Large Binary Size for Release Builds (>20MB under Linux)

[jsprog]

For the minimal project below, I could confirm that the cargo build --release binary size is no less than 20MB under Linux-x64

# Cargo.toml

[package]
name = "freya-intro"
version = "0.1.0"
edition = "2021"

[dependencies]
dioxus = { version = "0.5.1", default-features = false, features = ["hooks", "macro"] }
freya = { version = "0.2.2" }

[profile.release]
lto = true
strip = true
panic = 'abort'
opt-level = "z"
codegen-units = 1
debug = false
incremental = false 

// src/main.rs

use freya::prelude::*;

fn main() {
    launch(|| rsx!(
        label { "Minimal Example" }
    ));
}

After inspecting the output file, I could confirm that .rodata section is taking up the largest amount of the file size followed by the .text section

objdump target/release/freya-intro --headers --section .text

target/release/freya-intro:     file format elf64-x86-64

Sections:
Idx Name          Size      VMA               LMA               File off  Algn
 14 .text         008731e0  0000000000d1fec0  0000000000d1fec0  00d1eec0  2**6
                  CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, READONLY, CODE

objdump target/release/freya-intro --headers --section .rodata

target/release/freya-intro:     file format elf64-x86-64

Sections:
Idx Name          Size      VMA               LMA               File off  Algn
 10 .rodata       00b1ee00  00000000000a9000  00000000000a9000  000a9000  2**12
                  CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, READONLY, DATA

Followed by that, I used upx to reduce the final binary size even further
upx --best --overlay=strip -o target/release/freya-intro-compressed target/release/freya-intro

                       Ultimate Packer for eXecutables
                          Copyright (C) 1996 - 2024
UPX 4.2.4       Markus Oberhumer, Laszlo Molnar & John Reiser    May 9th 2024

        File size         Ratio      Format      Name
   --------------------   ------   -----------   -----------
  23003384 ->   9056916   39.37%   linux/amd64   freya-intro-compressed        

Packed 1 file.

Unfortunately, It's having a negative side effect on RAM usage (already doubling)

After that, I had to objdump content for both .text and .rodata sections for further inspection

mkdir dump
objdump target/release/freya-intro -s --section .text > dump/.text.txt
objdump target/release/freya-intro -s --section .rodata > dump/.rodata.txt

And I could confirm that .rodata is containing several occurrences of useless textual data which should be useful when debugging due to some absolute paths referencing the development machine (e.g: /home/username/.cargo/registry/src/index.crates.io-.......)

I conclude that some unnecessary content related to development is getting linked into the .rodata section of the release build, and discarding it may help reduce both the final binary size and even ram usage.

I understand that content inside .rodata section should be discarded before the link step. probably some inner libraries are keeping this content regardless of release build optimizations.

Question: How to get rid of the extra content and reduce the final binary size even further by a large margin?

[marc2332]

Hey, last time I checked most of the size came from Skia, which I don't think I can do much about it.

probably some inner libraries are keeping this content regardless of release build optimizations.

Is it possible to know what libraries?

Question: How to get rid of the extra content and reduce the final binary size even further by a large margin?

You could try bundling your app using cargo-packager for example, afaik it compresses app in the installer and then uncompresses it upon install.

[jsprog]

Is it possible to know what libraries?

Multiple libraries (accessKit and others; see below) and it's too early to tell before inspecting dependencies tree. I already confirmed that cargo new isn't affected

You could try bundling your app using cargo-packager for example, afaik it compresses app in the installer and then uncompresses it upon install.

Of course, bundling isn't a workaround but the last step toward minimal distributable package

summary about the current problems:

• privacy (username is revealed from paths): cargo already support trimming this by adding trim-paths = true to [profile.release] (enabled by [cargo-features] = ["trim-paths"])
• trimming is only removing /home/username and keeping the remaining part untouched. Although --remap-path-prefix could be used to fully replace them with empty strings, you need to know the full path names to replace them fully.

probably, some C/C++ libraries used by inner rust libraries are the one's keeping these information in object files, and probably they're quite dump to just keep the full absolute paths for debugging purposes regardless of the project's configurations, or likely some flags need to be forwarded to the linker.

note: my user name is "developer"


