When symbols such as functions or data are defined but not referenced, you can use SBRPACK to remove them from the .SBR files before the files are processed by BSCMAKE. A common source of unreferenced symbols is an include, or header, file. When a source file includes a header file, it often brings in a large number of unreferenced definitions. Therefore, the .SBR file that results from compiling this source file can contain a large amount of unneeded information. The time or disk space saved by SBRPACK is directly related to the number of unreferenced symbols in the .SBR files.
If SBRPACK is not used, BSCMAKE will remove the same information (unless you specify BSCMAKE's /Iu option to preserve this information). However, BSCMAKE can run more efficiently if the .SBR files are first processed by SBRPACK. The time it takes to run both utilities can be less than if BSCMAKE is used alone, especially under real-mode DOS or under extended DOS using virtual memory.
You can run SBRPACK every time you create an .SBR file, or you can run it just once before running BSCMAKE. If you need to save room on your disk, run SBRPACK after every compilation. The .SBR files will then be stored in a more compact form. If you need to accelerate your program-build process, run SBRPACK only as needed, just before running BSCMAKE. The example in the following section shows how to run SBRPACK to perform each kind of efficiency.