HelloWorld binary size increased a lot in recent Zig versions

[hronro]

Zig Version

0.13.0

Steps to Reproduce and Observed Behavior

Say we want to build a very simple HelloWorld program in x86_64 Linux:

const std = @import("std");

pub fn main() !void {
    std.debug.print("Hello World\n", .{});
}

Let's try to build them in different versions of Zig with different modes (all of them have enabled exe.strip = true; in build.zig), and here are the binary sizes of them:

Zig Version	ReleaseFast	ReleaseSmall
0.9.1	4.6K	4.6K
0.10.1	13K	8.5K
0.11.0	13K	8.7K
0.12.1	11K	9.0K
0.13.0	13K	13K

Expected Behavior

Binary size should not increase much compared to v0.9.1, at least in ReleaseSmall mode.

[linusg]

Possibly related: #20468

[dotdot0]

Can I work on this one?

[RetroDev256]

Just adding a data point here - I have also noticed this - I have dabbled in programming very small programs in Zig, and can no longer find a way to make my programs less than ~4 KiB with Zig alone. I suspect some padding (and alignment) has been added to the sections.

[pavelverigo]

Currently on 0.14.0-dev.1002+71a27ebd8:

ReleaseFast	ReleaseSmall
5.1K	3.6K