sstrip from http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/software/elfkickers.html brings the exe down some more after a normal strip; needs the following changes to compile on linux.x86_32: //////////////////////////////////// /* This header no longer exists, provide definitions below */ /* #include */ #define ELF_CLASS ELFCLASS32 #define ELF_DATA ELFDATA2LSB #define ELF_ARCH EM_386 /* //////////////////////////////////// Then put the following in your to-be (empty) executable file ("myexe"): a=/tmp/I;tail -n+2 $0|zcat>$a;chmod +x $a;$a;rm $a;exit Then run: gzip -cn9 a.out >> myexe chmod +x myexe