8.4.5 Compression (--cinit_compression and --copy_compression Option)

By default, the linker does not compress data. These two options specify compression through the linker.

The --cinit_compression option specifies the compression type the linker applies to the C autoinitialization data. The default is rle.

Overlays can be managed by using linker-generated copy tables. To save ROM space the linker can compress the data copied by the copy tables. The compressed data is decompressed during copy. The --copy_compression option controls the compression of the copy data tables.

The syntax for the options are:

--cinit_compression[=compression_kind]

--copy_compression[=compression_kind]

The compression_kind can be one of the following types:

• off. Don't compress the data.
• rle. Compress data using Run Length Encoding (the default if nocompression_kind is specified).
• lzss. Compress data using Lempel-Ziv Storer and Symanski compression.

See Section 8.8.5 for more information about compression.