How can I get my build size smaller?

# kotlin-native

[zt]

How can I get my build size smaller?

[Joakim Forslund]

Along with the GC the stdlib and default platform libraries is probably what takes the most size.
You can run without the default libs by adding the compiler flag: -no-default-libs, the effect of this however will be that you can not use a lot of the platform related code that you might want. And to remove the stdlib you can use the compiler flag:
-nostdlib

The effect of this however is that you will not get any standard methods available anymore which makes your coding very cumbersome.

[napperley]

If you are using C libraries then you should go for ones that provide dynamic library files if possible. Preferably, go with C libraries that have a very small number of dependencies (the same advice also applies to Kotlin libraries).

Note that static library files can significantly increase binary size.

[napperley]

With Kotlin programs minimise the use of inlined elements like functions and compile time constants (aka const val) for example. If there are some static text resources in a Kotlin program then extract them into separate configuration/text files if possible.

[elizarov]

https://github.com/upx/upx

[napperley]

How effective is UPX on reducing the size of a Kotlin Native binary (using linuxArm32Hfp as the example target)?

[jimn]

upx is pretty clever. the relinking can find things missed by strip, somehow.