-xs

Disables Auto-Read for dbx. Use this option in case you cannot keep the .o files around. It passes the -s option to the assembler.

No Auto-Read is the older way of loading symbol tables. It places all symbol tables for dbx in the executable file. The linker links more slowly and dbx initializes more slowly.

Auto-Read is the newer and default way of loading symbol tables. With Auto-Read, the information is distributed in the .o files, so that dbx loads the symbol table information only if and when it is needed. Hence, the linker links faster, and dbx initializes faster.

With -xs, if you move the executables to another directory, then to use dbx, you can ignore the object (.o) files.

Without -xs, if you move the executables, you must move both the source files and the object (.o) files, or set the path with the dbx pathmap or use command.