GDB memory usage with compressed debug info

[Mike Gulick]

Hi,

I'm observing that GDB memory usage is much higher when I have debug 
info compressed with 'objcopy --compress-debug-sections'.  In a large 
C++ application, I see the instance with uncompressed debug info use 
46GB VIRTUAL memory and 11GB RSS, and the instance with compressed debug 
info is using 46GB VIRTUAL memory and 42GB RSS.  In case it matters, the 
debug info is separated from the original binary into its own file.

It seems like GDB must load the full uncompressed debug info into memory 
when the underlying files are compressed?

I'm currently using GDB 9.2.  I checked the 10.1 NEWS and didn't see 
anything that looked like it would have changed this result, but I'm 
happy to give it a try if you think it might help.

Is there any chance this could be improved with a patch to GDB, or is 
this just the nature of compressed debug data?

Also, FYI, the NEWS link for the GDB 10.1 release on the GDB home page 
points to the NEWS file for the 9.1 release.

Thanks!

-Mike