Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hi there

Can someone let me know if it is a good idea to compress an executable binary/file using UPX before creating a PET application?

https://upx.github.io/

Thanks in advance

A PET file is basically a tar.gz file, which is compressed using gzip or xz or lzma etc etc.
So upx would not make much difference to the size of a PET file.

Installing a PET uncompresses all the files in the PET file.
So upx-ed executables will take a little less space in a save file.

If a upx-ed file is run, it is copied to ram and it unzips itself.

So upx saves a little space in the storage space. for example, a savefile.

A upx-ed file is uncompressed when it executes
so it uses about the same space in ram as it executes, whether upx-ed or not.

So it might save a little space in the file system it is saved to.
It will not save space in a PET file.
It will not save space in the ram that the executable uses when it is running.

It probably doesn't make much difference either way.

Thank you for explaining this to me

I guess the application really is for developers who want a small file size to distribute their applications.

I did try it out as it came as binary. So your right that it saves a little space in the Save file.