Questions about libpython size, specifically on Linux x86_64

[ceejatec]

Several possibly-related questions. Note that I'm not necessarily saying anything is "wrong" here, I'm just trying to understand the differences.

So I've noticed two things about libpython.3.xx.so.1.0, working on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu:

1. Python 3.12's libpython is 4x the size of Python 3.11: 212MB vs. 58MB. If you strip both of them, the size difference largely vanishes; Python 3.12 is 25.3MB, where Python 3.11 is 24.4MB.
2. python-build-standalone's stripped libpython is still something like 4x larger than the libpython that comes with Fedora 40, which is 6.1MB for Python 3.12 and 4.9MB for Python 3.11.

This is particularly noticeable when developing standalone binaries with PyInstaller. I've hacked PyInstaller locally to work with python-build-standalone, but the resulting binaries are nearly 3x the size compared to building with Fedora's python even if I build with the stripped libpython, which is kind of rough.

[jfcherng]

1. Python 3.12's libpython is 4x the size of Python 3.11: 212MB vs. 58MB. If you strip both of them, the size difference largely vanishes; Python 3.12 is 25.3MB, where Python 3.11 is 24.4MB.

Thanks for this information. I was wondering why my PyInstaller-packaged APP became much larger. 😄

[bulletmark]

See also related discussion here.

[jfcherng]

See also related discussion here.

Thanks for this information. I do have a script for installation so I can add a strip step during installing. Currently I just use strip without any CLI flags. Do you have recommended flags?

[bulletmark]

My installer uses strip -p --strip-unneeded.

[indygreg]

I wonder if the debug symbols size has something to do with BOLT, which is 3.12+ only. Maybe BOLT is producing sub-optimal DWARF records, not preserving compression in symbols, or something along those lines.

[charliermarsh]

FWIW on macOS, I only see a ~12% reduction in libpython3.10.dylib size.