Reducing size of compiled code

[jmooring]

I am curious if there are any tips for reducing the size of the compiled code, other than the standard "-s -w" ldflags. The downloaded d2 executable for linux amd64 is 46 MB. Adding d2 to Hugo (proof of concept) increased the executable size by 17M, a 33% increase.

I suspect this is not a priority right now, and that's fine. But any guidance or even knowing about future plans in this area would be helpful.

Thanks.

---

This is what we're importing:

	"oss.terrastruct.com/d2/d2graph"
	"oss.terrastruct.com/d2/d2layouts/d2dagrelayout"
	"oss.terrastruct.com/d2/d2layouts/d2elklayout"
	"oss.terrastruct.com/d2/d2lib"
	"oss.terrastruct.com/d2/d2renderers/d2svg"
	"oss.terrastruct.com/d2/d2themes/d2themescatalog"
	"oss.terrastruct.com/d2/lib/log"
	"oss.terrastruct.com/d2/lib/textmeasure"
	"oss.terrastruct.com/util-go/go2"

[alixander]

The size is primarily due to:

1. Layout code

• Dagre is in Javascript, and a JS runner in Go is embedded to run this.
• ELK uses elk.js, which is just a wrapper around their compiled Java code.

2. Export formats (needs playwright driver)

Hypothetically if there were some ceiling on size of 50% of current, I'd probably use AI to transpile the dagre code to Go, and make a build that doesn't include ELK.

All other optimizations might reduce by 10% or so. Maybe can unbundle fonts.

The JS/WASM build gets rid of the JS runner (as it just runs in a JS context): #2293

---

I haven't prioritized it because disk space just isn't that limited in the server contexts that D2 runs in.

I can see that hugo is a bit smaller than D2. Would this be a blocker in getting D2 integrated into hugo?

[jmooring]

Would this be a blocker in getting D2 integrated into hugo?

Maybe, but not my call. The proof of concept is actually feature complete, and very slick. With both memory and file caching of the rendered SVGs it's very snappy once the initial rendering is complete; it's almost a D2 IDE.

Currently Hugo has 3 editions: standard, extended (includes a couple of extra features), and the extended/deploy edition. The size of the executable increases with each edition. So, even if file size is an issue, we might be able to create another edition, but that get's a bit messy and again, is not my call.

I've got a couple of loose ends to tie up in the next week, and will then make some time to present the POC to the project lead.

[alixander]

Understood, thanks! It's in my interest to grow D2 through integrations with other tools, so I'm open to fixing stuff if there's minor blockers that come up.

[jmooring]

@alixander This is the POC.

Screencast.from.2025-01-30.17-06-23.webm