Linux: What is the best way to estimate the code & static data size of program?

I want to be able to get an estimate of how much code & static data is used by my C++ program?

Is there a way to find this out by looking at the executable or object files? Or perhaps something I can do at runtime?

Will objdump & readelf help?

From stackoverflow hyperlogic

• readelf will indeed help. You can use the -S option; that will show the sizes of all sections. .text is (the bulk of) your executable code. .data and .rodata is your static data. There are other sections too, some of which are used at runtime, others only at link time.

  From Chris Jester-Young

• "size" is the traditional tool. "readelf" has a lot of options.

  $ size /bin/sh
     text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
   712739   37524   21832  772095   bc7ff /bin/sh
  

  From Mark Harrison

• If you want to take the next step of identifying the functions and data structures to focus on for footprint reduction, the --size-sort argument to nm can show you:

  $ nm --size-sort /usr/bin/fld | tail -10
  000000ae T FontLoadFontx
  000000b0 T CodingByRegistry
  000000b1 t ShmFont
  000000ec t FontLoadw
  000000ef T LoadFontFile
  000000f6 T FontLoadDFontx
  00000108 D fSRegs
  00000170 T FontLoadMinix
  000001e7 T main
  00000508 T FontLoadBdf
  

  From DGentry

• size -A
  

  From jfm3