gcc
gcc
(GCC)
Short Contents
1 Programming Languages Supported by GCC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Language Standards Supported by GCC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 GCC Command Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4 C Implementation-Defined Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
5 C++ Implementation-Defined Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
6 Extensions to the C Language Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
7 Extensions to the C++ Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1017
8 GNU Objective-C Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1031
9 Binary Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1047
10 gcov—a Test Coverage Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1051
11 gcov-tool—an Offline Gcda Profile Processing Tool . . . . . . 1075
12 gcov-dump—an Offline Gcda and Gcno Profile Dump Tool . 1079
13 lto-dump—Tool for dumping LTO object files. . . . . . . . . . . . 1081
14 Known Causes of Trouble with GCC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1083
15 Reporting Bugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1099
16 How To Get Help with GCC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1101
17 Contributing to GCC Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1103
Funding Free Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1105
The GNU Project and GNU/Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1107
GNU General Public License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1109
GNU Free Documentation License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1121
Contributors to GCC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1129
A Indices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1147
iii
Table of Contents
6.59 Built-in Functions for Memory Model Aware Atomic Operations . . 786
6.60 Built-in Functions to Perform Arithmetic
with Overflow Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791
6.61 x86-Specific Memory Model Extensions
for Transactional Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
6.62 Object Size Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
6.62.1 Object Size Checking Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
6.62.2 Object Size Checking and Source Fortification . . . . . . . . . . 795
6.62.2.1 Formatted Output Function Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796
6.63 Built-in functions for C++ allocations and deallocations . . . . . 796
6.64 Other Built-in Functions Provided by GCC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
6.65 Built-in Functions Specific to Particular Target Machines . . . . 820
6.65.1 AArch64 Built-in Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820
6.65.2 Alpha Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820
6.65.3 ARC Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821
6.65.4 ARC SIMD Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 824
6.65.5 ARM iWMMXt Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 828
6.65.6 ARM C Language Extensions (ACLE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 830
6.65.7 ARM Floating Point Status and Control Intrinsics . . . . . . 831
6.65.8 ARM ARMv8-M Security Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831
6.65.9 AVR Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831
6.65.10 Blackfin Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
6.65.11 BPF Built-in Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
6.65.12 FR-V Built-in Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836
6.65.12.1 Argument Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836
6.65.12.2 Directly-Mapped Integer Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837
6.65.12.3 Directly-Mapped Media Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837
6.65.12.4 Raw Read/Write Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839
6.65.12.5 Other Built-in Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839
6.65.13 LoongArch Base Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840
6.65.14 LoongArch SX Vector Intrinsics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 842
6.65.15 LoongArch ASX Vector Intrinsics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 856
6.65.16 MIPS DSP Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870
6.65.17 MIPS Paired-Single Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875
6.65.18 MIPS Loongson Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875
6.65.18.1 Paired-Single Arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877
6.65.18.2 Paired-Single Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 878
6.65.18.3 MIPS-3D Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 879
6.65.19 MIPS SIMD Architecture (MSA) Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881
6.65.19.1 MIPS SIMD Architecture Built-in Functions . . . . . . 882
6.65.20 Other MIPS Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 895
6.65.21 MSP430 Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 895
6.65.22 NDS32 Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 895
6.65.23 Nvidia PTX Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 896
6.65.24 Basic PowerPC Built-in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 896
6.65.24.1 Basic PowerPC Built-in
Functions Available on all Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 896
x
2.1 C Language
The original ANSI C standard (X3.159-1989) was ratified in 1989 and published in 1990.
This standard was ratified as an ISO standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990) later in 1990. There
were no technical differences between these publications, although the sections of the ANSI
standard were renumbered and became clauses in the ISO standard. The ANSI standard,
but not the ISO standard, also came with a Rationale document. This standard, in both its
forms, is commonly known as C89, or occasionally as C90, from the dates of ratification. To
select this standard in GCC, use one of the options -ansi, -std=c90 or -std=iso9899:1990;
to obtain all the diagnostics required by the standard, you should also specify -pedantic
(or -pedantic-errors if you want them to be errors rather than warnings). See Section 3.4
[Options Controlling C Dialect], page 43.
Errors in the 1990 ISO C standard were corrected in two Technical Corrigenda published
in 1994 and 1996. GCC does not support the uncorrected version.
An amendment to the 1990 standard was published in 1995. This amendment added
digraphs and __STDC_VERSION__ to the language, but otherwise concerned the library. This
amendment is commonly known as AMD1; the amended standard is sometimes known as
C94 or C95. To select this standard in GCC, use the option -std=iso9899:199409 (with,
as for other standard versions, -pedantic to receive all required diagnostics).
A new edition of the ISO C standard was published in 1999 as ISO/IEC 9899:1999, and
is commonly known as C99. (While in development, drafts of this standard version were
referred to as C9X.) GCC has substantially complete support for this standard version; see
https://gcc.gnu.org/c99status.html for details. To select this standard, use -std=c99
or -std=iso9899:1999.
Errors in the 1999 ISO C standard were corrected in three Technical Corrigenda published
in 2001, 2004 and 2007. GCC does not support the uncorrected version.
A fourth version of the C standard, known as C11, was published in 2011 as ISO/IEC
9899:2011. (While in development, drafts of this standard version were referred to as
C1X.) GCC has substantially complete support for this standard, enabled with -std=c11 or
-std=iso9899:2011. A version with corrections integrated was prepared in 2017 and pub-
lished in 2018 as ISO/IEC 9899:2018; it is known as C17 and is supported with -std=c17 or
-std=iso9899:2017; the corrections are also applied with -std=c11, and the only difference
between the options is the value of __STDC_VERSION__.
A fifth version of the C standard, known as C23, was published in 2024 as ISO/IEC
9899:2024. (While in development, drafts of this standard version were referred to as C2X.)
Support for this is enabled with -std=c23 or -std=iso9899:2024.
A further version of the C standard, known as C2Y, is under development; experimental
and incomplete support for this is enabled with -std=c2y.
By default, GCC provides some extensions to the C language that, on rare occasions con-
flict with the C standard. See Chapter 6 [Extensions to the C Language Family], page 575.
4 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Some features that are part of the C99 standard are accepted as extensions in C90 mode,
and some features that are part of the C11 standard are accepted as extensions in C90
and C99 modes. Use of the -std options listed above disables these extensions where they
conflict with the C standard version selected. You may also select an extended version of
the C language explicitly with -std=gnu90 (for C90 with GNU extensions), -std=gnu99
(for C99 with GNU extensions), -std=gnu11 (for C11 with GNU extensions), -std=gnu17
(for C17 with GNU extensions) or -std=gnu23 (for C23 with GNU extensions).
The default, if no C language dialect options are given, is -std=gnu23.
The ISO C standard defines (in clause 4) two classes of conforming implementation. A
conforming hosted implementation supports the whole standard including all the library
facilities; a conforming freestanding implementation is only required to provide certain
library facilities: those in <float.h>, <limits.h>, <stdarg.h>, and <stddef.h>; since
AMD1, also those in <iso646.h>; since C99, also those in <stdbool.h> and <stdint.h>;
and since C11, also those in <stdalign.h> and <stdnoreturn.h>. In addition, complex
types, added in C99, are not required for freestanding implementations.
The standard also defines two environments for programs, a freestanding environment,
required of all implementations and which may not have library facilities beyond those
required of freestanding implementations, where the handling of program startup and ter-
mination are implementation-defined; and a hosted environment, which is not required,
in which all the library facilities are provided and startup is through a function int main
(void) or int main (int, char *[]). An OS kernel is an example of a program running
in a freestanding environment; a program using the facilities of an operating system is an
example of a program running in a hosted environment.
GCC aims towards being usable as a conforming freestanding implementation, or as the
compiler for a conforming hosted implementation. By default, it acts as the compiler for a
hosted implementation, defining __STDC_HOSTED__ as 1 and presuming that when the names
of ISO C functions are used, they have the semantics defined in the standard. To make it act
as a conforming freestanding implementation for a freestanding environment, use the option
-ffreestanding; it then defines __STDC_HOSTED__ to 0 and does not make assumptions
about the meanings of function names from the standard library, with exceptions noted
below. To build an OS kernel, you may well still need to make your own arrangements for
linking and startup. See Section 3.4 [Options Controlling C Dialect], page 43.
GCC does not provide the library facilities required only of hosted implementations, nor
yet all the facilities required by C99 of freestanding implementations on all platforms. To
use the facilities of a hosted environment, you need to find them elsewhere (for example, in
the GNU C library). See Section 14.5 [Standard Libraries], page 1088.
Most of the compiler support routines used by GCC are present in libgcc, but there are
a few exceptions. GCC requires the freestanding environment provide memcpy, memmove,
memset and memcmp. Contrary to the standards covering memcpy GCC expects the case
of an exact overlap of source and destination to work and not invoke undefined behavior.
Finally, if __builtin_trap is used, and the target does not implement the trap pattern,
then GCC emits a call to abort.
For references to Technical Corrigenda, Rationale documents and information concerning
the history of C that is available online, see https://gcc.gnu.org/readings.html
Chapter 2: Language Standards Supported by GCC 5
of the C++ language explicitly with -std=gnu++98 (for C++98 with GNU extensions), or
-std=gnu++11 (for C++11 with GNU extensions), or -std=gnu++14 (for C++14 with GNU
extensions), or -std=gnu++17 (for C++17 with GNU extensions), or -std=gnu++20 (for
C++20 with GNU extensions), or -std=gnu++23 (for C++23 with GNU extensions).
The default, if no C++ language dialect options are given, is -std=gnu++17.
For more information concerning the history of Objective-C that is available online, see
https://gcc.gnu.org/readings.html
Chapter 2: Language Standards Supported by GCC 7
2.4 Go Language
As of the GCC 4.7.1 release, GCC supports the Go 1 language standard, described at
https://go.dev/doc/go1.
2.5 D language
GCC supports the D 2.0 programming language. The D language itself is currently de-
fined by its reference implementation and supporting language specification, described at
https://dlang.org/spec/spec.html.
Overall Options
See Section 3.2 [Options Controlling the Kind of Output], page 32.
-c -S -E -o file
-dumpbase dumpbase -dumpbase-ext auxdropsuf
-dumpdir dumppfx -x language
-v -### --help[=class[,...]] --target-help --version
-pass-exit-codes -pipe -specs=file -wrapper
@file -ffile-prefix-map=old=new -fcanon-prefix-map
-fplugin=file -fplugin-arg-name=arg
-fdump-ada-spec[-slim] -fada-spec-parent=unit -fdump-go-spec=file
C Language Options
See Section 3.4 [Options Controlling C Dialect], page 43.
-ansi -std=standard -aux-info filename
-fno-asm
-fno-builtin -fno-builtin-function -fcond-mismatch
-ffreestanding -fgimple -fgnu-tm -fgnu89-inline -fhosted
-flax-vector-conversions -fms-extensions
-fpermitted-flt-eval-methods=standard
-fplan9-extensions -fsigned-bitfields -funsigned-bitfields
-fsigned-char -funsigned-char -fstrict-flex-arrays[=n]
-fsso-struct=endianness
C++ Language Options
See Section 3.5 [Options Controlling C++ Dialect], page 51.
-fabi-version=n -fno-access-control
-faligned-new=n -fargs-in-order=n
-fno-assume-sane-operators-new-delete
-fchar8_t -fcheck-new
-fconcepts -fconstexpr-depth=n -fconstexpr-cache-depth=n
-fconstexpr-loop-limit=n -fconstexpr-ops-limit=n
-fno-elide-constructors
-fno-enforce-eh-specs
-fno-gnu-keywords
-fno-immediate-escalation
-fno-implicit-templates
-fno-implicit-inline-templates
-fno-implement-inlines
-fmodule-header[=kind] -fmodule-only -fmodules
-fmodule-implicit-inline
-fno-module-lazy
-fmodule-mapper=specification
-fmodule-version-ignore
-fms-extensions
-fnew-inheriting-ctors
-fnew-ttp-matching
-fno-nonansi-builtins -fnothrow-opt -fno-operator-names
-fno-optional-diags
-fno-pretty-templates -frange-for-ext-temps
-fno-rtti -fsized-deallocation
-ftemplate-backtrace-limit=n
-ftemplate-depth=n
-fno-threadsafe-statics -fuse-cxa-atexit
-fno-weak -nostdinc++
-fvisibility-inlines-hidden
-fvisibility-ms-compat
-fext-numeric-literals
-flang-info-include-translate[=header]
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 11
-flang-info-include-translate-not
-flang-info-module-cmi[=module]
-stdlib=libstdc++,libc++
-Wabi-tag -Wcatch-value -Wcatch-value=n
-Wno-class-conversion -Wclass-memaccess
-Wcomma-subscript -Wconditionally-supported
-Wno-conversion-null -Wctad-maybe-unsupported
-Wctor-dtor-privacy -Wdangling-reference
-Wno-defaulted-function-deleted
-Wno-delete-incomplete
-Wdelete-non-virtual-dtor -Wno-deprecated-array-compare
-Wdeprecated-copy -Wdeprecated-copy-dtor
-Wno-deprecated-enum-enum-conversion -Wno-deprecated-enum-float-conversion
-Weffc++ -Wno-elaborated-enum-base
-Wno-exceptions -Wextra-semi -Wno-global-module -Wno-inaccessible-base
-Wno-inherited-variadic-ctor -Wno-init-list-lifetime
-Winvalid-constexpr -Winvalid-imported-macros
-Wno-invalid-offsetof -Wno-literal-suffix
-Wmismatched-new-delete -Wmismatched-tags
-Wmultiple-inheritance -Wnamespaces -Wnarrowing
-Wnoexcept -Wnoexcept-type -Wnon-virtual-dtor
-Wpessimizing-move -Wno-placement-new -Wplacement-new=n
-Wrange-loop-construct -Wredundant-move -Wredundant-tags
-Wreorder -Wregister
-Wstrict-null-sentinel -Wno-subobject-linkage -Wtemplates
-Wno-non-template-friend -Wold-style-cast
-Woverloaded-virtual -Wno-pmf-conversions -Wself-move -Wsign-promo
-Wsized-deallocation -Wsuggest-final-methods
-Wsuggest-final-types -Wsuggest-override -Wno-template-body
-Wno-template-id-cdtor -Wtemplate-names-tu-local
-Wno-terminate -Wno-vexing-parse -Wvirtual-inheritance
-Wno-virtual-move-assign -Wvolatile -Wzero-as-null-pointer-constant
-foffload=arg -foffload-options=arg
-fopenacc -fopenacc-dim=geom
-fopenmp -fopenmp-simd -fopenmp-target-simd-clone[=device-type]
Warning Options
See Section 3.9 [Options to Request or Suppress Warnings], page 95.
-fsyntax-only -fmax-errors=n -Wpedantic
-pedantic-errors -fpermissive
-w -Wextra -Wall -Wabi=n
-Waddress -Wno-address-of-packed-member -Waggregate-return
-Walloc-size -Walloc-size-larger-than=byte-size -Walloc-zero
-Walloca -Walloca-larger-than=byte-size
-Wno-aggressive-loop-optimizations
-Warith-conversion
-Warray-bounds -Warray-bounds=n -Warray-compare
-Warray-parameter -Warray-parameter=n
-Wno-attributes -Wattribute-alias=n -Wno-attribute-alias
-Wno-attribute-warning
-Wbidi-chars=[none|unpaired|any|ucn]
-Wbool-compare -Wbool-operation
-Wno-builtin-declaration-mismatch
-Wno-builtin-macro-redefined -Wc90-c99-compat -Wc99-c11-compat
-Wc11-c23-compat -Wc23-c2y-compat
-Wc++-compat -Wc++11-compat -Wc++14-compat -Wc++17-compat
-Wc++20-compat
-Wno-c++11-extensions -Wno-c++14-extensions -Wno-c++17-extensions
-Wno-c++20-extensions -Wno-c++23-extensions
-Wcalloc-transposed-args
-Wcast-align -Wcast-align=strict -Wcast-function-type -Wcast-qual
-Wchar-subscripts
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 13
-Wclobbered -Wcomment
-Wcompare-distinct-pointer-types
-Wno-complain-wrong-lang
-Wconversion -Wno-coverage-mismatch -Wno-cpp
-Wdangling-else -Wdangling-pointer -Wdangling-pointer=n
-Wdate-time
-Wno-deprecated -Wno-deprecated-declarations -Wno-designated-init
-Wdisabled-optimization
-Wno-discarded-array-qualifiers -Wno-discarded-qualifiers
-Wno-div-by-zero -Wdouble-promotion
-Wduplicated-branches -Wduplicated-cond
-Wempty-body -Wno-endif-labels -Wenum-compare -Wenum-conversion
-Wenum-int-mismatch
-Werror -Werror=* -Wexpansion-to-defined -Wfatal-errors
-Wflex-array-member-not-at-end
-Wfloat-conversion -Wfloat-equal -Wformat -Wformat=2
-Wno-format-contains-nul -Wno-format-extra-args
-Wformat-nonliteral -Wformat-overflow=n
-Wformat-security -Wformat-signedness -Wformat-truncation=n
-Wformat-y2k -Wframe-address
-Wframe-larger-than=byte-size -Wno-free-nonheap-object
-Wheader-guard -Wno-if-not-aligned -Wno-ignored-attributes
-Wignored-qualifiers -Wno-incompatible-pointer-types -Whardened
-Wimplicit -Wimplicit-fallthrough -Wimplicit-fallthrough=n
-Wno-implicit-function-declaration -Wno-implicit-int
-Winfinite-recursion
-Winit-self -Winline -Wno-int-conversion -Wint-in-bool-context
-Wno-int-to-pointer-cast -Wno-invalid-memory-model
-Winvalid-pch -Winvalid-utf8 -Wno-unicode -Wjump-misses-init
-Wlarger-than=byte-size -Wleading-whitespace=kind
-Wlogical-not-parentheses -Wlogical-op
-Wlong-long -Wno-lto-type-mismatch -Wmain -Wmaybe-uninitialized
-Wmemset-elt-size -Wmemset-transposed-args
-Wmisleading-indentation -Wmissing-attributes -Wmissing-braces
-Wmissing-field-initializers -Wmissing-format-attribute
-Wmissing-include-dirs -Wmissing-noreturn -Wno-missing-profile
-Wno-multichar -Wmultistatement-macros -Wnonnull -Wnonnull-compare
-Wnormalized=[none|id|nfc|nfkc]
-Wnull-dereference -Wno-odr
-Wopenacc-parallelism
-Wopenmp -Wopenmp-simd
-Wno-overflow -Woverlength-strings -Wno-override-init-side-effects
-Wpacked -Wno-packed-bitfield-compat -Wpacked-not-aligned -Wpadded
-Wparentheses -Wno-pedantic-ms-format
-Wpointer-arith -Wno-pointer-compare -Wno-pointer-to-int-cast
-Wno-pragmas -Wno-pragma-once-outside-header -Wno-prio-ctor-dtor
-Wredundant-decls -Wrestrict -Wno-return-local-addr -Wreturn-type
-Wno-scalar-storage-order -Wsequence-point
-Wshadow -Wshadow=global -Wshadow=local -Wshadow=compatible-local
-Wno-shadow-ivar
-Wno-shift-count-negative -Wno-shift-count-overflow -Wshift-negative-value
-Wno-shift-overflow -Wshift-overflow=n
-Wsign-compare -Wsign-conversion
-Wno-sizeof-array-argument
-Wsizeof-array-div
-Wsizeof-pointer-div -Wsizeof-pointer-memaccess
-Wstack-protector -Wstack-usage=byte-size -Wstrict-aliasing
-Wstrict-aliasing=n -Wstrict-overflow -Wstrict-overflow=n
14 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Wstring-compare
-Wno-stringop-overflow -Wno-stringop-overread
-Wno-stringop-truncation -Wstrict-flex-arrays
-Wsuggest-attribute=attribute-name
-Wswitch -Wno-switch-bool -Wswitch-default -Wswitch-enum
-Wno-switch-outside-range -Wno-switch-unreachable -Wsync-nand
-Wsystem-headers -Wtautological-compare -Wtrailing-whitespace
-Wtrailing-whitespace=kind -Wtrampolines -Wtrigraphs
-Wtrivial-auto-var-init -Wno-tsan -Wtype-limits -Wundef
-Wuninitialized -Wunknown-pragmas
-Wunsuffixed-float-constants
-Wunterminated-string-initialization
-Wunused
-Wunused-but-set-parameter -Wunused-but-set-variable
-Wunused-const-variable -Wunused-const-variable=n
-Wunused-function -Wunused-label -Wunused-local-typedefs
-Wunused-macros
-Wunused-parameter -Wno-unused-result
-Wunused-value -Wunused-variable
-Wuse-after-free -Wuse-after-free=n -Wuseless-cast
-Wno-varargs -Wvariadic-macros
-Wvector-operation-performance
-Wvla -Wvla-larger-than=byte-size -Wno-vla-larger-than
-Wvolatile-register-var -Wwrite-strings
-Wno-xor-used-as-pow
-Wzero-length-bounds
-Wno-analyzer-exposure-through-output-file
-Wno-analyzer-exposure-through-uninit-copy
-Wno-analyzer-fd-access-mode-mismatch
-Wno-analyzer-fd-double-close
-Wno-analyzer-fd-leak
-Wno-analyzer-fd-phase-mismatch
-Wno-analyzer-fd-type-mismatch
-Wno-analyzer-fd-use-after-close
-Wno-analyzer-fd-use-without-check
-Wno-analyzer-file-leak
-Wno-analyzer-free-of-non-heap
-Wno-analyzer-imprecise-fp-arithmetic
-Wno-analyzer-infinite-loop
-Wno-analyzer-infinite-recursion
-Wno-analyzer-jump-through-null
-Wno-analyzer-malloc-leak
-Wno-analyzer-mismatching-deallocation
-Wno-analyzer-null-argument
-Wno-analyzer-null-dereference
-Wno-analyzer-out-of-bounds
-Wno-analyzer-overlapping-buffers
-Wno-analyzer-possible-null-argument
-Wno-analyzer-possible-null-dereference
-Wno-analyzer-putenv-of-auto-var
-Wno-analyzer-shift-count-negative
-Wno-analyzer-shift-count-overflow
-Wno-analyzer-stale-setjmp-buffer
-Wno-analyzer-tainted-allocation-size
-Wno-analyzer-tainted-assertion
-Wno-analyzer-tainted-array-index
-Wno-analyzer-tainted-divisor
-Wno-analyzer-tainted-offset
-Wno-analyzer-tainted-size
-Wanalyzer-symbol-too-complex
-Wanalyzer-too-complex
-Wno-analyzer-undefined-behavior-ptrdiff
-Wno-analyzer-undefined-behavior-strtok
-Wno-analyzer-unsafe-call-within-signal-handler
-Wno-analyzer-use-after-free
-Wno-analyzer-use-of-pointer-in-stale-stack-frame
-Wno-analyzer-use-of-uninitialized-value
-Wno-analyzer-va-arg-type-mismatch
-Wno-analyzer-va-list-exhausted
-Wno-analyzer-va-list-leak
-Wno-analyzer-va-list-use-after-va-end
-Wno-analyzer-write-to-const
-Wno-analyzer-write-to-string-literal
Debugging Options
See Section 3.11 [Options for Debugging Your Program], page 178.
16 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Optimization Options
See Section 3.12 [Options that Control Optimization], page 185.
-faggressive-loop-optimizations
-falign-functions[=n[:m:[n2[:m2]]]]
-falign-jumps[=n[:m:[n2[:m2]]]]
-falign-labels[=n[:m:[n2[:m2]]]]
-falign-loops[=n[:m:[n2[:m2]]]]
-fmin-function-alignment=[n]
-fno-allocation-dce -fallow-store-data-races
-fassociative-math -fauto-profile -fauto-profile[=path]
-fauto-inc-dec -fbranch-probabilities
-fcaller-saves
-fcombine-stack-adjustments -fconserve-stack
-ffold-mem-offsets
-fcompare-elim -fcprop-registers -fcrossjumping
-fcse-follow-jumps -fcse-skip-blocks -fcx-fortran-rules
-fcx-limited-range
-fdata-sections -fdce -fdelayed-branch
-fdelete-null-pointer-checks -fdevirtualize -fdevirtualize-speculatively
-fdevirtualize-at-ltrans -fdse
-fearly-inlining -fipa-sra -fexpensive-optimizations -ffat-lto-objects
-ffast-math -ffinite-math-only -ffloat-store -fexcess-precision=style
-ffinite-loops
-fforward-propagate -ffp-contract=style -ffunction-sections
-fgcse -fgcse-after-reload -fgcse-las -fgcse-lm -fgraphite-identity
-fgcse-sm -fhoist-adjacent-loads -fif-conversion
-fif-conversion2 -findirect-inlining
-finline-stringops[=fn]
-finline-functions -finline-functions-called-once -finline-limit=n
-finline-small-functions -fipa-modref -fipa-cp -fipa-cp-clone
-fipa-bit-cp -fipa-vrp -fipa-pta -fipa-profile -fipa-pure-const
-fipa-reference -fipa-reference-addressable
-fipa-stack-alignment -fipa-icf -fira-algorithm=algorithm
-flate-combine-instructions -flifetime-dse -flive-patching=level
-fira-region=region -fira-hoist-pressure
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 17
-fira-loop-pressure -fno-ira-share-save-slots
-fno-ira-share-spill-slots
-fisolate-erroneous-paths-dereference -fisolate-erroneous-paths-attribute
-fivopts -fkeep-inline-functions -fkeep-static-functions
-fkeep-static-consts -flimit-function-alignment -flive-range-shrinkage
-floop-block -floop-interchange -floop-strip-mine
-floop-unroll-and-jam -floop-nest-optimize
-floop-parallelize-all -flra-remat -flto -flto-compression-level
-flto-partition=alg -fmalloc-dce -fmerge-all-constants
-fmerge-constants -fmodulo-sched -fmodulo-sched-allow-regmoves
-fmove-loop-invariants -fmove-loop-stores -fno-branch-count-reg
-fno-defer-pop -fno-fp-int-builtin-inexact -fno-function-cse
-fno-guess-branch-probability -fno-inline -fno-math-errno -fno-peephole
-fno-peephole2 -fno-printf-return-value -fno-sched-interblock
-fno-sched-spec -fno-signed-zeros
-fno-toplevel-reorder -fno-trapping-math -fno-zero-initialized-in-bss
-fomit-frame-pointer -foptimize-crc -foptimize-sibling-calls
-fpartial-inlining -fpeel-loops -fpredictive-commoning
-fprefetch-loop-arrays
-fprofile-correction
-fprofile-use -fprofile-use=path -fprofile-partial-training
-fprofile-values -fprofile-reorder-functions
-freciprocal-math -free -frename-registers -freorder-blocks
-freorder-blocks-algorithm=algorithm
-freorder-blocks-and-partition -freorder-functions
-frerun-cse-after-loop -freschedule-modulo-scheduled-loops
-frounding-math -fsave-optimization-record
-fsched2-use-superblocks -fsched-pressure
-fsched-spec-load -fsched-spec-load-dangerous
-fsched-stalled-insns-dep[=n] -fsched-stalled-insns[=n]
-fsched-group-heuristic -fsched-critical-path-heuristic
-fsched-spec-insn-heuristic -fsched-rank-heuristic
-fsched-last-insn-heuristic -fsched-dep-count-heuristic
-fschedule-fusion
-fschedule-insns -fschedule-insns2 -fsection-anchors
-fselective-scheduling -fselective-scheduling2
-fsel-sched-pipelining -fsel-sched-pipelining-outer-loops
-fsemantic-interposition -fshrink-wrap -fshrink-wrap-separate
-fsignaling-nans
-fsingle-precision-constant -fsplit-ivs-in-unroller -fsplit-loops
-fsplit-paths
-fsplit-wide-types -fsplit-wide-types-early -fssa-backprop -fssa-phiopt
-fstdarg-opt -fstore-merging -fstrict-aliasing -fipa-strict-aliasing
-fthread-jumps -ftracer -ftree-bit-ccp
-ftree-builtin-call-dce -ftree-ccp -ftree-ch
-ftree-coalesce-vars -ftree-copy-prop -ftree-dce -ftree-dominator-opts
-ftree-dse -ftree-forwprop -ftree-fre -fcode-hoisting
-ftree-loop-if-convert -ftree-loop-im
-ftree-phiprop -ftree-loop-distribution -ftree-loop-distribute-patterns
-ftree-loop-ivcanon -ftree-loop-linear -ftree-loop-optimize
-ftree-loop-vectorize
-ftree-parallelize-loops=n -ftree-pre -ftree-partial-pre -ftree-pta
-ftree-reassoc -ftree-scev-cprop -ftree-sink -ftree-slsr -ftree-sra
-ftree-switch-conversion -ftree-tail-merge
-ftree-ter -ftree-vectorize -ftree-vrp -ftrivial-auto-var-init
-funconstrained-commons -funit-at-a-time -funroll-all-loops
-funroll-loops -funsafe-math-optimizations -funswitch-loops
-fipa-ra -fvariable-expansion-in-unroller -fvect-cost-model -fvpt
18 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Preprocessor Options
See Section 3.14 [Options Controlling the Preprocessor], page 284.
-Aquestion=answer
-A-question[=answer]
-C -CC -Dmacro[=defn]
-dD -dI -dM -dN -dU
-fdebug-cpp -fdirectives-only -fdollars-in-identifiers
-fexec-charset=charset -fextended-identifiers
-finput-charset=charset
-fmacro-prefix-map=old=new -fmax-include-depth=depth
-fno-canonical-system-headers -fpch-deps -fpch-preprocess
-fpreprocessed -ftabstop=width -ftrack-macro-expansion
-fwide-exec-charset=charset -fworking-directory
-H -imacros file -include file
-M -MD -MF -MG -MM -MMD -MP -MQ -MT -Mno-modules
-no-integrated-cpp -P -pthread -remap
-traditional -traditional-cpp -trigraphs
-Umacro -undef
-Wp,option -Xpreprocessor option
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 19
Assembler Options
See Section 3.15 [Passing Options to the Assembler], page 292.
-Wa,option -Xassembler option
Linker Options
See Section 3.16 [Options for Linking], page 292.
object-file-name -fuse-ld=linker -llibrary
-nostartfiles -nodefaultlibs -nolibc -nostdlib -nostdlib++
-e entry --entry=entry
-pie -pthread -r -rdynamic
-s -static -static-pie -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++
-static-libasan -static-libtsan -static-liblsan -static-libubsan
-shared -shared-libgcc -symbolic
-T script -Wl,option -Xlinker option
-u symbol -z keyword
Directory Options
See Section 3.17 [Options for Directory Search], page 298.
-Bprefix -Idir -I-
-idirafter dir
-imacros file -imultilib dir
-iplugindir=dir -iprefix file
-iquote dir -isysroot dir -isystem dir
-iwithprefix dir -iwithprefixbefore dir
--embed-dir=dir
-Ldir -no-canonical-prefixes --no-sysroot-suffix
-nostdinc -nostdinc++ --sysroot=dir
Developer Options
See Section 3.19 [GCC Developer Options], page 312.
-dletters -dumpspecs -dumpmachine -dumpversion
-dumpfullversion -fcallgraph-info[=su,da]
-fchecking -fchecking=n
-fdbg-cnt-list -fdbg-cnt=counter-value-list
-fdisable-ipa-pass_name
-fdisable-rtl-pass_name
20 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fdisable-rtl-pass-name=range-list
-fdisable-tree-pass_name
-fdisable-tree-pass-name=range-list
-fdump-debug -fdump-earlydebug
-fdump-noaddr -fdump-unnumbered -fdump-unnumbered-links
-fdump-final-insns[=file]
-fdump-ipa-all -fdump-ipa-cgraph -fdump-ipa-inline
-fdump-lang-all
-fdump-lang-switch
-fdump-lang-switch-options
-fdump-lang-switch-options=filename
-fdump-passes
-fdump-rtl-pass -fdump-rtl-pass=filename
-fdump-statistics
-fdump-tree-all
-fdump-tree-switch
-fdump-tree-switch-options
-fdump-tree-switch-options=filename
-fcompare-debug[=opts] -fcompare-debug-second
-fenable-kind-pass
-fenable-kind-pass=range-list
-fira-verbose=n
-flto-report -flto-report-wpa -fmem-report-wpa
-fmem-report -fpre-ipa-mem-report -fpost-ipa-mem-report
-fopt-info -fopt-info-options[=file]
-fmultiflags -fprofile-report
-frandom-seed=string -fsched-verbose=n
-fsel-sched-verbose -fsel-sched-dump-cfg -fsel-sched-pipelining-verbose
-fstats -fstack-usage -ftime-report -ftime-report-details
-fvar-tracking-assignments-toggle -gtoggle
-print-file-name=library -print-libgcc-file-name
-print-multi-directory -print-multi-lib -print-multi-os-directory
-print-prog-name=program -print-search-dirs -Q
-print-sysroot -print-sysroot-headers-suffix
-save-temps -save-temps=cwd -save-temps=obj -time[=file]
Machine-Dependent Options
See Section 3.20 [Machine-Dependent Options], page 329.
