Re: less than 4 MB RAM / 2 bzip or not 2 bzip?

From: Emmanuel Thiry (ethiry@itechno.com)
Date: Fri May 19 2000 - 09:29:23 CEST


> Hello,
>
> This is not directly related with the topic, but is related
> with compression, speed and space!
>
> Have anyone tried UPX ?! http://wildsau.idv.uni-linz.ac.at/mfx/upx.html
> It's a compressor for executables, and it accept many executable
> formats, including dos, windows and linux/i386 .
>
> The executables can be run normally, they are uncompressed on
> the fly (similar to the old lzexe on DOS), with very little overhead.
> It would benefit mulinux in the sense that the ramdisk size required
> to store the files uncompressed from the floppies would be smaller.
> I think it makes a difference with low-memory computers (4MB or
> even 8MB with the EXT addon).
> I haven't had time to play with upx + mulinux, but if anyone have the
> time to play with it, it would be nice to know the results! :)
>
> Regards,
> Claudio Neves

Hi Claudio,
I tried LEM mini-distro (http://www.linuxembedded.com/lem.php3 ).
It uses UPX to compress XF86_SVGA down to 1.1 Mb. But it has a drawback that
some may found severe : when a UPX-compressed executable is run, it makes a
temp file of about the size of the original executbale (for XF86_SVGA, it's
roughly 3 Mb).
If you have many UPX-compressed executables, or if you are short on /tmp
size, it is not very usable.

Emmanuel Thiry

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