Why are Project Builder Applications so huge?

21/07/03 19:14
Is your application significantly larger than it used to be when it was still a CFM/FreeBSD/whatever application? Even when you're building using the "Deployment" build style?

Is your application significantly larger than it used to be when it was still a CFM/FreeBSD/whatever application? Even when you're building using the "Deployment" build style?

The most likely reason for this is that you have "Generate Debugging Symbols" turned on (the "Deployment" build style doesn't turn that off by default). This can make an application's size increase tenfold. But since you probably want the debugging symbols on while you're debugging your application, here's a trick how to adjust your project to automatically compile without debugging symbols when you're in "deployment" build style:

Open the "Targets" tab of your project. Click at the entry for the target you want to build in the list at the top left. Notice how, when you check/uncheck the "Generate Debugging Symbols" option in the settings that now appear in the text edit area, the entry "DEBUGGING_SYMBOLS = NO" in the "Build Settings" area disappears/reappears. Every option in PB's settings has an equivalent entry in "Build Settings".

Now, select the "Deployment" build style in the list at the lower left. You'll notice its settings only consist of a "Build Settings" pane. Simply add a "DEBUGGING_SYMBOLS = NO" entry here, and it will override the entry in the target's "build settings". Now, whenever you switch to "Deployment", you'll get a much smaller executable. (You might have to "clean" your project after the switch, though, to remove any cached data that still contains debugging symbols).