AArch64 Options
-mabi=name -mbig-endian -mlittle-endian
-mgeneral-regs-only
-mcmodel=tiny -mcmodel=small -mcmodel=large
-mstrict-align -mno-strict-align
-momit-leaf-frame-pointer
-mtls-dialect=desc -mtls-dialect=traditional
-mtls-size=size
-mfix-cortex-a53-835769 -mfix-cortex-a53-843419
-mlow-precision-recip-sqrt -mlow-precision-sqrt -mlow-precision-div
-mpc-relative-literal-loads
-msign-return-address=scope
-mbranch-protection=none|standard|pac-ret[+leaf
+b-key]|bti|gcs
-mharden-sls=opts
-march=name -mcpu=name -mtune=name
-moverride=string -mverbose-cost-dump
-mstack-protector-guard=guard -mstack-protector-guard-reg=sysreg
-mstack-protector-guard-offset=offset -mtrack-speculation
-moutline-atomics -mearly-ldp-fusion -mlate-ldp-fusion
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 21
-mfix-cortex-a72-aes-1655431
-munaligned-access
-mneon-for-64bits
-mslow-flash-data
-masm-syntax-unified
-mrestrict-it
-mverbose-cost-dump
-mpure-code
-mcmse
-mfix-cmse-cve-2021-35465
-mstack-protector-guard=guard -mstack-protector-guard-offset=offset
-mfdpic
-mbranch-protection=none|standard|pac-ret[+leaf]
[+bti]|bti[+pac-ret[+leaf]]
AVR Options
-mmcu=mcu -mabsdata -maccumulate-args
-mbranch-cost=cost -mfuse-add=level -mfuse-move=level
-mcall-prologues -mgas-isr-prologues -mint8 -mflmap
-mdouble=bits -mlong-double=bits
-mn_flash=size -mfract-convert-truncate -mno-interrupts
-mmain-is-OS_task -mrelax -mrmw -mstrict-X -mtiny-stack
-mrodata-in-ram -msplit-bit-shift -msplit-ldst
-mshort-calls -mskip-bug -nodevicelib -nodevicespecs
-Waddr-space-convert -Wmisspelled-isr
Blackfin Options
-mcpu=cpu[-sirevision]
-msim -momit-leaf-frame-pointer -mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer
-mspecld-anomaly -mno-specld-anomaly -mcsync-anomaly -mno-csync-anomaly
-mlow-64k -mno-low64k -mstack-check-l1 -mid-shared-library
-mno-id-shared-library -mshared-library-id=n
-mleaf-id-shared-library -mno-leaf-id-shared-library
-msep-data -mno-sep-data -mlong-calls -mno-long-calls
-mfast-fp -minline-plt -mmulticore -mcorea -mcoreb -msdram
-micplb
C6X Options
-mbig-endian -mlittle-endian -march=cpu
-msim -msdata=sdata-type
CRIS Options
-mcpu=cpu -march=cpu
-mtune=cpu -mmax-stack-frame=n
-metrax4 -metrax100 -mpdebug -mcc-init -mno-side-effects
-mstack-align -mdata-align -mconst-align
-m32-bit -m16-bit -m8-bit -mno-prologue-epilogue
-melf -maout -sim -sim2
-mmul-bug-workaround -mno-mul-bug-workaround
C-SKY Options
-march=arch -mcpu=cpu
-mbig-endian -EB -mlittle-endian -EL
-mhard-float -msoft-float -mfpu=fpu -mdouble-float -mfdivdu
-mfloat-abi=name
-melrw -mistack -mmp -mcp -mcache -msecurity -mtrust
-mdsp -medsp -mvdsp
-mdiv -msmart -mhigh-registers -manchor
-mpushpop -mmultiple-stld -mconstpool -mstack-size -mccrt
-mbranch-cost=n -mcse-cc -msched-prolog -msim
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 23
Darwin Options
-all_load -allowable_client -arch -arch_errors_fatal
-arch_only -bind_at_load -bundle -bundle_loader
-client_name -compatibility_version -current_version
-dead_strip
-dependency-file -dylib_file -dylinker_install_name
-dynamic -dynamiclib -exported_symbols_list
-filelist -flat_namespace -force_cpusubtype_ALL
-force_flat_namespace -headerpad_max_install_names
-iframework
-image_base -init -install_name -keep_private_externs
-multi_module -multiply_defined -multiply_defined_unused
-noall_load -no_dead_strip_inits_and_terms -nodefaultrpaths
-nofixprebinding -nomultidefs -noprebind -noseglinkedit
-pagezero_size -prebind -prebind_all_twolevel_modules
-private_bundle -read_only_relocs -sectalign
-sectobjectsymbols -whyload -seg1addr
-sectcreate -sectobjectsymbols -sectorder
-segaddr -segs_read_only_addr -segs_read_write_addr
-seg_addr_table -seg_addr_table_filename -seglinkedit
-segprot -segs_read_only_addr -segs_read_write_addr
-single_module -static -sub_library -sub_umbrella
-twolevel_namespace -umbrella -undefined
-unexported_symbols_list -weak_reference_mismatches
-whatsloaded -F -gused -gfull -mmacosx-version-min=version
-mkernel -mone-byte-bool
DEC Alpha Options
-mno-fp-regs -msoft-float
-mieee -mieee-with-inexact -mieee-conformant
-mfp-trap-mode=mode -mfp-rounding-mode=mode
-mtrap-precision=mode -mbuild-constants
-mcpu=cpu-type -mtune=cpu-type
-mbwx -mmax -mfix -mcix
-mfloat-vax -mfloat-ieee
-mexplicit-relocs -msmall-data -mlarge-data
-msmall-text -mlarge-text
-mmemory-latency=time
eBPF Options
-mbig-endian -mlittle-endian
-mframe-limit=bytes -mxbpf -mco-re -mno-co-re -mjmpext
-mjmp32 -malu32 -mv3-atomics -mbswap -msdiv -msmov -mcpu=version
-masm=dialect -minline-memops-threshold=bytes
FR30 Options
-msmall-model -mno-lsim
FT32 Options
-msim -mlra -mnodiv -mft32b -mcompress -mnopm
FRV Options
-mgpr-32 -mgpr-64 -mfpr-32 -mfpr-64
-mhard-float -msoft-float
-malloc-cc -mfixed-cc -mdword -mno-dword
-mdouble -mno-double
-mmedia -mno-media -mmuladd -mno-muladd
-mfdpic -minline-plt -mgprel-ro -multilib-library-pic
-mlinked-fp -mlong-calls -malign-labels
24 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
LoongArch Options
-march=arch-type -mtune=tune-type -mabi=base-abi-type
-mfpu=fpu-type -msimd=simd-type
-msoft-float -msingle-float -mdouble-float -mlsx -mno-lsx -mlasx -mno-lasx
-mbranch-cost=n -mcheck-zero-division -mno-check-zero-division
-mcond-move-int -mno-cond-move-int
-mcond-move-float -mno-cond-move-float
-memcpy -mno-memcpy -mstrict-align -mno-strict-align -G num
-mmax-inline-memcpy-size=n
-mexplicit-relocs=style -mexplicit-relocs -mno-explicit-relocs
-mdirect-extern-access -mno-direct-extern-access
-mcmodel=code-model -mrelax -mpass-mrelax-to-as
-mrecip -mrecip=opt -mfrecipe -mno-frecipe -mdiv32 -mno-div32
-mlam-bh -mno-lam-bh -mlamcas -mno-lamcas -mld-seq-sa -mno-ld-seq-sa
-mtls-dialect=opt -mannotate-tablejump -mno-annotate-tablejump
M32R/D Options
-m32r2 -m32rx -m32r
-mdebug
-malign-loops -mno-align-loops
-missue-rate=number
-mbranch-cost=number
-mmodel=code-size-model-type
-msdata=sdata-type
-mno-flush-func -mflush-func=name
-mno-flush-trap -mflush-trap=number
-G num
M32C Options
-mcpu=cpu -msim -memregs=number
M680x0 Options
-march=arch -mcpu=cpu -mtune=tune
-m68000 -m68020 -m68020-40 -m68020-60 -m68030 -m68040
-m68060 -mcpu32 -m5200 -m5206e -m528x -m5307 -m5407
-mcfv4e -mbitfield -mno-bitfield -mc68000 -mc68020
-mnobitfield -mrtd -mno-rtd -mdiv -mno-div -mshort
-mno-short -mhard-float -m68881 -msoft-float -mpcrel
-malign-int -mstrict-align -msep-data -mno-sep-data
-mshared-library-id=n -mid-shared-library -mno-id-shared-library
-mxgot -mno-xgot -mlong-jump-table-offsets
MCore Options
-mhardlit -mno-hardlit -mdiv -mno-div -mrelax-immediates
-mno-relax-immediates -mwide-bitfields -mno-wide-bitfields
-m4byte-functions -mno-4byte-functions -mcallgraph-data
-mno-callgraph-data -mslow-bytes -mno-slow-bytes -mno-lsim
-mlittle-endian -mbig-endian -m210 -m340 -mstack-increment
MicroBlaze Options
-msoft-float -mhard-float -msmall-divides -mcpu=cpu
-mmemcpy -mxl-soft-mul -mxl-soft-div -mxl-barrel-shift
-mxl-pattern-compare -mxl-stack-check -mxl-gp-opt -mno-clearbss
-mxl-multiply-high -mxl-float-convert -mxl-float-sqrt
-mbig-endian -mlittle-endian -mxl-reorder -mxl-mode-app-model
-mpic-data-is-text-relative
MIPS Options
-EL -EB -march=arch -mtune=arch
-mips1 -mips2 -mips3 -mips4 -mips32 -mips32r2 -mips32r3 -mips32r5
26 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mfdiv -mno-fdiv
-mfence-tso -mno-fence-tso
-mdiv -mno-div
-misa-spec=ISA-spec-string
-march=ISA-string
-mtune=processor-string
-mpreferred-stack-boundary=num
-msmall-data-limit=N-bytes
-msave-restore -mno-save-restore
-mshorten-memrefs -mno-shorten-memrefs
-mstrict-align -mno-strict-align
-mcmodel=medlow -mcmodel=medany -mcmodel=large
-mexplicit-relocs -mno-explicit-relocs
-mrelax -mno-relax
-mriscv-attribute -mno-riscv-attribute
-malign-data=type
-mbig-endian -mlittle-endian
-mstack-protector-guard=guard -mstack-protector-guard-reg=reg
-mstack-protector-guard-offset=offset
-mcsr-check -mno-csr-check
-mmovcc -mno-movcc
-minline-atomics -mno-inline-atomics
-minline-strlen -mno-inline-strlen
-minline-strcmp -mno-inline-strcmp
-minline-strncmp -mno-inline-strncmp
-mtls-dialect=desc -mtls-dialect=trad
RL78 Options
-msim -mmul=none -mmul=g13 -mmul=g14 -mallregs
-mcpu=g10 -mcpu=g13 -mcpu=g14 -mg10 -mg13 -mg14
-m64bit-doubles -m32bit-doubles -msave-mduc-in-interrupts
RS/6000 and PowerPC Options
-mcpu=cpu-type
-mtune=cpu-type
-mcmodel=code-model
-mpowerpc64
-maltivec -mno-altivec
-mpowerpc-gpopt -mno-powerpc-gpopt
-mpowerpc-gfxopt -mno-powerpc-gfxopt
-mmfcrf -mno-mfcrf -mpopcntb -mno-popcntb -mpopcntd -mno-popcntd
-mfprnd -mno-fprnd
-mcmpb -mno-cmpb -mhard-dfp -mno-hard-dfp
-mfull-toc -mminimal-toc -mno-fp-in-toc -mno-sum-in-toc
-m64 -m32 -mxl-compat -mno-xl-compat -mpe
-malign-power -malign-natural
-msoft-float -mhard-float -mmultiple -mno-multiple
-mupdate -mno-update
-mavoid-indexed-addresses -mno-avoid-indexed-addresses
-mfused-madd -mno-fused-madd -mbit-align -mno-bit-align
-mstrict-align -mno-strict-align -mrelocatable
-mno-relocatable -mrelocatable-lib -mno-relocatable-lib
-mtoc -mno-toc -mlittle -mlittle-endian -mbig -mbig-endian
-mdynamic-no-pic -mswdiv -msingle-pic-base
-mprioritize-restricted-insns=priority
-msched-costly-dep=dependence_type
-minsert-sched-nops=scheme
-mcall-aixdesc -mcall-eabi -mcall-freebsd
-mcall-linux -mcall-netbsd -mcall-openbsd
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 29
-mfused-madd -mno-fused-madd
-mwarn-framesize -mwarn-dynamicstack -mstack-size -mstack-guard
-mhotpatch=halfwords,halfwords
SH Options
-m1 -m2 -m2e
-m2a-nofpu -m2a-single-only -m2a-single -m2a
-m3 -m3e
-m4-nofpu -m4-single-only -m4-single -m4
-m4a-nofpu -m4a-single-only -m4a-single -m4a -m4al
-mb -ml -mdalign -mrelax
-mbigtable -mfmovd -mrenesas -mno-renesas -mnomacsave
-mieee -mno-ieee -mbitops -misize -minline-ic_invalidate -mpadstruct
-mprefergot -musermode -multcost=number -mdiv=strategy
-mdivsi3_libfunc=name -mfixed-range=register-range
-maccumulate-outgoing-args
-matomic-model=atomic-model
-mbranch-cost=num -mzdcbranch -mno-zdcbranch
-mcbranch-force-delay-slot
-mfused-madd -mno-fused-madd -mfsca -mno-fsca -mfsrra -mno-fsrra
-mpretend-cmove -mtas
Solaris 2 Options
-mclear-hwcap -mno-clear-hwcap -mimpure-text -mno-impure-text
-pthreads
SPARC Options
-mcpu=cpu-type
-mtune=cpu-type
-mcmodel=code-model
-mmemory-model=mem-model
-m32 -m64 -mapp-regs -mno-app-regs
-mfaster-structs -mno-faster-structs -mflat -mno-flat
-mfpu -mno-fpu -mhard-float -msoft-float
-mhard-quad-float -msoft-quad-float
-mstack-bias -mno-stack-bias
-mstd-struct-return -mno-std-struct-return
-munaligned-doubles -mno-unaligned-doubles
-muser-mode -mno-user-mode
-mv8plus -mno-v8plus -mvis -mno-vis
-mvis2 -mno-vis2 -mvis3 -mno-vis3
-mvis4 -mno-vis4 -mvis4b -mno-vis4b
-mcbcond -mno-cbcond -mfmaf -mno-fmaf -mfsmuld -mno-fsmuld
-mpopc -mno-popc -msubxc -mno-subxc
-mfix-at697f -mfix-ut699 -mfix-ut700 -mfix-gr712rc
System V Options
-Qy -Qn -YP,paths -Ym,dir
V850 Options
-mlong-calls -mno-long-calls -mep -mno-ep
-mprolog-function -mno-prolog-function -mspace
-mtda=n -msda=n -mzda=n
-mapp-regs -mno-app-regs
-mdisable-callt -mno-disable-callt
-mv850e2v3 -mv850e2 -mv850e1 -mv850es
-mv850e -mv850 -mv850e3v5
-mloop
-mrelax
-mlong-jumps
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 31
-msoft-float
-mhard-float
-mgcc-abi
-mrh850-abi
-mbig-switch
VAX Options
-munix -mgnu -md -md-float -mg -mg-float -mlra
Visium Options
-mdebug -msim -mfpu -mno-fpu -mhard-float -msoft-float
-mcpu=cpu-type -mtune=cpu-type -msv-mode -muser-mode
VMS Options
-mvms-return-codes -mdebug-main=prefix -mmalloc64
-mpointer-size=size
VxWorks Options
-mrtp -msmp -non-static -Bstatic -Bdynamic
-Xbind-lazy -Xbind-now
x86 Options
-mtune=cpu-type -march=cpu-type
-mtune-ctrl=feature-list -mdump-tune-features -mno-default
-mfpmath=unit
-masm=dialect -mno-fancy-math-387
-mno-fp-ret-in-387 -m80387 -mhard-float -msoft-float
-mno-wide-multiply -mrtd -malign-double
-mpreferred-stack-boundary=num
-mincoming-stack-boundary=num
-mcld -mcx16 -msahf -mmovbe -mcrc32 -mmwait
-mrecip -mrecip=opt
-mvzeroupper -mprefer-avx128 -mprefer-vector-width=opt
-mpartial-vector-fp-math
-mmove-max=bits -mstore-max=bits
-mnoreturn-no-callee-saved-registers
-mmmx -msse -msse2 -msse3 -mssse3 -msse4.1 -msse4.2 -msse4 -mavx
-mavx2 -mavx512f -mavx512cd -mavx512vl
-mavx512bw -mavx512dq -mavx512ifma -mavx512vbmi -msha -maes
-mpclmul -mfsgsbase -mrdrnd -mf16c -mfma -mpconfig -mwbnoinvd
-mptwrite -mclflushopt -mclwb -mxsavec -mxsaves
-msse4a -m3dnow -m3dnowa -mpopcnt -mabm -mbmi -mtbm -mfma4 -mxop
-madx -mlzcnt -mbmi2 -mfxsr -mxsave -mxsaveopt -mrtm -mhle -mlwp
-mmwaitx -mclzero -mpku -mthreads -mgfni -mvaes -mwaitpkg
-mshstk -mmanual-endbr -mcet-switch -mforce-indirect-call
-mavx512vbmi2 -mavx512bf16 -menqcmd
-mvpclmulqdq -mavx512bitalg -mmovdiri -mmovdir64b -mavx512vpopcntdq
-mavx512vnni -mprfchw -mrdpid
-mrdseed -msgx -mavx512vp2intersect -mserialize -mtsxldtrk
-mamx-tile -mamx-int8 -mamx-bf16 -muintr -mhreset -mavxvnni -mamx-fp8
-mavx512fp16 -mavxifma -mavxvnniint8 -mavxneconvert -mcmpccxadd -mamx-fp16
-mprefetchi -mraoint -mamx-complex -mavxvnniint16 -msm3 -msha512 -msm4 -mapxf
-musermsr -mavx10.1 -mavx10.1-256 -mavx10.1-512 -mevex512 -mavx10.2 -mavx10.2-256
-mavx10.2-512 -mamx-avx512 -mamx-tf32 -mamx-transpose -mmovrs -mamx-movrs
-mcldemote -mms-bitfields -mno-align-stringops -minline-all-stringops
-minline-stringops-dynamically -mstringop-strategy=alg
-mkl -mwidekl
-mmemcpy-strategy=strategy -mmemset-strategy=strategy
-mpush-args -maccumulate-outgoing-args -m128bit-long-double
-m96bit-long-double -mlong-double-64 -mlong-double-80 -mlong-double-128
32 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mregparm=num -msseregparm
-mveclibabi=type -mvect8-ret-in-mem
-mpc32 -mpc64 -mpc80 -mdaz-ftz -mstackrealign
-momit-leaf-frame-pointer -mno-red-zone -mno-tls-direct-seg-refs
-mcmodel=code-model -mabi=name -maddress-mode=mode
-m32 -m64 -mx32 -m16 -miamcu -mlarge-data-threshold=num
-msse2avx -mfentry -mrecord-mcount -mnop-mcount -m8bit-idiv
-minstrument-return=type -mfentry-name=name -mfentry-section=name
-mavx256-split-unaligned-load -mavx256-split-unaligned-store
-malign-data=type -mstack-protector-guard=guard
-mstack-protector-guard-reg=reg
-mstack-protector-guard-offset=offset
-mstack-protector-guard-symbol=symbol
-mgeneral-regs-only -mcall-ms2sysv-xlogues -mrelax-cmpxchg-loop
-mindirect-branch=choice -mfunction-return=choice
-mindirect-branch-register -mharden-sls=choice
-mindirect-branch-cs-prefix -mneeded -mno-direct-extern-access
-munroll-only-small-loops -mlam=choice
x86 Windows Options
Cygwin and MinGW Options
-mconsole -mcrtdll=library -mdll
-mnop-fun-dllimport -mthread
-municode -mwin32 -mwindows -fno-set-stack-executable
Xstormy16 Options
-msim
Xtensa Options
-mconst16 -mno-const16
-mfused-madd -mno-fused-madd
-mforce-no-pic
-mserialize-volatile -mno-serialize-volatile
-mtext-section-literals -mno-text-section-literals
-mauto-litpools -mno-auto-litpools
-mtarget-align -mno-target-align
-mlongcalls -mno-longcalls
-mabi=abi-type
-mextra-l32r-costs=cycles
-mstrict-align -mno-strict-align
zSeries Options See S/390 and zSeries Options.
file.m Objective-C source code. Note that you must link with the libobjc library to
make an Objective-C program work.
file.mm
file.M Objective-C++ source code. Note that you must link with the libobjc library
to make an Objective-C++ program work. Note that ‘.M’ refers to a literal
capital M.
file.cc
file.cp
file.cxx
file.cpp
file.CPP
file.c++
file.C C++ source code that must be preprocessed. Note that in ‘.cxx’, the last two
letters must both be literally ‘x’. Likewise, ‘.C’ refers to a literal capital C.
file.mm
file.M Objective-C++ source code that must be preprocessed.
file.hh
file.H
file.hp
file.hxx
file.hpp
file.HPP
file.h++
file.tcc C++ header file to be turned into a precompiled header or Ada spec.
file.f
file.for
file.ftn
file.fi Fixed form Fortran source code that should not be preprocessed.
file.F
file.FOR
file.fpp
file.FPP
file.FTN Fixed form Fortran source code that must be preprocessed (with the traditional
preprocessor).
34 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
file.f90
file.f95
file.f03
file.f08
file.fii Free form Fortran source code that should not be preprocessed.
file.F90
file.F95
file.F03
file.F08 Free form Fortran source code that must be preprocessed (with the traditional
preprocessor).
file.go Go source code.
file.d D source code.
file.di D interface file.
file.dd D documentation code (Ddoc).
file.ads Ada source code file that contains a library unit declaration (a declaration of a
package, subprogram, or generic, or a generic instantiation), or a library unit
renaming declaration (a package, generic, or subprogram renaming declaration).
Such files are also called specs.
file.adb Ada source code file containing a library unit body (a subprogram or package
body). Such files are also called bodies.
file.s Assembler code.
file.S
file.sx Assembler code that must be preprocessed.
other An object file to be fed straight into linking. Any file name with no recognized
suffix is treated this way.
You can specify the input language explicitly with the -x option:
-x language
Specify explicitly the language for the following input files (rather than letting
the compiler choose a default based on the file name suffix). This option applies
to all following input files until the next -x option. Possible values for language
are:
c c-header cpp-output
c++ c++-header c++-system-header c++-user-header c++-cpp-output
objective-c objective-c-header objective-c-cpp-output
objective-c++ objective-c++-header objective-c++-cpp-output
assembler assembler-with-cpp
ada
d
f77 f77-cpp-input f95 f95-cpp-input
go
-x none Turn off any specification of a language, so that subsequent files are handled
according to their file name suffixes (as they are if -x has not been used at all).
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 35
If you only want some of the stages of compilation, you can use -x (or filename suffixes)
to tell gcc where to start, and one of the options -c, -S, or -E to say where gcc is to stop.
Note that some combinations (for example, ‘-x cpp-output -E’) instruct gcc to do nothing
at all.
-c Compile or assemble the source files, but do not link. The linking stage simply
is not done. The ultimate output is in the form of an object file for each source
file.
By default, the object file name for a source file is made by replacing the suffix
‘.c’, ‘.i’, ‘.s’, etc., with ‘.o’.
Unrecognized input files, not requiring compilation or assembly, are ignored.
-S Stop after the stage of compilation proper; do not assemble. The output is in
the form of an assembler code file for each non-assembler input file specified.
By default, the assembler file name for a source file is made by replacing the
suffix ‘.c’, ‘.i’, etc., with ‘.s’.
Input files that don’t require compilation are ignored.
-E Stop after the preprocessing stage; do not run the compiler proper. The output
is in the form of preprocessed source code, which is sent to the standard output.
Input files that don’t require preprocessing are ignored.
-o file Place the primary output in file file. This applies to whatever sort of output is
being produced, whether it be an executable file, an object file, an assembler
file or preprocessed C code.
If -o is not specified, the default is to put an executable file in a.out, the
object file for source.suffix in source.o, its assembler file in source.s, a
precompiled header file in source.suffix.gch, and all preprocessed C source
on standard output.
Though -o names only the primary output, it also affects the naming of aux-
iliary and dump outputs. See the examples below. Unless overridden, both
auxiliary outputs and dump outputs are placed in the same directory as the
primary output. In auxiliary outputs, the suffix of the input file is replaced
with that of the auxiliary output file type; in dump outputs, the suffix of the
dump file is appended to the input file suffix. In compilation commands, the
base name of both auxiliary and dump outputs is that of the primary output;
in compile and link commands, the primary output name, minus the executable
suffix, is combined with the input file name. If both share the same base name,
disregarding the suffix, the result of the combination is that base name, other-
wise, they are concatenated, separated by a dash.
gcc -c foo.c ...
will use foo.o as the primary output, and place aux outputs and dumps next to
it, e.g., aux file foo.dwo for -gsplit-dwarf, and dump file foo.c.???r.final
for -fdump-rtl-final.
If a non-linker output file is explicitly specified, aux and dump files by default
take the same base name:
gcc -c foo.c -o dir/foobar.o ...
36 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
creates foo.o and bar.o as primary outputs, and avoids overwriting the aux-
iliary and dump outputs by using the dumpbase as a prefix, creating auxiliary
and dump outputs named main-foo.* and main-bar.*.
An empty string specified as dumpbase avoids the influence of the output base-
name in the naming of auxiliary and dump outputs during compilation, com-
puting default values :
gcc -c foo.c -o dir/foobar.o -dumpbase '' ...
will name aux outputs dir/foo.* and dump outputs dir/foo.c.*. Note how
their basenames are taken from the input name, but the directory still defaults
to that of the output.
The empty-string dumpbase does not prevent the use of the output basename
for outputs during linking:
gcc foo.c bar.c -o dir/foobar -dumpbase '' -flto ...
The compilation of the source files will name auxiliary outputs dir/foo.* and
dir/bar.*, and dump outputs dir/foo.c.* and dir/bar.c.*. LTO recompi-
lation during linking will use dir/foobar. as the prefix for dumps and auxiliary
files.
-dumpbase-ext auxdropsuf
When forming the name of an auxiliary (but not a dump) output file, drop trail-
ing auxdropsuf from dumpbase before appending any suffixes. If not specified,
this option defaults to the suffix of a default dumpbase, i.e., the suffix of the
input file when -dumpbase is not present in the command line, or dumpbase is
combined with dumppfx.
gcc foo.c -c -o dir/foo.o -dumpbase x-foo.c -dumpbase-ext .c ...
creates dir/foo.o as the main output, and generates auxiliary outputs in
dir/x-foo.*, taking the location of the primary output, and dropping the
.c suffix from the dumpbase. Dump outputs retain the suffix: dir/x-foo.c.*.
This option is disregarded if it does not match the suffix of a specified dumpbase,
except as an alternative to the executable suffix when appending the linker
output base name to dumppfx, as specified below:
gcc foo.c bar.c -o main.out -dumpbase-ext .out ...
creates main.out as the primary output, and avoids overwriting the auxiliary
and dump outputs by using the executable name minus auxdropsuf as a pre-
fix, creating auxiliary outputs named main-foo.* and main-bar.* and dump
outputs named main-foo.c.* and main-bar.c.*.
-dumpdir dumppfx
When forming the name of an auxiliary or dump output file, use dumppfx as a
prefix:
gcc -dumpdir pfx- -c foo.c ...
creates foo.o as the primary output, and auxiliary outputs named pfx-foo.*,
combining the given dumppfx with the default dumpbase derived from the
default primary output, derived in turn from the input name. Dump outputs
also take the input name suffix: pfx-foo.c.*.
38 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
single-input linking cases above, but not with an explicit -dumpdir that inhibits
the combination, even if overridden by -save-temps=*:
gcc foo.c -dumpdir alt/pfx- -o dir/main.exe -save-temps=cwd ...
Auxiliary outputs are named foo.*, and dump outputs foo.c.*, in the current
working directory as ultimately requested by -save-temps=cwd.
Summing it all up for an intuitive though slightly imprecise data flow: the
primary output name is broken into a directory part and a basename part;
dumppfx is set to the former, unless overridden by -dumpdir or -save-temps=*,
and dumpbase is set to the latter, unless overriden by -dumpbase. If there are
multiple inputs or linking, this dumpbase may be combined with dumppfx and
taken from each input file. Auxiliary output names for each input are formed by
combining dumppfx, dumpbase minus suffix, and the auxiliary output suffix;
dump output names are only different in that the suffix from dumpbase is
retained.
When it comes to auxiliary and dump outputs created during LTO recompila-
tion, a combination of dumppfx and dumpbase, as given or as derived from the
linker output name but not from inputs, even in cases in which this combination
would not otherwise be used as such, is passed down with a trailing period re-
placing the compiler-added dash, if any, as a -dumpdir option to lto-wrapper;
being involved in linking, this program does not normally get any -dumpbase
and -dumpbase-ext, and it ignores them.
When running sub-compilers, lto-wrapper appends LTO stage names to the
received dumppfx, ensures it contains a directory component so that it overrides
any -dumpdir, and passes that as -dumpbase to sub-compilers.
-v Print (on standard error output) the commands executed to run the stages of
compilation. Also print the version number of the compiler driver program and
of the preprocessor and the compiler proper.
-### Like -v except the commands are not executed and arguments are quoted unless
they contain only alphanumeric characters or ./-_. This is useful for shell
scripts to capture the driver-generated command lines.
--help Print (on the standard output) a description of the command-line options un-
derstood by gcc. If the -v option is also specified then --help is also passed on
to the various processes invoked by gcc, so that they can display the command-
line options they accept. If the -Wextra option has also been specified (prior
to the --help option), then command-line options that have no documentation
associated with them are also displayed.
--target-help
Print (on the standard output) a description of target-specific command-line
options for each tool. For some targets extra target-specific information may
also be printed.
--help={class|[^]qualifier}[,...]
Print (on the standard output) a description of the command-line options un-
derstood by the compiler that fit into all specified classes and qualifiers. These
are the supported classes:
40 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘optimizers’
Display all of the optimization options supported by the compiler.
‘warnings’
Display all of the options controlling warning messages produced
by the compiler.
‘target’ Display target-specific options. Unlike the --target-help option
however, target-specific options of the linker and assembler are not
displayed. This is because those tools do not currently support the
extended --help= syntax.
‘params’ Display the values recognized by the --param option.
language Display the options supported for language, where language is the
name of one of the languages supported in this version of GCC. If
an option is supported by all languages, one needs to select ‘common’
class.
‘common’ Display the options that are common to all languages.
These are the supported qualifiers:
‘undocumented’
Display only those options that are undocumented.
‘joined’ Display options taking an argument that appears after an equal sign
in the same continuous piece of text, such as: ‘--help=target’.
‘separate’
Display options taking an argument that appears as a separate word
following the original option, such as: ‘-o output-file’.
Thus for example to display all the undocumented target-specific switches sup-
ported by the compiler, use:
--help=target,undocumented
The sense of a qualifier can be inverted by prefixing it with the ‘^’ character,
so for example to display all binary warning options (i.e., ones that are either
on or off and that do not take an argument) that have a description, use:
--help=warnings,^joined,^undocumented
The argument to --help= should not consist solely of inverted qualifiers.
Combining several classes is possible, although this usually restricts the output
so much that there is nothing to display. One case where it does work, however,
is when one of the classes is target. For example, to display all the target-specific
optimization options, use:
--help=target,optimizers
The --help= option can be repeated on the command line. Each successive use
displays its requested class of options, skipping those that have already been
displayed. If --help is also specified anywhere on the command line then this
takes precedence over any --help= option.
If the -Q option appears on the command line before the --help= option, then
the descriptive text displayed by --help= is changed. Instead of describing the
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 41
--version
Display the version number and copyrights of the invoked GCC.
-pass-exit-codes
Normally the gcc program exits with the code of 1 if any phase of the compiler
returns a non-success return code. If you specify -pass-exit-codes, the gcc
program instead returns with the numerically highest error produced by any
phase returning an error indication. The C, C++, and Fortran front ends return
4 if an internal compiler error is encountered.
-pipe Use pipes rather than temporary files for communication between the various
stages of compilation. This fails to work on some systems where the assembler
is unable to read from a pipe; but the GNU assembler has no trouble.
-specs=file
Process file after the compiler reads in the standard specs file, in order to
override the defaults which the gcc driver program uses when determining what
switches to pass to cc1, cc1plus, as, ld, etc. More than one -specs=file can
be specified on the command line, and they are processed in order, from left to
right. See Section 3.21 [Spec Files], page 543, for information about the format
of the file.
-wrapper Invoke all subcommands under a wrapper program. The name of the wrapper
program and its parameters are passed as a comma separated list.
gcc -c t.c -wrapper gdb,--args
This invokes all subprograms of gcc under ‘gdb --args’, thus the invocation of
cc1 is ‘gdb --args cc1 ...’.
-ffile-prefix-map=old=new
When compiling files residing in directory old, record any references to them in
the result of the compilation as if the files resided in directory new instead. Spec-
ifying this option is equivalent to specifying all the individual -f*-prefix-map
42 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
options. This can be used to make reproducible builds that are location inde-
pendent. Directories referenced by directives are not affected by these options.
See also -fmacro-prefix-map, -fdebug-prefix-map, -fprofile-prefix-map
and -fcanon-prefix-map.
-fcanon-prefix-map
For the -f*-prefix-map options normally comparison of old prefix against the
filename that would be normally referenced in the result of the compilation is
done using textual comparison of the prefixes, or ignoring character case for
case insensitive filesystems and considering slashes and backslashes as equal on
DOS based filesystems. The -fcanon-prefix-map causes such comparisons to
be done on canonicalized paths of old and the referenced filename.
-fplugin=name.so
Load the plugin code in file name.so, assumed to be a shared object to be
dlopen’d by the compiler. The base name of the shared object file is used
to identify the plugin for the purposes of argument parsing (See -fplugin-
arg-name-key=value below). Each plugin should define the callback functions
specified in the Plugins API.
-fplugin-arg-name-key=value
Define an argument called key with a value of value for the plugin called name.
-fdump-ada-spec[-slim]
For C and C++ source and include files, generate corresponding Ada specs. See
Section “Generating Ada Bindings for C and C++ headers” in GNAT User’s
Guide, which provides detailed documentation on this feature.
-fada-spec-parent=unit
In conjunction with -fdump-ada-spec[-slim] above, generate Ada specs as
child units of parent unit.
-fdump-go-spec=file
For input files in any language, generate corresponding Go declarations in file.
This generates Go const, type, var, and func declarations which may be
a useful way to start writing a Go interface to code written in some other
language.
@file Read command-line options from file. The options read are inserted in place
of the original @file option. If file does not exist, or cannot be read, then the
option will be treated literally, and not removed.
Options in file are separated by whitespace. A whitespace character may be
included in an option by surrounding the entire option in either single or double
quotes. Any character (including a backslash) may be included by prefixing the
character to be included with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional
@file options; any such options will be processed recursively.
preprocessed C++ files use the suffix ‘.ii’; and C++20 module interface units sometimes use
‘.ixx’, ‘.cppm’, ‘.cxxm’, ‘.c++m’, or ‘.ccm’.
GCC recognizes files with these names and compiles them as C++ programs even if you
call the compiler the same way as for compiling C programs (usually with the name gcc).
However, the use of gcc does not add the C++ library. g++ is a program that calls GCC
and automatically specifies linking against the C++ library. It treats ‘.c’, ‘.h’ and ‘.i’ files
as C++ source files instead of C source files unless -x is used. This program is also useful
when precompiling a C header file with a ‘.h’ extension for use in C++ compilations. On
many systems, g++ is also installed with the name c++.
When you compile C++ programs, you may specify many of the same command-line
options that you use for compiling programs in any language; or command-line options
meaningful for C and related languages; or options that are meaningful only for C++ pro-
grams. See Section 3.4 [Options Controlling C Dialect], page 43, for explanations of options
for languages related to C. See Section 3.5 [Options Controlling C++ Dialect], page 51, for
explanations of options that are meaningful only for C++ programs.
-std= Determine the language standard. See Chapter 2 [Language Standards Sup-
ported by GCC], page 3, for details of these standard versions. This option is
currently only supported when compiling C or C++.
The compiler can accept several base standards, such as ‘c90’ or ‘c++98’, and
GNU dialects of those standards, such as ‘gnu90’ or ‘gnu++98’. When a base
standard is specified, the compiler accepts all programs following that stan-
dard plus those using GNU extensions that do not contradict it. For example,
-std=c90 turns off certain features of GCC that are incompatible with ISO
C90, such as the asm and typeof keywords, but not other GNU extensions that
do not have a meaning in ISO C90, such as omitting the middle term of a ?:
expression. On the other hand, when a GNU dialect of a standard is specified,
all features supported by the compiler are enabled, even when those features
change the meaning of the base standard. As a result, some strict-conforming
programs may be rejected. The particular standard is used by -Wpedantic to
identify which features are GNU extensions given that version of the standard.
For example -std=gnu90 -Wpedantic warns about C++ style ‘//’ comments,
while -std=gnu99 -Wpedantic does not.
A value for this option must be provided; possible values are
‘c90’
‘c89’
‘iso9899:1990’
Support all ISO C90 programs (certain GNU extensions that con-
flict with ISO C90 are disabled). Same as -ansi for C code.
‘iso9899:199409’
ISO C90 as modified in amendment 1.
‘c99’
‘c9x’
‘iso9899:1999’
‘iso9899:199x’
ISO C99. This standard is substantially completely supported,
modulo bugs and floating-point issues (mainly but not entirely
relating to optional C99 features from Annexes F and G). See
https://gcc.gnu.org/c99status.html for more information.
The names ‘c9x’ and ‘iso9899:199x’ are deprecated.
‘c11’
‘c1x’
‘iso9899:2011’
ISO C11, the 2011 revision of the ISO C standard. This standard is
substantially completely supported, modulo bugs, floating-point is-
sues (mainly but not entirely relating to optional C11 features from
Annexes F and G) and the optional Annexes K (Bounds-checking
interfaces) and L (Analyzability). The name ‘c1x’ is deprecated.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 45
‘c17’
‘c18’
‘iso9899:2017’
‘iso9899:2018’
ISO C17, the 2017 revision of the ISO C standard (published in
2018). This standard is same as C11 except for corrections of de-
fects (all of which are also applied with -std=c11) and a new value
of __STDC_VERSION__, and so is supported to the same extent as
C11.
‘c23’
‘c2x’
‘iso9899:2024’
ISO C23, the 2023 revision of the ISO C standard (published in
2024). The name ‘c2x’ is deprecated.
‘c2y’ The next version of the ISO C standard, still under development.
The support for this version is experimental and incomplete.
‘gnu90’
‘gnu89’ GNU dialect of ISO C90 (including some C99 features).
‘gnu99’
‘gnu9x’ GNU dialect of ISO C99. The name ‘gnu9x’ is deprecated.
‘gnu11’
‘gnu1x’ GNU dialect of ISO C11. The name ‘gnu1x’ is deprecated.
‘gnu17’
‘gnu18’ GNU dialect of ISO C17.
‘gnu23’
‘gnu2x’ GNU dialect of ISO C23. This is the default for C code. The name
‘gnu2x’ is deprecated.
‘gnu2y’ The next version of the ISO C standard, still under development,
plus GNU extensions. The support for this version is experimental
and incomplete. The name ‘gnu2x’ is deprecated.
‘c++98’
‘c++03’ The 1998 ISO C++ standard plus the 2003 technical corrigendum
and some additional defect reports. Same as -ansi for C++ code.
‘gnu++98’
‘gnu++03’ GNU dialect of -std=c++98.
‘c++11’
‘c++0x’ The 2011 ISO C++ standard plus amendments. The name ‘c++0x’
is deprecated.
‘gnu++11’
‘gnu++0x’ GNU dialect of -std=c++11. The name ‘gnu++0x’ is deprecated.
46 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘c++14’
‘c++1y’ The 2014 ISO C++ standard plus amendments. The name ‘c++1y’
is deprecated.
‘gnu++14’
‘gnu++1y’ GNU dialect of -std=c++14. The name ‘gnu++1y’ is deprecated.
‘c++17’
‘c++1z’ The 2017 ISO C++ standard plus amendments. The name ‘c++1z’
is deprecated.
‘gnu++17’
‘gnu++1z’ GNU dialect of -std=c++17. This is the default for C++ code. The
name ‘gnu++1z’ is deprecated.
‘c++20’
‘c++2a’ The 2020 ISO C++ standard plus amendments. Support is experi-
mental, and could change in incompatible ways in future releases.
The name ‘c++2a’ is deprecated.
‘gnu++20’
‘gnu++2a’ GNU dialect of -std=c++20. Support is experimental, and could
change in incompatible ways in future releases. The name ‘gnu++2a’
is deprecated.
‘c++23’
‘c++2b’ The 2023 ISO C++ standard plus amendments (published in 2024).
Support is experimental, and could change in incompatible ways in
future releases. The name ‘c++2b’ is deprecated.
‘gnu++23’
‘gnu++2b’ GNU dialect of -std=c++23. Support is experimental, and could
change in incompatible ways in future releases. The name ‘gnu++2b’
is deprecated.
‘c++2c’
‘c++26’ The next revision of the ISO C++ standard, planned for 2026. Sup-
port is highly experimental, and will almost certainly change in
incompatible ways in future releases.
‘gnu++2c’
‘gnu++26’ GNU dialect of -std=c++2c. Support is highly experimental, and
will almost certainly change in incompatible ways in future releases.
-aux-info filename
Output to the given filename prototyped declarations for all functions declared
and/or defined in a translation unit, including those in header files. This option
is silently ignored in any language other than C.
Besides declarations, the file indicates, in comments, the origin of each declara-
tion (source file and line), whether the declaration was implicit, prototyped or
unprototyped (‘I’, ‘N’ for new or ‘O’ for old, respectively, in the first character
after the line number and the colon), and whether it came from a declaration
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 47
-fno-asm Do not recognize asm, inline or typeof as a keyword, so that code can use
these words as identifiers. You can use the keywords __asm__, __inline__ and
__typeof__ instead. In C, -ansi implies -fno-asm.
In C++, inline is a standard keyword and is not affected by this switch. You
may want to use the -fno-gnu-keywords flag instead, which disables typeof
but not asm and inline. In C99 mode (-std=c99 or -std=gnu99), this switch
only affects the asm and typeof keywords, since inline is a standard keyword
in ISO C99. In C23 mode (-std=c23 or -std=gnu23), this switch only affects
the asm keyword, since typeof is a standard keyword in ISO C23.
-fno-builtin
-fno-builtin-function
Don’t recognize built-in functions that do not begin with ‘__builtin_’ as prefix.
See Section 6.64 [Other built-in functions provided by GCC], page 797, for
details of the functions affected, including those which are not built-in functions
when -ansi or -std options for strict ISO C conformance are used because they
do not have an ISO standard meaning.
GCC normally generates special code to handle certain built-in functions more
efficiently; for instance, calls to alloca may become single instructions which
adjust the stack directly, and calls to memcpy may become inline copy loops.
The resulting code is often both smaller and faster, but since the function calls
no longer appear as such, you cannot set a breakpoint on those calls, nor can
you change the behavior of the functions by linking with a different library.
In addition, when a function is recognized as a built-in function, GCC may
use information about that function to warn about problems with calls to that
function, or to generate more efficient code, even if the resulting code still
contains calls to that function. For example, warnings are given with -Wformat
for bad calls to printf when printf is built in and strlen is known not to
modify global memory.
With the -fno-builtin-function option only the built-in function function
is disabled. function must not begin with ‘__builtin_’. If a function is named
that is not built-in in this version of GCC, this option is ignored. There is
no corresponding -fbuiltin-function option; if you wish to enable built-in
functions selectively when using -fno-builtin or -ffreestanding, you may
define macros such as:
#define abs(n) __builtin_abs ((n))
#define strcpy(d, s) __builtin_strcpy ((d), (s))
-fcond-mismatch
Allow conditional expressions with mismatched types in the second and third
arguments. The value of such an expression is void. This option is not supported
for C++.
48 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-ffreestanding
Assert that compilation targets a freestanding environment. This implies -fno-
builtin. A freestanding environment is one in which the standard library may
not exist, and program startup may not necessarily be at main. The most
obvious example is an OS kernel. This is equivalent to -fno-hosted.
See Chapter 2 [Language Standards Supported by GCC], page 3, for details of
freestanding and hosted environments.
-fgimple
Enable parsing of function definitions marked with __GIMPLE. This is an ex-
perimental feature that allows unit testing of GIMPLE passes.
-fgnu-tm When the option -fgnu-tm is specified, the compiler generates code for the
Linux variant of Intel’s current Transactional Memory ABI specification doc-
ument (Revision 1.1, May 6 2009). This is an experimental feature whose
interface may change in future versions of GCC, as the official specification
changes. Please note that not all architectures are supported for this feature.
For more information on GCC’s support for transactional memory, See Section
“The GNU Transactional Memory Library” in GNU Transactional Memory
Library.
Note that the transactional memory feature is not supported with non-call
exceptions (-fnon-call-exceptions).
-fgnu89-inline
The option -fgnu89-inline tells GCC to use the traditional GNU semantics
for inline functions when in C99 mode. See Section 6.47 [An Inline Func-
tion is As Fast As a Macro], page 715. Using this option is roughly equivalent
to adding the gnu_inline function attribute to all inline functions (see Sec-
tion 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604).
The option -fno-gnu89-inline explicitly tells GCC to use the C99 semantics
for inline when in C99 or gnu99 mode (i.e., it specifies the default behavior).
This option is not supported in -std=c90 or -std=gnu90 mode.
The preprocessor macros __GNUC_GNU_INLINE__ and __GNUC_STDC_INLINE__
may be used to check which semantics are in effect for inline functions. See
Section “Common Predefined Macros” in The C Preprocessor.
-fhosted
Assert that compilation targets a hosted environment. This implies -fbuiltin.
A hosted environment is one in which the entire standard library is available,
and in which main has a return type of int. Examples are nearly everything
except a kernel. This is equivalent to -fno-freestanding.
-flax-vector-conversions
Allow implicit conversions between vectors with differing numbers of elements
and/or incompatible element types. This option should not be used for new
code.
-fms-extensions
Accept some non-standard constructs used in Microsoft header files.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 49
‘[1]’. When level is 2, the trailing array is treated as a flexible array member
when it is declared as either ‘[]’, or ‘[0]’.
You can control this behavior for a specific trailing array field of a structure
by using the variable attribute strict_flex_array attribute (see Section 6.36
[Variable Attributes], page 676).
The -fstrict_flex_arrays option interacts with the -Wstrict-flex-arrays
option. See Section 3.9 [Warning Options], page 95, for more information.
-fsso-struct=endianness
Set the default scalar storage order of structures and unions to the specified en-
dianness. The accepted values are ‘big-endian’, ‘little-endian’ and ‘native’
for the native endianness of the target (the default). This option is not sup-
ported for C++.
Warning: the -fsso-struct switch causes GCC to generate code that is not
binary compatible with code generated without it if the specified endianness is
not the native endianness of the target.
const/static cast, prefix ++ and –, and a class scope function used as a tem-
plate argument.
Version 7, which first appeared in G++ 4.8, that treats nullptr t as a builtin
type and corrects the mangling of lambdas in default argument scope.
Version 8, which first appeared in G++ 4.9, corrects the substitution behavior
of function types with function-cv-qualifiers.
Version 9, which first appeared in G++ 5.2, corrects the alignment of nullptr_t.
Version 10, which first appeared in G++ 6.1, adds mangling of attributes that
affect type identity, such as ia32 calling convention attributes (e.g. ‘stdcall’).
Version 11, which first appeared in G++ 7, corrects the mangling of sizeof... ex-
pressions and operator names. For multiple entities with the same name within
a function, that are declared in different scopes, the mangling now changes
starting with the twelfth occurrence. It also implies -fnew-inheriting-ctors.
Version 12, which first appeared in G++ 8, corrects the calling conventions for
empty classes on the x86 64 target and for classes with only deleted copy/move
constructors. It accidentally changes the calling convention for classes with a
deleted copy constructor and a trivial move constructor.
Version 13, which first appeared in G++ 8.2, fixes the accidental change in
version 12.
Version 14, which first appeared in G++ 10, corrects the mangling of the nullptr
expression.
Version 15, which first appeared in G++ 10.3, corrects G++ 10 ABI tag regres-
sion.
Version 16, which first appeared in G++ 11, changes the mangling of __alignof_
_ to be distinct from that of alignof, and dependent operator names.
Version 17, which first appeared in G++ 12, fixes layout of classes that inherit
from aggregate classes with default member initializers in C++14 and up.
Version 18, which first appeard in G++ 13, fixes manglings of lambdas that have
additional context.
Version 19, which first appeard in G++ 14, fixes manglings of structured bindings
to include ABI tags.
See also -Wabi.
-fabi-compat-version=n
On targets that support strong aliases, G++ works around mangling changes by
creating an alias with the correct mangled name when defining a symbol with
an incorrect mangled name. This switch specifies which ABI version to use for
the alias.
With -fabi-version=0 (the default), this defaults to 13 (GCC 8.2 compatibil-
ity). If another ABI version is explicitly selected, this defaults to 0. For com-
patibility with GCC versions 3.2 through 4.9, use -fabi-compat-version=2.
