Question

I have a custom class I use frequently on my projects. This class has several methods but not all of them are used in every project.

My question is: including this class on a Project will bloat the project with useless code or will the compiler just include the methods used?

I mean, if my class has 30 methods but just 4 are being used in a given project will the compiler include also the other unused 26 or just the 4 used in the final product?

In case it includes all, is there a way to force it to disregard the unused methods and trim the binary to the minimum?

Answer 1

The linker supports dead-stripping, if you turn it on unused code should not cause any bloat.

From the Apple docs:

The static linker (ld) supports the
removal of unused code and data blocks
from executable files. This process
(known as dead-code stripping) helps
reduce the overall size of
executables, which in turn improves
performance by reducing the memory
footprint of the executable. It also
allows programs to link successfully
when unused code refers to an
undefined symbol (instead of resulting
in a link error).

Dead-code stripping is not limited to
removing only unused functions and
executable code from a binary. The
linker also removes any unused symbols
and data that reside in data blocks.
Such symbols might include global
variables, static variables, and
string data, among others.

When dead-code stripping is enabled,
the static linker searches for code
that is unreachable from an initial
set of live symbols and blocks.