Does it even matter that the snippet was c++? Couldn't you just get the smallest binary that prints hello world and argue that they are semantically equivalent?
That should be like 10 x86 instructions tops, plus the string data.
That should be like 10 x86 instructions tops, plus the string data.
For instance, when I tried to make the smallest x86-64 Hello World program (https://tmpout.sh/3/22.html), I ended up lengthening it from 11 to 15 instructions, while shortening the ultimate file from 86 to 77 bytes.
And the setup code is not completely useless, for example it is responsible for parsing command line parameters and actually running main. If you want to actually use libc instead of just writing assembly directly, you may need it.
You can strip
>_start Almost but not quite! _start is the name of the symbol that is executed first in the program. If you compile with -nostdlib, you need to provide this symbol yourself (this will be your new main).
mov ah, 9
mov dx, 108
int 21
ret
db "hello world!$"