If this option is not provided but -Wabi=n is, that version is used for compati-
bility aliases. If this option is provided along with -Wabi (without the version),
the version from this option is used for the warning.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 53
-fno-access-control
Turn off all access checking. This switch is mainly useful for working around
bugs in the access control code.
-faligned-new
Enable support for C++17 new of types that require more alignment than
void* ::operator new(std::size_t) provides. A numeric argument such as
-faligned-new=32 can be used to specify how much alignment (in bytes) is
provided by that function, but few users will need to override the default of
alignof(std::max_align_t).
This flag is enabled by default for -std=c++17.
-fno-assume-sane-operators-new
The C++ standard allows replacing the global new, new[], delete and delete[]
operators, though a lot of C++ programs don’t replace them and just use the im-
plementation provided version. Furthermore, the C++ standard allows omitting
those calls if they are made from new or delete expressions (and by extension the
same is assumed if __builtin_operator_new or __builtin_operator_delete
functions are used). This option allows control over some optimizations around
calls to those operators. With -fassume-sane-operators-new-delete option
GCC may assume that calls to the replaceable global operators from new or
delete expressions or from __builtin_operator_new or __builtin_operator_
delete calls don’t read or modify any global variables or variables whose ad-
dress could escape to the operators (global state; except for errno for the new
and new[] operators). This allows most optimizations across those calls and
is something that the implementation provided operators satisfy unless malloc
implementation details are observable in the code or unless malloc hooks are
used, but might not be satisfied if a program replaces those operators. This be-
havior is enabled by default. With -fno-assume-sane-operators-new-delete
option GCC must assume all these calls (whether from new or delete expressions
or called directly) may read and write global state unless proven otherwise (e.g.
when GCC compiles their implementation). Use this option if those operators
are or may be replaced and code needs to expect such behavior.
-fchar8_t
-fno-char8_t
Enable support for char8_t as adopted for C++20. This includes the addition
of a new char8_t fundamental type, changes to the types of UTF-8 string and
character literals, new signatures for user-defined literals, associated standard
library updates, and new __cpp_char8_t and __cpp_lib_char8_t feature test
macros.
This option enables functions to be overloaded for ordinary and UTF-8 strings:
int f(const char *); // #1
int f(const char8_t *); // #2
int v1 = f("text"); // Calls #1
int v2 = f(u8"text"); // Calls #2
and introduces new signatures for user-defined literals:
int operator""_udl1(char8_t);
int v3 = u8'x'_udl1;
54 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fconstexpr-fp-except
Annex F of the C standard specifies that IEC559 floating point exceptions
encountered at compile time should not stop compilation. C++ compilers have
historically not followed this guidance, instead treating floating point division
by zero as non-constant even though it has a well defined value. This flag tells
the compiler to give Annex F priority over other rules saying that a particular
operation is undefined.
constexpr float inf = 1./0.; // OK with -fconstexpr-fp-except
-fconstexpr-loop-limit=n
Set the maximum number of iterations for a loop in C++14 constexpr functions
to n. A limit is needed to detect infinite loops during constant expression
evaluation. The default is 262144 (1<<18).
-fconstexpr-ops-limit=n
Set the maximum number of operations during a single constexpr evaluation.
Even when number of iterations of a single loop is limited with the above limit,
if there are several nested loops and each of them has many iterations but
still smaller than the above limit, or if in a body of some loop or even outside
of a loop too many expressions need to be evaluated, the resulting constexpr
evaluation might take too long. The default is 33554432 (1<<25).
-fcontracts
Enable experimental support for the C++ Contracts feature, as briefly added to
and then removed from the C++20 working paper (N4820). The implementation
also includes proposed enhancements from papers P1290, P1332, and P1429.
This functionality is intended mostly for those interested in experimentation
towards refining the feature to get it into shape for a future C++ standard.
On violation of a checked contract, the violation handler is called. Users can
replace the violation handler by defining
void
handle_contract_violation (const std::experimental::contract_violation&);
There are different sets of additional flags that can be used together to specify
which contracts will be checked and how, for N4820 contracts, P1332 contracts,
or P1429 contracts; these sets cannot be used together.
-fcontract-mode=[on|off]
Control whether any contracts have any semantics at all. Defaults
to on.
-fcontract-assumption-mode=[on|off]
[N4820] Control whether contracts with level ‘axiom’ should have
the assume semantic. Defaults to on.
-fcontract-build-level=[off|default|audit]
[N4820] Specify which level of contracts to generate checks for. De-
faults to ‘default’.
-fcontract-continuation-mode=[on|off]
[N4820] Control whether to allow the program to continue executing
after a contract violation. That is, do checked contracts have the
56 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fextern-tls-init
-fno-extern-tls-init
The C++11 and OpenMP standards allow thread_local and threadprivate
variables to have dynamic (runtime) initialization. To support this, any use of
such a variable goes through a wrapper function that performs any necessary
initialization. When the use and definition of the variable are in the same
translation unit, this overhead can be optimized away, but when the use is in a
different translation unit there is significant overhead even if the variable doesn’t
actually need dynamic initialization. If the programmer can be sure that no
use of the variable in a non-defining TU needs to trigger dynamic initialization
(either because the variable is statically initialized, or a use of the variable in
the defining TU will be executed before any uses in another TU), they can avoid
this overhead with the -fno-extern-tls-init option.
On targets that support symbol aliases, the default is -fextern-tls-init. On
targets that do not support symbol aliases, the default is -fno-extern-tls-
init.
-ffold-simple-inlines
-fno-fold-simple-inlines
Permit the C++ frontend to fold calls to std::move, std::forward,
std::addressof and std::as_const. In contrast to inlining, this means no
debug information will be generated for such calls. Since these functions are
rarely interesting to debug, this flag is enabled by default unless -fno-inline
is active.
-fno-gnu-keywords
Do not recognize typeof as a keyword, so that code can use this word as an
identifier. You can use the keyword __typeof__ instead. This option is implied
by the strict ISO C++ dialects: -ansi, -std=c++98, -std=c++11, etc.
-fno-immediate-escalation
Do not enable immediate function escalation whereby certain functions can be
promoted to consteval, as specified in P2564R3. For example:
consteval int id(int i) { return i; }
void g(int i)
{
f (3);
}
compiles in C++20: f is an immediate-escalating function (due to the auto it
is a function template and is declared constexpr) and id(t) is an immediate-
escalating expression, so f is promoted to consteval. Consequently, the call to
id(t) is in an immediate context, so doesn’t have to produce a constant (that is
58 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fmodule-mapper=[hostname]:port[?ident]
-fmodule-mapper=|program[?ident] args...
-fmodule-mapper==socket[?ident]
-fmodule-mapper=<>[inout][?ident]
-fmodule-mapper=<in>out[?ident]
-fmodule-mapper=file[?ident]
An oracle to query for module name to filename mappings. If unspecified the
CXX_MODULE_MAPPER environment variable is used, and if that is unset, an in-
process default is provided.
-fmodule-only
Only emit the Compiled Module Interface, inhibiting any object file.
-fms-extensions
Disable Wpedantic warnings about constructs used in MFC, such as implicit
int and getting a pointer to member function via non-standard syntax.
-fnew-inheriting-ctors
Enable the P0136 adjustment to the semantics of C++11 constructor inheri-
tance. This is part of C++17 but also considered to be a Defect Report against
C++11 and C++14. This flag is enabled by default unless -fabi-version=10 or
lower is specified.
-fnew-ttp-matching
Enable the P0522 resolution to Core issue 150, template template parameters
and default arguments: this allows a template with default template arguments
as an argument for a template template parameter with fewer template param-
eters. This flag is enabled by default for -std=c++17.
-fno-nonansi-builtins
Disable built-in declarations of functions that are not mandated by ANSI/ISO
C. These include ffs, alloca, _exit, index, bzero, conjf, and other related
functions.
-fnothrow-opt
Treat a throw() exception specification as if it were a noexcept specification to
reduce or eliminate the text size overhead relative to a function with no excep-
tion specification. If the function has local variables of types with non-trivial
destructors, the exception specification actually makes the function smaller be-
cause the EH cleanups for those variables can be optimized away. The semantic
effect is that an exception thrown out of a function with such an exception spec-
ification results in a call to terminate rather than unexpected.
-fno-operator-names
Do not treat the operator name keywords and, bitand, bitor, compl, not, or
and xor as synonyms as keywords.
-fno-optional-diags
Disable diagnostics that the standard says a compiler does not need to issue.
Currently, the only such diagnostic issued by G++ is the one for a name having
multiple meanings within a class.
60 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fno-pretty-templates
When an error message refers to a specialization of a function template, the
compiler normally prints the signature of the template followed by the template
arguments and any typedefs or typenames in the signature (e.g. void f(T)
[with T = int] rather than void f(int)) so that it’s clear which template is
involved. When an error message refers to a specialization of a class template,
the compiler omits any template arguments that match the default template
arguments for that template. If either of these behaviors make it harder to
understand the error message rather than easier, you can use -fno-pretty-
templates to disable them.
-frange-for-ext-temps
Enable lifetime extension of C++ range based for temporaries. With -std=c++23
and above this is part of the language standard, so lifetime of the temporaries is
extended until the end of the loop regardless of this option. This option allows
enabling that behavior also in earlier versions of the standard and is enabled
by default in the GNU dialects, from -std=gnu++11 until -std=gnu++20.
-fno-rtti
Disable generation of information about every class with virtual functions
for use by the C++ run-time type identification features (dynamic_cast and
typeid). If you don’t use those parts of the language, you can save some space
by using this flag. Note that exception handling uses the same information,
but G++ generates it as needed. The dynamic_cast operator can still be used
for casts that do not require run-time type information, i.e. casts to void * or
to unambiguous base classes.
Mixing code compiled with -frtti with that compiled with -fno-rtti may
not work. For example, programs may fail to link if a class compiled with
-fno-rtti is used as a base for a class compiled with -frtti.
-fsized-deallocation
Enable the built-in global declarations
void operator delete (void *, std::size_t) noexcept;
void operator delete[] (void *, std::size_t) noexcept;
-fstrict-enums
Allow the compiler to optimize using the assumption that a value of enumerated
type can only be one of the values of the enumeration (as defined in the C++
standard; basically, a value that can be represented in the minimum number
of bits needed to represent all the enumerators). This assumption may not be
valid if the program uses a cast to convert an arbitrary integer value to the
enumerated type. This option has no effect for an enumeration type with a
fixed underlying type.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 61
-fstrong-eval-order
Evaluate member access, array subscripting, and shift expressions in left-to-
right order, and evaluate assignment in right-to-left order, as adopted for C++17.
Enabled by default with -std=c++17. -fstrong-eval-order=some enables just
the ordering of member access and shift expressions, and is the default without
-std=c++17.
-ftemplate-backtrace-limit=n
Set the maximum number of template instantiation notes for a single warning
or error to n. The default value is 10.
-ftemplate-depth=n
Set the maximum instantiation depth for template classes to n. A limit on
the template instantiation depth is needed to detect endless recursions during
template class instantiation. ANSI/ISO C++ conforming programs must not
rely on a maximum depth greater than 17 (changed to 1024 in C++11). The
default value is 900, as the compiler can run out of stack space before hitting
1024 in some situations.
-fno-threadsafe-statics
Do not emit the extra code to use the routines specified in the C++ ABI for
thread-safe initialization of local statics. You can use this option to reduce code
size slightly in code that doesn’t need to be thread-safe.
-fuse-cxa-atexit
Register destructors for objects with static storage duration with the __cxa_
atexit function rather than the atexit function. This option is required for
fully standards-compliant handling of static destructors, but only works if your
C library supports __cxa_atexit.
-fno-use-cxa-get-exception-ptr
Don’t use the __cxa_get_exception_ptr runtime routine. This causes
std::uncaught_exception to be incorrect, but is necessary if the runtime
routine is not available.
-fvisibility-inlines-hidden
This switch declares that the user does not attempt to compare pointers to
inline functions or methods where the addresses of the two functions are taken
in different shared objects.
The effect of this is that GCC may, effectively, mark inline methods with __
attribute__ ((visibility ("hidden"))) so that they do not appear in the
export table of a DSO and do not require a PLT indirection when used within
the DSO. Enabling this option can have a dramatic effect on load and link
times of a DSO as it massively reduces the size of the dynamic export table
when the library makes heavy use of templates.
The behavior of this switch is not quite the same as marking the methods as
hidden directly, because it does not affect static variables local to the function
or cause the compiler to deduce that the function is defined in only one shared
object.
62 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
You may mark a method as having a visibility explicitly to negate the effect of
the switch for that method. For example, if you do want to compare pointers
to a particular inline method, you might mark it as having default visibility.
Marking the enclosing class with explicit visibility has no effect.
Explicitly instantiated inline methods are unaffected by this option as their link-
age might otherwise cross a shared library boundary. See Section 7.5 [Template
Instantiation], page 1020.
-fvisibility-ms-compat
This flag attempts to use visibility settings to make GCC’s C++ linkage model
compatible with that of Microsoft Visual Studio.
The flag makes these changes to GCC’s linkage model:
1. It sets the default visibility to hidden, like -fvisibility=hidden.
2. Types, but not their members, are not hidden by default.
3. The One Definition Rule is relaxed for types without explicit visibility
specifications that are defined in more than one shared object: those dec-
larations are permitted if they are permitted when this option is not used.
-fno-weak
Do not use weak symbol support, even if it is provided by the linker. By
default, G++ uses weak symbols if they are available. This option exists only
for testing, and should not be used by end-users; it results in inferior code and
has no benefits. This option may be removed in a future release of G++.
-nostdinc++
Do not search for header files in the standard directories specific to C++, but do
still search the other standard directories. (This option is used when building
the C++ library.)
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 63
-flang-info-include-translate
-flang-info-include-translate-not
-flang-info-include-translate=header
Inform of include translation events. The first will note accepted include trans-
lations, the second will note declined include translations. The header form
will inform of include translations relating to that specific header. If header is
of the form "user" or <system> it will be resolved to a specific user or system
header using the include path.
-flang-info-module-cmi
-flang-info-module-cmi=module
Inform of Compiled Module Interface pathnames. The first will note all read
CMI pathnames. The module form will not reading a specific module’s CMI.
module may be a named module or a header-unit (the latter indicated by either
being a pathname containing directory separators or enclosed in <> or "").
-stdlib=libstdc++,libc++
When G++ is configured to support this option, it allows specification of alter-
nate C++ runtime libraries. Two options are available: libstdc++ (the default,
native C++ runtime for G++) and libc++ which is the C++ runtime installed on
some operating systems (e.g. Darwin versions from Darwin11 onwards). The
option switches G++ to use the headers from the specified library and to emit
-lstdc++ or -lc++ respectively, when a C++ runtime is required for linking.
In addition, these warning options have meanings only for C++ programs:
-Wabi-tag (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Warn when a type with an ABI tag is used in a context that does not have that
ABI tag. See Section 7.7 [C++ Attributes], page 1023, for more information
about ABI tags.
-Wcomma-subscript (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Warn about uses of a comma expression within a subscripting expression. This
usage was deprecated in C++20 and is going to be removed in C++23. However,
a comma expression wrapped in ( ) is not deprecated. Example:
void f(int *a, int b, int c) {
a[b,c]; // deprecated in C++20, invalid in C++23
a[(b,c)]; // OK
}
In C++23 it is valid to have comma separated expressions in a subscript when
an overloaded subscript operator is found and supports the right number and
types of arguments. G++ will accept the formerly valid syntax for code that
is not valid in C++23 but used to be valid but deprecated in C++20 with a
pedantic warning that can be disabled with -Wno-comma-subscript.
Enabled by default with -std=c++20 unless -Wno-deprecated, and after
-std=c++23 regardless of -Wno-deprecated. Before -std=c++20, enabled
with explicit -Wdeprecated.
This warning is upgraded to an error by -pedantic-errors in C++23 mode or
later.
64 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Wno-elaborated-enum-base
For C++11 and above, warn if an (invalid) additional enum-base is used in
an elaborated-type-specifier. That is, if an enum with given underlying type
and no enumerator list is used in a declaration other than just a standalone
declaration of the enum. Enabled by default. This warning is upgraded to an
error with -pedantic-errors.
-Wno-init-list-lifetime (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Do not warn about uses of std::initializer_list that are likely to result
in dangling pointers. Since the underlying array for an initializer_list is
handled like a normal C++ temporary object, it is easy to inadvertently keep a
pointer to the array past the end of the array’s lifetime. For example:
• If a function returns a temporary initializer_list, or a local
initializer_list variable, the array’s lifetime ends at the end of the
return statement, so the value returned has a dangling pointer.
• If a new-expression creates an initializer_list, the array only lives until
the end of the enclosing full-expression, so the initializer_list in the
heap has a dangling pointer.
• When an initializer_list variable is assigned from a brace-enclosed ini-
tializer list, the temporary array created for the right side of the assignment
only lives until the end of the full-expression, so at the next statement the
initializer_list variable has a dangling pointer.
// li's initial underlying array lives as long as li
std::initializer_list<int> li = { 1,2,3 };
// assignment changes li to point to a temporary array
li = { 4, 5 };
// now the temporary is gone and li has a dangling pointer
int i = li.begin()[0] // undefined behavior
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 67
• When a list constructor stores the begin pointer from the initializer_
list argument, this doesn’t extend the lifetime of the array, so if a class
variable is constructed from a temporary initializer_list, the pointer
is left dangling by the end of the variable declaration statement.
-Winvalid-constexpr
Warn when a function never produces a constant expression. In C++20 and
earlier, for every constexpr function and function template, there must be at
least one set of function arguments in at least one instantiation such that an
invocation of the function or constructor could be an evaluated subexpression
of a core constant expression. C++23 removed this restriction, so it’s possible
to have a function or a function template marked constexpr for which no
invocation satisfies the requirements of a core constant expression.
This warning is enabled as a pedantic warning by default in C++20 and earlier.
In C++23, -Winvalid-constexpr can be turned on, in which case it will be an
ordinary warning. For example:
void f (int& i);
constexpr void
g (int& i)
{
// Warns by default in C++20, in C++23 only with -Winvalid-constexpr.
f(i);
}
-Winvalid-imported-macros
Verify all imported macro definitions are valid at the end of compilation. This
is not enabled by default, as it requires additional processing to determine. It
may be useful when preparing sets of header-units to ensure consistent macros.
int main() {
int64_t i64 = 123;
printf("My int64: %" PRId64"\n", i64);
}
In this case, PRId64 is treated as a separate preprocessing token.
This option also controls warnings when a user-defined literal operator is de-
clared with a literal suffix identifier that doesn’t begin with an underscore.
Literal suffix identifiers that don’t begin with an underscore are reserved for
future standardization.
These warnings are enabled by default.
68 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
}
Here, the std::move call is redundant. Because G++ implements Core Issue
1579, another example is:
struct T { // convertible to U
...
};
struct U {
...
};
U fn()
{
T t;
...
return std::move (t);
}
In this example, copy elision isn’t applicable because the type of the expression
being returned and the function return type differ, yet G++ treats the return
value as if it were designated by an rvalue.
This warning is enabled by -Wextra.
-Wrange-loop-construct (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
This warning warns when a C++ range-based for-loop is creating an unnecessary
copy. This can happen when the range declaration is not a reference, but
probably should be. For example:
struct S { char arr[128]; };
void fn () {
S arr[5];
for (const auto x : arr) { ... }
}
It does not warn when the type being copied is a trivially-copyable type whose
size is less than 64 bytes.
This warning also warns when a loop variable in a range-based for-loop is ini-
tialized with a value of a different type resulting in a copy. For example:
void fn() {
int arr[10];
for (const double &x : arr) { ... }
}
In the example above, in every iteration of the loop a temporary value of type
double is created and destroyed, to which the reference const double & is
bound.
This warning is enabled by -Wall.
-Wredundant-tags (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Warn about redundant class-key and enum-key in references to class types and
enumerated types in contexts where the key can be eliminated without causing
an ambiguity. For example:
struct foo;
struct foo *p; // warn that keyword struct can be eliminated
On the other hand, in this example there is no warning:
struct foo;
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 71
struct B: public A {
void f(int); // does not override
};
the A class version of f is hidden in B, and code like:
B* b;
b->f();
fails to compile.
In cases where the different signatures are not an accident, the simplest solution
is to add a using-declaration to the derived class to un-hide the base function,
e.g. add using A::f; to B.
The optional level suffix controls the behavior when all the declarations in the
derived class override virtual functions in the base class, even if not all of the
base functions are overridden:
struct C {
virtual void f();
virtual void f(int);
};
struct D: public C {
void f(int); // does override
}
This pattern is less likely to be a mistake; if D is only used virtually, the user
might have decided that the base class semantics for some of the overloads are
fine.
At level 1, this case does not warn; at level 2, it does. -Woverloaded-virtual
by itself selects level 2. Level 1 is included in -Wall.
-Wno-pmf-conversions (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Disable the diagnostic for converting a bound pointer to member function to a
plain pointer.
-Wsign-promo (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Warn when overload resolution chooses a promotion from unsigned or enumer-
ated type to a signed type, over a conversion to an unsigned type of the same
size. Previous versions of G++ tried to preserve unsignedness, but the standard
mandates the current behavior.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 73
template will never be able to instantiate it. This warning attempts to detect
cases where this might occur. The presence of an explicit instantiation silences
the warning.
This flag is enabled by -Wextra.
-Wno-terminate (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Disable the warning about a throw-expression that will immediately result in a
call to terminate.
-Wno-vexing-parse (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Warn about the most vexing parse syntactic ambiguity. This warns about the
cases when a declaration looks like a variable definition, but the C++ language
requires it to be interpreted as a function declaration. For instance:
void f(double a) {
int i(); // extern int i (void);
int n(int(a)); // extern int n (int);
}
Another example:
struct S { S(int); };
void f(double a) {
S x(int(a)); // extern struct S x (int);
S y(int()); // extern struct S y (int (*) (void));
S z(); // extern struct S z (void);
}
The warning will suggest options how to deal with such an ambiguity; e.g., it
can suggest removing the parentheses or using braces instead.
This warning is enabled by default.
-Wno-class-conversion (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Do not warn when a conversion function converts an object to the same type,
to a base class of that type, or to void; such a conversion function will never be
called.
-Wvolatile (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Warn about deprecated uses of the volatile qualifier. This includes postfix
and prefix ++ and -- expressions of volatile-qualified types, using simple as-
signments where the left operand is a volatile-qualified non-class type for their
value, compound assignments where the left operand is a volatile-qualified
non-class type, volatile-qualified function return type, volatile-qualified pa-
rameter type, and structured bindings of a volatile-qualified type. This usage
was deprecated in C++20.
Enabled by default with -std=c++20. Before -std=c++20, enabled with explicit
-Wdeprecated.
-Wzero-as-null-pointer-constant
Warn when a literal ‘0’ is used as null pointer constant.
-Waligned-new
Warn about a new-expression of a type that requires greater alignment than
the alignof(std::max_align_t) but uses an allocation function without an
explicit alignment parameter. This option is enabled by -Wall.
76 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Normally this only warns about global allocation functions, but -Waligned-
new=all also warns about class member allocation functions.
-Wno-placement-new
-Wplacement-new=n
Warn about placement new expressions with undefined behavior, such as con-
structing an object in a buffer that is smaller than the type of the object. For
example, the placement new expression below is diagnosed because it attempts
to construct an array of 64 integers in a buffer only 64 bytes large.
char buf [64];
new (buf) int[64];
This warning is enabled by default.
-Wplacement-new=1
This is the default warning level of -Wplacement-new. At this level
the warning is not issued for some strictly undefined constructs
that GCC allows as extensions for compatibility with legacy code.
For example, the following new expression is not diagnosed at this
level even though it has undefined behavior according to the C++
standard because it writes past the end of the one-element array.
struct S { int n, a[1]; };
S *s = (S *)malloc (sizeof *s + 31 * sizeof s->a[0]);
new (s->a)int [32]();
-Wplacement-new=2
At this level, in addition to diagnosing all the same constructs as
at level 1, a diagnostic is also issued for placement new expressions
that construct an object in the last member of structure whose type
is an array of a single element and whose size is less than the size of
the object being constructed. While the previous example would be
diagnosed, the following construct makes use of the flexible member
array extension to avoid the warning at level 2.
struct S { int n, a[]; };
S *s = (S *)malloc (sizeof *s + 32 * sizeof s->a[0]);
new (s->a)int [32]();
-Wcatch-value
-Wcatch-value=n (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Warn about catch handlers that do not catch via reference. With -Wcatch-
value=1 (or -Wcatch-value for short) warn about polymorphic class types
that are caught by value. With -Wcatch-value=2 warn about all class types
that are caught by value. With -Wcatch-value=3 warn about all types that
are not caught by reference. -Wcatch-value is enabled by -Wall.
-Wconditionally-supported (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Warn for conditionally-supported (C++11 [intro.defs]) constructs.
-Wno-defaulted-function-deleted (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Warn when an explicitly defaulted function is deleted by the compiler. That
can occur when the function’s declared type does not match the type of the
function that would have been implicitly declared. This warning is enabled by
default.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 77
struct B : A { };
struct C : B, A { };
-Wno-inherited-variadic-ctor
Suppress warnings about use of C++11 inheriting constructors when the base
class inherited from has a C variadic constructor; the warning is on by default
because the ellipsis is not inherited.
-Wno-invalid-offsetof (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Suppress warnings from applying the offsetof macro to a non-POD type.
According to the 2014 ISO C++ standard, applying offsetof to a non-standard-
layout type is undefined. In existing C++ implementations, however, offsetof
typically gives meaningful results. This flag is for users who are aware that
they are writing nonportable code and who have deliberately chosen to ignore
the warning about it.
The restrictions on offsetof may be relaxed in a future version of the C++
standard.
78 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Here is a list of options that are only for compiling Objective-C and Objective-C++
programs:
-fconstant-string-class=class-name
Use class-name as the name of the class to instantiate for each literal string
specified with the syntax @"...". The default class name is NXConstantString
if the GNU runtime is being used, and NSConstantString if the NeXT runtime
is being used (see below). On Darwin / macOS platforms, the -fconstant-
cfstrings option, if also present, overrides the -fconstant-string-class
setting and cause @"..." literals to be laid out as constant CoreFoundation
strings. Note that -fconstant-cfstrings is an alias for the target-specific
-mconstant-cfstrings equivalent.
-fgnu-runtime
Generate object code compatible with the standard GNU Objective-C runtime.
This is the default for most types of systems.
-fnext-runtime
Generate output compatible with the NeXT runtime. This is the default for
NeXT-based systems, including Darwin / macOS. The macro __NEXT_RUNTIME_
_ is predefined if (and only if) this option is used.
-fno-nil-receivers
Assume that all Objective-C message dispatches ([receiver message:arg]) in
this translation unit ensure that the receiver is not nil. This allows for more
efficient entry points in the runtime to be used. This option is only available in
conjunction with the NeXT runtime and ABI version 0 or 1.
-fobjc-abi-version=n
Use version n of the Objective-C ABI for the selected runtime. This option is
currently supported only for the NeXT runtime. In that case, Version 0 is the
traditional (32-bit) ABI without support for properties and other Objective-
C 2.0 additions. Version 1 is the traditional (32-bit) ABI with support for
properties and other Objective-C 2.0 additions. Version 2 is the modern (64-bit)
ABI. If nothing is specified, the default is Version 0 on 32-bit target machines,
and Version 2 on 64-bit target machines.
-fobjc-call-cxx-cdtors
For each Objective-C class, check if any of its instance variables is a C++ ob-
ject with a non-trivial default constructor. If so, synthesize a special - (id)
.cxx_construct instance method which runs non-trivial default constructors
on any such instance variables, in order, and then return self. Similarly, check
if any instance variable is a C++ object with a non-trivial destructor, and if
so, synthesize a special - (void) .cxx_destruct method which runs all such
default destructors, in reverse order.
The - (id) .cxx_construct and - (void) .cxx_destruct methods thusly
generated only operate on instance variables declared in the current
Objective-C class, and not those inherited from superclasses. It is the
responsibility of the Objective-C runtime to invoke all such methods in an
object’s inheritance hierarchy. The - (id) .cxx_construct methods are
80 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fzero-link
When compiling for the NeXT runtime, the compiler ordinarily replaces calls to
objc_getClass("...") (when the name of the class is known at compile time)
with static class references that get initialized at load time, which improves run-
time performance. Specifying the -fzero-link flag suppresses this behavior
and causes calls to objc_getClass("...") to be retained. This is useful in
Zero-Link debugging mode, since it allows for individual class implementations
to be modified during program execution. The GNU runtime currently always
retains calls to objc_get_class("...") regardless of command-line options.
-fno-local-ivars
By default instance variables in Objective-C can be accessed as if they were local
variables from within the methods of the class they’re declared in. This can
lead to shadowing between instance variables and other variables declared either
locally inside a class method or globally with the same name. Specifying the
-fno-local-ivars flag disables this behavior thus avoiding variable shadowing
issues.
-fivar-visibility=[public|protected|private|package]
Set the default instance variable visibility to the specified option so that instance
variables declared outside the scope of any access modifier directives default to
the specified visibility.
-gen-decls
Dump interface declarations for all classes seen in the source file to a file named
sourcename.decl.
-Wassign-intercept (Objective-C and Objective-C++ only)
Warn whenever an Objective-C assignment is being intercepted by the garbage
collector.
-Wno-property-assign-default (Objective-C and Objective-C++ only)
Do not warn if a property for an Objective-C object has no assign semantics
specified.
-Wno-protocol (Objective-C and Objective-C++ only)
If a class is declared to implement a protocol, a warning is issued for every
method in the protocol that is not implemented by the class. The default
behavior is to issue a warning for every method not explicitly implemented in
the class, even if a method implementation is inherited from the superclass. If
you use the -Wno-protocol option, then methods inherited from the superclass
are considered to be implemented, and no warning is issued for them.
-Wobjc-root-class (Objective-C and Objective-C++ only)
Warn if a class interface lacks a superclass. Most classes will inherit from
NSObject (or Object) for example. When declaring classes intended to be
root classes, the warning can be suppressed by marking their interfaces with
__attribute__((objc_root_class)).
-Wselector (Objective-C and Objective-C++ only)
Warn if multiple methods of different types for the same selector are found
during compilation. The check is performed on the list of methods in the
82 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-print-objc-runtime-info
Generate C header describing the largest structure that is passed by value, if
any.
-foffload=disable
-foffload=default
-foffload=target-list
Specify for which OpenMP and OpenACC offload targets code should be gen-
erated. The default behavior, equivalent to -foffload=default, is to generate
code for all supported offload targets. The -foffload=disable form generates
code only for the host fallback, while -foffload=target-list generates code
only for the specified comma-separated list of offload targets.
Offload targets are specified in GCC’s internal target-triplet format. You can
run the compiler with -v to show the list of configured offload targets under
OFFLOAD_TARGET_NAMES.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 83
-foffload-options=options
-foffload-options=target-triplet-list=options
With -foffload-options=options, GCC passes the specified options to the
compilers for all enabled offloading targets. You can specify options that apply
only to a specific target or targets by using the -foffload-options=target-
list=options form. The target-list is a comma-separated list in the same
format as for the -foffload= option.
Typical command lines are
-foffload-options='-fno-math-errno -ffinite-math-only' \
-foffload-options=nvptx-none=-latomic
-foffload-options=amdgcn-amdhsa=-march=gfx906
-fopenacc
Enable handling of OpenACC directives ‘#pragma acc’ in C/C++ and ‘!$acc’
in free-form Fortran and ‘!$acc’, ‘c$acc’ and ‘*$acc’ in fixed-form Fortran.
This option implies -pthread, and thus is only supported on targets that have
support for -pthread.
-fopenacc-dim=geom
Specify default compute dimensions for parallel offload regions that do not
explicitly specify them. The geom value is a triple of ‘:’-separated sizes, in
order gang, worker, and vector. A size can be omitted, to use a target-specific
default value.
-fopenmp Enable handling of OpenMP directives ‘#pragma omp’, ‘[[omp::directive(...)]]’,
‘[[omp::decl(...)]]’, and ‘[[omp::sequence(...)]]’ in C/C++. In
Fortran, it enables ‘!$omp’ and the conditional compilation sentinel ‘!$’. In
fixed source form Fortran, the sentinels can also start with ‘c’ or ‘*’.
This option implies -pthread, and thus is only supported on targets that have
support for -pthread. -fopenmp implies -fopenmp-simd.
-fopenmp-simd
Enable handling of OpenMP’s simd, declare simd, declare reduction,
assume, ordered, scan and loop directive, and of combined or composite direc-
tives with simd as constituent with #pragma omp, [[omp::directive(...)]],
[[omp::sequence(...)]] and [[omp::decl(...)]] in C/C++ and !$omp in
Fortran. It additionally enables the conditional compilation sentinel ‘!$’ in
Fortran. In fixed source form Fortran, the sentinels can also start with ‘c’ or
‘*’. Other OpenMP directives are ignored. Unless -fopenmp is additionally
specified, the loop region binds to the current task region, independent of the
specified bind clause.
-fopenmp-target-simd-clone
-fopenmp-target-simd-clone=device-type
In addition to generating SIMD clones for functions marked with the declare
simd directive, GCC also generates clones for functions marked with the
OpenMP declare target directive that are suitable for vectorization when
this option is in effect. The device-type may be one of none, host, nohost,
and any, which correspond to keywords for the device_type clause of
the declare target directive; clones are generated for the intersection
84 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fdiagnostics-color[=WHEN]
-fno-diagnostics-color
Use color in diagnostics. WHEN is ‘never’, ‘always’, or ‘auto’. The default
depends on how the compiler has been configured, it can be any of the above
WHEN options or also ‘never’ if GCC_COLORS environment variable isn’t present
in the environment, and ‘auto’ otherwise. ‘auto’ makes GCC use color only
when the standard error is a terminal, and when not executing in an emacs
shell. The forms -fdiagnostics-color and -fno-diagnostics-color are
aliases for -fdiagnostics-color=always and -fdiagnostics-color=never,
respectively.
The colors are defined by the environment variable GCC_COLORS. Its value is
a colon-separated list of capabilities and Select Graphic Rendition (SGR) sub-
strings. SGR commands are interpreted by the terminal or terminal emulator.
(See the section in the documentation of your text terminal for permitted values
and their meanings as character attributes.) These substring values are integers
in decimal representation and can be concatenated with semicolons. Common
values to concatenate include ‘1’ for bold, ‘4’ for underline, ‘5’ for blink, ‘7’ for
inverse, ‘39’ for default foreground color, ‘30’ to ‘37’ for foreground colors, ‘90’
to ‘97’ for 16-color mode foreground colors, ‘38;5;0’ to ‘38;5;255’ for 88-color
and 256-color modes foreground colors, ‘49’ for default background color, ‘40’
to ‘47’ for background colors, ‘100’ to ‘107’ for 16-color mode background col-
ors, and ‘48;5;0’ to ‘48;5;255’ for 88-color and 256-color modes background
colors.
The default GCC_COLORS is
error=01;31:warning=01;35:note=01;36:range1=32:range2=34:locus=01:\
quote=01:path=01;36:fixit-insert=32:fixit-delete=31:\
diff-filename=01:diff-hunk=32:diff-delete=31:diff-insert=32:\
type-diff=01;32:fnname=01;32:targs=35:valid=01;31:invalid=01;32\
highlight-a=01;32:highlight-b=01;34
where ‘01;31’ is bold red, ‘01;35’ is bold magenta, ‘01;36’ is bold cyan, ‘32’
is green, ‘34’ is blue, ‘01’ is bold, and ‘31’ is red. Setting GCC_COLORS to the
empty string disables colors. Supported capabilities are as follows.
error= SGR substring for error: markers.
warning= SGR substring for warning: markers.
note= SGR substring for note: markers.
path= SGR substring for colorizing paths of control-flow events as printed
via -fdiagnostics-path-format=, such as the identifiers of indi-
vidual events and lines indicating interprocedural calls and returns.
range1= SGR substring for first additional range.
range2= SGR substring for second additional range.
locus= SGR substring for location information, ‘file:line’ or
‘file:line:column’ etc.
quote= SGR substring for information printed within quotes.
86 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
|+------------------------------------------------------------+
4 || return 0;
5 || return *p;
|| ~
|| |
|+-------->(2) ...to here
| (3) dereference of NULL `p'
This option suppresses the printing of such connector lines.
-fno-diagnostics-show-cwe
Diagnostic messages can optionally have an associated CWE (https://cwe.
mitre.org/index.html) identifier. GCC itself only provides such metadata
for some of the -fanalyzer diagnostics. GCC plugins may also provide di-
agnostics with such metadata. By default, if this information is present, it
will be printed with the diagnostic. This option suppresses the printing of this
metadata.
-fno-diagnostics-show-rules
Diagnostic messages can optionally have rules associated with them, such as
from a coding standard, or a specification. GCC itself does not do this for
any of its diagnostics, but plugins may do so. By default, if this information
is present, it will be printed with the diagnostic. This option suppresses the
printing of this metadata.
-fno-diagnostics-show-highlight-colors
GCC can use color for emphasis and contrast when printing diagnostic messages
and quoting the user’s source.
For example, in
demo.c: In function `test_bad_format_string_args':
../../src/demo.c:25:18: warning: format `%i' expects argument of type `int', but argument 2 h
25 | printf("hello %i", msg);
| ~^ ~~~
| | |
| int const char *
| %s
• the %i and int in the message and the int in the quoted source are colored
using highlight-a (bold green by default), and
• the const char * in the message and in the quoted source are both colored
using highlight-b (bold blue by default).
The intent is to draw the reader’s eyes to the relationships between the various
aspects of the diagnostic message and the source, using color to group related
elements and distinguish between mismatching ones.
This additional colorization is enabled by default if color printing is enabled
(as per -fdiagnostics-color=), but it can be separately disabled via -fno-
diagnostics-show-highlight-colors.
-fno-diagnostics-show-line-numbers
By default, when printing source code (via -fdiagnostics-show-caret), a
left margin is printed, showing line numbers. This option suppresses this left
margin.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 89
-fdiagnostics-minimum-margin-width=width
This option controls the minimum width of the left margin printed by
-fdiagnostics-show-line-numbers. It defaults to 6.
-fdiagnostics-parseable-fixits
Emit fix-it hints in a machine-parseable format, suitable for consumption by
IDEs. For each fix-it, a line will be printed after the relevant diagnostic, starting
with the string “fix-it:”. For example:
fix-it:"test.c":{45:3-45:21}:"gtk_widget_show_all"
The location is expressed as a half-open range, expressed as a count of bytes,
starting at byte 1 for the initial column. In the above example, bytes 3 through
20 of line 45 of “test.c” are to be replaced with the given string:
00000000011111111112222222222
12345678901234567890123456789
gtk_widget_showall (dlg);
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
gtk_widget_show_all
The filename and replacement string escape backslash as “\\", tab as “\t”,
newline as “\n”, double quotes as “\"”, non-printable characters as octal (e.g.
vertical tab as “\013”).
An empty replacement string indicates that the given range is to be removed.
An empty range (e.g. “45:3-45:3”) indicates that the string is to be inserted at
the given position.
-fdiagnostics-generate-patch
Print fix-it hints to stderr in unified diff format, after any diagnostics are
printed. For example:
--- test.c
+++ test.c
@ -42,5 +42,5 @
The diff may or may not be colorized, following the same rules as for diagnostics
(see -fdiagnostics-color).
-fdiagnostics-show-template-tree
In the C++ frontend, when printing diagnostics showing mismatching template
types, such as:
could not convert 'std::map<int, std::vector<double> >()'
from 'map<[...],vector<double>>' to 'map<[...],vector<float>>
the -fdiagnostics-show-template-tree flag enables printing a tree-like
structure showing the common and differing parts of the types, such as:
map<
[...],
vector<
[double != float]>>
90 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The parts that differ are highlighted with color (“double” and “float” in this
case).
-fno-elide-type
By default when the C++ frontend prints diagnostics showing mismatching tem-
plate types, common parts of the types are printed as “[...]” to simplify the
error message. For example:
could not convert 'std::map<int, std::vector<double> >()'
from 'map<[...],vector<double>>' to 'map<[...],vector<float>>
Specifying the -fno-elide-type flag suppresses that behavior. This flag also
affects the output of the -fdiagnostics-show-template-tree flag.
-fdiagnostics-path-format=KIND
Specify how to print paths of control-flow events for diagnostics that have such
a path associated with them.
KIND is ‘none’, ‘separate-events’, or ‘inline-events’, the default.
‘none’ means to not print diagnostic paths.
‘separate-events’ means to print a separate “note” diagnostic for each event
within the diagnostic. For example:
test.c:29:5: error: passing NULL as argument 1 to 'PyList_Append' which requires a non-NULL p
test.c:25:10: note: (1) when 'PyList_New' fails, returning NULL
test.c:27:3: note: (2) when 'i < count'
test.c:29:5: note: (3) when calling 'PyList_Append', passing NULL from (1) as argument 1
‘inline-events’ means to print the events “inline” within the source code.
This view attempts to consolidate the events into runs of sufficiently-close
events, printing them as labelled ranges within the source.
