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UPX
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Plamdi
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O.P. UPX
I noticed Plus! goes all whacky and doesn't fully work correctly when msnmsgr.exe is compressed with upx... Dunno if this can be fixed, but a compressed msnmsgr.exe is 3,498,496 bytes down from 7,114,752... which means it takes up less memory when it's run (that's how upx works).
04-06-2006 11:35 AM
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segosa
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RE: UPX
quote:
Originally posted by Plamdi
which means it takes up less memory when it's run (that's how upx works).


What? No.. UPX packs the exe which makes it take up less disk space. When executed it unpacks itself in memory and uses exactly the same amount of RAM as the unpacked version of the file would.
The previous sentence is false. The following sentence is true.
04-06-2006 12:14 PM
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CookieRevised
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RE: UPX
quote:
Originally posted by Plamdi
I noticed Plus! goes all whacky and doesn't fully work correctly when msnmsgr.exe is compressed with upx
This is not a bug in Messenger Plus!......

-----------

Do NOT compress exe files if you are not familiar with all the problems that might occur and if you do not know what is actually done or what compressing exe files exactly works.

Compressing a program is not strait forward and you are warned of that clearly before you use program compressers like UPX (that is, if you use official version rather than trial stuff)...

There is a reason why programs like UPX warn you about such stuff and there is a reason why UPX has many options.

Not all programs work correctly when they are compressed (even if you don't notice anything different at first sight!!!!!).

quote:
Originally posted by Plamdi
(that's how upx works).
That's totally wrong.

UPX compresses the physical file, it does not compress the stuff in memory

Compressing programs do not make them use less memory!
On the contrary, compressed programs need more memory. This is even more aparant when the program is started multiple times (so called "polygamy" in case of Messenger). This has to do with the fact that compressed programs have a different memory model than when they are not compressed...

In short: do not compress msn messenger.


quote:
Originally posted by segosa
What? No.. UPX packs the exe which makes it take up less disk space. When executed it unpacks itself in memory and uses exactly the same amount of RAM as the unpacked version of the file would.
It even uses more memory in fact...

Can't explain it very well, so I'm not going to attempt it (other than the crap explanations above) but it sure is a fact.

This post was edited on 04-06-2006 at 12:39 PM by CookieRevised.
.-= A 'frrrrrrrituurrr' for Wacky =-.
04-06-2006 12:32 PM
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segosa
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RE: RE: UPX
quote:
Originally posted by CookieRevised


quote:
Originally posted by segosa
What? No.. UPX packs the exe which makes it take up less disk space. When executed it unpacks itself in memory and uses exactly the same amount of RAM as the unpacked version of the file would.
It even uses more memory in fact...

Can't explain it very well, so I'm not going to attempt it (other than the crap explanations above) but it sure is a fact.


I said that because I looked it up on the site.

"UPX is a free, portable, extendable, high-performance executable packer for several different executable formats. It achieves an excellent compression ratio and offers very fast decompression. Your executables suffer no memory overhead or other drawbacks because of in-place decompression."
The previous sentence is false. The following sentence is true.
04-06-2006 12:44 PM
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CookieRevised
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RE: UPX
yeah... but they don't say that when you compress a program the memory model chances and becomes "fixed" (this is also true for any other compressor though). This means for example that memory can't be "moved" anymore when it otherwise could (and thus freeing some memory blocks) or that it can't be "shared" across multiple instances (each instance would have its own memory block opposed to a shared memory block)...

...something in that order... as I said, I can't explain it very well, google can do better ;)

This post was edited on 04-06-2006 at 12:50 PM by CookieRevised.
.-= A 'frrrrrrrituurrr' for Wacky =-.
04-06-2006 12:49 PM
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