Extreme Minimization: Crafting a Cross-Platform Executable Under 400 Bytes
2025-01-07
This blog post details size optimization tricks from the Cosmopolitan Libc project, using x86 assembly and clever compilation techniques to drastically reduce executable size. Key methods discussed include run-length encoding, decentralized sections, dead code elimination, δzd encoding, overlapping functions, and optimizing printf. The ultimate result? A sub-400-byte ELF executable running on Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. This demonstrates efficient resource usage and offers new perspectives on the scalability of large codebases.
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