Re: [PATCH] Clarify CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO's bloaty nature

[Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>]

On Mon, 3 Feb 2014 14:47:15 -0800 Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 2:00 PM, David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com> wrote:
> >
> > How do you define "huge bloat" if the size of vmlinux doesn't increase?
> 
> Don't be silly. The size of all the object files increase *hugely*.

yup, I disable this in my allmodconfig testing, to great effect.

That being said, I do think the text should make clear that the bloat
is a compile-time impact and not a runtime one.  Something like

--- a/lib/Kconfig.debug~lib-kconfigdebug-clarify-config_debug_infos-bloaty-nature-fix
+++ a/lib/Kconfig.debug
@@ -128,9 +128,9 @@ config DEBUG_INFO
 	  tools like crash, kgdb, LKCD, gdb, etc on the kernel.
 
 	  If you only want to have resolved symbols in kernel traces and
-	  are not going to need support for those tools above, you don't need
-	  to enable this as it is a huge bloat and build slowdown;
-	  enable CONFIG_KALLSYMS instead.
+	  are not going to need support for the above tools, you don't need
+	  to enable this.  It hugely bloat object files' on-disk sizes and slows
+	  the build.  Enable CONFIG_KALLSYMS instead.
 
 	  If unsure, say N.
 
_