Those flags tell the Go linker to strip debug stuff out of the binary:

-s — strip the symbol table
-w — strip DWARF debugging info

You usually pass them via -ldflags, e.g.:

go build -ldflags="-s -w" ./cmd/myapp

Practical impact

Good stuff:

✅ Smaller executable
This is the main effect: the binary size goes down, sometimes quite noticeably for simple programs.
✅ Same runtime performance
Code execution speed is effectively unchanged. These flags don’t change optimization level, just metadata.

Trade-offs / downsides:

❌ Harder debugging with external tools
Tools like gdb, dlv (delve), or low-level profilers rely on DWARF and symbols. With -s -w:
- Source-level debugging is basically gone.
- Stack traces from Go itself (e.g. panics) still work because Go keeps separate metadata for that, but they’ll be less rich for external tools.
❌ Less helpful for reverse-engineering & inspection
Commands like go tool nm, objdump, and generic ELF/PE inspection will show much less symbolic information.
❌ Harder post-mortem analysis
If you ever need to attach a debugger or inspect a live/ crashed process in production, you may really miss those symbols unless you keep an unstripped build around.

When it’s a good idea

Final release / production binaries where size matters (CLI utilities, containers, embedded systems).
You have a separate “debug build” without -s -w for troubleshooting.

When to avoid

During development, testing, or when you expect to debug with dlv/gdb.
When you rely on detailed native-level profiling or system-level diagnostics.

So: smaller binary, no speed gain, and you give up rich debugging info.

Proposal / Question

Until now there are reported nearly no problems with the Trice tool itself, so this maybe is an option. Right now I would like to stay with the current build flags just for safety. Or is there any reason to reduce the Trice tool binary size now?

Uh oh!

Feature: generates smaller build executable with -s -w #584

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