Size of mlib libraries in Stata 14

[Sergiy Radyakin]

Dear All,

is it normal to have even a simple Mata library in Stata 14 to be compiled as an approximately 280k file?

I recall in Stata 9-10 the files were much more compact, around 10k. The mlib file contains a huge frame of binary zeroes inside, which I believe is an unused space allocated for some reason, and I would like to minimize the size of the library.

Thank you, Sergiy

[Sergio Correia]

Do you care about this because installing is slow, or because of HD space or memory use? If the former, what I do is distribute .Mata files and compile them on user's computers

[Niels Henrik Bruun]

A small survey at my drives indicates that mlib files are 10-20 times bigger than their corresponding matafile.

[Sergiy Radyakin]

Sergio, I am concerned about the size to minimize the amount of transfer of data during the installation. But my other concern is about why different Stata versions yield different size of the compiled libraries, with later versions resulting in larger library files. One of the reasons for this could be that later Statas include something else during compilation into the library, and if so, I want to know what that delta is. Best, Sergiy