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/Os, /Ot (Favor Small Code, Favor Fast Code)

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The latest version of this topic can be found at -Os, -Ot (Favor Small Code, Favor Fast Code).

Minimizes or maximizes the size of EXEs and DLLs.

Syntax

/Os  
/Ot

Remarks

/Os (Favor Small Code) minimizes the size of EXEs and DLLs by instructing the compiler to favor size over speed. The compiler can reduce many C and C++ constructs to functionally similar sequences of machine code. Occasionally these differences offer tradeoffs of size versus speed. The /Os and /Ot options allow you to specify a preference for one over the other:

/Ot (Favor Fast Code) maximizes the speed of EXEs and DLLs by instructing the compiler to favor speed over size. (This is the default.) The compiler can reduce many C and C++ constructs to functionally similar sequences of machine code. Occasionally, these differences offer tradeoffs of size versus speed. The /Ot option is implied by the Maximize Speed (/O2) option. The /O2 option combines several options to produce very fast code.

If you use /Os or /Ot, then you must also specify /Og to optimize the code.

Note

Information that is gathered from profiling test runs will override optimizations that would otherwise be in effect if you specify /Ob, /Os, or /Ot. For more information, Profile-Guided Optimizations.

x86 Specific

The following example code demonstrates the difference between the Favor Small Code (/Os) options and the Favor Fast Code (/Ot) option:

Note

The following describes the expected behavior when using /Os or /Ot. However, compiler behavior from release to release may result in different optimizations for the code below.

/* differ.c  
  This program implements a multiplication operator  
  Compile with /Os to implement multiply explicitly as multiply.  
  Compile with /Ot to implement as a series of shift and LEA instructions.  
*/  
int differ(int x)  
{  
    return x * 71;  
}

As shown in the fragment of machine code below, when DIFFER.c is compiled for size (/Os), the compiler implements the multiply expression in the return statement explicitly as a multiply to produce a short but slower sequence of code:

mov    eax, DWORD PTR _x$[ebp]  
imul   eax, 71                  ; 00000047H

Alternately, when DIFFER.c is compiled for speed (/Ot), the compiler implements the multiply expression in the return statement as a series of shift and LEA instructions to produce a fast but longer sequence of code:

mov    eax, DWORD PTR _x$[ebp]  
mov    ecx, eax  
shl    eax, 3  
lea    eax, DWORD PTR [eax+eax*8]  
sub    eax, ecx

END x86 Specific

To set this compiler option in the Visual Studio development environment

  1. Open the project's Property Pages dialog box. For details, see How to: Open Project Property Pages.

  2. Click the C/C++ folder.

  3. Click the Optimization property page.

  4. Modify the Favor Size or Speed property.

To set this compiler option programmatically

See Also

/O Options (Optimize Code)
Compiler Options
Setting Compiler Options