Why build kernel for minimum size?

[James Wilkinson]

Steve Snyder wrote:
> I notice that the FC2 kernels are built for size, not speed.  (The config 
> option for compiling for size is selected.)
> 
> What is the thinking behind this?  Is the configuration biased toward 
> low-memory systems?  Are there CPU cache considerations that effective 
> make a small build (-Os) faster than a more optimized (-O2) build?

The latter: plus the kernel is a rather specialised application, that is
tuned with (at least) one eye on what gcc produces, which mean that
there isn't the opportunity for -O2 to do much good (but it will bulk
out the code).

James.

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