[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] build: don't strip binaries during compilation

[Marton Balint]

On Tue, 3 Oct 2017, James Almer wrote:

> On 10/3/2017 1:01 PM, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
>> On Mon, Oct 02, 2017 at 05:03:51PM -0300, James Almer wrote:
>>> On 10/2/2017 4:34 PM, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
>>>> On Sun, Oct 01, 2017 at 07:55:29PM -0300, James Almer wrote:
>>>>> Do it during install instead, like with the libraries.
>>>>>
>>>>> There's no benefit making a stripped copy of the CLI tools in the
>>>>> build folder. Doing it during install saves build time and storage
>>>>> space.
>>>>>
>>>>> Signed-off-by: James Almer <jamrial at gmail.com>
>>>>
>>>> Iam not sure this is a good idea
>>>>
>>>> the build binaries and installed binaries would differ, thats bound
>>>> to lead to some confusion and problems
>>>
>>> What kind of confusion will removing "ffmpeg_g" from the build folder
>>> bring? It's never installed, and what does get installed by "make
>>> install" will not change with this patch in form or name.
>>> This patch does for the binaries the same thing we're doing for the
>>> libraries: Strip during install, instead of making a stripped duplicate
>>> in the build folder.
>> 
>> The ffmpeg in the build folder will be a different binary than the
>> one installed, they will look the same from the output, same
>> configure flags and so on.
>> But because they are different binaries they can and will behave
>> differently. Bugs in the past occuring with ffmpeg did sometimes not
>> reproduce with ffmpeg_g. But if one talked about "ffmpeg" or "ffmpeg_g"
>> together with its command line output which contains revission and
>> build flags it was clear what version was used.
>
>> With this change its indistingishable if a "ffmpeg" is stripped or non
>> stripped the printed build flags will no longer provide this
>> information together with the excuatble name
>
> If the build flags have "--disable-stripping", then "ffmpeg" will not be
> stripped, regardless of this being the build folder or an installation
> target. So, in short, you're arguing that in builds with stripping
> enabled, ffmpeg in the build folder being different than the one in the
> install folder will make getting users to provide useful reports harder?
>
> I don't really agree with this, seeing almost every other project out
> there does pretty much what this patch is trying to achieve and don't
> seem to have issues handling bug reports, but if both you and Carl
> consider this behavior as important for the sake of bug reporting and
> nobody else chimes in in favor, then I'll withdraw this patch.

The only argument against this patch that I find mildly convincing is that 
we should do tests (fate tests) with stripped binaries in order to be able 
to detect bugs when stripping.

But I always hated the fact that the build process is copying huge 
binaries.

Question: why don't we use strip -o ffmpeg ffmpeg_g instead of copying 
first?

Regards,
Marton