How to make a C++ EXE larger (artificially)

Question

I want to make a dummy Win32 EXE file that is much larger than it should be. So by default a boiler plate Win32 EXE file is 80 KB. I want a 5 MB one for testing some other utilities.

The first idea is to add a resource, but as it turns out embedded resources are not the same as 5 MB of code when it comes to memory allocation. I am thinking I can reference a large library and end up with a huge EXE file? If not, perhaps scripting a few thousand similar methods like AddNum1, AddNum2, etc., etc.?

Any simple ideas are very appreciated.

Answer 1

Use a big array of constant data, like explicit strings:

char *dummy_data[] = {
    "blajkhsdlmf..(long script-generated random string)..",
    "kjsdfgkhsdfgsdgklj..(etc...)...jldsjglkhsdghlsdhgjkh",
};

Unlike variable data, constant data often falls in the same memory section as the actual code, although this may be compiler- or linker-dependent.

Edit: I tested the following and it works on Linux:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(void)
{
    int i, j;

    puts("char *dummy_data[] = {");
    for (i = 0; i < 5000; i++) {
        fputs("    \"", stdout);
        for (j = 0; j < 1000; j++) putchar('a' + rand() % 26);
        puts("\",");
    }
    puts("};");
    return 0;
}

Both this code and its output compile cleanly.