title: How do debug symbols affect performance of a Linux executable compiled by GCC?
body: <p>All other factors being equal (eg optimisation level), how does having debug symbols in an ELF or SO affect:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Load time.</li>
  <li>Runtime memory footprint.</li>
  <li>Runtime performance?</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>And what could be done to mitigate any negative effects?</p>
  
  <p>EDIT
  I've seen this question but I find the discussion unhelpful, as the code optimization factor has confused the issue there. <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2880025/why-do-debug-symbols-so-adversely-affect-the-performance-of-threaded-application">Why does my code run slower with multiple threads than with a single thread when it is compiled for profiling (-pg)?</a></p>