For example, the same events as above might be printed as:
'test': events 1-3
25 | list = PyList_New(0);
| ^~~~~~~~~~~~~
| |
| (1) when 'PyList_New' fails, returning NULL
26 |
27 | for (i = 0; i < count; i++) {
| ~~~
| |
| (2) when 'i < count'
28 | item = PyLong_FromLong(random());
29 | PyList_Append(list, item);
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| |
| (3) when calling 'PyList_Append', passing NULL from (1) as argument 1
Interprocedural control flow is shown by grouping the events by stack frame, and
using indentation to show how stack frames are nested, pushed, and popped.
For example:
'test': events 1-2
|
| 133 | {
| | ^
| | |
| | (1) entering 'test'
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 91
-fdiagnostics-show-path-depths
This option provides additional information when printing control-flow paths
associated with a diagnostic.
If this is option is provided then the stack depth will be printed for each run
of events within -fdiagnostics-path-format=inline-events. If provided
with -fdiagnostics-path-format=separate-events, then the stack depth
and function declaration will be appended when printing each event.
This is intended for use by GCC developers and plugin developers when debug-
ging diagnostics that report interprocedural control flow.
-fno-show-column
Do not print column numbers in diagnostics. This may be necessary if diag-
nostics are being scanned by a program that does not understand the column
numbers, such as dejagnu.
92 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fdiagnostics-column-unit=UNIT
Select the units for the column number. This affects traditional diagnostics
(in the absence of -fno-show-column), as well as JSON format diagnostics if
requested.
The default UNIT, ‘display’, considers the number of display columns occupied
by each character. This may be larger than the number of bytes required to
encode the character, in the case of tab characters, or it may be smaller, in
the case of multibyte characters. For example, the character “GREEK SMALL
LETTER PI (U+03C0)” occupies one display column, and its UTF-8 encoding
requires two bytes; the character “SLIGHTLY SMILING FACE (U+1F642)”
occupies two display columns, and its UTF-8 encoding requires four bytes.
Setting UNIT to ‘byte’ changes the column number to the raw byte count in
all cases, as was traditionally output by GCC prior to version 11.1.0.
-fdiagnostics-column-origin=ORIGIN
Select the origin for column numbers, i.e. the column number assigned to the
first column. The default value of 1 corresponds to traditional GCC behavior
and to the GNU style guide. Some utilities may perform better with an origin
of 0; any non-negative value may be specified.
-fdiagnostics-escape-format=FORMAT
When GCC prints pertinent source lines for a diagnostic it normally attempts
to print the source bytes directly. However, some diagnostics relate to encoding
issues in the source file, such as malformed UTF-8, or issues with Unicode
normalization. These diagnostics are flagged so that GCC will escape bytes
that are not printable ASCII when printing their pertinent source lines.
This option controls how such bytes should be escaped.
The default FORMAT, ‘unicode’ displays Unicode characters that are not
printable ASCII in the form ‘<U+XXXX>’, and bytes that do not correspond
to a Unicode character validly-encoded in UTF-8-encoded will be displayed as
hexadecimal in the form ‘<XX>’.
For example, a source line containing the string ‘before’ followed by the Uni-
code character U+03C0 (“GREEK SMALL LETTER PI”, with UTF-8 encoding
0xCF 0x80) followed by the byte 0xBF (a stray UTF-8 trailing byte), followed
by the string ‘after’ will be printed for such a diagnostic as:
before<U+03C0><BF>after
Setting FORMAT to ‘bytes’ will display all non-printable-ASCII bytes in the
form ‘<XX>’, thus showing the underlying encoding of non-ASCII Unicode char-
acters. For the example above, the following will be printed:
before<CF><80><BF>after
-fdiagnostics-text-art-charset=CHARSET
Some diagnostics can contain “text art” diagrams: visualizations created from
text, intended to be viewed in a monospaced font.
This option selects which characters should be used for printing such diagrams,
if any. CHARSET is ‘none’, ‘ascii’, ‘unicode’, or ‘emoji’.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 93
The ‘none’ value suppresses the printing of such diagrams. The ‘ascii’ value
will ensure that such diagrams are pure ASCII (“ASCII art”). The ‘unicode’
value will allow for conservative use of unicode drawing characters (such as box-
drawing characters). The ‘emoji’ value further adds the possibility of emoji in
the output (such as emitting U+26A0 WARNING SIGN followed by U+FE0F
VARIATION SELECTOR-16 to select the emoji variant of the character).
The default is ‘emoji’, except when the environment variable LANG is set to ‘C’,
in which case the default is ‘ascii’.
-fdiagnostics-format=FORMAT
Select a different format for printing diagnostics. FORMAT is ‘text’,
‘sarif-stderr’, ‘sarif-file’, ‘json’, ‘json-stderr’, or ‘json-file’.
Using this option replaces any additional “output sinks” added by
-fdiagnostics-add-output=, or that set by -fdiagnostics-set-output=.
The default is ‘text’.
The ‘sarif-stderr’ and ‘sarif-file’ formats both emit diagnostics in SARIF
Version 2.1.0 format, either to stderr, or to a file named source.sarif, respec-
tively.
The various ‘json’, ‘json-stderr’, and ‘json-file’ values are deprecated and
refer to a legacy JSON-based output format. The ‘json’ format is a synonym
for ‘json-stderr’. The ‘json-stderr’ and ‘json-file’ formats are identical,
apart from where the JSON is emitted to. With ‘json-stderr’, the JSON is
emitted to stderr, whereas with ‘json-file’ it is written to source.gcc.json.
-fdiagnostics-add-output=DIAGNOSTICS-OUTPUT-SPEC
Add an additional “output sink” for emitting diagnostics.
DIAGNOSTICS-OUTPUT-SPEC should specify a scheme, optionally followed
by : and one or more KEY =VALUE pairs, in this form:
SCHEME
SCHEME:KEY=VALUE
SCHEME:KEY=VALUE,KEY2=VALUE2
etc.
Schemes, keys, or values with a name prefixed “experimental” may change or
be removed without notice.
SCHEME can be
text Emit diagnostics to stderr using GCC’s classic text output format.
Supported keys are:
color=[yes|no]
Override colorization settings from -fdiagnostics-
color for this text output.
experimental-nesting=[yes|no]
Enable an experimental mode that emphasizes hierar-
chical relationships within diagnostics messages, dis-
playing location information on separate lines.
94 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
experimental-nesting-show-locations=[yes|no]
If experimental-nesting=yes, then by default loca-
tions are shown; set this key to no to disable printing
such locations. This exists for use by GCC developers,
for writing DejaGnu test cases.
experimental-nesting-show-levels=[yes|no]
This is a debugging option for use with experimental-
nesting=yes. Set this key to yes to print explicit nest-
ing levels in the output. This exists for use by GCC
developers.
sarif Emit diagnostics to a file in SARIF format.
Supported keys are:
file=FILENAME
Specify the filename to write the SARIF output to,
potentially with a leading absolute or relative path. If
not specified, it defaults to source.sarif.
version=[2.1|2.2-prerelease]
Specify the version of SARIF to use for the output. If
not specified, defaults to 2.1. 2.2-prerelease uses an
unofficial draft of the future SARIF 2.2 specification
and should only be used for experimentation in this
release.
For example,
-fdiagnostics-add-output=sarif:version=2.1,file=foo.2.1.sarif
-fdiagnostics-add-output=sarif:version=2.2-prerelease,file=foo.2.2.sarif
would add a pair of outputs, each writing to a different file, using versions 2.1
and 2.2 of the SARIF standard respectively.
In EBNF:
diagnostics-output-specifier = diagnostics-output-name
| diagnostics-output-name, ":", key-value-pairs;
key-value-pairs = key-value-pair
| key-value-pair "," key-value-pairs;
-fdiagnostics-set-output=DIAGNOSTICS-OUTPUT-SPEC
This works in a similar way to -fdiagnostics-add-output= except that in-
stead of adding an additional “output sink” for diagnostics, it replaces all exist-
ing output sinks, such as from -fdiagnostics-format=, -fdiagnostics-add-
output=, or a prior call to -fdiagnostics-set-output=.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 95
-fno-diagnostics-json-formatting
By default, when JSON is emitted for diagnostics (via -fdiagnostics-
format=sarif-stderr, -fdiagnostics-format=sarif-file,
-fdiagnostics-format=json, -fdiagnostics-format=json-stderr,
-fdiagnostics-format=json-file), GCC will add newlines and indentation
to visually emphasize the hierarchical structure of the JSON.
Use -fno-diagnostics-json-formatting to suppress this whitespace. It must
be passed before the option it is to affect.
This is intended for compatibility with tools that do not expect the output to
contain newlines, such as that emitted by older GCC releases.
options also has a negative form beginning ‘-Wno-’ to turn off warnings; for example, -Wno-
implicit. This manual lists only one of the two forms, whichever is not the default. For
further language-specific options also refer to Section 3.5 [C++ Dialect Options], page 51,
and Section 3.6 [Objective-C and Objective-C++ Dialect Options], page 78. Additional
warnings can be produced by enabling the static analyzer; See Section 3.10 [Static Analyzer
Options], page 160.
Some options, such as -Wall and -Wextra, turn on other options, such as -Wunused,
which may turn on further options, such as -Wunused-value. The combined effect of
positive and negative forms is that more specific options have priority over less specific ones,
independently of their position in the command-line. For options of the same specificity,
the last one takes effect. Options enabled or disabled via pragmas (see Section 6.67.12
[Diagnostic Pragmas], page 1007) take effect as if they appeared at the end of the command-
line.
When an unrecognized warning option is requested (e.g., -Wunknown-warning), GCC
emits a diagnostic stating that the option is not recognized. However, if the -Wno- form is
used, the behavior is slightly different: no diagnostic is produced for -Wno-unknown-warning
unless other diagnostics are being produced. This allows the use of new -Wno- options with
old compilers, but if something goes wrong, the compiler warns that an unrecognized option
is present.
The effectiveness of some warnings depends on optimizations also being enabled. For
example -Wsuggest-final-types is more effective with link-time optimization and some
instances of other warnings may not be issued at all unless optimization is enabled. While
optimization in general improves the efficacy of control and data flow sensitive warnings, in
some cases it may also cause false positives.
-Wpedantic
-pedantic
Issue all the warnings demanded by strict ISO C and ISO C++; diagnose all
programs that use forbidden extensions, and some other programs that do not
follow ISO C and ISO C++. This follows the version of the ISO C or C++
standard specified by any -std option used.
Valid ISO C and ISO C++ programs should compile properly with or without
this option (though a rare few require -ansi or a -std option specifying the
version of the standard). However, without this option, certain GNU extensions
and traditional C and C++ features are supported as well. With this option,
they are diagnosed (or rejected with -pedantic-errors).
-Wpedantic does not cause warning messages for use of the alternate keywords
whose names begin and end with ‘__’. This alternate format can also be used to
disable warnings for non-ISO ‘__intN’ types, i.e. ‘__intN__’. Pedantic warn-
ings are also disabled in the expression that follows __extension__. However,
only system header files should use these escape routes; application programs
should avoid them. See Section 6.51 [Alternate Keywords], page 775.
Some warnings about non-conforming programs are controlled by options other
than -Wpedantic; in many cases they are implied by -Wpedantic but can be
disabled separately by their specific option, e.g. -Wpedantic -Wno-pointer-
sign.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 97
Where the standard specified with -std represents a GNU extended dialect
of C, such as ‘gnu90’ or ‘gnu99’, there is a corresponding base standard, the
version of ISO C on which the GNU extended dialect is based. Warnings from
-Wpedantic are given where they are required by the base standard. (It does not
make sense for such warnings to be given only for features not in the specified
GNU C dialect, since by definition the GNU dialects of C include all features
the compiler supports with the given option, and there would be nothing to
warn about.)
-pedantic-errors
Give an error whenever the base standard (see -Wpedantic) requires a diagnos-
tic, in some cases where there is undefined behavior at compile-time and in some
other cases that do not prevent compilation of programs that are valid accord-
ing to the standard. This is not equivalent to -Werror=pedantic: the latter
option is unlikely to be useful, as it only makes errors of the diagnostics that are
controlled by -Wpedantic, whereas this option also affects required diagnostics
that are always enabled or controlled by options other than -Wpedantic.
If you want the required diagnostics that are warnings by default to be er-
rors instead, but don’t also want to enable the -Wpedantic diagnostics, you
can specify -pedantic-errors -Wno-pedantic (or -pedantic-errors -Wno-
error=pedantic to enable them but only as warnings).
Some required diagnostics are errors by default, but can be reduced
to warnings using -fpermissive or their specific warning option, e.g.
-Wno-error=narrowing.
Some diagnostics for non-ISO practices are controlled by specific warning op-
tions other than -Wpedantic, but are also made errors by -pedantic-errors.
For instance:
-fpermissive
Downgrade some required diagnostics about nonconformant code from errors
to warnings. Thus, using -fpermissive allows some nonconforming code to
98 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
compile. Some C++ diagnostics are controlled only by this flag, but it also
downgrades some C and C++ diagnostics that have their own flag:
-Wmemset-elt-size
-Wmemset-transposed-args
-Wmisleading-indentation (only for C/C++)
-Wmismatched-dealloc
-Wmismatched-new-delete (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
-Wmissing-attributes
-Wmissing-braces (only for C/ObjC)
-Wmultistatement-macros
-Wnarrowing (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
-Wnonnull
-Wnonnull-compare
-Wopenmp-simd (C and C++ only)
-Woverloaded-virtual=1 (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
-Wpacked-not-aligned
-Wparentheses
-Wpessimizing-move (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
-Wpointer-sign (only for C/ObjC)
-Wrange-loop-construct (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
-Wreorder (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
-Wrestrict
-Wreturn-type
-Wself-move (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
-Wsequence-point
-Wsign-compare (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
-Wsizeof-array-div
-Wsizeof-pointer-div
-Wsizeof-pointer-memaccess
-Wstrict-aliasing
-Wstrict-overflow=1
-Wswitch
-Wtautological-compare
-Wtrigraphs
-Wuninitialized
-Wunknown-pragmas
-Wunused
-Wunused-but-set-variable
-Wunused-const-variable=1 (only for C/ObjC)
-Wunused-function
-Wunused-label
-Wunused-local-typedefs
-Wunused-value
-Wunused-variable
-Wuse-after-free=2
-Wvla-parameter
-Wvolatile-register-var
-Wzero-length-bounds
Note that some warning flags are not implied by -Wall. Some of them warn
about constructions that users generally do not consider questionable, but which
occasionally you might wish to check for; others warn about constructions that
are necessary or hard to avoid in some cases, and there is no simple way to
modify the code to suppress the warning. Some of them are enabled by -Wextra
but many of them must be enabled individually.
-Wextra This enables some extra warning flags that are not enabled by -Wall. (This
option used to be called -W. The older name is still supported, but the newer
name is more descriptive.)
100 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
However, if -Wpedantic is used with -Wformat, warnings are given about format
features not in the selected standard version (but not for strfmon formats,
since those are not in any version of the C standard). See Section 3.4 [Options
Controlling C Dialect], page 43.
-Wformat=1
-Wformat Option -Wformat is equivalent to -Wformat=1, and -Wno-format
is equivalent to -Wformat=0. Since -Wformat also checks for
null format arguments for several functions, -Wformat also
implies -Wnonnull. Some aspects of this level of format checking
can be disabled by the options: -Wno-format-contains-nul,
-Wno-format-extra-args, and -Wno-format-zero-length.
-Wformat is enabled by -Wall.
-Wformat=2
Enable -Wformat plus additional format checks. Currently equiv-
alent to -Wformat -Wformat-nonliteral -Wformat-security
-Wformat-y2k.
-Wno-format-contains-nul
If -Wformat is specified, do not warn about format strings that contain NUL
bytes.
-Wno-format-extra-args
If -Wformat is specified, do not warn about excess arguments to a printf
or scanf format function. The C standard specifies that such arguments are
ignored.
Where the unused arguments lie between used arguments that are specified
with ‘$’ operand number specifications, normally warnings are still given, since
the implementation could not know what type to pass to va_arg to skip the
unused arguments. However, in the case of scanf formats, this option sup-
presses the warning if the unused arguments are all pointers, since the Single
Unix Specification says that such unused arguments are allowed.
-Wformat-overflow
-Wformat-overflow=level
Warn about calls to formatted input/output functions such as sprintf and
vsprintf that might overflow the destination buffer. When the exact number
of bytes written by a format directive cannot be determined at compile-time
it is estimated based on heuristics that depend on the level argument and
on optimization. While enabling optimization will in most cases improve the
accuracy of the warning, it may also result in false positives.
-Wformat-overflow
-Wformat-overflow=1
Level 1 of -Wformat-overflow enabled by -Wformat employs a
conservative approach that warns only about calls that most likely
overflow the buffer. At this level, numeric arguments to format di-
rectives with unknown values are assumed to have the value of one,
and strings of unknown length to be empty. Numeric arguments
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 105
-Wno-format-zero-length
If -Wformat is specified, do not warn about zero-length formats. The C standard
specifies that zero-length formats are allowed.
-Wformat-nonliteral
If -Wformat is specified, also warn if the format string is not a string literal and
so cannot be checked, unless the format function takes its format arguments as
a va_list.
-Wformat-security
If -Wformat is specified, also warn about uses of format functions that repre-
sent possible security problems. At present, this warns about calls to printf
and scanf functions where the format string is not a string literal and there
are no format arguments, as in printf (foo);. This may be a security hole if
the format string came from untrusted input and contains ‘%n’. (This is cur-
rently a subset of what -Wformat-nonliteral warns about, but in future warn-
ings may be added to -Wformat-security that are not included in -Wformat-
nonliteral.)
-Wformat-signedness
If -Wformat is specified, also warn if the format string requires an unsigned
argument and the argument is signed and vice versa.
-Wformat-truncation
-Wformat-truncation=level
Warn about calls to formatted input/output functions such as snprintf and
vsnprintf that might result in output truncation. When the exact number
of bytes written by a format directive cannot be determined at compile-time
it is estimated based on heuristics that depend on the level argument and
on optimization. While enabling optimization will in most cases improve the
accuracy of the warning, it may also result in false positives. Except as noted
otherwise, the option uses the same logic -Wformat-overflow.
-Wformat-truncation
-Wformat-truncation=1
Level 1 of -Wformat-truncation enabled by -Wformat employs
a conservative approach that warns only about calls to bounded
functions whose return value is unused and that will most likely
result in output truncation.
-Wformat-truncation=2
Level 2 warns also about calls to bounded functions whose return
value is used and that might result in truncation given an argument
of sufficient length or magnitude.
-Wformat-y2k
If -Wformat is specified, also warn about strftime formats that may yield only
a two-digit year.
-Wnonnull
Warn about passing a null pointer for arguments marked as requiring a non-null
value by the nonnull function attribute.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 107
-Winfinite-recursion
Warn about infinitely recursive calls. The warning is effective at all optimization
levels but requires optimization in order to detect infinite recursion in calls
between two or more functions. -Winfinite-recursion is included in -Wall.
Compare with -Wanalyzer-infinite-recursion which provides a similar di-
agnostic, but is implemented in a different way (as part of -fanalyzer).
-Winit-self (C, C++, Objective-C and Objective-C++ only)
Warn about uninitialized variables that are initialized with themselves. Note
this option can only be used with the -Wuninitialized option.
For example, GCC warns about i being uninitialized in the following snippet
only when -Winit-self has been specified:
int f()
{
int i = i;
return i;
}
This warning is enabled by -Wall in C++.
-Wno-implicit-int (C and Objective-C only)
This option controls warnings when a declaration does not specify a type.
This warning is enabled by default, as an error, in C99 and later dialects
108 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Whardened
Warn when -fhardened did not enable an option from its set (for which see
-fhardened). For instance, using -fhardened and -fstack-protector at the
same time on the command line causes -Whardened to warn because -fstack-
protector-strong is not enabled by -fhardened.
This warning is enabled by default and has effect only when -fhardened is
enabled.
-Wimplicit-fallthrough
-Wimplicit-fallthrough is the same as -Wimplicit-fallthrough=3 and
-Wno-implicit-fallthrough is the same as -Wimplicit-fallthrough=0.
-Wimplicit-fallthrough=n
Warn when a switch case falls through. For example:
switch (cond)
{
case 1:
a = 1;
break;
case 2:
a = 2;
case 3:
a = 3;
break;
}
This warning does not warn when the last statement of a case cannot fall
through, e.g. when there is a return statement or a call to function declared
with the noreturn attribute. -Wimplicit-fallthrough= also takes into account
control flow statements, such as ifs, and only warns when appropriate. E.g.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 109
switch (cond)
{
case 1:
if (i > 3) {
bar (5);
break;
} else if (i < 1) {
bar (0);
} else
return;
default:
...
}
Since there are occasions where a switch case fall through is desirable, GCC
provides an attribute, __attribute__ ((fallthrough)), that is to be used
along with a null statement to suppress this warning that would normally occur:
switch (cond)
{
case 1:
bar (0);
__attribute__ ((fallthrough));
default:
...
}
C++17 provides a standard way to suppress the -Wimplicit-fallthrough
warning using [[fallthrough]]; instead of the GNU attribute. In C++11 or
C++14 users can use [[gnu::fallthrough]];, which is a GNU extension.
Instead of these attributes, it is also possible to add a fallthrough comment to
silence the warning. The whole body of the C or C++ style comment should
match the given regular expressions listed below. The option argument n
specifies what kind of comments are accepted:
• -Wimplicit-fallthrough=0 disables the warning altogether.
• -Wimplicit-fallthrough=1 matches .* regular expression, any comment
is used as fallthrough comment.
• -Wimplicit-fallthrough=2 case insensitively matches .*falls?[
\t-]*thr(ough|u).* regular expression.
• -Wimplicit-fallthrough=3 case sensitively matches one of the following
regular expressions:
• -fallthrough
• @fallthrough@
• lint -fallthrough[ \t]*
• [ \t.!]*(ELSE,? |INTENTIONAL(LY)? )?
FALL(S | |-)?THR(OUGH|U)[ \t.!]*(-[^\n\r]*)?
• [ \t.!]*(Else,? |Intentional(ly)? )?
Fall((s | |-)[Tt]|t)hr(ough|u)[ \t.!]*(-[^\n\r]*)?
• [ \t.!]*([Ee]lse,? |[Ii]ntentional(ly)? )?
fall(s | |-)?thr(ough|u)[ \t.!]*(-[^\n\r]*)?
110 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
guarded statement that does not use braces, followed by an unguarded state-
ment with the same indentation.
In the following example, the call to “bar” is misleadingly indented as if it were
guarded by the “if” conditional.
if (some_condition ())
foo ();
bar (); /* Gotcha: this is not guarded by the "if". */
In the case of mixed tabs and spaces, the warning uses the -ftabstop= option
to determine if the statements line up (defaulting to 8).
The warning is not issued for code involving multiline preprocessor logic such
as the following example.
if (flagA)
foo (0);
#if SOME_CONDITION_THAT_DOES_NOT_HOLD
if (flagB)
#endif
foo (1);
The warning is not issued after a #line directive, since this typically indicates
autogenerated code, and no assumptions can be made about the layout of the
file that the directive references.
This warning is enabled by -Wall in C and C++.
-Wmissing-attributes
Warn when a declaration of a function is missing one or more attributes that
a related function is declared with and whose absence may adversely affect the
correctness or efficiency of generated code. For example, the warning is issued
for declarations of aliases that use attributes to specify less restrictive require-
ments than those of their targets. This typically represents a potential opti-
mization opportunity. By contrast, the -Wattribute-alias=2 option controls
warnings issued when the alias is more restrictive than the target, which could
lead to incorrect code generation. Attributes considered include alloc_align,
alloc_size, cold, const, hot, leaf, malloc, nonnull, noreturn, nothrow,
pure, returns_nonnull, and returns_twice.
In C++, the warning is issued when an explicit specialization of a primary
template declared with attribute alloc_align, alloc_size, assume_aligned,
format, format_arg, malloc, or nonnull is declared without it. Attributes
deprecated, error, and warning suppress the warning. (see Section 6.35
[Function Attributes], page 604).
You can use the copy attribute to apply the same set of attributes to a
declaration as that on another declaration without explicitly enumerating
the attributes. This attribute can be applied to declarations of functions
(see Section 6.35.1 [Common Function Attributes], page 604), variables
(see Section 6.36.1 [Common Variable Attributes], page 677), or types (see
Section 6.37.1 [Common Type Attributes], page 692).
-Wmissing-attributes is enabled by -Wall.
For example, since the declaration of the primary function template below
makes use of both attribute malloc and alloc_size the declaration of the
112 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
template <>
void* __attribute__ ((malloc)) // missing alloc_size
allocate<void> (size_t);
-Wmissing-braces
Warn if an aggregate or union initializer is not fully bracketed. In the following
example, the initializer for a is not fully bracketed, but that for b is fully
bracketed.
int a[2][2] = { 0, 1, 2, 3 };
int b[2][2] = { { 0, 1 }, { 2, 3 } };
This warning is enabled by -Wall.
-Wmissing-include-dirs (C, C++, Objective-C, Objective-C++ and Fortran only)
Warn if a user-supplied include directory does not exist. This option is dis-
abled by default for C, C++, Objective-C and Objective-C++. For Fortran, it is
partially enabled by default by warning for -I and -J, only.
-Wno-missing-profile
This option controls warnings if feedback profiles are missing when using the
-fprofile-use option. This option diagnoses those cases where a new function
or a new file is added between compiling with -fprofile-generate and with
-fprofile-use, without regenerating the profiles. In these cases, the profile
feedback data files do not contain any profile feedback information for the newly
added function or file respectively. Also, in the case when profile count data
(.gcda) files are removed, GCC cannot use any profile feedback information. In
all these cases, warnings are issued to inform you that a profile generation step is
due. Ignoring the warning can result in poorly optimized code. -Wno-missing-
profile can be used to disable the warning, but this is not recommended and
should be done only when non-existent profile data is justified.
-Wmismatched-dealloc
Warn for calls to deallocation functions with pointer arguments returned from
allocation functions for which the former isn’t a suitable deallocator. A pair of
functions can be associated as matching allocators and deallocators by use of
attribute malloc. Unless disabled by the -fno-builtin option the standard
functions calloc, malloc, realloc, and free, as well as the corresponding
forms of C++ operator new and operator delete are implicitly associated as
matching allocators and deallocators. In the following example mydealloc is
the deallocator for pointers returned from myalloc.
void mydealloc (void*);
void f (void)
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 113
{
void *p = myalloc (32);
// ...use p...
free (p); // warning: not a matching deallocator for myalloc
mydealloc (p); // ok
}
In C++, the related option -Wmismatched-new-delete diagnoses mismatches
involving either operator new or operator delete.
Option -Wmismatched-dealloc is included in -Wall.
-Wmultistatement-macros
Warn about unsafe multiple statement macros that appear to be guarded by a
clause such as if, else, for, switch, or while, in which only the first statement
is actually guarded after the macro is expanded.
For example:
#define DOIT x++; y++
if (c)
DOIT;
will increment y unconditionally, not just when c holds. The can usually be
fixed by wrapping the macro in a do-while loop:
#define DOIT do { x++; y++; } while (0)
if (c)
DOIT;
This warning is enabled by -Wall in C and C++.
-Wparentheses
Warn if parentheses are omitted in certain contexts, such as when there is an
assignment in a context where a truth value is expected, or when operators are
nested whose precedence people often get confused about.
Also warn if a comparison like x<=y<=z appears; this is equivalent to (x<=y ? 1
: 0) <= z, which is a different interpretation from that of ordinary mathemat-
ical notation.
Also warn for dangerous uses of the GNU extension to ?: with omitted middle
operand. When the condition in the ?: operator is a boolean expression, the
omitted value is always 1. Often programmers expect it to be a value computed
inside the conditional expression instead.
For C++ this also warns for some cases of unnecessary parentheses in declara-
tions, which can indicate an attempt at a function call instead of a declaration:
{
// Declares a local variable called mymutex.
std::unique_lock<std::mutex> (mymutex);
// User meant std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock (mymutex);
}
This warning is enabled by -Wall.
-Wno-self-move (C++ and Objective-C++ only)
This warning warns when a value is moved to itself with std::move. Such a
std::move typically has no effect.
struct T {
114 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
...
};
void fn()
{
T t;
...
t = std::move (t);
}
This warning is enabled by -Wall.
-Wsequence-point
Warn about code that may have undefined semantics because of violations of
sequence point rules in the C and C++ standards.
The C and C++ standards define the order in which expressions in a C/C++
program are evaluated in terms of sequence points, which represent a partial
ordering between the execution of parts of the program: those executed before
the sequence point, and those executed after it. These occur after the evalua-
tion of a full expression (one which is not part of a larger expression), after the
evaluation of the first operand of a &&, ||, ? : or , (comma) operator, before a
function is called (but after the evaluation of its arguments and the expression
denoting the called function), and in certain other places. Other than as ex-
pressed by the sequence point rules, the order of evaluation of subexpressions
of an expression is not specified. All these rules describe only a partial order
rather than a total order, since, for example, if two functions are called within
one expression with no sequence point between them, the order in which the
functions are called is not specified. However, the standards committee have
ruled that function calls do not overlap.
It is not specified when between sequence points modifications to the values of
objects take effect. Programs whose behavior depends on this have undefined
behavior; the C and C++ standards specify that “Between the previous and
next sequence point an object shall have its stored value modified at most once
by the evaluation of an expression. Furthermore, the prior value shall be read
only to determine the value to be stored.”. If a program breaks these rules, the
results on any particular implementation are entirely unpredictable.
Examples of code with undefined behavior are a = a++;, a[n] = b[n++] and
a[i++] = i;. Some more complicated cases are not diagnosed by this option,
and it may give an occasional false positive result, but in general it has been
found fairly effective at detecting this sort of problem in programs.
The C++17 standard will define the order of evaluation of operands in more
cases: in particular it requires that the right-hand side of an assignment be
evaluated before the left-hand side, so the above examples are no longer unde-
fined. But this option will still warn about them, to help people avoid writing
code that is undefined in C and earlier revisions of C++.
The standard is worded confusingly, therefore there is some debate over the
precise meaning of the sequence point rules in subtle cases. Links to discus-
sions of the problem, including proposed formal definitions, may be found on
the GCC readings page, at https://gcc.gnu.org/readings.html.
This warning is enabled by -Wall for C and C++.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 115
-Wno-return-local-addr
Do not warn about returning a pointer (or in C++, a reference) to a variable
that goes out of scope after the function returns.
-Wreturn-mismatch
Warn about return statements without an expressions in functions which do
not return void. Also warn about a return statement with an expression in
a function whose return type is void, unless the expression type is also void.
As a GNU extension, the latter case is accepted without a warning unless
-Wpedantic is used.
Attempting to use the return value of a non-void function other than main
that flows off the end by reaching the closing curly brace that terminates the
function is undefined.
This warning is specific to C and enabled by default. In C99 and later language
dialects, it is treated as an error. It can be downgraded to a warning using
-fpermissive (along with other warnings), or for just this warning, with -Wno-
error=return-mismatch.
-Wreturn-type
Warn whenever a function is defined with a return type that defaults to int
(unless -Wimplicit-int is active, which takes precedence). Also warn if execu-
tion may reach the end of the function body, or if the function does not contain
any return statement at all.
Attempting to use the return value of a non-void function other than main
that flows off the end by reaching the closing curly brace that terminates the
function is undefined.
Unlike in C, in C++, flowing off the end of a non-void function other than main
results in undefined behavior even when the value of the function is not used.
This warning is enabled by default in C++ and by -Wall otherwise.
-Wno-shift-count-negative
Controls warnings if a shift count is negative. This warning is enabled by
default.
-Wno-shift-count-overflow
Controls warnings if a shift count is greater than or equal to the bit width of
the type. This warning is enabled by default.
-Wshift-negative-value
Warn if left shifting a negative value. This warning is enabled by -Wextra in
C99 (and newer) and C++11 to C++17 modes.
-Wno-shift-overflow
-Wshift-overflow=n
These options control warnings about left shift overflows.
-Wshift-overflow=1
This is the warning level of -Wshift-overflow and is enabled by
default in C99 and C++11 modes (and newer). This warning level
does not warn about left-shifting 1 into the sign bit. (However, in
116 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
To suppress this warning use the unused attribute (see Section 6.36 [Variable
Attributes], page 676).
-Wno-unused-result
Do not warn if a caller of a function marked with attribute warn_unused_
result (see Section 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604) does not use its return
value. The default is -Wunused-result.
-Wunused-variable
Warn whenever a local or static variable is unused aside from its declaration.
This option implies -Wunused-const-variable=1 for C, but not for C++. This
warning is enabled by -Wall.
To suppress this warning use the unused attribute (see Section 6.36 [Variable
Attributes], page 676).
-Wunused-const-variable
-Wunused-const-variable=n
Warn whenever a constant static variable is unused aside from its declaration.
To suppress this warning use the unused attribute (see Section 6.36 [Variable
Attributes], page 676).
-Wunused-const-variable=1
Warn about unused static const variables defined in the main com-
pilation unit, but not about static const variables declared in any
header included.
-Wunused-const-variable=1 is enabled by either -Wunused-
variable or -Wunused for C, but not for C++. In C this declares
variable storage, but in C++ this is not an error since const
variables take the place of #defines.
-Wunused-const-variable=2
This warning level also warns for unused constant static variables
in headers (excluding system headers). It is equivalent to the short
form -Wunused-const-variable. This level must be explicitly re-
quested in both C and C++ because it might be hard to clean up
all headers included.
-Wunused-value
Warn whenever a statement computes a result that is explicitly not used. To
suppress this warning cast the unused expression to void. This includes an
expression-statement or the left-hand side of a comma expression that contains
no side effects. For example, an expression such as x[i,j] causes a warning,
while x[(void)i,j] does not.
This warning is enabled by -Wall.
-Wunused All the above -Wunused options combined, except those documented as needing
to be specified explicitly.
In order to get a warning about an unused function parameter, you must either
specify -Wextra -Wunused (note that -Wall implies -Wunused), or separately
specify -Wunused-parameter and/or -Wunused-but-set-parameter.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 119
-Wuse-after-free=3
At level 3, the warning also diagnoses uses of indeterminate pointers
in equality expressions. All uses of indeterminate pointers are un-
defined but equality tests sometimes appear after calls to realloc
as an attempt to determine whether the call resulted in relocating
the object to a different address. They are diagnosed at a separate
level to aid gradually transitioning legacy code to safe alternatives.
For example, the equality test in the function below is diagnosed
at this level:
void adjust_pointers (int**, int);
}
To avoid the warning at this level, store offsets into allocated mem-
ory instead of pointers. This approach obviates needing to adjust
the stored pointers after reallocation.
-Wuse-after-free=2 is included in -Wall.
-Wuseless-cast (C, Objective-C, C++ and Objective-C++ only)
Warn when an expression is cast to its own type. This warning does not occur
when a class object is converted to a non-reference type as that is a way to
create a temporary:
struct S { };
void g (S&&);
void f (S&& arg)
{
g (S(arg)); // make arg prvalue so that it can bind to S&&
}
-Wuninitialized
Warn if an object with automatic or allocated storage duration is used without
having been initialized. In C++, also warn if a non-static reference or non-static
const member appears in a class without constructors.
In addition, passing a pointer (or in C++, a reference) to an uninitialized object
to a const-qualified argument of a built-in function known to read the object is
also diagnosed by this warning. (-Wmaybe-uninitialized is issued for ordinary
functions.)
If you want to warn about code that uses the uninitialized value of the variable
in its own initializer, use the -Winit-self option.
These warnings occur for individual uninitialized elements of structure, union
or array variables as well as for variables that are uninitialized as a whole.
They do not occur for variables or elements declared volatile. Because these
warnings depend on optimization, the exact variables or elements for which
there are warnings depend on the precise optimization options and version of
GCC used.
Note that there may be no warning about a variable that is used only to compute
a value that itself is never used, because such computations may be deleted by
data flow analysis before the warnings are printed.
In C++, this warning also warns about using uninitialized objects in member-
initializer-lists. For example, GCC warns about b being uninitialized in the
following snippet:
struct A {
int a;
int b;
A() : a(b) { }
};
-Wno-invalid-memory-model
This option controls warnings for invocations of Section 6.59 [ atomic Builtins],
page 786, Section 6.58 [ sync Builtins], page 784, and the C11 atomic generic
functions with a memory consistency argument that is either invalid for the
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 121
-Wmaybe-uninitialized
For an object with automatic or allocated storage duration, if there exists a
path from the function entry to a use of the object that is initialized, but there
exist some other paths for which the object is not initialized, the compiler emits
a warning if it cannot prove the uninitialized paths are not executed at run time.
In addition, passing a pointer (or in C++, a reference) to an uninitialized ob-
ject to a const-qualified function argument is also diagnosed by this warning.
(-Wuninitialized is issued for built-in functions known to read the object.)
Annotating the function with attribute access (none) indicates that the argu-
ment isn’t used to access the object and avoids the warning (see Section 6.35.1
[Common Function Attributes], page 604).
These warnings are only possible in optimizing compilation, because otherwise
GCC does not keep track of the state of variables.
These warnings are made optional because GCC may not be able to determine
when the code is correct in spite of appearing to have an error. Here is one
example of how this can happen:
{
int x;
switch (y)
{
case 1: x = 1;
break;
case 2: x = 4;
break;
case 3: x = 5;
}
foo (x);
}
Some spurious warnings can be avoided if you declare all the functions you
use that never return as noreturn. See Section 6.35 [Function Attributes],
page 604.
This warning is enabled by -Wall or -Wextra.
-Wunknown-pragmas
Warn when a #pragma directive is encountered that is not understood by GCC.
If this command-line option is used, warnings are even issued for unknown
pragmas in system header files. This is not the case if the warnings are only
enabled by the -Wall command-line option.
-Wno-pragmas
Do not warn about misuses of pragmas, such as incorrect parameters, invalid
syntax, or conflicts between pragmas. See also -Wunknown-pragmas.
-Wno-pragma-once-outside-header
Do not warn when #pragma once is used in a file that is not a header file, such
as a main file.
-Wno-prio-ctor-dtor
Do not warn if a priority from 0 to 100 is used for constructor or destructor.
The use of constructor and destructor attributes allow you to assign a priority
to the constructor/destructor to control its order of execution before main is
called or after it returns. The priority values must be greater than 100 as the
compiler reserves priority values between 0–100 for the implementation.
-Wstrict-aliasing
This option is only active when -fstrict-aliasing is active. It warns about
code that might break the strict aliasing rules that the compiler is using for
optimization. The warning does not catch all cases, but does attempt to catch
the more common pitfalls. It is included in -Wall. It is equivalent to -Wstrict-
aliasing=3
-Wstrict-aliasing=n
This option is only active when -fstrict-aliasing is active. It warns about
code that might break the strict aliasing rules that the compiler is using for
optimization. Higher levels correspond to higher accuracy (fewer false pos-
itives). Higher levels also correspond to more effort, similar to the way -O
works. -Wstrict-aliasing is equivalent to -Wstrict-aliasing=3.
Level 1: Most aggressive, quick, least accurate. Possibly useful when higher
levels do not warn but -fstrict-aliasing still breaks the code, as it has very
few false negatives. However, it has many false positives. Warns for all pointer
conversions between possibly incompatible types, even if never dereferenced.
Runs in the front end only.
Level 2: Aggressive, quick, not too precise. May still have many false positives
(not as many as level 1 though), and few false negatives (but possibly more
than level 1). Unlike level 1, it only warns when an address is taken. Warns
about incomplete types. Runs in the front end only.
Level 3 (default for -Wstrict-aliasing): Should have very few false positives
and few false negatives. Slightly slower than levels 1 or 2 when optimization
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 123
-Wstrict-overflow
-Wstrict-overflow=n
This option is only active when signed overflow is undefined. It warns about
cases where the compiler optimizes based on the assumption that signed over-
flow does not occur. Note that it does not warn about all cases where the code
might overflow: it only warns about cases where the compiler implements some
optimization. Thus this warning depends on the optimization level.
An optimization that assumes that signed overflow does not occur is perfectly
safe if the values of the variables involved are such that overflow never does, in
fact, occur. Therefore this warning can easily give a false positive: a warning
about code that is not actually a problem. To help focus on important issues,
several warning levels are defined. No warnings are issued for the use of unde-
fined signed overflow when estimating how many iterations a loop requires, in
particular when determining whether a loop will be executed at all.
-Wstrict-overflow=1
Warn about cases that are both questionable and easy to avoid.
For example the compiler simplifies x + 1 > x to 1. This level of
-Wstrict-overflow is enabled by -Wall; higher levels are not,
and must be explicitly requested.
-Wstrict-overflow=2
Also warn about other cases where a comparison is simplified to a
constant. For example: abs (x) >= 0. This can only be simplified
when signed integer overflow is undefined, because abs (INT_MIN)
overflows to INT_MIN, which is less than zero. -Wstrict-overflow
(with no level) is the same as -Wstrict-overflow=2.
-Wstrict-overflow=3
Also warn about other cases where a comparison is simplified. For
example: x + 1 > 1 is simplified to x > 0.
-Wstrict-overflow=4
Also warn about other simplifications not covered by the above
cases. For example: (x * 10) / 5 is simplified to x * 2.
-Wstrict-overflow=5
Also warn about cases where the compiler reduces the magnitude
of a constant involved in a comparison. For example: x + 2 > y is
simplified to x + 1 >= y. This is reported only at the highest warn-
ing level because this simplification applies to many comparisons,
so this warning level gives a very large number of false positives.
