[fpc-pascal] special meaning of -dRELEASE

[Peter Vreman]

> Marc Santhoff wrote:
>  >>This is no magic, see fpc.cfg
>  >
>  > But it looks that way, I was asking myself if I've left something out
>  > because the binary shrunk from 520kB to 360kB. ;)
>
> IIRC, defining the symbol RELEASE means compiling in release mode. (Thus
> your internal switch does "interfere" with compiler magic. [*])
> Depending on your fpc.cfg, this sets further switches like the ones for
> stripping out debug information from the generated binary. Have a look
> into your fpc.cfg for more details.
>
> Bernhard
>
> [*] I'm not sure whether compiling in release mode defines the RELEASE
> symbol or if it's the other way around. Either way, in fpc.cfg some more
> switches get activated when compiling with symbol RELEASE defined.

There isn't compiler functionality that can be changed by using defines.
That only always works using {$directive} directives. Those can optionally
set some defines, but those all have a FPC_ prefix.