0ba340 1adbf700 13daf700 7372632f 6d61696e  ........src/main
 0ba350 2e72733a 31303a31 353a3236 344d696e  .rs:10:15:264Min
 0ba360 696d616c 20457861 6d706c65 2f686f6d  imal Example/hom
 0ba370 652f6465 76656c6f 7065722f 2e636172  e/developer/.car
 0ba380 676f2f72 65676973 7472792f 7372632f  go/registry/src/
 0ba390 696e6465 782e6372 61746573 2e696f2d  index.crates.io-
 0ba3a0 36663137 64323262 62613135 30303166  6f17d22bba15001f
 0ba3b0 2f616363 6573736b 69742d30 2e31322e  /accesskit-0.12.
 0ba3c0 332f7372 632f6c69 622e7273 00000000  3/src/lib.rs....
 0ba3d0 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000  ................
 0ba3e0 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000  ................
 0ba3f0 00000000 00000000 76617269 616e7420  ........variant 
 0ba400 6964656e 74696669 65722f68 6f6d652f  identifier/home/
 0ba410 64657665 6c6f7065 722f2e63 6172676f  developer/.cargo
 0ba420 2f726567 69737472 792f7372 632f696e  /registry/src/in
 0ba430 6465782e 63726174 65732e69 6f2d3666  dex.crates.io-6f
 0ba440 31376432 32626261 31353030 31662f61  17d22bba15001f/a
 0ba450 63636573 736b6974 5f617473 70695f63  ccesskit_atspi_c
 0ba460 6f6d6d6f 6e2d302e 322e302f 7372632f  ommon-0.2.0/src/
 0ba470 61646170 7465722e 72733047 8c2f686f  adapter.rs0G./ho
 0ba480 6d652f64 6576656c 6f706572 2f2e6361  me/developer/.ca
 0ba490 72676f2f 72656769 73747279 2f737263  rgo/registry/src
 0ba4a0 2f696e64 65782e63 72617465 732e696f  /index.crates.io
 0ba4b0 2d366631 37643232 62626131 35303031  -6f17d22bba15001
 0ba4c0 662f6163 63657373 6b69745f 61747370  f/accesskit_atsp
 0ba4d0 695f636f 6d6d6f6e 2d302e32 2e302f73  i_common-0.2.0/s
 0ba4e0 72632f63 6f6e7465 78742e72 73666f63  rc/context.rsfoc
 0ba4f0 75736368 65636b75 6e636865 636b636c  uscheckuncheckcl
 0ba500 69636b41 6e636573 746f7270 72657373  ickAncestorpress
 0ba510 73656c65 63746e6f 7420696d 706c656d  selectnot implem
 0ba520 656e7465 642f686f 6d652f64 6576656c  ented/home/devel
 0ba530 6f706572 2f2e6361 72676f2f 72656769  oper/.cargo/regi
 0ba540 73747279 2f737263 2f696e64 65782e63  stry/src/index.c
 0ba550 72617465 732e696f 2d366631 37643232  rates.io-6f17d22
 0ba560 62626131 35303031 662f6163 63657373  bba15001f/access
 0ba570 6b69745f 61747370 695f636f 6d6d6f6e  kit_atspi_common
 0ba580 2d302e32 2e302f73 72632f75 74696c2e  -0.2.0/src/util.
 0ba590 72736173 73657274 696f6e20 6661696c  rsassertion fail
 0ba5a0 65643a20 73656c66 2e6e6f64 65732e63  ed: self.nodes.c
 0ba5b0 6f6e7461 696e735f 6b657928 2673656c  ontains_key(&sel
 0ba5c0 662e6461 74612e72 6f6f7429 2f686f6d  f.data.root)/hom
 0ba5d0 652f6465 76656c6f 7065722f 2e636172  e/developer/.car
 0ba5e0 676f2f72 65676973 7472792f 7372632f  go/registry/src/
 0ba5f0 696e6465 782e6372 61746573 2e696f2d  index.crates.io-
 0ba600 36663137 64323262 62613135 30303166  6f17d22bba15001f
 0ba610 2f616363 6573736b 69745f63 6f6e7375  /accesskit_consu
 0ba620 6d65722d 302e3137 2e312f73 72632f74  mer-0.17.1/src/t
 0ba630 7265652e 72736173 73657274 696f6e20  ree.rsassertion 
 0ba640 6661696c 65643a20 73656c66 2e6e6f64  failed: self.nod
 0ba650 65732e63 6f6e7461 696e735f 6b657928  es.contains_key(
 0ba660 2673656c 662e666f 63757329 61737365  &self.focus)asse
 0ba670 7274696f 6e206661 696c6564 3a202173  rtion failed: !s
 0ba680 65656e5f 6368696c 645f6964 732e636f  een_child_ids.co
 0ba690 6e746169 6e732863 68696c64 5f696429  ntains(child_id)
 0ba6a0 2f686f6d 652f6465 76656c6f 7065722f  /home/developer/
 0ba6b0 2e636172 676f2f72 65676973 7472792f  .cargo/registry/
 0ba6c0 7372632f 696e6465 782e6372 61746573  src/index.crates
 0ba6d0 2e696f2d 36663137 64323262 62613135  .io-6f17d22bba15
 0ba6e0 30303166 2f616363 6573736b 69745f63  001f/accesskit_c
 0ba6f0 6f6e7375 6d65722d 302e3137 2e312f73  onsumer-0.17.1/s
 0ba700 72632f6e 6f64652e 72730000 00000000  rc/node.rs......
 0ba710 00000000 0000f03f 00000000 00000000  .......?........
 0ba720 00000000 00000000 00000000 0000f03f  ...............?
 0ba730 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000  ................
 0ba740 2f686f6d 652f6465 76656c6f 7065722f  /home/developer/
 0ba750 2e636172 676f2f72 65676973 7472792f  .cargo/registry/
 0ba760 7372632f 696e6465 782e6372 61746573  src/index.crates
 0ba770 2e696f2d 36663137 64323262 62613135  .io-6f17d22bba15
 0ba780 30303166 2f616363 6573736b 69745f63  001f/accesskit_c
 0ba790 6f6e7375 6d65722d 302e3137 2e312f73  onsumer-0.17.1/s
 0ba7a0 72632f69 74657261 746f7273 2e72732f  rc/iterators.rs/
 0ba7b0 686f6d65 2f646576 656c6f70 65722f2e  home/developer/.
 0ba7c0 63617267 6f2f7265 67697374 72792f73  cargo/registry/s
 0ba7d0 72632f69 6e646578 2e637261 7465732e  rc/index.crates.
 0ba7e0 696f2d36 66313764 32326262 61313530  io-6f17d22bba150
 0ba7f0 3031662f 61636365 73736b69 745f636f  01f/accesskit_co
 0ba800 6e73756d 65722d30 2e31372e 312f7372  nsumer-0.17.1/sr
 0ba810 632f7465 78742e72 73000000 00000000  c/text.rs.......