124 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Wstring-compare
Warn for calls to strcmp and strncmp whose result is determined to be either
zero or non-zero in tests for such equality owing to the length of one argument
being greater than the size of the array the other argument is stored in (or the
bound in the case of strncmp). Such calls could be mistakes. For example,
the call to strcmp below is diagnosed because its result is necessarily non-zero
irrespective of the contents of the array a.
extern char a[4];
void f (char *d)
{
strcpy (d, "string");
...
if (0 == strcmp (a, d)) // cannot be true
puts ("a and d are the same");
}
-Wno-stringop-overflow
-Wstringop-overflow
-Wstringop-overflow=type
Warn for calls to string manipulation functions such as memcpy and strcpy
that are determined to overflow the destination buffer. The optional argument
is one greater than the type of Object Size Checking to perform to determine
the size of the destination. See Section 6.62 [Object Size Checking], page 794.
The argument is meaningful only for functions that operate on character arrays
but not for raw memory functions like memcpy which always make use of Object
Size type-0. The option also warns for calls that specify a size in excess of the
largest possible object or at most SIZE_MAX / 2 bytes. The option produces
the best results with optimization enabled but can detect a small subset of
simple buffer overflows even without optimization in calls to the GCC built-in
functions like __builtin_memcpy that correspond to the standard functions. In
any case, the option warns about just a subset of buffer overflows detected by
the corresponding overflow checking built-ins. For example, the option issues a
warning for the strcpy call below because it copies at least 5 characters (the
string "blue" including the terminating NUL) into the buffer of size 4.
enum Color { blue, purple, yellow };
const char* f (enum Color clr)
{
static char buf [4];
const char *str;
switch (clr)
{
case blue: str = "blue"; break;
case purple: str = "purple"; break;
case yellow: str = "yellow"; break;
}
-Wstringop-overflow
-Wstringop-overflow=1
The -Wstringop-overflow=1 option uses type-zero Object Size
Checking to determine the sizes of destination objects. At this
setting the option does not warn for writes past the end of subob-
jects of larger objects accessed by pointers unless the size of the
largest surrounding object is known. When the destination may be
one of several objects it is assumed to be the largest one of them.
On Linux systems, when optimization is enabled at this setting
the option warns for the same code as when the _FORTIFY_SOURCE
macro is defined to a non-zero value.
-Wstringop-overflow=2
The -Wstringop-overflow=2 option uses type-one Object Size
Checking to determine the sizes of destination objects. At
this setting the option warns about overflows when writing to
members of the largest complete objects whose exact size is
known. However, it does not warn for excessive writes to the same
members of unknown objects referenced by pointers since they
may point to arrays containing unknown numbers of elements.
This is the default setting of the option.
-Wstringop-overflow=3
The -Wstringop-overflow=3 option uses type-two Object Size
Checking to determine the sizes of destination objects. At this
setting the option warns about overflowing the smallest object or
data member. This is the most restrictive setting of the option that
may result in warnings for safe code.
-Wstringop-overflow=4
The -Wstringop-overflow=4 option uses type-three Object Size
Checking to determine the sizes of destination objects. At this
setting the option warns about overflowing any data members, and
when the destination is one of several objects it uses the size of the
largest of them to decide whether to issue a warning. Similarly to
-Wstringop-overflow=3 this setting of the option may result in
warnings for benign code.
-Wno-stringop-overread
Warn for calls to string manipulation functions such as memchr, or strcpy that
are determined to read past the end of the source sequence.
Option -Wstringop-overread is enabled by default.
-Wno-stringop-truncation
Do not warn for calls to bounded string manipulation functions such as strncat,
strncpy, and stpncpy that may either truncate the copied string or leave the
destination unchanged.
In the following example, the call to strncat specifies a bound that is less
than the length of the source string. As a result, the copy of the source will
126 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
be truncated and so the call is diagnosed. To avoid the warning use bufsize -
strlen (buf) - 1) as the bound.
void append (char *buf, size_t bufsize)
{
strncat (buf, ".txt", 3);
}
In the following example, the call to strncpy specifies the size of the destination
buffer as the bound. If the length of the source string is equal to or greater
than this size the result of the copy will not be NUL-terminated. Therefore,
the call is also diagnosed. To avoid the warning, specify sizeof buf - 1 as the
bound and set the last element of the buffer to NUL.
void copy (const char *s)
{
char buf[80];
strncpy (buf, s, sizeof buf);
...
}
{
void *p;
if (n <= 1000)
p = alloca (n);
else
p = malloc (n);
f (p);
}
In the above example, passing -Walloca-larger-than=1000 would not issue a
warning because the call to alloca is known to be at most 1000 bytes. However,
if -Walloca-larger-than=500 were passed, the compiler would emit a warning.
Unbounded uses, on the other hand, are uses of alloca with no controlling
predicate constraining its integer argument. For example:
void func ()
{
void *p = alloca (n);
f (p);
}
If -Walloca-larger-than=500 were passed, the above would trigger a warning,
but this time because of the lack of bounds checking.
Note, that even seemingly correct code involving signed integers could cause a
warning:
void func (signed int n)
{
if (n < 500)
{
p = alloca (n);
f (p);
}
}
In the above example, n could be negative, causing a larger than expected
argument to be implicitly cast into the alloca call.
This option also warns when alloca is used in a loop.
-Walloca-larger-than=‘PTRDIFF_MAX’ is enabled by default but is usually
only effective when -ftree-vrp is active (default for -O2 and above).
See also -Wvla-larger-than=‘byte-size’.
-Wno-alloca-larger-than
Disable -Walloca-larger-than= warnings. The option is equivalent to
-Walloca-larger-than=‘SIZE_MAX’ or larger.
-Warith-conversion
Do warn about implicit conversions from arithmetic operations even when con-
version of the operands to the same type cannot change their values. This affects
warnings from -Wconversion, -Wfloat-conversion, and -Wsign-conversion.
void f (char c, int i)
{
c = c + i; // warns with -Wconversion
c = c + 1; // only warns with -Warith-conversion
}
130 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Warray-bounds
-Warray-bounds=n
Warn about out of bounds subscripts or offsets into arrays. This warning is
enabled by -Wall. It is more effective when -ftree-vrp is active (the default for
-O2 and above) but a subset of instances are issued even without optimization.
By default, the trailing array of a structure will be treated as a flexible array
member by -Warray-bounds or -Warray-bounds=n if it is declared as either
a flexible array member per C99 standard onwards (‘[]’), a GCC zero-length
array extension (‘[0]’), or an one-element array (‘[1]’). As a result, out of
bounds subscripts or offsets into zero-length arrays or one-element arrays are
not warned by default.
You can add the option -fstrict-flex-arrays or -fstrict-flex-
arrays=level to control how this option treat trailing array of a structure as
a flexible array member:
when level<=1, no change to the default behavior.
when level=2, additional warnings will be issued for out of bounds subscripts
or offsets into one-element arrays;
when level=3, in addition to level=2, additional warnings will be issued for out
of bounds subscripts or offsets into zero-length arrays.
-Warray-bounds=1
This is the default warning level of -Warray-bounds and is enabled
by -Wall; higher levels are not, and must be explicitly requested.
-Warray-bounds=2
This warning level also warns about the intermediate results of
pointer arithmetic that may yield out of bounds values. This warn-
ing level may give a larger number of false positives and is deacti-
vated by default.
-Warray-compare
Warn about equality and relational comparisons between two operands of array
type. This comparison was deprecated in C++20. For example:
int arr1[5];
int arr2[5];
bool same = arr1 == arr2;
-Warray-parameter
-Warray-parameter=n
Warn about redeclarations of functions involving parameters of array or pointer
types of inconsistent kinds or forms, and enable the detection of out-of-bounds
accesses to such parameters by warnings such as -Warray-bounds.
If the first function declaration uses the array form for a parameter declaration,
the bound specified in the array is assumed to be the minimum number of
elements expected to be provided in calls to the function and the maximum
number of elements accessed by it. Failing to provide arguments of sufficient
size or accessing more than the maximum number of elements may be diagnosed
by warnings such as -Warray-bounds or -Wstringop-overflow. At level 1, the
warning diagnoses inconsistencies involving array parameters declared using the
T[static N] form.
For example, the warning triggers for the second declaration of f because the
first one with the keyword static specifies that the array argument must have
at least four elements, while the second allows an array of any size to be passed
to f.
void f (int[static 4]);
void f (int[]); // warning (inconsistent array form)
void g (void)
{
int *p = (int *)malloc (1 * sizeof (int));
f (p); // warning (array too small)
...
}
At level 2 the warning also triggers for redeclarations involving any other in-
consistency in array or pointer argument forms denoting array sizes. Pointers
and arrays of unspecified bound are considered equivalent and do not trigger a
warning.
void g (int*);
void g (int[]); // no warning
void g (int[8]); // warning (inconsistent array bound)
-Warray-parameter=2 is included in -Wall. The -Wvla-parameter option
triggers warnings for similar inconsistencies involving Variable Length Array
arguments.
The short form of the option -Warray-parameter is equivalent to -Warray-
parameter=2. The negative form -Wno-array-parameter is equivalent to
-Warray-parameter=0.
-Wattribute-alias=n
-Wno-attribute-alias
Warn about declarations using the alias and similar attributes whose target is
incompatible with the type of the alias. See Section 6.35 [Declaring Attributes
of Functions], page 604.
-Wattribute-alias=1
The default warning level of the -Wattribute-alias option diag-
noses incompatibilities between the type of the alias declaration and
132 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
which rarely makes sense. (In C++, decrementing a boolean is always invalid.
Incrementing a boolean is invalid in C++17, and deprecated otherwise.)
This warning is enabled by -Wall.
-Wduplicated-branches
Warn when an if-else has identical branches. This warning detects cases like
if (p != NULL)
return 0;
else
return 0;
It doesn’t warn when both branches contain just a null statement. This warning
also warn for conditional operators:
int i = x ? *p : *p;
-Wduplicated-cond
Warn about duplicated conditions in an if-else-if chain. For instance, warn for
the following code:
if (p->q != NULL) { ... }
else if (p->q != NULL) { ... }
-Wframe-address
Warn when the ‘__builtin_frame_address’ or ‘__builtin_return_address’
is called with an argument greater than 0. Such calls may return indeterminate
values or crash the program. The warning is included in -Wall.
-Wno-discarded-qualifiers (C and Objective-C only)
Do not warn if type qualifiers on pointers are being discarded. Typically, the
compiler warns if a const char * variable is passed to a function that takes a
char * parameter. This option can be used to suppress such a warning.
-Wno-discarded-array-qualifiers (C and Objective-C only)
Do not warn if type qualifiers on arrays which are pointer targets are being
discarded. Typically, the compiler warns if a const int (*)[] variable is passed
to a function that takes a int (*)[] parameter. This option can be used to
suppress such a warning.
-Wno-incompatible-pointer-types (C and Objective-C only)
Do not warn when there is a conversion between pointers that have incompatible
types. This warning is for cases not covered by -Wno-pointer-sign, which
warns for pointer argument passing or assignment with different signedness.
By default, in C99 and later dialects of C, GCC treats this issue as an error.
The error can be downgraded to a warning using -fpermissive (along with
certain other errors), or for this error alone, with -Wno-error=incompatible-
pointer-types.
This warning is upgraded to an error by -pedantic-errors.
-Wno-int-conversion (C and Objective-C only)
Do not warn about incompatible integer to pointer and pointer to integer con-
versions. This warning is about implicit conversions; for explicit conversions the
warnings -Wno-int-to-pointer-cast and -Wno-pointer-to-int-cast may
be used.
134 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
By default, in C99 and later dialects of C, GCC treats this issue as an error. The
error can be downgraded to a warning using -fpermissive (along with certain
other errors), or for this error alone, with -Wno-error=int-conversion.
This warning is upgraded to an error by -pedantic-errors.
-Wzero-length-bounds
Warn about accesses to elements of zero-length array members that might over-
lap other members of the same object. Declaring interior zero-length arrays is
discouraged because accesses to them are undefined. See Section 6.18 [Zero
Length], page 594.
For example, the first two stores in function bad are diagnosed because the
array elements overlap the subsequent members b and c. The third store is
diagnosed by -Warray-bounds because it is beyond the bounds of the enclosing
object.
struct X { int a[0]; int b, c; };
struct X x;
-Wtrailing-whitespace
-Wtrailing-whitespace=kind
Warn about trailing whitespace at the end of lines, including inside
of comments, but excluding trailing whitespace in raw string literals.
-Wtrailing-whitespace is equivalent to -Wtrailing-whitespace=blanks
and warns just about trailing space and horizontal tab characters.
-Wtrailing-whitespace=any warns about those or trailing form feed
or vertical tab characters. -Wno-trailing-whitespace or -Wtrailing-
whitespace=none disables the warning, which is the default. This is a coding
style warning.
-Wleading-whitespace=kind
Warn about style issues in leading whitespace, but not about the amount of
indentation. Some projects use coding styles where only spaces are used for
indentation, others use only tabs, others use zero or more tabs (for multi-
ples of -ftabstop=n) followed by zero or fewer than n spaces. No warning
is emitted on lines which contain solely whitespace (although -Wtrailing-
whitespace= warning might be emitted), no warnings are emitted inside of
raw string literals. Warnings are also emitted for leading whitespace inside
of multi-line comments. -Wleading-whitespace=spaces warns about lead-
ing whitespace other than spaces for projects which want to indent just by
spaces. -Wleading-whitespace=tabs warns about leading whitespace other
than horizontal tabs for projects which want to indent just by horizontal tabs.
-Wleading-whitespace=blanks warns about leading whitespace other than
spaces and horizontal tabs, or about horizontal tab after a space in the leading
whitespace, or about n or more consecutive spaces in leading whitespace (where
n is argument of -ftabstop=n, 8 by default). -Wleading-whitespace=none
disables the warning, which is the default. This is a coding style warning.
-Wtrampolines
Warn about trampolines generated for pointers to nested functions. A tram-
poline is a small piece of data or code that is created at run time on the stack
when the address of a nested function is taken, and is used to call the nested
function indirectly. For some targets, it is made up of data only and thus re-
quires no special treatment. But, for most targets, it is made up of code and
thus requires the stack to be made executable in order for the program to work
properly.
-Wfloat-equal
Warn if floating-point values are used in equality comparisons.
The idea behind this is that sometimes it is convenient (for the programmer)
to consider floating-point values as approximations to infinitely precise real
numbers. If you are doing this, then you need to compute (by analyzing the
code, or in some other way) the maximum or likely maximum error that the
computation introduces, and allow for it when performing comparisons (and
when producing output, but that’s a different problem). In particular, instead
of testing for equality, you should check to see whether the two values have
136 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
ranges that overlap; and this is done with the relational operators, so equality
comparisons are probably mistaken.
-Wtraditional (C and Objective-C only)
Warn about certain constructs that behave differently in traditional and ISO
C. Also warn about ISO C constructs that have no traditional C equivalent,
and/or problematic constructs that should be avoided.
• Macro parameters that appear within string literals in the macro body. In
traditional C macro replacement takes place within string literals, but in
ISO C it does not.
• In traditional C, some preprocessor directives did not exist. Traditional
preprocessors only considered a line to be a directive if the ‘#’ appeared
in column 1 on the line. Therefore -Wtraditional warns about directives
that traditional C understands but ignores because the ‘#’ does not appear
as the first character on the line. It also suggests you hide directives like
#pragma not understood by traditional C by indenting them. Some tra-
ditional implementations do not recognize #elif, so this option suggests
avoiding it altogether.
• A function-like macro that appears without arguments.
• The unary plus operator.
• The ‘U’ integer constant suffix, or the ‘F’ or ‘L’ floating-point constant
suffixes. (Traditional C does support the ‘L’ suffix on integer constants.)
Note, these suffixes appear in macros defined in the system headers of most
modern systems, e.g. the ‘_MIN’/‘_MAX’ macros in <limits.h>. Use of these
macros in user code might normally lead to spurious warnings, however
GCC’s integrated preprocessor has enough context to avoid warning in
these cases.
• A function declared external in one block and then used after the end of
the block.
• A switch statement has an operand of type long.
• A non-static function declaration follows a static one. This construct
is not accepted by some traditional C compilers.
• The ISO type of an integer constant has a different width or signedness
from its traditional type. This warning is only issued if the base of the
constant is ten. I.e. hexadecimal or octal values, which typically represent
bit patterns, are not warned about.
• Usage of ISO string concatenation is detected.
• Initialization of automatic aggregates.
• Identifier conflicts with labels. Traditional C lacks a separate namespace
for labels.
• Initialization of unions. If the initializer is zero, the warning is omitted.
This is done under the assumption that the zero initializer in user code
appears conditioned on e.g. __STDC__ to avoid missing initializer warnings
and relies on default initialization to zero in the traditional C case.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 137
patible type, it is most likely intentional, not a bug or typo, as shown in the
following example:
for (SomeIterator i = SomeObj.begin(); i != SomeObj.end(); ++i)
{
for (int i = 0; i < N; ++i)
{
...
}
...
}
Since the two variable i in the example above have incompatible types, enabling
only -Wshadow=compatible-local does not emit a warning. Because their
types are incompatible, if a programmer accidentally uses one in place of the
other, type checking is expected to catch that and emit an error or warning.
Use of this flag instead of -Wshadow=local can possibly reduce the number of
warnings triggered by intentional shadowing. Note that this also means that
shadowing const char *i by char *i does not emit a warning.
This warning is also enabled by -Wshadow=local.
-Wlarger-than=byte-size
Warn whenever an object is defined whose size exceeds byte-size. -Wlarger-
than=‘PTRDIFF_MAX’ is enabled by default. Warnings controlled by the option
can be disabled either by specifying byte-size of ‘SIZE_MAX’ or more or by -Wno-
larger-than.
Also warn for calls to bounded functions such as memchr or strnlen that specify
a bound greater than the largest possible object, which is ‘PTRDIFF_MAX’ bytes
by default. These warnings can only be disabled by -Wno-larger-than.
-Wno-larger-than
Disable -Wlarger-than= warnings. The option is equivalent to -Wlarger-
than=‘SIZE_MAX’ or larger.
-Wframe-larger-than=byte-size
Warn if the size of a function frame exceeds byte-size. The computation done to
determine the stack frame size is approximate and not conservative. The actual
requirements may be somewhat greater than byte-size even if you do not get a
warning. In addition, any space allocated via alloca, variable-length arrays,
or related constructs is not included by the compiler when determining whether
or not to issue a warning. -Wframe-larger-than=‘PTRDIFF_MAX’ is enabled by
default. Warnings controlled by the option can be disabled either by specifying
byte-size of ‘SIZE_MAX’ or more or by -Wno-frame-larger-than.
-Wno-frame-larger-than
Disable -Wframe-larger-than= warnings. The option is equivalent to
-Wframe-larger-than=‘SIZE_MAX’ or larger.
-Wfree-nonheap-object
Warn when attempting to deallocate an object that was either not allocated
on the heap, or by using a pointer that was not returned from a prior call to
the corresponding allocation function. For example, because the call to stpcpy
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 139
returns a pointer to the terminating nul character and not to the beginning of
the object, the call to free below is diagnosed.
void f (char *p)
{
p = stpcpy (p, "abc");
// ...
free (p); // warning
}
-Wfree-nonheap-object is included in -Wall.
-Wstack-usage=byte-size
Warn if the stack usage of a function might exceed byte-size. The computation
done to determine the stack usage is conservative. Any space allocated via
alloca, variable-length arrays, or related constructs is included by the compiler
when determining whether or not to issue a warning.
The message is in keeping with the output of -fstack-usage.
• If the stack usage is fully static but exceeds the specified amount, it’s:
warning: stack usage is 1120 bytes
• If the stack usage is (partly) dynamic but bounded, it’s:
warning: stack usage might be 1648 bytes
• If the stack usage is (partly) dynamic and not bounded, it’s:
warning: stack usage might be unbounded
-Wno-pointer-compare
Do not warn if a pointer is compared with a zero character constant. This
usually means that the pointer was meant to be dereferenced. For example:
const char *p = foo ();
if (p == '\0')
return 42;
Note that the code above is invalid in C++11.
This warning is enabled by default.
-Wno-tsan
Disable warnings about unsupported features in ThreadSanitizer.
ThreadSanitizer does not support std::atomic_thread_fence and can report
false positives.
-Wtype-limits
Warn if a comparison is always true or always false due to the limited range of
the data type, but do not warn for constant expressions. For example, warn if
an unsigned variable is compared against zero with < or >=. This warning is
also enabled by -Wextra.
-Wabsolute-value (C and Objective-C only)
Warn for calls to standard functions that compute the absolute value of an
argument when a more appropriate standard function is available. For example,
calling abs(3.14) triggers the warning because the appropriate function to call
to compute the absolute value of a double argument is fabs. The option also
triggers warnings when the argument in a call to such a function has an unsigned
type. This warning can be suppressed with an explicit type cast and it is also
enabled by -Wextra.
-Wcomment
-Wcomments
Warn whenever a comment-start sequence ‘/*’ appears in a ‘/*’ comment, or
whenever a backslash-newline appears in a ‘//’ comment. This warning is
enabled by -Wall.
-Wtrigraphs
Warn if any trigraphs are encountered that might change the meaning of the
program. Trigraphs within comments are not warned about, except those that
would form escaped newlines.
This option is implied by -Wall. If -Wall is not given, this option is still enabled
unless trigraphs are enabled. To get trigraph conversion without warnings, but
get the other -Wall warnings, use ‘-trigraphs -Wall -Wno-trigraphs’.
-Wundef Warn if an undefined identifier is evaluated in an #if directive. Such identifiers
are replaced with zero.
-Wexpansion-to-defined
Warn whenever ‘defined’ is encountered in the expansion of a macro (including
the case where the macro is expanded by an ‘#if’ directive). Such usage is not
portable. This warning is also enabled by -Wpedantic and -Wextra.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 141
-Wunused-macros
Warn about macros defined in the main file that are unused. A macro is used
if it is expanded or tested for existence at least once. The preprocessor also
warns if the macro has not been used at the time it is redefined or undefined.
Built-in macros, macros defined on the command line, and macros defined in
include files are not warned about.
Note: If a macro is actually used, but only used in skipped conditional blocks,
then the preprocessor reports it as unused. To avoid the warning in such a case,
you might improve the scope of the macro’s definition by, for example, moving
it into the first skipped block. Alternatively, you could provide a dummy use
with something like:
#if defined the_macro_causing_the_warning
#endif
-Wno-endif-labels
Do not warn whenever an #else or an #endif are followed by text. This
sometimes happens in older programs with code of the form
#if FOO
...
#else FOO
...
#endif FOO
The second and third FOO should be in comments. This warning is on by default.
-Wbad-function-cast (C and Objective-C only)
Warn when a function call is cast to a non-matching type. For example, warn
if a call to a function returning an integer type is cast to a pointer type.
-Wc90-c99-compat (C and Objective-C only)
Warn about features not present in ISO C90, but present in ISO C99. For
instance, warn about use of variable length arrays, long long type, bool type,
compound literals, designated initializers, and so on. This option is independent
of the standards mode. Warnings are disabled in the expression that follows
__extension__.
-Wc99-c11-compat (C and Objective-C only)
Warn about features not present in ISO C99, but present in ISO C11. For in-
stance, warn about use of anonymous structures and unions, _Atomic type qual-
ifier, _Thread_local storage-class specifier, _Alignas specifier, Alignof opera-
tor, _Generic keyword, and so on. This option is independent of the standards
mode. Warnings are disabled in the expression that follows __extension__.
-Wc11-c23-compat (C and Objective-C only)
-Wc11-c2x-compat (C and Objective-C only)
Warn about features not present in ISO C11, but present in ISO C23. For
instance, warn about omitting the string in _Static_assert, use of ‘[[]]’
syntax for attributes, use of decimal floating-point types, and so on. This option
is independent of the standards mode. Warnings are disabled in the expression
that follows __extension__. The name -Wc11-c2x-compat is deprecated.
When not compiling in C23 mode, these warnings are upgraded to errors by
-pedantic-errors.
142 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Wcast-qual
Warn whenever a pointer is cast so as to remove a type qualifier from the target
type. For example, warn if a const char * is cast to an ordinary char *.
Also warn when making a cast that introduces a type qualifier in an unsafe way.
For example, casting char ** to const char ** is unsafe, as in this example:
/* p is char ** value. */
const char **q = (const char **) p;
/* Assignment of readonly string to const char * is OK. */
*q = "string";
/* Now char** pointer points to read-only memory. */
**p = 'b';
-Wcast-align
Warn whenever a pointer is cast such that the required alignment of the target
is increased. For example, warn if a char * is cast to an int * on machines
where integers can only be accessed at two- or four-byte boundaries.
-Wcast-align=strict
Warn whenever a pointer is cast such that the required alignment of the target
is increased. For example, warn if a char * is cast to an int * regardless of the
target machine.
-Wcast-function-type
Warn when a function pointer is cast to an incompatible function pointer. In
a cast involving function types with a variable argument list only the types of
initial arguments that are provided are considered. Any parameter of pointer-
type matches any other pointer-type. Any benign differences in integral types
are ignored, like int vs. long on ILP32 targets. Likewise type qualifiers are
ignored. The function type void (*) (void) is special and matches everything,
which can be used to suppress this warning. In a cast involving pointer to
member types this warning warns whenever the type cast is changing the pointer
to member type. This warning is enabled by -Wextra.
-Wcast-user-defined
Warn when a cast to reference type does not involve a user-defined conversion
that the programmer might expect to be called.
struct A { operator const int&(); } a;
auto r = (int&)a; // warning
This warning is enabled by default.
144 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Wwrite-strings
When compiling C, give string constants the type const char[length] so that
copying the address of one into a non-const char * pointer produces a warning.
These warnings help you find at compile time code that can try to write into
a string constant, but only if you have been very careful about using const in
declarations and prototypes. Otherwise, it is just a nuisance. This is why we
did not make -Wall request these warnings.
When compiling C++, warn about the deprecated conversion from string literals
to char *. This warning is enabled by default for C++ programs.
This warning is upgraded to an error by -pedantic-errors in C++11 mode or
later.
-Wclobbered
Warn for variables that might be changed by longjmp or vfork. This warning
is also enabled by -Wextra.
-Wno-complain-wrong-lang
By default, language front ends complain when a command-line option is
valid, but not applicable to that front end. This may be disabled with
-Wno-complain-wrong-lang, which is mostly useful when invoking a single
compiler driver for multiple source files written in different languages, for
example:
$ g++ -fno-rtti a.cc b.f90
The driver g++ invokes the C++ front end to compile a.cc and the Fortran
front end to compile b.f90. The latter front end diagnoses ‘f951: Warning:
command-line option '-fno-rtti' is valid for C++/D/ObjC++ but not
for Fortran’, which may be disabled with -Wno-complain-wrong-lang.
-Wcompare-distinct-pointer-types (C and Objective-C only)
Warn if pointers of distinct types are compared without a cast. This warning
is enabled by default.
-Wconversion
Warn for implicit conversions that may alter a value. This includes conversions
between real and integer, like abs (x) when x is double; conversions between
signed and unsigned, like unsigned ui = -1; and conversions to smaller types,
like sqrtf (M_PI). Do not warn for explicit casts like abs ((int) x) and ui
= (unsigned) -1, or if the value is not changed by the conversion like in abs
(2.0). Warnings about conversions between signed and unsigned integers can
be disabled by using -Wno-sign-conversion.
For C++, also warn for confusing overload resolution for user-defined conver-
sions; and conversions that never use a type conversion operator: conversions
to void, the same type, a base class or a reference to them. Warnings about
conversions between signed and unsigned integers are disabled by default in
C++ unless -Wsign-conversion is explicitly enabled.
Warnings about conversion from arithmetic on a small type back to that type
are only given with -Warith-conversion.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 145
-Wdangling-else
Warn about constructions where there may be confusion to which if statement
an else branch belongs. Here is an example of such a case:
{
if (a)
if (b)
foo ();
else
bar ();
}
In C/C++, every else branch belongs to the innermost possible if statement,
which in this example is if (b). This is often not what the programmer ex-
pected, as illustrated in the above example by indentation the programmer
chose. When there is the potential for this confusion, GCC issues a warn-
ing when this flag is specified. To eliminate the warning, add explicit braces
around the innermost if statement so there is no way the else can belong to
the enclosing if. The resulting code looks like this:
{
if (a)
{
if (b)
foo ();
else
bar ();
}
}
This warning is enabled by -Wparentheses.
-Wdangling-pointer
-Wdangling-pointer=n
Warn about uses of pointers (or C++ references) to objects with automatic
storage duration after their lifetime has ended. This includes local variables
declared in nested blocks, compound literals and other unnamed temporary
objects. In addition, warn about storing the address of such objects in es-
caped pointers. The warning is enabled at all optimization levels but may yield
different results with optimization than without.
-Wdangling-pointer=1
At level 1, the warning diagnoses only unconditional uses of dan-
gling pointers.
-Wdangling-pointer=2
At level 2, in addition to unconditional uses the warning also diag-
noses conditional uses of dangling pointers.
The short form -Wdangling-pointer is equivalent to -Wdangling-pointer=2,
while -Wno-dangling-pointer and -Wdangling-pointer=0 have the same ef-
fect of disabling the warnings. -Wdangling-pointer=2 is included in -Wall.
This example triggers the warning at level 1; the address of the unnamed tem-
porary is unconditionally referenced outside of its scope.
char f (char c1, char c2, char c3)
146 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
{
char *p;
{
p = (char[]) { c1, c2, c3 };
}
// warning: using dangling pointer 'p' to an unnamed temporary
return *p;
}
In the following function the store of the address of the local variable x in the
escaped pointer *p triggers the warning at level 1.
void g (int **p)
{
int x = 7;
// warning: storing the address of local variable 'x' in '*p'
*p = &x;
}
In this example, the array a is out of scope when the pointer s is used. Since
the code that sets s is conditional, the warning triggers at level 2.
extern void frob (const char *);
void h (char *s)
{
if (!s)
{
char a[12] = "tmpname";
s = a;
}
// warning: dangling pointer 's' to 'a' may be used
frob (s);
}
-Wdate-time
Warn when macros __TIME__, __DATE__ or __TIMESTAMP__ are encountered as
they might prevent bit-wise-identical reproducible compilations.
-Wempty-body
Warn if an empty body occurs in an if, else or do while statement. This
warning is also enabled by -Wextra.
-Wno-endif-labels
Do not warn about stray tokens after #else and #endif.
-Wenum-compare
Warn about a comparison between values of different enumerated types. In
C++ enumerated type mismatches in conditional expressions are also diagnosed
and the warning is enabled by default. In C this warning is enabled by -Wall.
-Wenum-conversion
Warn when a value of enumerated type is implicitly converted to a different
enumerated type. This warning is enabled by -Wextra in C.
-Wenum-int-mismatch (C and Objective-C only)
Warn about mismatches between an enumerated type and an integer type in
declarations. For example:
enum E { l = -1, z = 0, g = 1 };
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 147
int foo(void);
enum E foo(void);
In C, an enumerated type is compatible with char, a signed integer type, or
an unsigned integer type. However, since the choice of the underlying type
of an enumerated type is implementation-defined, such mismatches may cause
portability issues. In C++, such mismatches are an error. In C, this warning is
enabled by -Wall and -Wc++-compat.
-Wjump-misses-init (C, Objective-C only)
Warn if a goto statement or a switch statement jumps forward across the
initialization of a variable, or jumps backward to a label after the variable has
been initialized. This only warns about variables that are initialized when they
are declared. This warning is only supported for C and Objective-C; in C++
this sort of branch is an error in any case.
-Wjump-misses-init is included in -Wc++-compat. It can be disabled with the
-Wno-jump-misses-init option.
-Wsign-compare
Warn when a comparison between signed and unsigned values could produce
an incorrect result when the signed value is converted to unsigned. In C++, this
warning is also enabled by -Wall. In C, it is also enabled by -Wextra.
-Wsign-conversion
Warn for implicit conversions that may change the sign of an integer value, like
assigning a signed integer expression to an unsigned integer variable. An explicit
cast silences the warning. In C, this option is enabled also by -Wconversion.
-Wflex-array-member-not-at-end (C and C++ only)
Warn when a structure containing a C99 flexible array member as the last field
is not at the end of another structure. This warning warns e.g. about
struct flex { int length; char data[]; };
struct mid_flex { int m; struct flex flex_data; int n; };
-Wfloat-conversion
Warn for implicit conversions that reduce the precision of a real value. This
includes conversions from real to integer, and from higher precision real to lower
precision real values. This option is also enabled by -Wconversion.
-Wno-scalar-storage-order
Do not warn on suspicious constructs involving reverse scalar storage order.
-Wsizeof-array-div
Warn about divisions of two sizeof operators when the first one is applied to an
array and the divisor does not equal the size of the array element. In such a
case, the computation will not yield the number of elements in the array, which
is likely what the user intended. This warning warns e.g. about
int fn ()
{
int arr[10];
return sizeof (arr) / sizeof (short);
}
This warning is enabled by -Wall.
148 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Wsizeof-pointer-div
Warn for suspicious divisions of two sizeof expressions that divide the pointer
size by the element size, which is the usual way to compute the array size but
won’t work out correctly with pointers. This warning warns e.g. about sizeof
(ptr) / sizeof (ptr[0]) if ptr is not an array, but a pointer. This warning
is enabled by -Wall.
-Wsizeof-pointer-memaccess
Warn for suspicious length parameters to certain string and memory built-
in functions if the argument uses sizeof. This warning triggers for example
for memset (ptr, 0, sizeof (ptr)); if ptr is not an array, but a pointer,
and suggests a possible fix, or about memcpy (&foo, ptr, sizeof (&foo));.
-Wsizeof-pointer-memaccess also warns about calls to bounded string copy
functions like strncat or strncpy that specify as the bound a sizeof expres-
sion of the source array. For example, in the following function the call to
strncat specifies the size of the source string as the bound. That is almost
certainly a mistake and so the call is diagnosed.
void make_file (const char *name)
{
char path[PATH_MAX];
strncpy (path, name, sizeof path - 1);
strncat (path, ".text", sizeof ".text");
...
}
The -Wsizeof-pointer-memaccess option is enabled by -Wall.
-Wno-sizeof-array-argument
Do not warn when the sizeof operator is applied to a parameter that is declared
as an array in a function definition. This warning is enabled by default for C
and C++ programs.
-Wmemset-elt-size
Warn for suspicious calls to the memset built-in function, if the first argument
references an array, and the third argument is a number equal to the number
of elements, but not equal to the size of the array in memory. This indicates
that the user has omitted a multiplication by the element size. This warning is
enabled by -Wall.
-Wmemset-transposed-args
Warn for suspicious calls to the memset built-in function where the second
argument is not zero and the third argument is zero. For example, the call
memset (buf, sizeof buf, 0) is diagnosed because memset (buf, 0, sizeof
buf) was meant instead. The diagnostic is only emitted if the third argument is
a literal zero. Otherwise, if it is an expression that is folded to zero, or a cast of
zero to some type, it is far less likely that the arguments have been mistakenly
transposed and no warning is emitted. This warning is enabled by -Wall.
-Waddress
Warn about suspicious uses of address expressions. These include comparing
the address of a function or a declared object to the null pointer constant such
as in
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 149
void f (void);
void g (void)
{
if (!f) // warning: expression evaluates to false
abort ();
}
comparisons of a pointer to a string literal, such as in
void f (const char *x)
{
if (x == "abc") // warning: expression evaluates to false
puts ("equal");
}
and tests of the results of pointer addition or subtraction for equality to null,
such as in
void f (const int *p, int i)
{
return p + i == NULL;
}
Such uses typically indicate a programmer error: the address of most functions
and objects necessarily evaluates to true (the exception are weak symbols), so
their use in a conditional might indicate missing parentheses in a function call
or a missing dereference in an array expression. The subset of the warning for
object pointers can be suppressed by casting the pointer operand to an integer
type such as intptr_t or uintptr_t. Comparisons against string literals result
in unspecified behavior and are not portable, and suggest the intent was to call
strcmp. The warning is suppressed if the suspicious expression is the result of
macro expansion. -Waddress warning is enabled by -Wall.
-Wno-address-of-packed-member
Do not warn when the address of packed member of struct or union is taken,
which usually results in an unaligned pointer value. This is enabled by default.
-Wlogical-op
Warn about suspicious uses of logical operators in expressions. This includes
using logical operators in contexts where a bit-wise operator is likely to be
expected. Also warns when the operands of a logical operator are the same:
extern int a;
if (a < 0 && a < 0) { ... }
-Wlogical-not-parentheses
Warn about logical not used on the left hand side operand of a comparison.
This option does not warn if the right operand is considered to be a boolean
expression. Its purpose is to detect suspicious code like the following:
int a;
...
if (!a > 1) { ... }
It is possible to suppress the warning by wrapping the LHS into parentheses:
if ((!a) > 1) { ... }
This warning is enabled by -Wall.
150 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Waggregate-return
Warn if any functions that return structures or unions are defined or called. (In
languages where you can return an array, this also elicits a warning.)
-Wno-aggressive-loop-optimizations
Warn if in a loop with constant number of iterations the compiler detects un-
defined behavior in some statement during one or more of the iterations.
-Wno-attributes
Do not warn if an unexpected __attribute__ is used, such as unrecognized
attributes, function attributes applied to variables, etc. This does not stop
errors for incorrect use of supported attributes.
Warnings about ill-formed uses of standard attributes are upgraded to errors
by -pedantic-errors.
Additionally, using -Wno-attributes=, it is possible to suppress warnings
about unknown scoped attributes (in C++11 and C23). For example,
-Wno-attributes=vendor::attr disables warning about the following
declaration:
[[vendor::attr]] void f();
It is also possible to disable warning about all attributes in a namespace us-
ing -Wno-attributes=vendor:: which prevents warning about both of these
declarations:
[[vendor::safe]] void f();
[[vendor::unsafe]] void f2();
Note that -Wno-attributes= does not imply -Wno-attributes.
-Wno-builtin-declaration-mismatch
Warn if a built-in function is declared with an incompatible signature or as a
non-function, or when a built-in function declared with a type that does not
include a prototype is called with arguments whose promoted types do not
match those expected by the function. When -Wextra is specified, also warn
when a built-in function that takes arguments is declared without a prototype.
The -Wbuiltin-declaration-mismatch warning is enabled by default. To
avoid the warning include the appropriate header to bring the prototypes of
built-in functions into scope.
For example, the call to memset below is diagnosed by the warning because the
function expects a value of type size_t as its argument but the type of 32 is
int. With -Wextra, the declaration of the function is diagnosed as well.
extern void* memset ();
void f (void *d)
{
memset (d, '\0', 32);
}
-Wno-builtin-macro-redefined
Do not warn if certain built-in macros are redefined. This suppresses warn-
ings for redefinition of __TIMESTAMP__, __TIME__, __DATE__, __FILE__, and
__BASE_FILE__.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 151
void foo(bar) { }
This warning is also enabled by -Wextra.
-Wno-declaration-missing-parameter-type (C and Objective-C only)
Do not warn if a function declaration contains a parameter name without a type.
Such function declarations do not provide a function prototype and prevent
most type checking in function calls.
This warning is enabled by default. In C99 and later dialects of C, it is
treated as an error. The error can be downgraded to a warning using
-fpermissive (along with certain other errors), or for this error alone, with
-Wno-error=declaration-missing-parameter-type.
This warning is upgraded to an error by -pedantic-errors.
-Wmissing-prototypes (C and Objective-C only)
Warn if a global function is defined without a previous prototype declaration.
This warning is issued even if the definition itself provides a prototype. Use
this option to detect global functions that do not have a matching prototype
declaration in a header file. This option is not valid for C++ because all func-
tion declarations provide prototypes and a non-matching declaration declares
an overload rather than conflict with an earlier declaration. Use -Wmissing-
declarations to detect missing declarations in C++.
-Wmissing-variable-declarations (C and Objective-C only)
Warn if a global variable is defined without a previous declaration. Use this
option to detect global variables that do not have a matching extern declaration
in a header file.
-Wmissing-declarations
Warn if a global function is defined without a previous declaration. Do so
even if the definition itself provides a prototype. Use this option to detect
global functions that are not declared in header files. In C, no warnings are
issued for functions with previous non-prototype declarations; use -Wmissing-
prototypes to detect missing prototypes. In C++, no warnings are issued for
function templates, or for inline functions, or for functions in anonymous names-
paces.
-Wmissing-field-initializers
Warn if a structure’s initializer has some fields missing. For example, the fol-
lowing code causes such a warning, because x.h is implicitly zero:
struct s { int f, g, h; };
struct s x = { 3, 4 };
In C this option does not warn about designated initializers, so the following
modification does not trigger a warning:
struct s { int f, g, h; };
struct s x = { .f = 3, .g = 4 };
In C this option does not warn about the universal zero initializer ‘{ 0 }’:
struct s { int f, g, h; };
struct s x = { 0 };
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 153
Likewise, in C++ this option does not warn about the empty { } initializer, for
example:
struct s { int f, g, h; };
s x = { };
This warning is included in -Wextra. To get other -Wextra warnings without
this one, use -Wextra -Wno-missing-field-initializers.
