cstatic

Is compiling with -s the same as making everything static?

Declaring a function as static makes it only availiable in its file, and compiling a program with -s makes all the global functions and variables in it unnaccessible from outside the app. So if I just compile an app with -s, does it have the same effect as making everything static or is it more complicated than that?

To put it in other words, would these two produce the same executable:

/*** cc -s main.c ***/
    
#include <stdio.h>

void a(){
    printf("Hello world!\n");
}

int main(void){
    a();
    return 0;
}

/*** cc main.c ***/
    
#include <stdio.h>

static void a(){
    printf("Hello world!\n");
}

int main(void){
    a();
    return 0;
}
Solution

  • The -s option when compiling does not affect the accessibility of functions and variables from outside the application. -s only strips symbols, so the executable will be a bit smaller.