What is the difference between "gcc -s" and a "strip" command?

Question

I wonder what is the difference between these two:

• gcc -s: Remove all symbol table and relocation information from the executable.

• strip: Discard symbols from object files.

Do they have the same meaning?

Which one do you use to:

• reduce the size of executable?
• speed up its running?

Answer 1

gcc being a compiler/linker, its -s option is something done while linking. It's also not configurable - it has a set of information which it removes, no more no less.

strip is something which can be run on an object file which is already compiled. It also has a variety of command-line options which you can use to configure which information will be removed. For example, -g strips only the debug information which gcc -g adds.

Note that strip is not a bash command, though you may be running it from a bash shell. It is a command totally separate from bash, part of the GNU binary utilities suite.