-Wno-missing-requires
By default, the compiler warns about a concept-id appearing as a C++20 simple-
requirement:
bool satisfied = requires { C<T> };
Here ‘satisfied’ will be true if ‘C<T>’ is a valid expression, which it is for all
T. Presumably the user meant to write
bool satisfied = requires { requires C<T> };
so ‘satisfied’ is only true if concept ‘C’ is satisfied for type ‘T’.
This warning can be disabled with -Wno-missing-requires.
-Wno-missing-template-keyword
The member access tokens ., -> and :: must be followed by the template
keyword if the parent object is dependent and the member being named is a
template.
template <class X>
void DoStuff (X x)
{
x.template DoSomeOtherStuff<X>(); // Good.
x.DoMoreStuff<X>(); // Warning, x is dependent.
}
In rare cases it is possible to get false positives. To silence this, wrap the
expression in parentheses. For example, the following is treated as a template,
even where m and N are integers:
void NotATemplate (my_class t)
{
int N = 5;
same are turned into the same sequence. GCC can warn you if you are using
identifiers that have not been normalized; this option controls that warning.
There are four levels of warning supported by GCC. The default is
-Wnormalized=nfc, which warns about any identifier that is not in the ISO
10646 “C” normalized form, NFC. NFC is the recommended form for most
uses. It is equivalent to -Wnormalized.
Unfortunately, there are some characters allowed in identifiers by ISO C and
ISO C++ that, when turned into NFC, are not allowed in identifiers. That
is, there’s no way to use these symbols in portable ISO C or C++ and have
all your identifiers in NFC. -Wnormalized=id suppresses the warning for these
characters. It is hoped that future versions of the standards involved will correct
this, which is why this option is not the default.
You can switch the warning off for all characters by writing -Wnormalized=none
or -Wno-normalized. You should only do this if you are using some other
normalization scheme (like “D”), because otherwise you can easily create bugs
that are literally impossible to see.
Some characters in ISO 10646 have distinct meanings but look identical in some
fonts or display methodologies, especially once formatting has been applied. For
instance \u207F, “SUPERSCRIPT LATIN SMALL LETTER N”, displays just
like a regular n that has been placed in a superscript. ISO 10646 defines the
NFKC normalization scheme to convert all these into a standard form as well,
and GCC warns if your code is not in NFKC if you use -Wnormalized=nfkc.
This warning is comparable to warning about every identifier that contains the
letter O because it might be confused with the digit 0, and so is not the default,
but may be useful as a local coding convention if the programming environment
cannot be fixed to display these characters distinctly.
-Wno-attribute-warning
Do not warn about usage of functions (see Section 6.35 [Function Attributes],
page 604) declared with warning attribute. By default, this warning is en-
abled. -Wno-attribute-warning can be used to disable the warning or -Wno-
error=attribute-warning can be used to disable the error when compiled
with -Werror flag.
-Wno-deprecated
Do not warn about usage of deprecated features. See Section 7.10 [Deprecated
Features], page 1029.
In C++, explicitly specifying -Wdeprecated also enables warnings about
some features that are deprecated in later language standards, specifically
-Wcomma-subscript, -Wvolatile, -Wdeprecated-enum-float-conversion,
-Wdeprecated-enum-enum-conversion, -Wdeprecated-literal-operator,
and -Wdeprecated-variadic-comma-omission.
-Wno-deprecated-declarations
Do not warn about uses of functions (see Section 6.35 [Function Attributes],
page 604), variables (see Section 6.36 [Variable Attributes], page 676), and types
(see Section 6.37 [Type Attributes], page 692) marked as deprecated by using
the deprecated attribute.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 155
-Wno-overflow
Do not warn about compile-time overflow in constant expressions.
-Wno-odr Warn about One Definition Rule violations during link-time optimization. En-
abled by default.
-Wopenacc-parallelism
Warn about potentially suboptimal choices related to OpenACC parallelism.
-Wno-openmp
Warn about suspicious OpenMP code.
-Wopenmp-simd
Warn if the vectorizer cost model overrides the OpenMP simd directive set by
user. The -fsimd-cost-model=unlimited option can be used to relax the cost
model.
-Woverride-init (C and Objective-C only)
Warn if an initialized field without side effects is overridden when using desig-
nated initializers (see Section 6.31 [Designated Initializers], page 601).
This warning is included in -Wextra. To get other -Wextra warnings without
this one, use -Wextra -Wno-override-init.
-Wno-override-init-side-effects (C and Objective-C only)
Do not warn if an initialized field with side effects is overridden when using
designated initializers (see Section 6.31 [Designated Initializers], page 601). This
warning is enabled by default.
-Wpacked Warn if a structure is given the packed attribute, but the packed attribute has no
effect on the layout or size of the structure. Such structures may be mis-aligned
for little benefit. For instance, in this code, the variable f.x in struct bar is
misaligned even though struct bar does not itself have the packed attribute:
struct foo {
int x;
char a, b, c, d;
} __attribute__((packed));
struct bar {
char z;
struct foo f;
};
-Wnopacked-bitfield-compat
The 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 series of GCC ignore the packed attribute on bit-fields of
type char. This was fixed in GCC 4.4 but the change can lead to differences
in the structure layout. GCC informs you when the offset of such a field has
changed in GCC 4.4. For example there is no longer a 4-bit padding between
field a and b in this structure:
struct foo
{
char a:4;
char b:8;
} __attribute__ ((packed));
This warning is enabled by default. Use -Wno-packed-bitfield-compat to
disable this warning.
156 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
This variable is intended to be used for controlling class layout, to avoid false
sharing in concurrent code:
struct independent_fields {
alignas(std::hardware_destructive_interference_size)
std::atomic<int> one;
alignas(std::hardware_destructive_interference_size)
std::atomic<int> two;
};
Here ‘one’ and ‘two’ are intended to be far enough apart that stores to one
won’t require accesses to the other to reload the cache line.
By default, --param destructive-interference-size and --param
constructive-interference-size are set based on the current -mtune
option, typically to the L1 cache line size for the particular target CPU,
sometimes to a range if tuning for a generic target. So all translation units
that depend on ABI compatibility for the use of these variables must be
compiled with the same -mtune (or -mcpu).
If ABI stability is important, such as if the use is in a header for a library,
you should probably not use the hardware interference size variables at all.
Alternatively, you can force a particular value with --param.
If you are confident that your use of the variable does not affect ABI out-
side a single build of your project, you can turn off the warning with -Wno-
interference-size.
-Wint-in-bool-context
Warn for suspicious use of integer values where boolean values are expected,
such as conditional expressions (?:) using non-boolean integer constants in
boolean context, like if (a <= b ? 2 : 3). Or left shifting of signed integers
in boolean context, like for (a = 0; 1 << a; a++);. Likewise for all kinds of
multiplications regardless of the data type. This warning is enabled by -Wall.
-Wno-int-to-pointer-cast
Suppress warnings from casts to pointer type of an integer of a different size.
In C++, casting to a pointer type of smaller size is an error. Wint-to-pointer-
cast is enabled by default.
-Wno-pointer-to-int-cast (C and Objective-C only)
Suppress warnings from casts from a pointer to an integer type of a different
size.
-Winvalid-pch
Warn if a precompiled header (see Section 3.23 [Precompiled Headers],
page 555) is found in the search path but cannot be used.
-Winvalid-utf8
Warn if an invalid UTF-8 character is found. This warning is on by de-
fault for C++23 if -finput-charset=UTF-8 is used and turned into error with
-pedantic-errors.
-Wno-unicode
Don’t diagnose invalid forms of delimited or named escape sequences which are
treated as separate tokens. Wunicode is enabled by default.
158 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Wlong-long
Warn if long long type is used. This is enabled by either -Wpedantic or
-Wtraditional in ISO C90 and C++98 modes. To inhibit the warning messages,
use -Wno-long-long.
This warning is upgraded to an error by -pedantic-errors.
-Wvariadic-macros
Warn if variadic macros are used in ISO C90 mode, or if the GNU alternate
syntax is used in ISO C99 mode. This is enabled by either -Wpedantic or
-Wtraditional. To inhibit the warning messages, use -Wno-variadic-macros.
-Wno-varargs
Do not warn upon questionable usage of the macros used to handle variable
arguments like va_start. These warnings are enabled by default.
-Wvector-operation-performance
Warn if vector operation is not implemented via SIMD capabilities of the ar-
chitecture. Mainly useful for the performance tuning. Vector operation can be
implemented piecewise, which means that the scalar operation is performed
on every vector element; in parallel, which means that the vector operation
is implemented using scalars of wider type, which normally is more performance
efficient; and as a single scalar, which means that vector fits into a scalar
type.
-Wvla Warn if a variable-length array is used in the code. -Wno-vla prevents the
-Wpedantic warning of the variable-length array.
This warning is upgraded to an error by -pedantic-errors.
-Wvla-larger-than=byte-size
If this option is used, the compiler warns for declarations of variable-length
arrays whose size is either unbounded, or bounded by an argument that allows
the array size to exceed byte-size bytes. This is similar to how -Walloca-
larger-than=byte-size works, but with variable-length arrays.
Note that GCC may optimize small variable-length arrays of a known value
into plain arrays, so this warning may not get triggered for such arrays.
-Wvla-larger-than=‘PTRDIFF_MAX’ is enabled by default but is typically only
effective when -ftree-vrp is active (default for -O2 and above).
See also -Walloca-larger-than=byte-size.
-Wno-vla-larger-than
Disable -Wvla-larger-than= warnings. The option is equivalent to -Wvla-
larger-than=‘SIZE_MAX’ or larger.
-Wvla-parameter
Warn about redeclarations of functions involving arguments of Variable Length
Array types of inconsistent kinds or forms, and enable the detection of out-of-
bounds accesses to such parameters by warnings such as -Warray-bounds.
If the first function declaration uses the VLA form the bound specified in the
array is assumed to be the minimum number of elements expected to be pro-
vided in calls to the function and the maximum number of elements accessed
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 159
by it. Failing to provide arguments of sufficient size or accessing more than the
maximum number of elements may be diagnosed.
For example, the warning triggers for the following redeclarations because the
first one allows an array of any size to be passed to f while the second one
specifies that the array argument must have at least n elements. In addition,
calling f with the associated VLA bound parameter in excess of the actual VLA
bound triggers a warning as well.
void f (int n, int[n]);
// warning: argument 2 previously declared as a VLA
void f (int, int[]);
void g (int n)
{
if (n > 4)
return;
int a[n];
// warning: access to a by f may be out of bounds
f (sizeof a, a);
...
}
-Wanalyzer-allocation-size
-Wanalyzer-deref-before-check
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 161
-Wanalyzer-double-fclose
-Wanalyzer-double-free
-Wanalyzer-exposure-through-output-file
-Wanalyzer-exposure-through-uninit-copy
-Wanalyzer-fd-access-mode-mismatch
-Wanalyzer-fd-double-close
-Wanalyzer-fd-leak
-Wanalyzer-fd-phase-mismatch
-Wanalyzer-fd-type-mismatch
-Wanalyzer-fd-use-after-close
-Wanalyzer-fd-use-without-check
-Wanalyzer-file-leak
-Wanalyzer-free-of-non-heap
-Wanalyzer-imprecise-fp-arithmetic
-Wanalyzer-infinite-loop
-Wanalyzer-infinite-recursion
-Wanalyzer-jump-through-null
-Wanalyzer-malloc-leak
-Wanalyzer-mismatching-deallocation
-Wanalyzer-null-argument
-Wanalyzer-null-dereference
-Wanalyzer-out-of-bounds
-Wanalyzer-overlapping-buffers
-Wanalyzer-possible-null-argument
-Wanalyzer-possible-null-dereference
-Wanalyzer-putenv-of-auto-var
-Wanalyzer-shift-count-negative
-Wanalyzer-shift-count-overflow
-Wanalyzer-stale-setjmp-buffer
-Wanalyzer-tainted-allocation-size
-Wanalyzer-tainted-array-index
-Wanalyzer-tainted-assertion
-Wanalyzer-tainted-divisor
-Wanalyzer-tainted-offset
-Wanalyzer-tainted-size
-Wanalyzer-undefined-behavior-ptrdiff
-Wanalyzer-undefined-behavior-strtok
-Wanalyzer-unsafe-call-within-signal-handler
-Wanalyzer-use-after-free
-Wanalyzer-use-of-pointer-in-stale-stack-frame
-Wanalyzer-use-of-uninitialized-value
-Wanalyzer-va-arg-type-mismatch
-Wanalyzer-va-list-exhausted
-Wanalyzer-va-list-leak
-Wanalyzer-va-list-use-after-va-end
-Wanalyzer-write-to-const
-Wanalyzer-write-to-string-literal
This option is only available if GCC was configured with analyzer support
enabled.
-Wanalyzer-symbol-too-complex
If -fanalyzer is enabled, the analyzer uses various heuristics to attempt to
track the state of memory, but these can be defeated by sufficiently complicated
code.
By default, the analysis silently stops tracking values of expressions if they
exceed the threshold defined by --param analyzer-max-svalue-depth=value,
162 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a pointer can have a
deallocator called on it more than once, either free, or a deallocator referenced
by attribute malloc.
See CWE-415: Double Free (https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/
415.html).
-Wno-analyzer-exposure-through-output-file
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
exposure-through-output-file to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a security-sensitive
value is written to an output file (such as writing a password to a log file).
See CWE-532: Information Exposure Through Log Files (https://cwe.mitre.
org/data/definitions/532.html).
-Wanalyzer-exposure-through-uninit-copy
This warning requires both -fanalyzer and the use of a plugin to specify a func-
tion that copies across a “trust boundary”. Use -Wno-analyzer-exposure-
through-uninit-copy to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for “infoleaks” - paths through the code in which unini-
tialized values are copied across a security boundary (such as code within an
OS kernel that copies a partially-initialized struct on the stack to user space).
See CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
(https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/200.html).
-Wno-analyzer-fd-access-mode-mismatch
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-fd-
access-mode-mismatch to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through code in which a read on a write-only
file descriptor is attempted, or vice versa.
This diagnostic also warns for code paths in a which a function with attribute
fd_arg_read (N) is called with a file descriptor opened with O_WRONLY at ref-
erenced argument N or a function with attribute fd_arg_write (N) is called
with a file descriptor opened with O_RDONLY at referenced argument N.
-Wno-analyzer-fd-double-close
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-fd-
double-close to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through code in which a file descriptor can be
closed more than once.
See CWE-1341: Multiple Releases of Same Resource or Handle (https://cwe.
mitre.org/data/definitions/1341.html).
-Wno-analyzer-fd-leak
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-fd-
leak to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through code in which an open file descriptor
is leaked.
164 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Wno-analyzer-free-of-non-heap
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-free-
of-non-heap to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which free is called on a
non-heap pointer (e.g. an on-stack buffer, or a global).
See CWE-590: Free of Memory not on the Heap (https://cwe.mitre.org/
data/definitions/590.html).
-Wno-analyzer-imprecise-fp-arithmetic
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
imprecise-fp-arithmetic to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which floating-point arith-
metic is used in locations where precise computation is needed. This diagnostic
only warns on use of floating-point operands inside the calculation of an allo-
cation size at the moment.
-Wno-analyzer-infinite-loop
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
infinite-loop to disable it.
This diagnostics warns for paths through the code which appear to lead to an
infinite loop.
Specifically, the analyzer will issue this warning when it "sees" a loop in which:
• no externally-visible work could be being done within the loop
• there is no way to escape from the loop
• the analyzer is sufficiently confident about the program state throughout
the loop to know that the above are true
One way for this warning to be emitted is when there is an execution path
through a loop for which taking the path on one iteration implies that the same
path will be taken on all subsequent iterations.
For example, consider:
while (1)
{
char opcode = *cpu_state.pc;
switch (opcode)
{
case OPCODE_FOO:
handle_opcode_foo (&cpu_state);
break;
case OPCODE_BAR:
handle_opcode_bar (&cpu_state);
break;
}
}
The analyzer will complain for the above case because if opcode ever matches
none of the cases, the switch will follow the implicit default case, making the
body of the loop be a “no-op” with cpu_state.pc unchanged, and thus using
the same value of opcode on all subseqent iterations, leading to an infinite loop.
166 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Wno-analyzer-out-of-bounds
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-out-
of-bounds to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a buffer is definitely
read or written out-of-bounds. The diagnostic applies for cases where the an-
alyzer is able to determine a constant offset and for accesses past the end of a
buffer, also a constant capacity. Further, the diagnostic does limited checking
for accesses past the end when the offset as well as the capacity is symbolic.
See CWE-119: Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a
Memory Buffer (https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/119.html).
For cases where the analyzer is able, it will emit a text art diagram visualizing
the spatial relationship between the memory region that the analyzer predicts
would be accessed, versus the range of memory that is valid to access: whether
they overlap, are touching, are close or far apart; which one is before or after in
memory, the relative sizes involved, the direction of the access (read vs write),
and, in some cases, the values of data involved. This diagram can be suppressed
using -fdiagnostics-text-art-charset=none.
-Wno-analyzer-overlapping-buffers
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
overlapping-buffers to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which overlapping buffers
are passed to an API for which the behavior on such buffers is undefined.
Specifically, the diagnostic occurs on calls to the following functions
• memcpy
• strcat
• strcpy
for cases where the buffers are known to overlap.
-Wno-analyzer-possible-null-argument
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
possible-null-argument to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a possibly-NULL
value is passed to a function argument marked with __attribute__
((nonnull)) as requiring a non-NULL value.
See CWE-690: Unchecked Return Value to NULL Pointer Dereference
(https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/690.html).
-Wno-analyzer-possible-null-dereference
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
possible-null-dereference to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a possibly-NULL
value is dereferenced.
See CWE-690: Unchecked Return Value to NULL Pointer Dereference
(https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/690.html).
168 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Wno-analyzer-null-argument
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-null-
argument to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a value known
to be NULL is passed to a function argument marked with __attribute__
((nonnull)) as requiring a non-NULL value.
See CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference (https://cwe.mitre.org/data/
definitions/476.html).
-Wno-analyzer-null-dereference
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-null-
dereference to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a value known to be
NULL is dereferenced.
See CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference (https://cwe.mitre.org/data/
definitions/476.html).
-Wno-analyzer-putenv-of-auto-var
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
putenv-of-auto-var to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a call to putenv is
passed a pointer to an automatic variable or an on-stack buffer.
See POS34-C. Do not call putenv() with a pointer to an automatic variable as
the argument (https://wiki.sei.cmu.edu/confluence/x/6NYxBQ).
-Wno-analyzer-shift-count-negative
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
shift-count-negative to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a shift is attempted
with a negative count. It is analogous to the -Wshift-count-negative di-
agnostic implemented in the C/C++ front ends, but is implemented based on
analyzing interprocedural paths, rather than merely parsing the syntax tree.
However, the analyzer does not prioritize detection of such paths, so false neg-
atives are more likely relative to other warnings.
-Wno-analyzer-shift-count-overflow
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
shift-count-overflow to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a shift is attempted
with a count greater than or equal to the precision of the operand’s type.
It is analogous to the -Wshift-count-overflow diagnostic implemented in
the C/C++ front ends, but is implemented based on analyzing interprocedural
paths, rather than merely parsing the syntax tree. However, the analyzer does
not prioritize detection of such paths, so false negatives are more likely relative
to other warnings.
-Wno-analyzer-stale-setjmp-buffer
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
stale-setjmp-buffer to disable it.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 169
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which longjmp is called to
rewind to a jmp_buf relating to a setjmp call in a function that has returned.
When setjmp is called on a jmp_buf to record a rewind location, it records the
stack frame. The stack frame becomes invalid when the function containing the
setjmp call returns. Attempting to rewind to it via longjmp would reference a
stack frame that no longer exists, and likely lead to a crash (or worse).
-Wno-analyzer-tainted-allocation-size
This warning requires -fanalyzer which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
tainted-allocation-size to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a value that could
be under an attacker’s control is used as the size of an allocation without being
sanitized, so that an attacker could inject an excessively large allocation and
potentially cause a denial of service attack.
See CWE-789: Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value (https://cwe.
mitre.org/data/definitions/789.html).
-Wno-analyzer-tainted-assertion
This warning requires -fanalyzer which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
tainted-assertion to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a value that could
be under an attacker’s control is used as part of a condition without being first
sanitized, and that condition guards a call to a function marked with attribute
noreturn (such as the function __builtin_unreachable). Such functions typi-
cally indicate abnormal termination of the program, such as for assertion failure
handlers. For example:
assert (some_tainted_value < SOME_LIMIT);
In such cases:
• when assertion-checking is enabled: an attacker could trigger a denial of
service by injecting an assertion failure
• when assertion-checking is disabled, such as by defining NDEBUG, an attacker
could inject data that subverts the process, since it presumably violates a
precondition that is being assumed by the code.
Note that when assertion-checking is disabled, the assertions are typically re-
moved by the preprocessor before the analyzer has a chance to "see" them, so
this diagnostic can only generate warnings on builds in which assertion-checking
is enabled.
For the purpose of this warning, any function marked with attribute noreturn
is considered as a possible assertion failure handler, including __builtin_
unreachable. Note that these functions are sometimes removed by the opti-
mizer before the analyzer "sees" them. Hence optimization should be disabled
when attempting to trigger this diagnostic.
See CWE-617: Reachable Assertion (https://cwe.mitre.org/data/
definitions/617.html).
The warning can also report problematic constructions such as
switch (some_tainted_value) {
170 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
case 0:
/* [...etc; various valid cases omitted...] */
break;
default:
__builtin_unreachable (); /* BUG: attacker can trigger this */
}
despite the above not being an assertion failure, strictly speaking.
-Wno-analyzer-tainted-array-index
This warning requires -fanalyzer which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
tainted-array-index to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a value that could
be under an attacker’s control is used as the index of an array access without
being sanitized, so that an attacker could inject an out-of-bounds access.
See CWE-129: Improper Validation of Array Index (https://cwe.mitre.org/
data/definitions/129.html).
-Wno-analyzer-tainted-divisor
This warning requires -fanalyzer which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
tainted-divisor to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a value that could
be under an attacker’s control is used as the divisor in a division or modulus
operation without being sanitized, so that an attacker could inject a division-
by-zero.
See CWE-369: Divide By Zero (https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/
369.html).
-Wno-analyzer-tainted-offset
This warning requires -fanalyzer which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
tainted-offset to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a value that could be
under an attacker’s control is used as a pointer offset without being sanitized,
so that an attacker could inject an out-of-bounds access.
See CWE-823: Use of Out-of-range Pointer Offset (https://cwe.mitre.org/
data/definitions/823.html).
-Wno-analyzer-tainted-size
This warning requires -fanalyzer which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
tainted-size to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a value that could
be under an attacker’s control is used as the size of an operation such as memset
without being sanitized, so that an attacker could inject an out-of-bounds ac-
cess.
See CWE-129: Improper Validation of Array Index (https://cwe.mitre.org/
data/definitions/129.html).
-Wno-analyzer-undefined-behavior-ptrdiff
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
undefined-behavior-ptrdiff to disable it.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 171
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a pointer subtraction
occurs where the pointers refer to different chunks of memory. Such code relies
on undefined behavior, as pointer subtraction is only defined for cases where
both pointers point to within (or just after) the same array.
See CWE-469: Use of Pointer Subtraction to Determine Size (https://cwe.
mitre.org/data/definitions/469.html).
-Wno-analyzer-undefined-behavior-strtok
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
undefined-behavior-strtok to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a call is made to
strtok with undefined behavior.
Specifically, passing NULL as the first parameter for the initial call to strtok
within a process has undefined behavior.
-Wno-analyzer-unsafe-call-within-signal-handler
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
unsafe-call-within-signal-handler to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a function known to
be async-signal-unsafe (such as fprintf) is called from a signal handler.
See CWE-479: Signal Handler Use of a Non-reentrant Function (https://cwe.
mitre.org/data/definitions/479.html).
-Wno-analyzer-use-after-free
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-use-
after-free to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a pointer is used
after a deallocator is called on it: either free, or a deallocator referenced by
attribute malloc.
See CWE-416: Use After Free (https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/
416.html).
-Wno-analyzer-use-of-pointer-in-stale-stack-frame
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-use-
of-pointer-in-stale-stack-frame to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which a pointer is derefer-
enced that points to a variable in a stale stack frame.
-Wno-analyzer-va-arg-type-mismatch
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-va-
arg-type-mismatch to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for interprocedural paths through the code for which
the analyzer detects an attempt to use va_arg to extract a value passed to a
variadic call, but uses a type that does not match that of the expression passed
to the call.
See CWE-686: Function Call With Incorrect Argument Type (https://cwe.
mitre.org/data/definitions/686.html).
172 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Wno-analyzer-va-list-exhausted
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-va-
list-exhausted to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for interprocedural paths through the code for which the
analyzer detects an attempt to use va_arg to access the next value passed to a
variadic call, but all of the values in the va_list have already been consumed.
See CWE-685: Function Call With Incorrect Number of Arguments (https://
cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/685.html).
-Wno-analyzer-va-list-leak
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-va-
list-leak to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for interprocedural paths through the code for which
the analyzer detects that va_start or va_copy has been called on a va_list
without a corresponding call to va_end.
-Wno-analyzer-va-list-use-after-va-end
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-va-
list-use-after-va-end to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for interprocedural paths through the code for which the
analyzer detects an attempt to use a va_list after va_end has been called on
it. va_list.
-Wno-analyzer-write-to-const
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
write-to-const to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which the analyzer detects
an attempt to write through a pointer to a const object. However, the analyzer
does not prioritize detection of such paths, so false negatives are more likely
relative to other warnings.
-Wno-analyzer-write-to-string-literal
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-
write-to-string-literal to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which the analyzer detects
an attempt to write through a pointer to a string literal. However, the analyzer
does not prioritize detection of such paths, so false negatives are more likely
relative to other warnings.
-Wno-analyzer-use-of-uninitialized-value
This warning requires -fanalyzer, which enables it; use -Wno-analyzer-use-
of-uninitialized-value to disable it.
This diagnostic warns for paths through the code in which an uninitialized value
is used.
See CWE-457: Use of Uninitialized Variable (https://cwe.mitre.org/data/
definitions/457.html).
The analyzer has hardcoded knowledge about the behavior of the following memory-
management functions:
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 173
• alloca
• The built-in functions __builtin_alloc, __builtin_alloc_with_align,
• __builtin_calloc, __builtin_free, __builtin_malloc, __builtin_memcpy,
__builtin_memcpy_chk, __builtin_memset, __builtin_memset_chk, __builtin_
realloc, __builtin_stack_restore, and __builtin_stack_save
• calloc
• free
• malloc
• memset
• operator delete
• operator delete []
• operator new
• operator new []
• realloc
• strdup
• strndup
of the following functions for working with file descriptors:
• open
• close
• creat
• dup, dup2 and dup3
• isatty
• pipe, and pipe2
• read
• write
• socket, bind, listen, accept, and connect
of the following functions for working with <stdio.h> streams:
• The built-in functions __builtin_fprintf, __builtin_fprintf_unlocked,
__builtin_fputc, __builtin_fputc_unlocked, __builtin_fputs, __builtin_
fputs_unlocked, __builtin_fwrite, __builtin_fwrite_unlocked, __builtin_
printf, __builtin_printf_unlocked, __builtin_putc, __builtin_putchar,
__builtin_putchar_unlocked, __builtin_putc_unlocked, __builtin_puts,
__builtin_puts_unlocked, __builtin_vfprintf, and __builtin_vprintf
• fopen
• fclose
• ferror
• fgets
• fgets_unlocked
• fileno
174 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
• fread
• getc
• getchar
• fprintf
• printf
• fwrite
and of the following functions:
• The built-in functions __builtin_expect, __builtin_expect_with_probability, _
_builtin_strchr, __builtin_strcpy, __builtin_strcpy_chk, __builtin_strlen,
__builtin_va_copy, and __builtin_va_start
• The GNU extensions error and error_at_line
• getpass
• longjmp
• putenv
• setjmp
• siglongjmp
• signal
• sigsetjmp
• strcat
• strchr
• strlen
In addition, various functions with an __analyzer_ prefix have special meaning to the
analyzer, described in the GCC Internals manual.
Pertinent parameters for controlling the exploration are:
• --param analyzer-bb-explosion-factor=value
• --param analyzer-max-enodes-per-program-point=value
• --param analyzer-max-recursion-depth=value
• --param analyzer-min-snodes-for-call-summary=value
The following options control the analyzer.
-fanalyzer-call-summaries
Simplify interprocedural analysis by computing the effect of certain calls, rather
than exploring all paths through the function from callsite to each possible
return.
If enabled, call summaries are only used for functions with more than one
call site, and that are sufficiently complicated (as per --param analyzer-min-
snodes-for-call-summary=value).
-fanalyzer-checker=name
Restrict the analyzer to run just the named checker, and enable it.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 175
-fanalyzer-debug-text-art-headings
This option is intended for analyzer developers. If enabled, the analyzer will
add extra annotations to any diagrams it generates.
-fno-analyzer-feasibility
This option is intended for analyzer developers.
By default the analyzer verifies that there is a feasible control flow path for each
diagnostic it emits: that the conditions that hold are not mutually exclusive.
Diagnostics for which no feasible path can be found are rejected. This filtering
can be suppressed with -fno-analyzer-feasibility, for debugging issues in
this code.
-fanalyzer-fine-grained
This option is intended for analyzer developers.
Internally the analyzer builds an “exploded graph” that combines control flow
graphs with data flow information.
By default, an edge in this graph can contain the effects of a run of multi-
ple statements within a basic block. With -fanalyzer-fine-grained, each
statement gets its own edge.
-fanalyzer-show-duplicate-count
This option is intended for analyzer developers: if multiple diagnostics have
been detected as being duplicates of each other, it emits a note when report-
ing the best diagnostic, giving the number of additional diagnostics that were
suppressed by the deduplication logic.
-fanalyzer-show-events-in-system-headers
By default the analyzer emits simplified diagnostics paths by hiding events fully
located within a system header. With -fanalyzer-show-events-in-system-
headers such events are no longer suppressed.
-fno-analyzer-state-merge
This option is intended for analyzer developers.
By default the analyzer attempts to simplify analysis by merging sufficiently
similar states at each program point as it builds its “exploded graph”. With
-fno-analyzer-state-merge this merging can be suppressed, for debugging
state-handling issues.
-fno-analyzer-state-purge
This option is intended for analyzer developers.
By default the analyzer attempts to simplify analysis by purging aspects of
state at a program point that appear to no longer be relevant e.g. the values
of locals that aren’t accessed later in the function and which aren’t relevant to
leak analysis.
With -fno-analyzer-state-purge this purging of state can be suppressed, for
debugging state-handling issues.
-fno-analyzer-suppress-followups
This option is intended for analyzer developers.
176 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
By default the analyzer will stop exploring an execution path after encountering
certain diagnostics, in order to avoid potentially issuing a cascade of follow-up
diagnostics.
The diagnostics that terminate analysis along a path are:
• -Wanalyzer-null-argument
• -Wanalyzer-null-dereference
• -Wanalyzer-use-after-free
• -Wanalyzer-use-of-pointer-in-stale-stack-frame
• -Wanalyzer-use-of-uninitialized-value
With -fno-analyzer-suppress-followups the analyzer will continue to ex-
plore such paths even after such diagnostics, which may be helpful for debugging
issues in the analyzer, or for microbenchmarks for detecting undefined behavior.
-fanalyzer-transitivity
This option enables transitivity of constraints within the analyzer.
-fno-analyzer-undo-inlining
This option is intended for analyzer developers.
-fanalyzer runs relatively late compared to other code analysis tools, and
some optimizations have already been applied to the code. In particular func-
tion inlining may have occurred, leading to the interprocedural execution paths
emitted by the analyzer containing function frames that don’t correspond to
those in the original source code.
By default the analyzer attempts to reconstruct the original function frames,
and to emit events showing the inlined calls.
With -fno-analyzer-undo-inlining this attempt to reconstruct the original
frame information can be disabled, which may be of help when debugging issues
in the analyzer.
-fanalyzer-verbose-edges
This option is intended for analyzer developers. It enables more verbose, lower-
level detail in the descriptions of control flow within diagnostic paths.
-fanalyzer-verbose-state-changes
This option is intended for analyzer developers. It enables more verbose, lower-
level detail in the descriptions of events relating to state machines within diag-
nostic paths.
-fanalyzer-verbosity=level
This option controls the complexity of the control flow paths that are emitted
for analyzer diagnostics.
The level can be one of:
‘0’ At this level, interprocedural call and return events are displayed,
along with the most pertinent state-change events relating to a
diagnostic. For example, for a double-free diagnostic, both calls
to free will be shown.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 177
‘1’ As per the previous level, but also show events for the entry to each
function.
‘2’ As per the previous level, but also show events relating to control
flow that are significant to triggering the issue (e.g. “true path
taken” at a conditional).
This level is the default.
‘3’ As per the previous level, but show all control flow events, not just
significant ones.
‘4’ This level is intended for analyzer developers; it adds various other
events intended for debugging the analyzer.
-fdump-analyzer
Dump internal details about what the analyzer is doing to file.analyzer.txt.
-fdump-analyzer-stderr overrides this option.
-fdump-analyzer-stderr
Dump internal details about what the analyzer is doing to stderr. This option
overrides -fdump-analyzer.
-fdump-analyzer-callgraph
Dump a representation of the call graph suitable for viewing with GraphViz to
file.callgraph.dot.
-fdump-analyzer-exploded-graph
Dump a representation of the “exploded graph” suitable for viewing with
GraphViz to file.eg.dot. Nodes are color-coded based on state-machine
states to emphasize state changes.
-fdump-analyzer-exploded-nodes
Emit diagnostics showing where nodes in the “exploded graph” are in relation
to the program source.
-fdump-analyzer-exploded-nodes-2
Dump a textual representation of the “exploded graph” to file.eg.txt.
-fdump-analyzer-exploded-nodes-3
Dump a textual representation of the “exploded graph” to one dump file per
node, to file.eg-id.txt. This is typically a large number of dump files.
-fdump-analyzer-exploded-paths
Dump a textual representation of the “exploded path” for each diagnostic to
file.idx.kind.epath.txt.
-fdump-analyzer-feasibility
Dump internal details about the analyzer’s search for feasible paths. The details
are written in a form suitable for viewing with GraphViz to filenames of the
form file.*.fg.dot, file.*.tg.dot, and file.*.fpath.txt.
-fdump-analyzer-infinite-loop
Dump internal details about the analyzer’s search for infinite loops. The details
are written in a form suitable for viewing with GraphViz to filenames of the
form file.*.infinite-loop.dot.
178 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fdump-analyzer-json
Dump a compressed JSON representation of analyzer internals to
file.analyzer.json.gz. The precise format is subject to change.
-fdump-analyzer-state-purge
As per -fdump-analyzer-supergraph, dump a representation of the “super-
graph” suitable for viewing with GraphViz, but annotate the graph with in-
formation on what state will be purged at each node. The graph is written to
file.state-purge.dot.
-fdump-analyzer-supergraph
Dump representations of the “supergraph” suitable for viewing with GraphViz
to file.supergraph.dot and to file.supergraph-eg.dot. These show all of
the control flow graphs in the program, with interprocedural edges for calls and
returns. The second dump contains annotations showing nodes in the “exploded
graph” and diagnostics associated with them.
-fdump-analyzer-untracked
Emit custom warnings with internal details intended for analyzer developers.
-gdwarf
-gdwarf-version
Produce debugging information in DWARF format (if that is supported). The
value of version may be either 2, 3, 4 or 5; the default version for most targets
is 5 (with the exception of VxWorks, TPF and Darwin / macOS, which default
to version 2, and AIX, which defaults to version 4).
Note that with DWARF Version 2, some ports require and always use some
non-conflicting DWARF 3 extensions in the unwind tables.
Version 4 may require GDB 7.0 and -fvar-tracking-assignments for maxi-
mum benefit. Version 5 requires GDB 8.0 or higher.
GCC no longer supports DWARF Version 1, which is substantially different
than Version 2 and later. For historical reasons, some other DWARF-related
options such as -fno-dwarf2-cfi-asm) retain a reference to DWARF Version
2 in their names, but apply to all currently-supported versions of DWARF.
-gbtf Request BTF debug information. BTF is the default debugging format for the
eBPF target. On other targets, like x86, BTF debug information can be gen-
erated along with DWARF debug information when both of the debug formats
are enabled explicitly via their respective command line options.
-gprune-btf
-gno-prune-btf
Prune BTF information before emission. When pruning, only type information
for types used by global variables and file-scope functions will be emitted. If
compiling for the BPF target with BPF CO-RE enabled, type information will
also be emitted for types used in BPF CO-RE relocations. In addition, struct
and union types which are only referred to via pointers from members of other
struct or union types shall be pruned and replaced with BTF KIND FWD, as
though those types were only present in the input as forward declarations.
This option substantially reduces the size of produced BTF information, but
at significant loss in the amount of detailed type information. It is primarily
useful when compiling for the BPF target, to minimize the size of the resulting
object, and to eliminate BTF information which is not immediately relevant to
the BPF program loading process.
This option is enabled by default for the BPF target when generating BTF
information.
-gctf
-gctflevel
Request CTF debug information and use level to specify how much CTF debug
information should be produced. If -gctf is specified without a value for level,
the default level of CTF debug information is 2.
CTF debug information can be generated along with DWARF debug informa-
tion when both of the debug formats are enabled explicitly via their respective
command line options.
Level 0 produces no CTF debug information at all. Thus, -gctf0 negates
-gctf.
180 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Level 1 produces CTF information for tracebacks only. This includes callsite
information, but does not include type information.
Level 2 produces type information for entities (functions, data objects etc.) at
file-scope or global-scope only.
-gvms Produce debugging information in Alpha/VMS debug format (if that is sup-
ported). This is the format used by DEBUG on Alpha/VMS systems.
-gcodeview
Produce debugging information in CodeView debug format (if that is sup-
ported). This is the format used by Microsoft Visual C++ on Windows.
-glevel
-ggdblevel
-gvmslevel
Request debugging information and also use level to specify how much infor-
mation. The default level is 2.
Level 0 produces no debug information at all. Thus, -g0 negates -g.
Level 1 produces minimal information, enough for making backtraces in parts
of the program that you don’t plan to debug. This includes descriptions of
functions and external variables, and line number tables, but no information
about local variables.
Level 3 includes extra information, such as all the macro definitions present in
the program. Some debuggers support macro expansion when you use -g3.
If you use multiple -g options, with or without level numbers, the last such
option is the one that is effective.
-gdwarf does not accept a concatenated debug level, to avoid confusion with
-gdwarf-level. Instead use an additional -glevel option to change the debug
level for DWARF.
-fno-eliminate-unused-debug-symbols
By default, no debug information is produced for symbols that are not actually
used. Use this option if you want debug information for all symbols.
-femit-class-debug-always
Instead of emitting debugging information for a C++ class in only one object file,
emit it in all object files using the class. This option should be used only with
debuggers that are unable to handle the way GCC normally emits debugging
information for classes because using this option increases the size of debugging
information by as much as a factor of two.
-fno-merge-debug-strings
Direct the linker to not merge together strings in the debugging information
that are identical in different object files. Merging is not supported by all
assemblers or linkers. Merging decreases the size of the debug information in
the output file at the cost of increasing link processing time. Merging is enabled
by default.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 181
-fdebug-prefix-map=old=new
When compiling files residing in directory old, record debugging information
describing them as if the files resided in directory new instead. This can be
used to replace a build-time path with an install-time path in the debug info.
It can also be used to change an absolute path to a relative path by using . for
new. This can give more reproducible builds, which are location independent,
but may require an extra command to tell GDB where to find the source files.
See also -ffile-prefix-map and -fcanon-prefix-map.
-fvar-tracking
Run variable tracking pass. It computes where variables are stored at each posi-
tion in code. Better debugging information is then generated (if the debugging
information format supports this information).
It is enabled by default when compiling with optimization (-Os, -O, -O2, . . . ),
debugging information (-g) and the debug info format supports it.
-fvar-tracking-assignments
Annotate assignments to user variables early in the compilation and attempt to
carry the annotations over throughout the compilation all the way to the end, in
an attempt to improve debug information while optimizing. Use of -gdwarf-4
is recommended along with it.
It can be enabled even if var-tracking is disabled, in which case annotations
are created and maintained, but discarded at the end. By default, this flag
is enabled together with -fvar-tracking, except when selective scheduling is
enabled.
-gsplit-dwarf
If DWARF debugging information is enabled, separate as much debugging in-
formation as possible into a separate output file with the extension .dwo. This
option allows the build system to avoid linking files with debug information.
To be useful, this option requires a debugger capable of reading .dwo files.
-gdwarf32
-gdwarf64
If DWARF debugging information is enabled, the -gdwarf32 selects the 32-bit
DWARF format and the -gdwarf64 selects the 64-bit DWARF format. The
default is target specific, on most targets it is -gdwarf32 though. The 32-bit
DWARF format is smaller, but can’t support more than 2GiB of debug infor-
mation in any of the DWARF debug information sections. The 64-bit DWARF
format allows larger debug information and might not be well supported by all
consumers yet.
-gdescribe-dies
Add description attributes to some DWARF DIEs that have no name attribute,
such as artificial variables, external references and call site parameter DIEs.
-gpubnames
Generate DWARF .debug_pubnames and .debug_pubtypes sections.
