
stabs+ format debug binaries that are nearly twice as large as those
produce by gcc 2.95.3?  As it stands, we are sticking to gcc 2.95.3
largely because of this issue.


My platforms are both:
        kernel: 2.4.20-19.7smp (provided by DELL)
        glibc:   2.2.5
        
then
        gcc version:           3.3.1
        GNU assembler version: 2.14
        GNU ld version:        2.14

versus

        gcc version 2.95.3
        GNU assembler version 2.11.93.0.2
        GNU ld version 2.11.93.0.2 20020207
        
And here are some figures:

        Compiler
        Debug Binary
        Size (kB)
        gcc 2.95.3
                   34284
                    100%
        gcc 3.3.1
                   83640
                    244%
        gcc 3.3.1
        -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
                   67448
                    197%
        gcc 3.3.1
        -gstabs+
                   69692
                    203%

        Note: the figures are summed over several binaries.
        Note also: the stripped binaries are almost identical in size.
        
This is clearly a problem when you scale up.

Does anyone have any suggestions or pointers?

Thanks,
Philip.