182 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-ggnu-pubnames
Generate .debug_pubnames and .debug_pubtypes sections in a format suitable
for conversion into a GDB index. This option is only useful with a linker that
can produce GDB index version 7.
-fdebug-types-section
When using DWARF Version 4 or higher, type DIEs can be put into their own
.debug_types section instead of making them part of the .debug_info section.
It is more efficient to put them in a separate comdat section since the linker
can then remove duplicates. But not all DWARF consumers support .debug_
types sections yet and on some objects .debug_types produces larger instead
of smaller debugging information.
-grecord-gcc-switches
-gno-record-gcc-switches
This switch causes the command-line options used to invoke the compiler that
may affect code generation to be appended to the DW AT producer attribute
in DWARF debugging information. The options are concatenated with spaces
separating them from each other and from the compiler version. It is enabled by
default. See also -frecord-gcc-switches for another way of storing compiler
options into the object file.
-gstrict-dwarf
Disallow using extensions of later DWARF standard version than selected with
-gdwarf-version. On most targets using non-conflicting DWARF extensions
from later standard versions is allowed.
-gno-strict-dwarf
Allow using extensions of later DWARF standard version than selected with
-gdwarf-version.
-gas-loc-support
Inform the compiler that the assembler supports .loc directives. It may then
use them for the assembler to generate DWARF2+ line number tables.
This is generally desirable, because assembler-generated line-number tables are
a lot more compact than those the compiler can generate itself.
This option will be enabled by default if, at GCC configure time, the assembler
was found to support such directives.
-gno-as-loc-support
Force GCC to generate DWARF2+ line number tables internally, if DWARF2+
line number tables are to be generated.
-gas-locview-support
Inform the compiler that the assembler supports view assignment and reset
assertion checking in .loc directives.
This option will be enabled by default if, at GCC configure time, the assembler
was found to support them.
-gno-as-locview-support
Force GCC to assign view numbers internally, if -gvariable-location-views
are explicitly requested.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 183
-gcolumn-info
-gno-column-info
Emit location column information into DWARF debugging information, rather
than just file and line. This option is enabled by default.
-gstatement-frontiers
-gno-statement-frontiers
This option causes GCC to create markers in the internal representation at
the beginning of statements, and to keep them roughly in place throughout
compilation, using them to guide the output of is_stmt markers in the line
number table. This is enabled by default when compiling with optimization
(-Os, -O1, -O2, . . . ), and outputting DWARF 2 debug information at the
normal level.
-gvariable-location-views
-gvariable-location-views=incompat5
-gno-variable-location-views
Augment variable location lists with progressive view numbers implied from the
line number table. This enables debug information consumers to inspect state
at certain points of the program, even if no instructions associated with the
corresponding source locations are present at that point. If the assembler lacks
support for view numbers in line number tables, this will cause the compiler to
emit the line number table, which generally makes them somewhat less com-
pact. The augmented line number tables and location lists are fully backward-
compatible, so they can be consumed by debug information consumers that are
not aware of these augmentations, but they won’t derive any benefit from them
either.
This is enabled by default when outputting DWARF 2 debug information at
the normal level, as long as there is assembler support, -fvar-tracking-
assignments is enabled and -gstrict-dwarf is not. When assembler support
is not available, this may still be enabled, but it will force GCC to output in-
ternal line number tables, and if -ginternal-reset-location-views is not
enabled, that will most certainly lead to silently mismatching location views.
There is a proposed representation for view numbers that is not backward
compatible with the location list format introduced in DWARF 5, that can be
enabled with -gvariable-location-views=incompat5. This option may be
removed in the future, is only provided as a reference implementation of the
proposed representation. Debug information consumers are not expected to
support this extended format, and they would be rendered unable to decode
location lists using it.
-ginternal-reset-location-views
-gno-internal-reset-location-views
Attempt to determine location views that can be omitted from location view
lists. This requires the compiler to have very accurate insn length estimates,
which isn’t always the case, and it may cause incorrect view lists to be generated
silently when using an assembler that does not support location view lists. The
184 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
GNU assembler will flag any such error as a view number mismatch. This is
only enabled on ports that define a reliable estimation function.
-ginline-points
-gno-inline-points
Generate extended debug information for inlined functions. Location view
tracking markers are inserted at inlined entry points, so that address and view
numbers can be computed and output in debug information. This can be en-
abled independently of location views, in which case the view numbers won’t
be output, but it can only be enabled along with statement frontiers, and it is
only enabled by default if location views are enabled.
-gz[=type]
Produce compressed debug sections in DWARF format, if that is supported. If
type is not given, the default type depends on the capabilities of the assembler
and linker used. type may be one of ‘none’ (don’t compress debug sections),
or ‘zlib’ (use zlib compression in ELF gABI format). If the linker doesn’t
support writing compressed debug sections, the option is rejected. Otherwise,
if the assembler does not support them, -gz is silently ignored when producing
object files.
-femit-struct-debug-baseonly
Emit debug information for struct-like types only when the base name of the
compilation source file matches the base name of file in which the struct is
defined.
This option substantially reduces the size of debugging information,
but at significant potential loss in type information to the debugger.
See -femit-struct-debug-reduced for a less aggressive option. See
-femit-struct-debug-detailed for more detailed control.
This option works only with DWARF debug output.
-femit-struct-debug-reduced
Emit debug information for struct-like types only when the base name of the
compilation source file matches the base name of file in which the type is defined,
unless the struct is a template or defined in a system header.
This option significantly reduces the size of debugging information, with some
potential loss in type information to the debugger. See -femit-struct-debug-
baseonly for a more aggressive option. See -femit-struct-debug-detailed
for more detailed control.
This option works only with DWARF debug output.
-femit-struct-debug-detailed[=spec-list]
Specify the struct-like types for which the compiler generates debug informa-
tion. The intent is to reduce duplicate struct debug information between dif-
ferent object files within the same program.
This option is a detailed version of -femit-struct-debug-reduced and
-femit-struct-debug-baseonly, which serves for most needs.
A specification has the syntax
[‘dir:’|‘ind:’][‘ord:’|‘gen:’](‘any’|‘sys’|‘base’|‘none’)
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 185
The optional first word limits the specification to structs that are used directly
(‘dir:’) or used indirectly (‘ind:’). A struct type is used directly when it is
the type of a variable, member. Indirect uses arise through pointers to structs.
That is, when use of an incomplete struct is valid, the use is indirect. An
example is ‘struct one direct; struct two * indirect;’.
The optional second word limits the specification to ordinary structs (‘ord:’) or
generic structs (‘gen:’). Generic structs are a bit complicated to explain. For
C++, these are non-explicit specializations of template classes, or non-template
classes within the above. Other programming languages have generics, but
-femit-struct-debug-detailed does not yet implement them.
The third word specifies the source files for those structs for which the compiler
should emit debug information. The values ‘none’ and ‘any’ have the normal
meaning. The value ‘base’ means that the base of name of the file in which
the type declaration appears must match the base of the name of the main
compilation file. In practice, this means that when compiling foo.c, debug
information is generated for types declared in that file and foo.h, but not other
header files. The value ‘sys’ means those types satisfying ‘base’ or declared in
system or compiler headers.
You may need to experiment to determine the best settings for your application.
The default is -femit-struct-debug-detailed=all.
This option works only with DWARF debug output.
-fno-dwarf2-cfi-asm
Emit DWARF unwind info as compiler generated .eh_frame section instead of
using GAS .cfi_* directives.
-fno-eliminate-unused-debug-types
Normally, when producing DWARF output, GCC avoids producing debug sym-
bol output for types that are nowhere used in the source file being compiled.
Sometimes it is useful to have GCC emit debugging information for all types
declared in a compilation unit, regardless of whether or not they are actually
used in that compilation unit, for example if, in the debugger, you want to cast
a value to a type that is not actually used in your program (but is declared).
More often, however, this results in a significant amount of wasted space.
The compiler performs optimization based on the knowledge it has of the program. Com-
piling multiple files at once to a single output file mode allows the compiler to use informa-
tion gained from all of the files when compiling each of them.
Not all optimizations are controlled directly by a flag. Only optimizations that have a
flag are listed in this section.
Most optimizations are completely disabled at -O0 or if an -O level is not set on the
command line, even if individual optimization flags are specified. Similarly, -Og suppresses
many optimization passes.
Depending on the target and how GCC was configured, a slightly different set of opti-
mizations may be enabled at each -O level than those listed here. You can invoke GCC
with -Q --help=optimizers to find out the exact set of optimizations that are enabled at
each level. See Section 3.2 [Overall Options], page 32, for examples.
-O
-O1 Optimize. Optimizing compilation takes somewhat more time, and a lot more
memory for a large function.
With -O, the compiler tries to reduce code size and execution time, without
performing any optimizations that take a great deal of compilation time.
-O is the recommended optimization level for large machine-generated code
as a sensible balance between time taken to compile and memory use: higher
optimization levels perform optimizations with greater algorithmic complexity
than at -O.
-O turns on the following optimization flags:
-fauto-inc-dec
-fbranch-count-reg
-fcombine-stack-adjustments
-fcompare-elim
-fcprop-registers
-fdce
-fdefer-pop
-fdelayed-branch
-fdse
-fforward-propagate
-fguess-branch-probability
-fif-conversion
-fif-conversion2
-finline-functions-called-once
-fipa-modref
-fipa-profile
-fipa-pure-const
-fipa-reference
-fipa-reference-addressable
-fmerge-constants
-fmove-loop-invariants
-fmove-loop-stores
-fomit-frame-pointer
-freorder-blocks
-fshrink-wrap
-fshrink-wrap-separate
-fsplit-wide-types
-fssa-backprop
-fssa-phiopt
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 187
-ftree-bit-ccp
-ftree-ccp
-ftree-ch
-ftree-coalesce-vars
-ftree-copy-prop
-ftree-dce
-ftree-dominator-opts
-ftree-dse
-ftree-forwprop
-ftree-fre
-ftree-phiprop
-ftree-pta
-ftree-scev-cprop
-ftree-sink
-ftree-slsr
-ftree-sra
-ftree-ter
-funit-at-a-time
-O2 Optimize even more. GCC performs nearly all supported optimizations that
do not involve a space-speed tradeoff. As compared to -O, this option increases
both compilation time and the performance of the generated code.
-O2 turns on all optimization flags specified by -O1. It also turns on the fol-
lowing optimization flags:
-falign-functions -falign-jumps
-falign-labels -falign-loops
-fcaller-saves
-fcode-hoisting
-fcrossjumping
-fcse-follow-jumps -fcse-skip-blocks
-fdelete-null-pointer-checks
-fdevirtualize -fdevirtualize-speculatively
-fexpensive-optimizations
-ffinite-loops
-fgcse -fgcse-lm
-fhoist-adjacent-loads
-finline-functions
-finline-small-functions
-findirect-inlining
-fipa-bit-cp -fipa-cp -fipa-icf
-fipa-ra -fipa-sra -fipa-vrp
-fisolate-erroneous-paths-dereference
-flra-remat
-foptimize-crc
-foptimize-sibling-calls
-foptimize-strlen
-fpartial-inlining
-fpeephole2
-freorder-blocks-algorithm=stc
-freorder-blocks-and-partition -freorder-functions
-frerun-cse-after-loop
-fschedule-insns -fschedule-insns2
-fsched-interblock -fsched-spec
-fstore-merging
-fstrict-aliasing
-fthread-jumps
-ftree-builtin-call-dce
188 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-ftree-loop-vectorize
-ftree-pre
-ftree-slp-vectorize
-ftree-switch-conversion -ftree-tail-merge
-ftree-vrp
-fvect-cost-model=very-cheap
Please note the warning under -fgcse about invoking -O2 on programs that
use computed gotos.
-O3 Optimize yet more. -O3 turns on all optimizations specified by -O2 and also
turns on the following optimization flags:
-fgcse-after-reload
-fipa-cp-clone
-floop-interchange
-floop-unroll-and-jam
-fpeel-loops
-fpredictive-commoning
-fsplit-loops
-fsplit-paths
-ftree-loop-distribution
-ftree-partial-pre
-funswitch-loops
-fvect-cost-model=dynamic
-fversion-loops-for-strides
-O0 Reduce compilation time and make debugging produce the expected results.
This is the default.
-Os Optimize for size. -Os enables all -O2 optimizations except those that often
increase code size:
-falign-functions -falign-jumps
-falign-labels -falign-loops
-fprefetch-loop-arrays -freorder-blocks-algorithm=stc
It also enables -finline-functions, causes the compiler to tune for code size
rather than execution speed, and performs further optimizations designed to
reduce code size.
-Ofast Disregard strict standards compliance. -Ofast enables all -O3 optimizations.
It also enables optimizations that are not valid for all standard-compliant
programs. It turns on -ffast-math, -fallow-store-data-races and the
Fortran-specific -fstack-arrays, unless -fmax-stack-var-size is specified,
and -fno-protect-parens. It turns off -fsemantic-interposition.
-Og Optimize debugging experience. -Og should be the optimization level of choice
for the standard edit-compile-debug cycle, offering a reasonable level of opti-
mization while maintaining fast compilation and a good debugging experience.
It is a better choice than -O0 for producing debuggable code because some
compiler passes that collect debug information are disabled at -O0.
Like -O0, -Og completely disables a number of optimization passes so that
individual options controlling them have no effect. Otherwise -Og enables all
-O1 optimization flags except for those that may interfere with debugging:
-fbranch-count-reg -fdelayed-branch
-fdse -fif-conversion -fif-conversion2
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 189
-finline-functions-called-once
-fmove-loop-invariants -fmove-loop-stores -fssa-phiopt
-ftree-bit-ccp -ftree-dse -ftree-pta -ftree-sra
-Oz Optimize aggressively for size rather than speed. This may increase the number
of instructions executed if those instructions require fewer bytes to encode. -Oz
behaves similarly to -Os including enabling most -O2 optimizations.
If you use multiple -O options, with or without level numbers, the last such option is the
one that is effective.
Options of the form -fflag specify machine-independent flags. Most flags have both
positive and negative forms; the negative form of -ffoo is -fno-foo. In the table below,
only one of the forms is listed—the one you typically use. You can figure out the other form
by either removing ‘no-’ or adding it.
The following options control specific optimizations. They are either activated by -O
options or are related to ones that are. You can use the following flags in the rare cases
when “fine-tuning” of optimizations to be performed is desired.
-fno-defer-pop
For machines that must pop arguments after a function call, always pop the
arguments as soon as each function returns. At levels -O1 and higher, -fdefer-
pop is the default; this allows the compiler to let arguments accumulate on the
stack for several function calls and pop them all at once.
-fforward-propagate
Perform a forward propagation pass on RTL. The pass tries to combine two
instructions and checks if the result can be simplified. If loop unrolling is active,
two passes are performed and the second is scheduled after loop unrolling.
This option is enabled by default at optimization levels -O1, -O2, -O3, -Os.
-favoid-store-forwarding
-fno-avoid-store-forwarding
Many CPUs will stall for many cycles when a load partially depends on previous
smaller stores. This pass tries to detect such cases and avoid the penalty by
changing the order of the load and store and then fixing up the loaded value.
Disabled by default.
-ffp-contract=style
-ffp-contract=off disables floating-point expression contraction. -ffp-
contract=fast enables floating-point expression contraction such as forming
of fused multiply-add operations if the target has native support for them.
-ffp-contract=on enables floating-point expression contraction if allowed by
the language standard. This is implemented for C and C++, where it enables
contraction within one expression, but not across different statements.
The default is -ffp-contract=off for C in a standards compliant mode
(-std=c11 or similar), -ffp-contract=fast otherwise.
-fomit-frame-pointer
Omit the frame pointer in functions that don’t need one. This avoids the
instructions to save, set up and restore the frame pointer; on many targets it
also makes an extra register available.
190 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
On some targets this flag has no effect because the standard calling sequence
always uses a frame pointer, so it cannot be omitted.
Note that -fno-omit-frame-pointer doesn’t guarantee the frame pointer is
used in all functions. Several targets always omit the frame pointer in leaf
functions.
Enabled by default at -O1 and higher.
-foptimize-crc
Detect loops calculating CRC (performing polynomial long division) and replace
them with a faster implementation. Detect 8, 16, 32, and 64 bit CRC, with
a constant polynomial without the leading 1 bit, for both bit-forward and bit-
reversed cases. If the target supports a CRC instruction and the polynomial
used in the source code matches the polynomial used in the CRC instruction,
generate that CRC instruction. Otherwise, if the target supports a carry-less-
multiplication instruction, generate CRC using it; otherwise generate table-
based CRC.
Enabled by default at -O2 and higher.
-foptimize-sibling-calls
Optimize sibling and tail recursive calls.
Enabled at levels -O2, -O3, -Os.
-foptimize-strlen
Optimize various standard C string functions (e.g. strlen, strchr or strcpy)
and their _FORTIFY_SOURCE counterparts into faster alternatives.
Enabled at levels -O2, -O3.
-finline-stringops[=fn]
Expand memory and string operations (for now, only memset) inline, even when
the length is variable or big enough as to require looping. This is most useful
along with -ffreestanding and -fno-builtin.
In some circumstances, it enables the compiler to generate code that takes
advantage of known alignment and length multipliers, but even then it may be
less efficient than optimized runtime implementations, and grow code size so
much that even a less performant but shared implementation runs faster due
to better use of code caches. This option is disabled by default.
-fno-inline
Do not expand any functions inline apart from those marked with the always_
inline attribute. This is the default when not optimizing.
Single functions can be exempted from inlining by marking them with the
noinline attribute.
-finline-small-functions
Integrate functions into their callers when their body is smaller than expected
function call code (so overall size of program gets smaller). The compiler heuris-
tically decides which functions are simple enough to be worth integrating in this
way. This inlining applies to all functions, even those not declared inline.
Enabled at levels -O2, -O3, -Os.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 191
-findirect-inlining
Inline also indirect calls that are discovered to be known at compile time thanks
to previous inlining. This option has any effect only when inlining itself is turned
on by the -finline-functions or -finline-small-functions options.
Enabled at levels -O2, -O3, -Os.
-finline-functions
Consider all functions for inlining, even if they are not declared inline. The
compiler heuristically decides which functions are worth integrating in this way.
If all calls to a given function are integrated, and the function is declared
static, then the function is normally not output as assembler code in its own
right.
Enabled at levels -O2, -O3, -Os. Also enabled by -fprofile-use and -fauto-
profile.
-finline-functions-called-once
Consider all static functions called once for inlining into their caller even if
they are not marked inline. If a call to a given function is integrated, then
the function is not output as assembler code in its own right.
Enabled at levels -O1, -O2, -O3 and -Os, but not -Og.
-fearly-inlining
Inline functions marked by always_inline and functions whose body seems
smaller than the function call overhead early before doing -fprofile-generate
instrumentation and real inlining pass. Doing so makes profiling significantly
cheaper and usually inlining faster on programs having large chains of nested
wrapper functions.
Enabled by default.
-fipa-sra
Perform interprocedural scalar replacement of aggregates, removal of unused
parameters and replacement of parameters passed by reference by parameters
passed by value.
Enabled at levels -O2, -O3 and -Os.
-finline-limit=n
By default, GCC limits the size of functions that can be inlined. This flag
allows coarse control of this limit. n is the size of functions that can be inlined
in number of pseudo instructions.
Inlining is actually controlled by a number of parameters, which may be speci-
fied individually by using --param name=value. The -finline-limit=n option
sets some of these parameters as follows:
max-inline-insns-single
is set to n/2.
max-inline-insns-auto
is set to n/2.
192 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fmodulo-sched-allow-regmoves
Perform more aggressive SMS-based modulo scheduling with register moves
allowed. By setting this flag certain anti-dependences edges are deleted, which
triggers the generation of reg-moves based on the life-range analysis. This
option is effective only with -fmodulo-sched enabled.
-fno-branch-count-reg
Disable the optimization pass that scans for opportunities to use “decrement
and branch” instructions on a count register instead of instruction sequences
that decrement a register, compare it against zero, and then branch based
upon the result. This option is only meaningful on architectures that support
such instructions, which include x86, PowerPC, IA-64 and S/390. Note that
the -fno-branch-count-reg option doesn’t remove the decrement and branch
instructions from the generated instruction stream introduced by other opti-
mization passes.
The default is -fbranch-count-reg at -O1 and higher, except for -Og.
-fno-function-cse
Do not put function addresses in registers; make each instruction that calls a
constant function contain the function’s address explicitly.
This option results in less efficient code, but some strange hacks that alter the
assembler output may be confused by the optimizations performed when this
option is not used.
The default is -ffunction-cse
-fno-zero-initialized-in-bss
If the target supports a BSS section, GCC by default puts variables that are
initialized to zero into BSS. This can save space in the resulting code.
This option turns off this behavior because some programs explicitly rely on
variables going to the data section—e.g., so that the resulting executable can
find the beginning of that section and/or make assumptions based on that.
The default is -fzero-initialized-in-bss except in Ada.
-fthread-jumps
Perform optimizations that check to see if a jump branches to a location where
another comparison subsumed by the first is found. If so, the first branch is
redirected to either the destination of the second branch or a point immediately
following it, depending on whether the condition is known to be true or false.
Enabled at levels -O1, -O2, -O3, -Os.
-fsplit-wide-types
When using a type that occupies multiple registers, such as long long on a
32-bit system, split the registers apart and allocate them independently. This
normally generates better code for those types, but may make debugging more
difficult.
Enabled at levels -O1, -O2, -O3, -Os.
-fsplit-wide-types-early
Fully split wide types early, instead of very late. This option has no effect unless
-fsplit-wide-types is turned on.
194 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fgcse-after-reload
When -fgcse-after-reload is enabled, a redundant load elimination pass is
performed after reload. The purpose of this pass is to clean up redundant
spilling.
Enabled by -O3, -fprofile-use and -fauto-profile.
-faggressive-loop-optimizations
This option tells the loop optimizer to use language constraints to derive bounds
for the number of iterations of a loop. This assumes that loop code does not
invoke undefined behavior by for example causing signed integer overflows or
out-of-bound array accesses. The bounds for the number of iterations of a loop
are used to guide loop unrolling and peeling and loop exit test optimizations.
This option is enabled by default.
-funconstrained-commons
This option tells the compiler that variables declared in common blocks (e.g.
Fortran) may later be overridden with longer trailing arrays. This prevents
certain optimizations that depend on knowing the array bounds.
-fcrossjumping
Perform cross-jumping transformation. This transformation unifies equivalent
code and saves code size. The resulting code may or may not perform better
than without cross-jumping.
Enabled at levels -O2, -O3, -Os.
-fauto-inc-dec
Combine increments or decrements of addresses with memory accesses. This
pass is always skipped on architectures that do not have instructions to support
this. Enabled by default at -O1 and higher on architectures that support this.
-fdce Perform dead code elimination (DCE) on RTL. Enabled by default at -O1 and
higher.
-fdse Perform dead store elimination (DSE) on RTL. Enabled by default at -O1 and
higher.
-fif-conversion
Attempt to transform conditional jumps into branch-less equivalents. This
includes use of conditional moves, min, max, set flags and abs instructions, and
some tricks doable by standard arithmetics. The use of conditional execution
on chips where it is available is controlled by -fif-conversion2.
Enabled at levels -O1, -O2, -O3, -Os, but not with -Og.
-fif-conversion2
Use conditional execution (where available) to transform conditional jumps into
branch-less equivalents.
Enabled at levels -O1, -O2, -O3, -Os, but not with -Og.
-fdeclone-ctor-dtor
The C++ ABI requires multiple entry points for constructors and destructors:
one for a base subobject, one for a complete object, and one for a virtual
196 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
destructor that calls operator delete afterwards. For a hierarchy with virtual
bases, the base and complete variants are clones, which means two copies of the
function. With this option, the base and complete variants are changed to be
thunks that call a common implementation.
Enabled by -Os.
-fdelete-null-pointer-checks
Assume that programs cannot safely dereference null pointers, and that no code
or data element resides at address zero. This option enables simple constant
folding optimizations at all optimization levels. In addition, other optimization
passes in GCC use this flag to control global dataflow analyses that eliminate
useless checks for null pointers; these assume that a memory access to address
zero always results in a trap, so that if a pointer is checked after it has already
been dereferenced, it cannot be null.
Note however that in some environments this assumption is not true. Use -fno-
delete-null-pointer-checks to disable this optimization for programs that
depend on that behavior.
This option is enabled by default on most targets. On AVR and MSP430, this
option is completely disabled.
Passes that use the dataflow information are enabled independently at different
optimization levels.
-fdevirtualize
Attempt to convert calls to virtual functions to direct calls. This is
done both within a procedure and interprocedurally as part of indirect
inlining (-findirect-inlining) and interprocedural constant propagation
(-fipa-cp). Enabled at levels -O2, -O3, -Os.
-fdevirtualize-speculatively
Attempt to convert calls to virtual functions to speculative direct calls. Based
on the analysis of the type inheritance graph, determine for a given call the
set of likely targets. If the set is small, preferably of size 1, change the call
into a conditional deciding between direct and indirect calls. The speculative
calls enable more optimizations, such as inlining. When they seem useless after
further optimization, they are converted back into original form.
-fdevirtualize-at-ltrans
Stream extra information needed for aggressive devirtualization when running
the link-time optimizer in local transformation mode. This option enables more
devirtualization but significantly increases the size of streamed data. For this
reason it is disabled by default.
-fexpensive-optimizations
Perform a number of minor optimizations that are relatively expensive.
Enabled at levels -O2, -O3, -Os.
-free Attempt to remove redundant extension instructions. This is especially helpful
for the x86-64 architecture, which implicitly zero-extends in 64-bit registers
after writing to their lower 32-bit half.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 197
increase above the number of available hard registers and subsequent spills in
register allocation.
-fsched-spec-load
Allow speculative motion of some load instructions. This only makes sense
when scheduling before register allocation, i.e. with -fschedule-insns or at
-O2 or higher.
-fsched-spec-load-dangerous
Allow speculative motion of more load instructions. This only makes sense
when scheduling before register allocation, i.e. with -fschedule-insns or at
-O2 or higher.
-fsched-stalled-insns
-fsched-stalled-insns=n
Define how many insns (if any) can be moved prematurely from the queue
of stalled insns into the ready list during the second scheduling pass. -fno-
sched-stalled-insns means that no insns are moved prematurely, -fsched-
stalled-insns=0 means there is no limit on how many queued insns can be
moved prematurely. -fsched-stalled-insns without a value is equivalent to
-fsched-stalled-insns=1.
-fsched-stalled-insns-dep
-fsched-stalled-insns-dep=n
Define how many insn groups (cycles) are examined for a dependency on a
stalled insn that is a candidate for premature removal from the queue of stalled
insns. This has an effect only during the second scheduling pass, and only if
-fsched-stalled-insns is used. -fno-sched-stalled-insns-dep is equiva-
lent to -fsched-stalled-insns-dep=0. -fsched-stalled-insns-dep with-
out a value is equivalent to -fsched-stalled-insns-dep=1.
-fsched2-use-superblocks
When scheduling after register allocation, use superblock scheduling. This al-
lows motion across basic block boundaries, resulting in faster schedules. This
option is experimental, as not all machine descriptions used by GCC model the
CPU closely enough to avoid unreliable results from the algorithm.
This only makes sense when scheduling after register allocation, i.e. with
-fschedule-insns2 or at -O2 or higher.
-fsched-group-heuristic
Enable the group heuristic in the scheduler. This heuristic favors the instruction
that belongs to a schedule group. This is enabled by default when scheduling
is enabled, i.e. with -fschedule-insns or -fschedule-insns2 or at -O2 or
higher.
-fsched-critical-path-heuristic
Enable the critical-path heuristic in the scheduler. This heuristic favors instruc-
tions on the critical path. This is enabled by default when scheduling is enabled,
i.e. with -fschedule-insns or -fschedule-insns2 or at -O2 or higher.
200 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fsched-spec-insn-heuristic
Enable the speculative instruction heuristic in the scheduler. This heuristic
favors speculative instructions with greater dependency weakness. This is en-
abled by default when scheduling is enabled, i.e. with -fschedule-insns or
-fschedule-insns2 or at -O2 or higher.
-fsched-rank-heuristic
Enable the rank heuristic in the scheduler. This heuristic favors the instruction
belonging to a basic block with greater size or frequency. This is enabled by de-
fault when scheduling is enabled, i.e. with -fschedule-insns or -fschedule-
insns2 or at -O2 or higher.
-fsched-last-insn-heuristic
Enable the last-instruction heuristic in the scheduler. This heuristic favors the
instruction that is less dependent on the last instruction scheduled. This is
enabled by default when scheduling is enabled, i.e. with -fschedule-insns or
-fschedule-insns2 or at -O2 or higher.
-fsched-dep-count-heuristic
Enable the dependent-count heuristic in the scheduler. This heuristic favors the
instruction that has more instructions depending on it. This is enabled by de-
fault when scheduling is enabled, i.e. with -fschedule-insns or -fschedule-
insns2 or at -O2 or higher.
-freschedule-modulo-scheduled-loops
Modulo scheduling is performed before traditional scheduling. If a loop is mod-
ulo scheduled, later scheduling passes may change its schedule. Use this option
to control that behavior.
-fselective-scheduling
Schedule instructions using selective scheduling algorithm. Selective scheduling
runs instead of the first scheduler pass.
-fselective-scheduling2
Schedule instructions using selective scheduling algorithm. Selective scheduling
runs instead of the second scheduler pass.
-fsel-sched-pipelining
Enable software pipelining of innermost loops during selective scheduling. This
option has no effect unless one of -fselective-scheduling or -fselective-
scheduling2 is turned on.
-fsel-sched-pipelining-outer-loops
When pipelining loops during selective scheduling, also pipeline outer loops.
This option has no effect unless -fsel-sched-pipelining is turned on.
-fsemantic-interposition
Some object formats, like ELF, allow interposing of symbols by the dynamic
linker. This means that for symbols exported from the DSO, the compiler
cannot perform interprocedural propagation, inlining and other optimizations
in anticipation that the function or variable in question may change. While
this feature is useful, for example, to rewrite memory allocation functions by a
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 201
-fcode-hoisting
Perform code hoisting. Code hoisting tries to move the evaluation of expressions
executed on all paths to the function exit as early as possible. This is especially
useful as a code size optimization, but it often helps for code speed as well.
This flag is enabled by default at -O2 and higher.
-ftree-pre
Perform partial redundancy elimination (PRE) on trees. This flag is enabled
by default at -O2 and -O3.
-ftree-partial-pre
Make partial redundancy elimination (PRE) more aggressive. This flag is en-
abled by default at -O3.
-ftree-forwprop
Perform forward propagation on trees. This flag is enabled by default at -O1
and higher.
-ftree-fre
Perform full redundancy elimination (FRE) on trees. The difference between
FRE and PRE is that FRE only considers expressions that are computed on
all paths leading to the redundant computation. This analysis is faster than
PRE, though it exposes fewer redundancies. This flag is enabled by default at
-O1 and higher.
-ftree-phiprop
Perform hoisting of loads from conditional pointers on trees. This pass is en-
abled by default at -O1 and higher.
-fhoist-adjacent-loads
Speculatively hoist loads from both branches of an if-then-else if the loads are
from adjacent locations in the same structure and the target architecture has a
conditional move instruction. This flag is enabled by default at -O2 and higher.
-ftree-copy-prop
Perform copy propagation on trees. This pass eliminates unnecessary copy
operations. This flag is enabled by default at -O1 and higher.
-fipa-pure-const
Discover which functions are pure or constant. Enabled by default at -O1 and
higher.
-fipa-reference
Discover which static variables do not escape the compilation unit. Enabled by
default at -O1 and higher.
-fipa-reference-addressable
Discover read-only, write-only and non-addressable static variables. Enabled
by default at -O1 and higher.
-fipa-stack-alignment
Reduce stack alignment on call sites if possible. Enabled by default.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 203
-fipa-pta
Perform interprocedural pointer analysis and interprocedural modification and
reference analysis. This option can cause excessive memory and compile-time
usage on large compilation units. It is not enabled by default at any optimiza-
tion level.
-fipa-profile
Perform interprocedural profile propagation. The functions called only from
cold functions are marked as cold. Also functions executed once (such as cold,
noreturn, static constructors or destructors) are identified. Cold functions and
loop less parts of functions executed once are then optimized for size. Enabled
by default at -O1 and higher.
-fipa-modref
Perform interprocedural mod/ref analysis. This optimization analyzes the side
effects of functions (memory locations that are modified or referenced) and
enables better optimization across the function call boundary. This flag is
enabled by default at -O1 and higher.
-fipa-cp Perform interprocedural constant propagation. This optimization analyzes the
program to determine when values passed to functions are constants and then
optimizes accordingly. This optimization can substantially increase perfor-
mance if the application has constants passed to functions. This flag is enabled
by default at -O2, -Os and -O3. It is also enabled by -fprofile-use and
-fauto-profile.
-fipa-cp-clone
Perform function cloning to make interprocedural constant propagation
stronger. When enabled, interprocedural constant propagation performs
function cloning when externally visible function can be called with
constant arguments. Because this optimization can create multiple
copies of functions, it may significantly increase code size (see --param
ipa-cp-unit-growth=value). This flag is enabled by default at -O3. It is also
enabled by -fprofile-use and -fauto-profile.
-fipa-bit-cp
When enabled, perform interprocedural bitwise constant propagation. This flag
is enabled by default at -O2 and by -fprofile-use and -fauto-profile. It
requires that -fipa-cp is enabled.
-fipa-vrp
When enabled, perform interprocedural propagation of value ranges. This flag
is enabled by default at -O2. It requires that -fipa-cp is enabled.
-fipa-icf
Perform Identical Code Folding for functions and read-only variables. The
optimization reduces code size and may disturb unwind stacks by replacing a
function by equivalent one with a different name. The optimization works more
effectively with link-time optimization enabled.
Although the behavior is similar to the Gold Linker’s ICF optimization, GCC
ICF works on different levels and thus the optimizations are not same - there
204 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
are equivalences that are found only by GCC and equivalences found only by
Gold.
This flag is enabled by default at -O2 and -Os.
-flate-combine-instructions
Enable two instruction combination passes that run relatively late in the com-
pilation process. One of the passes runs before register allocation and the other
after register allocation. The main aim of the passes is to substitute definitions
into all uses.
Most targets enable this flag by default at -O2 and -Os.
-flive-patching=level
Control GCC’s optimizations to produce output suitable for live-patching.
If the compiler’s optimization uses a function’s body or information extracted
from its body to optimize/change another function, the latter is called an im-
pacted function of the former. If a function is patched, its impacted functions
should be patched too.
The impacted functions are determined by the compiler’s interprocedural op-
timizations. For example, a caller is impacted when inlining a function into
its caller, cloning a function and changing its caller to call this new clone, or
extracting a function’s pureness/constness information to optimize its direct or
indirect callers, etc.
Usually, the more IPA optimizations enabled, the larger the number of impacted
functions for each function. In order to control the number of impacted func-
tions and more easily compute the list of impacted function, IPA optimizations
can be partially enabled at two different levels.
The level argument should be one of the following:
‘inline-clone’
Only enable inlining and cloning optimizations, which includes in-
lining, cloning, interprocedural scalar replacement of aggregates
and partial inlining. As a result, when patching a function, all
its callers and its clones’ callers are impacted, therefore need to be
patched as well.
-flive-patching=inline-clone disables the following optimiza-
tion flags:
-fwhole-program -fipa-pta -fipa-reference -fipa-ra
-fipa-icf -fipa-icf-functions -fipa-icf-variables
-fipa-bit-cp -fipa-vrp -fipa-pure-const
-fipa-reference-addressable
-fipa-stack-alignment -fipa-modref
‘inline-only-static’
Only enable inlining of static functions. As a result, when patching
a static function, all its callers are impacted and so need to be
patched as well.
In addition to all the flags that -flive-patching=inline-clone
disables, -flive-patching=inline-only-static disables the fol-
lowing additional optimization flags:
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 205
flag is enabled by default at -O2 and higher. The compilation time in this pass
can be limited using max-tail-merge-comparisons parameter and max-tail-
merge-iterations parameter.
-ftree-dce
Perform dead code elimination (DCE) on trees. This flag is enabled by default
at -O1 and higher.
-ftree-builtin-call-dce
Perform conditional dead code elimination (DCE) for calls to built-in functions
that may set errno but are otherwise free of side effects. This flag is enabled
by default at -O2 and higher if -Os is not also specified.
-ffinite-loops
Assume that a loop with an exit will eventually take the exit and not loop
indefinitely. This allows the compiler to remove loops that otherwise have no
side-effects, not considering eventual endless looping as such.
This option is enabled by default at -O2 for C++ with -std=c++11 or higher.
-ftree-dominator-opts
Perform a variety of simple scalar cleanups (constant/copy propagation, redun-
dancy elimination, range propagation and expression simplification) based on a
dominator tree traversal. This also performs jump threading (to reduce jumps
to jumps). This flag is enabled by default at -O1 and higher.
-ftree-dse
Perform dead store elimination (DSE) on trees. A dead store is a store into a
memory location that is later overwritten by another store without any inter-
vening loads. In this case the earlier store can be deleted. This flag is enabled
by default at -O1 and higher.
-ftree-ch
Perform loop header copying on trees. This is beneficial since it increases ef-
fectiveness of code motion optimizations. It also saves one jump. This flag is
enabled by default at -O1 and higher. It is not enabled for -Os, since it usually
increases code size.
-ftree-loop-optimize
Perform loop optimizations on trees. This flag is enabled by default at -O1 and
higher.
-ftree-loop-linear
-floop-strip-mine
-floop-block
Perform loop nest optimizations. Same as -floop-nest-optimize. To use this
code transformation, GCC has to be configured with --with-isl to enable the
Graphite loop transformation infrastructure.
-fgraphite-identity
Enable the identity transformation for graphite. For every SCoP we gener-
ate the polyhedral representation and transform it back to gimple. Using
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 207
This pass distributes the initialization loops and generates a call to memset
zero. For example, the loop
DO I = 1, N
A(I) = 0
B(I) = A(I) + I
ENDDO
is transformed to
DO I = 1, N
A(I) = 0
ENDDO
DO I = 1, N
B(I) = A(I) + I
ENDDO
and the initialization loop is transformed into a call to memset zero.
-floop-interchange
Perform loop interchange outside of graphite. This flag can improve cache per-
formance on loop nest and allow further loop optimizations, like vectorization,
to take place. For example, the loop
for (int i = 0; i < N; i++)
for (int j = 0; j < N; j++)
for (int k = 0; k < N; k++)
c[i][j] = c[i][j] + a[i][k]*b[k][j];
is transformed to
for (int i = 0; i < N; i++)
for (int k = 0; k < N; k++)
for (int j = 0; j < N; j++)
c[i][j] = c[i][j] + a[i][k]*b[k][j];
This flag is enabled by default at -O3. It is also enabled by -fprofile-use and
-fauto-profile.
-floop-unroll-and-jam
Apply unroll and jam transformations on feasible loops. In a loop nest this
unrolls the outer loop by some factor and fuses the resulting multiple inner
loops. This flag is enabled by default at -O3. It is also enabled by -fprofile-
use and -fauto-profile.
-ftree-loop-im
Perform loop invariant motion on trees. This pass moves only invariants that
are hard to handle at RTL level (function calls, operations that expand to
nontrivial sequences of insns). With -funswitch-loops it also moves operands
of conditions that are invariant out of the loop, so that we can use just trivial
invariantness analysis in loop unswitching. The pass also includes store motion.
-ftree-loop-ivcanon
Create a canonical counter for number of iterations in loops for which deter-
mining number of iterations requires complicated analysis. Later optimizations
then may determine the number easily. Useful especially in connection with
unrolling.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 209
-ftree-scev-cprop
Perform final value replacement. If a variable is modified in a loop in such a
way that its value when exiting the loop can be determined using only its initial
value and the number of loop iterations, replace uses of the final value by such a
computation, provided it is sufficiently cheap. This reduces data dependencies
and may allow further simplifications. Enabled by default at -O1 and higher.
-fivopts Perform induction variable optimizations (strength reduction, induction vari-
able merging and induction variable elimination) on trees.
-ftree-parallelize-loops=n
Parallelize loops, i.e., split their iteration space to run in n threads. This is
only possible for loops whose iterations are independent and can be arbitrarily
reordered. The optimization is only profitable on multiprocessor machines, for
loops that are CPU-intensive, rather than constrained e.g. by memory band-
width. This option implies -pthread, and thus is only supported on targets
that have support for -pthread.
-ftree-pta
Perform function-local points-to analysis on trees. This flag is enabled by de-
fault at -O1 and higher, except for -Og.
-ftree-sra
Perform scalar replacement of aggregates. This pass replaces structure refer-
ences with scalars to prevent committing structures to memory too early. This
flag is enabled by default at -O1 and higher, except for -Og.
-fstore-merging
Perform merging of narrow stores to consecutive memory addresses. This pass
merges contiguous stores of immediate values narrower than a word into fewer
wider stores to reduce the number of instructions. This is enabled by default
at -O2 and higher as well as -Os.
-ftree-ter
Perform temporary expression replacement during the SSA->normal phase. Sin-
gle use/single def temporaries are replaced at their use location with their defin-
ing expression. This results in non-GIMPLE code, but gives the expanders
much more complex trees to work on resulting in better RTL generation. This
is enabled by default at -O1 and higher.
-ftree-slsr
Perform straight-line strength reduction on trees. This recognizes related ex-
pressions involving multiplications and replaces them by less expensive calcu-
lations when possible. This is enabled by default at -O1 and higher.
-ftree-vectorize
Perform vectorization on trees. This flag enables -ftree-loop-vectorize and
-ftree-slp-vectorize if not explicitly specified.
-ftree-loop-vectorize
Perform loop vectorization on trees. This flag is enabled by default at -O2 and
by -ftree-vectorize, -fprofile-use, and -fauto-profile.
210 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-ftree-slp-vectorize
Perform basic block vectorization on trees. This flag is enabled by default at
-O2 and by -ftree-vectorize, -fprofile-use, and -fauto-profile.
-ftrivial-auto-var-init=choice
Initialize automatic variables with either a pattern or with zeroes to increase
the security and predictability of a program by preventing uninitialized mem-
ory disclosure and use. GCC still considers an automatic variable that doesn’t
have an explicit initializer as uninitialized, -Wuninitialized and -Wanalyzer-
use-of-uninitialized-value will still report warning messages on such au-
tomatic variables and the compiler will perform optimization as if the variable
were uninitialized. With this option, GCC will also initialize any padding of
automatic variables that have structure or union types to zeroes. However, the
current implementation cannot initialize automatic variables that are declared
between the controlling expression and the first case of a switch statement.
Using -Wtrivial-auto-var-init to report all such cases.
The three values of choice are:
• ‘uninitialized’ doesn’t initialize any automatic variables. This is C and
C++’s default.
• ‘pattern’ Initialize automatic variables with values which will likely trans-
form logic bugs into crashes down the line, are easily recognized in a crash
dump and without being values that programmers can rely on for useful
program semantics. The current value is byte-repeatable pattern with byte
"0xFE". The values used for pattern initialization might be changed in the
future.
• ‘zero’ Initialize automatic variables with zeroes.
The default is ‘uninitialized’.
Note that the initializer values, whether ‘zero’ or ‘pattern’, refer to data rep-
resentation (in memory or machine registers), rather than to their interpreta-
tion as numerical values. This distinction may be important in languages that
support types with biases or implicit multipliers, and with such extensions as
‘hardbool’ (see Section 6.37 [Type Attributes], page 692). For example, a vari-
able that uses 8 bits to represent (biased) quantities in the range 160..400
will be initialized with the bit patterns 0x00 or 0xFE, depending on choice,
whether or not these representations stand for values in that range, and even if
they do, the interpretation of the value held by the variable will depend on the
bias. A ‘hardbool’ variable that uses say 0X5A and 0xA5 for false and true,
respectively, will trap with either ‘choice’ of trivial initializer, i.e., ‘zero’ ini-
tialization will not convert to the representation for false, even if it would for
a static variable of the same type. This means the initializer pattern doesn’t
generally depend on the type of the initialized variable. One notable exception
is that (non-hardened) boolean variables that fit in registers are initialized with
false (zero), even when ‘pattern’ is requested.
You can control this behavior for a specific variable by using the variable at-
tribute uninitialized (see Section 6.36 [Variable Attributes], page 676).
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 211
-fvect-cost-model=model
Alter the cost model used for vectorization. The model argument should be
one of ‘unlimited’, ‘dynamic’, ‘cheap’ or ‘very-cheap’. With the ‘unlimited’
model the vectorized code-path is assumed to be profitable while with the
‘dynamic’ model a runtime check guards the vectorized code-path to enable
it only for iteration counts that will likely execute faster than when executing
the original scalar loop. The ‘cheap’ model disables vectorization of loops where
doing so would be cost prohibitive for example due to required runtime checks
for data dependence or alignment but otherwise is equal to the ‘dynamic’ model.
The ‘very-cheap’ model disables vectorization of loops when any runtime check
for data dependence or alignment is required, it also disables vectorization of
epilogue loops but otherwise is equal to the ‘cheap’ model.
The default cost model depends on other optimization flags and is either
‘dynamic’ or ‘cheap’.
-fsimd-cost-model=model
Alter the cost model used for vectorization of loops marked with the OpenMP
simd directive. The model argument should be one of ‘unlimited’, ‘dynamic’,
‘cheap’. All values of model have the same meaning as described in -fvect-
cost-model and by default a cost model defined with -fvect-cost-model is
used.
-ftree-vrp
Perform Value Range Propagation on trees. This is similar to the constant
propagation pass, but instead of values, ranges of values are propagated. This
allows the optimizers to remove unnecessary range checks like array bound
checks and null pointer checks. This is enabled by default at -O2 and higher.
Null pointer check elimination is only done if -fdelete-null-pointer-checks
is enabled.
-fsplit-paths
Split paths leading to loop backedges. This can improve dead code elimination
and common subexpression elimination. This is enabled by default at -O3 and
above.
-fsplit-ivs-in-unroller
Enables expression of values of induction variables in later iterations of the
unrolled loop using the value in the first iteration. This breaks long dependency
chains, thus improving efficiency of the scheduling passes.
A combination of -fweb and CSE is often sufficient to obtain the same effect.
However, that is not reliable in cases where the loop body is more complicated
than a single basic block. It also does not work at all on some architectures
due to restrictions in the CSE pass.
This optimization is enabled by default.
-fvariable-expansion-in-unroller
With this option, the compiler creates multiple copies of some local variables
when unrolling a loop, which can result in superior code.
212 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fno-guess-branch-probability
Do not guess branch probabilities using heuristics.
GCC uses heuristics to guess branch probabilities if they are not provided by
profiling feedback (-fprofile-arcs). These heuristics are based on the control
flow graph. If some branch probabilities are specified by __builtin_expect,
then the heuristics are used to guess branch probabilities for the rest of the
control flow graph, taking the __builtin_expect info into account. The in-
teractions between the heuristics and __builtin_expect can be complex, and
in some cases, it may be useful to disable the heuristics so that the effects of
__builtin_expect are easier to understand.
It is also possible to specify expected probability of the expression with __
builtin_expect_with_probability built-in function.
The default is -fguess-branch-probability at levels -O, -O2, -O3, -Os.
-freorder-blocks
Reorder basic blocks in the compiled function in order to reduce number of
taken branches and improve code locality.
Enabled at levels -O1, -O2, -O3, -Os.
-freorder-blocks-algorithm=algorithm
Use the specified algorithm for basic block reordering. The algorithm argument
can be ‘simple’, which does not increase code size (except sometimes due to
secondary effects like alignment), or ‘stc’, the “software trace cache” algorithm,
which tries to put all often executed code together, minimizing the number of
branches executed by making extra copies of code.
The default is ‘simple’ at levels -O1, -Os, and ‘stc’ at levels -O2, -O3.
-freorder-blocks-and-partition
In addition to reordering basic blocks in the compiled function, in order to
reduce number of taken branches, partitions hot and cold basic blocks into
separate sections of the assembly and .o files, to improve paging and cache
locality performance.
This optimization is automatically turned off in the presence of exception han-
dling or unwind tables (on targets using setjump/longjump or target specific
scheme), for linkonce sections, for functions with a user-defined section attribute
and on any architecture that does not support named sections. When -fsplit-
stack is used this option is not enabled by default (to avoid linker errors), but
may be enabled explicitly (if using a working linker).
Enabled for x86 at levels -O2, -O3, -Os.
-freorder-functions
Reorder functions in the object file in order to improve code locality. This is im-
plemented by using special subsections .text.hot for most frequently executed
functions and .text.unlikely for unlikely executed functions. Reordering is
done by the linker so object file format must support named sections and linker
must place them in a reasonable way.
214 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
This option isn’t effective unless you either provide profile feedback (see
-fprofile-arcs for details) or manually annotate functions with hot or cold
attributes (see Section 6.35.1 [Common Function Attributes], page 604).
Enabled at levels -O2, -O3, -Os.
-fstrict-aliasing
Allow the compiler to assume the strictest aliasing rules applicable to the lan-
guage being compiled. For C (and C++), this activates optimizations based on
the type of expressions. In particular, an object of one type is assumed never
to reside at the same address as an object of a different type, unless the types
are almost the same. For example, an unsigned int can alias an int, but not
a void* or a double. A character type may alias any other type.
Pay special attention to code like this:
union a_union {
int i;
double d;
};
int f() {
union a_union t;
t.d = 3.0;
return t.i;
}
The practice of reading from a different union member than the one most re-
cently written to (called “type-punning”) is common. Even with -fstrict-
aliasing, type-punning is allowed, provided the memory is accessed through
the union type. So, the code above works as expected. See Section 4.9 [Struc-
tures unions enumerations and bit-fields implementation], page 567. However,
this code might not:
int f() {
union a_union t;
int* ip;
t.d = 3.0;
ip = &t.i;
return *ip;
}
Similarly, access by taking the address, casting the resulting pointer and deref-
erencing the result has undefined behavior, even if the cast uses a union type,
e.g.:
int f() {
double d = 3.0;
return ((union a_union *) &d)->i;
}
The -fstrict-aliasing option is enabled at levels -O2, -O3, -Os.
-fipa-strict-aliasing
Controls whether rules of -fstrict-aliasing are applied across function
boundaries. Note that if multiple functions gets inlined into a single function
the memory accesses are no longer considered to be crossing a function
boundary.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 215
-fno-allocation-dce
Do not remove unused C++ allocations (using operator new and operator
delete) in dead code elimination.
See also -fmalloc-dce.
-fallow-store-data-races
Allow the compiler to perform optimizations that may introduce new data races
on stores, without proving that the variable cannot be concurrently accessed by
other threads. Does not affect optimization of local data. It is safe to use this
option if it is known that global data will not be accessed by multiple threads.
Examples of optimizations enabled by -fallow-store-data-races include
hoisting or if-conversions that may cause a value that was already in memory
to be re-written with that same value. Such re-writing is safe in a single
threaded context but may be unsafe in a multi-threaded context. Note
that on some processors, if-conversions may be required in order to enable
vectorization.
Enabled at level -Ofast.
-funit-at-a-time
This option is left for compatibility reasons. -funit-at-a-time has no ef-
fect, while -fno-unit-at-a-time implies -fno-toplevel-reorder and -fno-
section-anchors.
Enabled by default.
-fno-toplevel-reorder
Do not reorder top-level functions, variables, and asm statements. Output them
in the same order that they appear in the input file. When this option is
used, unreferenced static variables are not removed. This option is intended to
support existing code that relies on a particular ordering. For new code, it is
better to use attributes when possible.
-ftoplevel-reorder is the default at -O1 and higher, and also
at -O0 if -fsection-anchors is explicitly requested. Additionally
-fno-toplevel-reorder implies -fno-section-anchors.
-funreachable-traps
With this option, the compiler turns calls to __builtin_unreachable into
traps, instead of using them for optimization. This also affects any such calls
implicitly generated by the compiler.
This option has the same effect as -fsanitize=unreachable -fsanitize-
trap=unreachable, but does not affect the values of those options. If
-fsanitize=unreachable is enabled, that option takes priority over this one.
This option is enabled by default at -O0 and -Og.
-fweb Constructs webs as commonly used for register allocation purposes and assign
each web individual pseudo register. This allows the register allocation pass
to operate on pseudos directly, but also strengthens several other optimization
passes, such as CSE, loop optimizer and trivial dead code remover. It can,
however, make debugging impossible, since variables no longer stay in a “home
register”.
218 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
optimized unit. When supported by the linker, the linker plugin (see -fuse-
linker-plugin) passes information to the compiler about used and externally
visible symbols. When the linker plugin is not available, -fwhole-program
should be used to allow the compiler to make these assumptions, which leads
to more aggressive optimization decisions.
When a file is compiled with -flto without -fuse-linker-plugin, the gener-
ated object file is larger than a regular object file because it contains GIMPLE
bytecodes and the usual final code (see -ffat-lto-objects). This means that
object files with LTO information can be linked as normal object files; if -fno-
lto is passed to the linker, no interprocedural optimizations are applied. Note
that when -fno-fat-lto-objects is enabled the compile stage is faster but
you cannot perform a regular, non-LTO link on them.
When producing the final binary, GCC only applies link-time optimizations to
those files that contain bytecode. Therefore, you can mix and match object
files and libraries with GIMPLE bytecodes and final object code. GCC auto-
matically selects which files to optimize in LTO mode and which files to link
without further processing.
Generally, options specified at link time override those specified at compile
time, although in some cases GCC attempts to infer link-time options from the
settings used to compile the input files.
If you do not specify an optimization level option -O at link time, then GCC
uses the highest optimization level used when compiling the object files. Note
that it is generally ineffective to specify an optimization level option only at
link time and not at compile time, for two reasons. First, compiling without
optimization suppresses compiler passes that gather information needed for
effective optimization at link time. Second, some early optimization passes can
be performed only at compile time and not at link time.
There are some code generation flags preserved by GCC when generating byte-
codes, as they need to be used during the final link. Currently, the following
options and their settings are taken from the first object file that explicitly
specifies them: -fcommon, -fexceptions, -fnon-call-exceptions, -fgnu-tm
and all the -m target flags.
The following options -fPIC, -fpic, -fpie and -fPIE are combined based on
the following scheme:
-fPIC + -fpic = -fpic
-fPIC + -fno-pic = -fno-pic
-fpic/-fPIC + (no option) = (no option)
-fPIC + -fPIE = -fPIE
-fpic + -fPIE = -fpie
-fPIC/-fpic + -fpie = -fpie
Certain ABI-changing flags are required to match in all compilation units, and
trying to override this at link time with a conflicting value is ignored. This
includes options such as -freg-struct-return and -fpcc-struct-return.
Other options such as -ffp-contract, -fno-strict-overflow, -fwrapv,
-fno-trapv or -fno-strict-aliasing are passed through to the link stage
and merged conservatively for conflicting translation units. Specifically
220 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fcprop-registers
After register allocation and post-register allocation instruction splitting, per-
form a copy-propagation pass to try to reduce scheduling dependencies and
occasionally eliminate the copy.
Enabled at levels -O1, -O2, -O3, -Os.
-fprofile-correction
Profiles collected using an instrumented binary for multi-threaded programs
may be inconsistent due to missed counter updates. When this option is spec-
ified, GCC uses heuristics to correct or smooth out such inconsistencies. By
default, GCC emits an error message when an inconsistent profile is detected.
This option is enabled by -fauto-profile.
-fprofile-partial-training
With -fprofile-use all portions of programs not executed during train run
are optimized agressively for size rather than speed. In some cases it is not
practical to train all possible hot paths in the program. (For example, program
may contain functions specific for a given hardware and trianing may not cover
all hardware configurations program is run on.) With -fprofile-partial-
training profile feedback will be ignored for all functions not executed during
the train run leading them to be optimized as if they were compiled without
profile feedback. This leads to better performance when train run is not repre-
sentative but also leads to significantly bigger code.
-fprofile-use
-fprofile-use=path
Enable profile feedback-directed optimizations, and the following optimizations,
many of which are generally profitable only with profile feedback available:
-fbranch-probabilities -fprofile-values
-funroll-loops -fpeel-loops -ftracer -fvpt
-finline-functions -fipa-cp -fipa-cp-clone -fipa-bit-cp
-fpredictive-commoning -fsplit-loops -funswitch-loops
-fgcse-after-reload -ftree-loop-vectorize -ftree-slp-vectorize
-fvect-cost-model=dynamic -ftree-loop-distribute-patterns
-fprofile-reorder-functions
Before you can use this option, you must first generate profiling information.
See Section 3.13 [Instrumentation Options], page 263, for information about
the -fprofile-generate option.
By default, GCC emits an error message if the feedback profiles do not match
the source code. This error can be turned into a warning by using -Wno-
error=coverage-mismatch. Note this may result in poorly optimized code.
Additionally, by default, GCC also emits a warning message if the feedback
profiles do not exist (see -Wmissing-profile).
If path is specified, GCC looks at the path to find the profile feedback data
files. See -fprofile-dir.
224 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fauto-profile
-fauto-profile=path
Enable sampling-based feedback-directed optimizations, and the following op-
timizations, many of which are generally profitable only with profile feedback
available:
-fbranch-probabilities -fprofile-values
-funroll-loops -fpeel-loops -ftracer -fvpt
-finline-functions -fipa-cp -fipa-cp-clone -fipa-bit-cp
-fpredictive-commoning -fsplit-loops -funswitch-loops
-fgcse-after-reload -ftree-loop-vectorize -ftree-slp-vectorize
-fvect-cost-model=dynamic -ftree-loop-distribute-patterns
-fprofile-correction
path is the name of a file containing AutoFDO profile information. If omitted,
it defaults to fbdata.afdo in the current directory.
Producing an AutoFDO profile data file requires running your program with the
perf utility on a supported GNU/Linux target system. For more information,
see https://perf.wiki.kernel.org/.
E.g.
perf record -e br_inst_retired:near_taken -b -o perf.data \
-- your_program
Then use the create_gcov tool to convert the raw profile data to a format
that can be used by GCC. You must also supply the unstripped binary for your
program to this tool. See https://github.com/google/autofdo.
E.g.
create_gcov --binary=your_program.unstripped --profile=perf.data \
--gcov=profile.afdo
fied in ISO C99 or C++; in particular, both casts and assignments cause values
to be rounded to their semantic types (whereas -ffloat-store only affects
assignments). This option is enabled by default for C or C++ if a strict confor-
mance option such as -std=c99 or -std=c++17 is used. -ffast-math enables
-fexcess-precision=fast by default regardless of whether a strict confor-
mance option is used. If -fexcess-precision=16 is specified, constants and
the results of expressions with types _Float16 and __bf16 are computed with-
out excess precision.
-fexcess-precision=standard is not implemented for languages other than
C or C++. On the x86, it has no effect if -mfpmath=sse or -mfpmath=sse+387
is specified; in the former case, IEEE semantics apply without excess precision,
and in the latter, rounding is unpredictable.
-ffast-math
Sets the options -fno-math-errno, -funsafe-math-optimizations,
-ffinite-math-only, -fno-rounding-math, -fno-signaling-nans,
-fcx-limited-range and -fexcess-precision=fast.
This option causes the preprocessor macro __FAST_MATH__ to be defined.
This option is not turned on by any -O option besides -Ofast since it can result
in incorrect output for programs that depend on an exact implementation of
IEEE or ISO rules/specifications for math functions. It may, however, yield
faster code for programs that do not require the guarantees of these specifica-
tions.
-fno-math-errno
Do not set errno after calling math functions that are executed with a single
instruction, e.g., sqrt. A program that relies on IEEE exceptions for math
error handling may want to use this flag for speed while maintaining IEEE
arithmetic compatibility.
This option is not turned on by any -O option besides -Ofast since it can result
in incorrect output for programs that depend on an exact implementation of
IEEE or ISO rules/specifications for math functions. It may, however, yield
faster code for programs that do not require the guarantees of these specifica-
tions.
The default is -fmath-errno.
On Darwin systems, the math library never sets errno. There is therefore no
reason for the compiler to consider the possibility that it might, and -fno-
math-errno is the default.
-funsafe-math-optimizations
Allow optimizations for floating-point arithmetic that (a) assume that argu-
ments and results are valid and (b) may violate IEEE or ANSI standards.
When used at link time, it may include libraries or startup files that change the
default FPU control word or other similar optimizations.
This option is not turned on by any -O option besides -Ofast since it can result
in incorrect output for programs that depend on an exact implementation of
IEEE or ISO rules/specifications for math functions. It may, however, yield
226 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
faster code for programs that do not require the guarantees of these specifi-
cations. Enables -fno-signed-zeros, -fno-trapping-math, -fassociative-
math and -freciprocal-math.
The default is -fno-unsafe-math-optimizations.
-fassociative-math
Allow re-association of operands in series of floating-point operations. This vi-
olates the ISO C and C++ language standard by possibly changing computation
result. NOTE: re-ordering may change the sign of zero as well as ignore NaNs
and inhibit or create underflow or overflow (and thus cannot be used on code
that relies on rounding behavior like (x + 2**52) - 2**52. May also reorder
floating-point comparisons and thus may not be used when ordered compar-
isons are required. This option requires that both -fno-signed-zeros and
-fno-trapping-math be in effect. Moreover, it doesn’t make much sense with
-frounding-math. For Fortran the option is automatically enabled when both
-fno-signed-zeros and -fno-trapping-math are in effect.
The default is -fno-associative-math.
-freciprocal-math
Allow the reciprocal of a value to be used instead of dividing by the value if
this enables optimizations. For example x / y can be replaced with x * (1/y),
which is useful if (1/y) is subject to common subexpression elimination. Note
that this loses precision and increases the number of flops operating on the
value.
The default is -fno-reciprocal-math.
-ffinite-math-only
Allow optimizations for floating-point arithmetic that assume that arguments
and results are not NaNs or +-Infs.
This option is not turned on by any -O option besides -Ofast since it can result
in incorrect output for programs that depend on an exact implementation of
IEEE or ISO rules/specifications for math functions. It may, however, yield
faster code for programs that do not require the guarantees of these specifica-
tions.
The default is -fno-finite-math-only.
-fno-signed-zeros
Allow optimizations for floating-point arithmetic that ignore the signedness of
zero. IEEE arithmetic specifies the behavior of distinct +0.0 and −0.0 values,
which then prohibits simplification of expressions such as x+0.0 or 0.0*x (even
with -ffinite-math-only). This option implies that the sign of a zero result
isn’t significant.
The default is -fsigned-zeros.
-fno-trapping-math
Compile code assuming that floating-point operations cannot generate user-
visible traps. These traps include division by zero, overflow, underflow, inexact
result and invalid operation. This option requires that -fno-signaling-nans
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 227
be in effect. Setting this option may allow faster code if one relies on “non-stop”
IEEE arithmetic, for example.
This option is not turned on by any -O option besides -Ofast since it can result
in incorrect output for programs that depend on an exact implementation of
IEEE or ISO rules/specifications for math functions.
The default is -ftrapping-math.
Future versions of GCC may provide finer control of this setting using C99’s
FENV_ACCESS pragma. This command-line option will be used along with
-frounding-math to specify the default state for FENV_ACCESS.
-frounding-math
Disable transformations and optimizations that assume default floating-point
rounding behavior. This is round-to-zero for all floating point to integer con-
versions, and round-to-nearest for all other arithmetic truncations. This option
should be specified for programs that change the FP rounding mode dynami-
cally, or that may be executed with a non-default rounding mode. This option
disables constant folding of floating-point expressions at compile time (which
may be affected by rounding mode) and arithmetic transformations that are
unsafe in the presence of sign-dependent rounding modes.
The default is -fno-rounding-math.
This option is experimental and does not currently guarantee to disable all GCC
optimizations that are affected by rounding mode. Future versions of GCC may
provide finer control of this setting using C99’s FENV_ACCESS pragma. This
command-line option will be used along with -ftrapping-math to specify the
default state for FENV_ACCESS.
-fsignaling-nans
Compile code assuming that IEEE signaling NaNs may generate user-visible
traps during floating-point operations. Setting this option disables optimiza-
tions that may change the number of exceptions visible with signaling NaNs.
This option implies -ftrapping-math.
This option causes the preprocessor macro __SUPPORT_SNAN__ to be defined.
The default is -fno-signaling-nans.
This option is experimental and does not currently guarantee to disable all
GCC optimizations that affect signaling NaN behavior.
-fno-fp-int-builtin-inexact
Do not allow the built-in functions ceil, floor, round and trunc, and their
float and long double variants, to generate code that raises the “inexact”
floating-point exception for noninteger arguments. ISO C99 and C11 allow
these functions to raise the “inexact” exception, but ISO/IEC TS 18661-1:2014,
the C bindings to IEEE 754-2008, as integrated into ISO C23, does not allow
these functions to do so.
The default is -ffp-int-builtin-inexact, allowing the exception to be raised,
unless C23 or a later C standard is selected. This option does nothing unless
-ftrapping-math is in effect.
228 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fmalloc-dce
Control whether malloc (and its variants such as calloc or strdup), can be
optimized away provided its return value is only used as a parameter of free
call or compared with NULL. If -fmalloc-dce=1 is used, only calls to free are
allowed while with -fmalloc-dce=2 also comparsions with NULL pointer are
considered safe to remove.
The default is -fmalloc-dce=2. See also -fallocation-dce.
-fmove-loop-invariants
Enables the loop invariant motion pass in the RTL loop optimizer. Enabled at
level -O1 and higher, except for -Og.
-fmove-loop-stores
Enables the loop store motion pass in the GIMPLE loop optimizer. This moves
invariant stores to after the end of the loop in exchange for carrying the stored
value in a register across the iteration. Note for this option to have an effect
-ftree-loop-im has to be enabled as well. Enabled at level -O1 and higher,
except for -Og.
-fsplit-loops
Split a loop into two if it contains a condition that’s always true for one side of
the iteration space and false for the other.
Enabled by -fprofile-use and -fauto-profile.
-funswitch-loops
Move branches with loop invariant conditions out of the loop, with duplicates
of the loop on both branches (modified according to result of the condition).
Enabled by -fprofile-use and -fauto-profile.
-fversion-loops-for-strides
If a loop iterates over an array with a variable stride, create another version of
the loop that assumes the stride is always one. For example:
for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i)
x[i * stride] = ...;
becomes:
if (stride == 1)
for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i)
x[i] = ...;
else
for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i)
x[i * stride] = ...;
This is particularly useful for assumed-shape arrays in Fortran where (for ex-
ample) it allows better vectorization assuming contiguous accesses. This flag is
enabled by default at -O3. It is also enabled by -fprofile-use and -fauto-
profile.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 231
-ffunction-sections
-fdata-sections
Place each function or data item into its own section in the output file if the
target supports arbitrary sections. The name of the function or the name of
the data item determines the section’s name in the output file.
Use these options on systems where the linker can perform optimizations to
improve locality of reference in the instruction space. Most systems using the
ELF object format have linkers with such optimizations. On AIX, the linker
rearranges sections (CSECTs) based on the call graph. The performance impact
varies.
Together with a linker garbage collection (linker --gc-sections option) these
options may lead to smaller statically-linked executables (after stripping).
On ELF/DWARF systems these options do not degenerate the quality of the
debug information. There could be issues with other object files/debug info
formats.
Only use these options when there are significant benefits from doing so. When
you specify these options, the assembler and linker create larger object and
executable files and are also slower. These options affect code generation. They
prevent optimizations by the compiler and assembler using relative locations
inside a translation unit since the locations are unknown until link time. An
example of such an optimization is relaxing calls to short call instructions.
-fstdarg-opt
Optimize the prologue of variadic argument functions with respect to usage of
those arguments.
-fsection-anchors
Try to reduce the number of symbolic address calculations by using shared
“anchor” symbols to address nearby objects. This transformation can help to
reduce the number of GOT entries and GOT accesses on some targets.
For example, the implementation of the following function foo:
static int a, b, c;
int foo (void) { return a + b + c; }
usually calculates the addresses of all three variables, but if you compile it with
-fsection-anchors, it accesses the variables from a common anchor point
instead. The effect is similar to the following pseudocode (which isn’t valid C):
int foo (void)
{
register int *xr = &x;
return xr[&a - &x] + xr[&b - &x] + xr[&c - &x];
}
Not all targets support this option.
-fzero-call-used-regs=choice
Zero call-used registers at function return to increase program security by ei-
ther mitigating Return-Oriented Programming (ROP) attacks or preventing
information leakage through registers.
232 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The possible values of choice are the same as for the zero_call_used_regs
attribute (see Section 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604). The default is
‘skip’.
You can control this behavior for a specific function by using the function
attribute zero_call_used_regs (see Section 6.35 [Function Attributes],
page 604).
--param name=value
In some places, GCC uses various constants to control the amount of optimiza-
tion that is done. For example, GCC does not inline functions that contain
more than a certain number of instructions. You can control some of these
constants on the command line using the --param option.
The names of specific parameters, and the meaning of the values, are tied to
the internals of the compiler, and are subject to change without notice in future
releases.
In order to get the minimal, maximal and default values of a parameter, use
the --help=param -Q options.
In each case, the value is an integer. The following choices of name are recog-
nized for all targets:
phiopt-factor-max-stmts-live
When factoring statements out of if/then/else, this is the max # of
statements after the defining statement to be allow to extend the
lifetime of a name
predictable-branch-outcome
When branch is predicted to be taken with probability lower than
this threshold (in percent), then it is considered well predictable.
max-rtl-if-conversion-insns
RTL if-conversion tries to remove conditional branches around a
block and replace them with conditionally executed instructions.
This parameter gives the maximum number of instructions in a
block which should be considered for if-conversion. The compiler
will also use other heuristics to decide whether if-conversion is likely
to be profitable.
max-rtl-if-conversion-predictable-cost
RTL if-conversion will try to remove conditional branches around
a block and replace them with conditionally executed instructions.
These parameters give the maximum permissible cost for the
sequence that would be generated by if-conversion depending on
whether the branch is statically determined to be predictable or
not. The units for this parameter are the same as those for the
GCC internal seq cost metric. The compiler will try to provide a
reasonable default for this parameter using the BRANCH COST
target macro.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 233
max-crossjump-edges
The maximum number of incoming edges to consider for cross-
jumping. The algorithm used by -fcrossjumping is O(N 2 ) in the
number of edges incoming to each block. Increasing values mean
more aggressive optimization, making the compilation time increase
with probably small improvement in executable size.
min-crossjump-insns
The minimum number of instructions that must be matched at the
end of two blocks before cross-jumping is performed on them. This
value is ignored in the case where all instructions in the block being
cross-jumped from are matched.
max-grow-copy-bb-insns
The maximum code size expansion factor when copying basic blocks
instead of jumping. The expansion is relative to a jump instruction.
max-goto-duplication-insns
The maximum number of instructions to duplicate to a block that
jumps to a computed goto. To avoid O(N 2 ) behavior in a number
of passes, GCC factors computed gotos early in the compilation
process, and unfactors them as late as possible. Only computed
jumps at the end of a basic blocks with no more than max-goto-
duplication-insns are unfactored.
max-delay-slot-insn-search
The maximum number of instructions to consider when looking for
an instruction to fill a delay slot. If more than this arbitrary number
of instructions are searched, the time savings from filling the delay
slot are minimal, so stop searching. Increasing values mean more
aggressive optimization, making the compilation time increase with
probably small improvement in execution time.
max-delay-slot-live-search
When trying to fill delay slots, the maximum number of instruc-
tions to consider when searching for a block with valid live register
information. Increasing this arbitrarily chosen value means more
aggressive optimization, increasing the compilation time. This pa-
rameter should be removed when the delay slot code is rewritten
to maintain the control-flow graph.
max-gcse-memory
The approximate maximum amount of memory in kB that can be al-
located in order to perform the global common subexpression elim-
ination optimization. If more memory than specified is required,
the optimization is not done.
max-gcse-insertion-ratio
If the ratio of expression insertions to deletions is larger than this
value for any expression, then RTL PRE inserts or removes the
234 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
inline-heuristics-hint-percent
The scale (in percents) applied to inline-insns-single,
inline-insns-single-O2, inline-insns-auto when inline
heuristics hints that inlining is very profitable (will enable later
optimizations).
uninlined-thunk-insns
uninlined-thunk-time
Same as --param uninlined-function-insns and --param
uninlined-function-time but applied to function thunks.
inline-min-speedup
When estimated performance improvement of caller + callee run-
time exceeds this threshold (in percent), the function can be inlined
regardless of the limit on --param max-inline-insns-single and
--param max-inline-insns-auto.
large-function-insns
The limit specifying really large functions. For functions larger
than this limit after inlining, inlining is constrained by --param
large-function-growth. This parameter is useful primarily to
avoid extreme compilation time caused by non-linear algorithms
used by the back end.
large-function-growth
Specifies maximal growth of large function caused by inlining in
percents. For example, parameter value 100 limits large function
growth to 2.0 times the original size.
large-unit-insns
The limit specifying large translation unit. Growth caused by in-
lining of units larger than this limit is limited by --param inline-
unit-growth. For small units this might be too tight. For example,
consider a unit consisting of function A that is inline and B that
just calls A three times. If B is small relative to A, the growth of
unit is 300\% and yet such inlining is very sane. For very large
units consisting of small inlineable functions, however, the overall
unit growth limit is needed to avoid exponential explosion of code
size. Thus for smaller units, the size is increased to --param large-
unit-insns before applying --param inline-unit-growth.
lazy-modules
Maximum number of concurrently open C++ module files when lazy
loading.
inline-unit-growth
Specifies maximal overall growth of the compilation unit caused by
inlining. For example, parameter value 20 limits unit growth to 1.2
times the original size. Cold functions (either marked cold via an
attribute or by profile feedback) are not accounted into the unit
size.
236 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
ipa-cp-unit-growth
Specifies maximal overall growth of the compilation unit caused
by interprocedural constant propagation. For example, parameter
value 10 limits unit growth to 1.1 times the original size.
ipa-cp-large-unit-insns
The size of translation unit that IPA-CP pass considers large.
large-stack-frame
The limit specifying large stack frames. While inlining the algo-
rithm is trying to not grow past this limit too much.
large-stack-frame-growth
Specifies maximal growth of large stack frames caused by inlining
in percents. For example, parameter value 1000 limits large stack
frame growth to 11 times the original size.
max-inline-insns-recursive
max-inline-insns-recursive-auto
Specifies the maximum number of instructions an out-of-line copy of
a self-recursive inline function can grow into by performing recursive
inlining.
--param max-inline-insns-recursive applies to functions
declared inline. For functions not declared inline, recursive inlining
happens only when -finline-functions (included in -O3) is
enabled; --param max-inline-insns-recursive-auto applies
instead.
max-inline-recursive-depth
max-inline-recursive-depth-auto
Specifies the maximum recursion depth used for recursive inlining.
--param max-inline-recursive-depth applies to functions
declared inline. For functions not declared inline, recursive inlining
happens only when -finline-functions (included in -O3) is
enabled; --param max-inline-recursive-depth-auto applies
instead.
min-inline-recursive-probability
Recursive inlining is profitable only for function having deep re-
cursion in average and can hurt for function having little recursion
depth by increasing the prologue size or complexity of function
body to other optimizers.
When profile feedback is available (see -fprofile-generate) the
actual recursion depth can be guessed from the probability that
function recurses via a given call expression. This parameter limits
inlining only to call expressions whose probability exceeds the given
threshold (in percents).
early-inlining-insns
Specify growth that the early inliner can make. In effect it increases
the amount of inlining for code having a large abstraction penalty.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 237
max-early-inliner-iterations
Limit of iterations of the early inliner. This basically bounds the
number of nested indirect calls the early inliner can resolve. Deeper
chains are still handled by late inlining.
comdat-sharing-probability
Probability (in percent) that C++ inline function with comdat vis-
ibility are shared across multiple compilation units.
modref-max-bases
modref-max-refs
modref-max-accesses
Specifies the maximal number of base pointers, references and ac-
cesses stored for a single function by mod/ref analysis.
modref-max-tests
Specifies the maxmal number of tests alias oracle can perform to dis-
ambiguate memory locations using the mod/ref information. This
parameter ought to be bigger than --param modref-max-bases
and --param modref-max-refs.
modref-max-depth
Specifies the maximum depth of DFS walk used by modref escape
analysis. Setting to 0 disables the analysis completely.
modref-max-escape-points
Specifies the maximum number of escape points tracked by modref
per SSA-name.
modref-max-adjustments
Specifies the maximum number the access range is enlarged during
modref dataflow analysis.
profile-func-internal-id
A parameter to control whether to use function internal id in profile
database lookup. If the value is 0, the compiler uses an id that
is based on function assembler name and filename, which makes
old profile data more tolerant to source changes such as function
reordering etc.
min-vect-loop-bound
The minimum number of iterations under which loops are not vec-
torized when -ftree-vectorize is used. The number of iterations
after vectorization needs to be greater than the value specified by
this option to allow vectorization.
gcse-cost-distance-ratio
Scaling factor in calculation of maximum distance an expression can
be moved by GCSE optimizations. This is currently supported only
in the code hoisting pass. The bigger the ratio, the more aggres-
sive code hoisting is with simple expressions, i.e., the expressions
that have cost less than gcse-unrestricted-cost. Specifying 0
disables hoisting of simple expressions.
238 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
gcse-unrestricted-cost
Cost, roughly measured as the cost of a single typical machine
instruction, at which GCSE optimizations do not constrain the dis-
tance an expression can travel. This is currently supported only
in the code hoisting pass. The lesser the cost, the more aggres-
sive code hoisting is. Specifying 0 allows all expressions to travel
unrestricted distances.
max-hoist-depth
The depth of search in the dominator tree for expressions to hoist.
This is used to avoid quadratic behavior in hoisting algorithm. The
value of 0 does not limit on the search, but may slow down compi-
lation of huge functions.
max-tail-merge-comparisons
The maximum amount of similar bbs to compare a bb with. This
is used to avoid quadratic behavior in tree tail merging.
max-tail-merge-iterations
The maximum amount of iterations of the pass over the function.
This is used to limit compilation time in tree tail merging.
store-merging-allow-unaligned
Allow the store merging pass to introduce unaligned stores if it is
legal to do so.
max-stores-to-merge
The maximum number of stores to attempt to merge into wider
stores in the store merging pass.
max-store-chains-to-track
The maximum number of store chains to track at the same time in
the attempt to merge them into wider stores in the store merging
pass.
max-stores-to-track
The maximum number of stores to track at the same time in the
attemt to to merge them into wider stores in the store merging
pass.
max-unrolled-insns
The maximum number of instructions that a loop may have to be
unrolled. If a loop is unrolled, this parameter also determines how
many times the loop code is unrolled.
max-average-unrolled-insns
The maximum number of instructions biased by probabilities of
their execution that a loop may have to be unrolled. If a loop is
unrolled, this parameter also determines how many times the loop
code is unrolled.
max-unroll-times
The maximum number of unrollings of a single loop.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 239
max-peeled-insns
The maximum number of instructions that a loop may have to be
peeled. If a loop is peeled, this parameter also determines how
many times the loop code is peeled.
max-peel-times
The maximum number of peelings of a single loop.
max-peel-branches
The maximum number of branches on the hot path through the
peeled sequence.
max-completely-peeled-insns
The maximum number of insns of a completely peeled loop.
max-completely-peel-times
The maximum number of iterations of a loop to be suitable for
complete peeling.
max-completely-peel-loop-nest-depth
The maximum depth of a loop nest suitable for complete peeling.
max-unswitch-insns
The maximum number of insns of an unswitched loop.
max-unswitch-depth
The maximum depth of a loop nest to be unswitched.
lim-expensive
The minimum cost of an expensive expression in the loop invariant
motion.
min-loop-cond-split-prob
When FDO profile information is available, min-loop-cond-
split-prob specifies minimum threshold for probability of
semi-invariant condition statement to trigger loop split.
iv-consider-all-candidates-bound
Bound on number of candidates for induction variables, below
which all candidates are considered for each use in induction
variable optimizations. If there are more candidates than this,
only the most relevant ones are considered to avoid quadratic time
complexity.
iv-max-considered-uses
The induction variable optimizations give up on loops that contain
more induction variable uses.
iv-always-prune-cand-set-bound
If the number of candidates in the set is smaller than this value,
always try to remove unnecessary ivs from the set when adding a
new one.
avg-loop-niter
Average number of iterations of a loop.
240 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
dse-max-object-size
Maximum size (in bytes) of objects tracked bytewise by dead store
elimination. Larger values may result in larger compilation times.
dse-max-alias-queries-per-store
Maximum number of queries into the alias oracle per store. Larger
values result in larger compilation times and may result in more
removed dead stores.
scev-max-expr-size
Bound on size of expressions used in the scalar evolutions analyzer.
Large expressions slow the analyzer.
scev-max-expr-complexity
Bound on the complexity of the expressions in the scalar evolutions
analyzer. Complex expressions slow the analyzer.
max-tree-if-conversion-phi-args
Maximum number of arguments in a PHI supported by TREE if
conversion unless the loop is marked with simd pragma.
vect-max-layout-candidates
The maximum number of possible vector layouts (such as permu-
tations) to consider when optimizing to-be-vectorized code.
vect-max-version-for-alignment-checks
The maximum number of run-time checks that can be performed
when doing loop versioning for alignment in the vectorizer.
vect-max-version-for-alias-checks
The maximum number of run-time checks that can be performed
when doing loop versioning for alias in the vectorizer.
vect-max-peeling-for-alignment
The maximum number of loop peels to enhance access alignment
for vectorizer. Value -1 means no limit.
max-iterations-to-track
The maximum number of iterations of a loop the brute-force algo-
rithm for analysis of the number of iterations of the loop tries to
evaluate.
hot-bb-count-fraction
The denominator n of fraction 1/n of the maximal execution count
of a basic block in the entire program that a basic block needs to
at least have in order to be considered hot. The default is 10000,
which means that a basic block is considered hot if its execution
count is greater than 1/10000 of the maximal execution count. 0
means that it is never considered hot. Used in non-LTO mode.
hot-bb-count-ws-permille
The number of most executed permilles, ranging from 0 to 1000, of
the profiled execution of the entire program to which the execution
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 241
ggc-min-heapsize
Minimum size of the garbage collector’s heap before it begins both-
ering to collect garbage. The first collection occurs after the heap
expands by ggc-min-expand% beyond ggc-min-heapsize. Again,
tuning this may improve compilation speed, and has no effect on
code generation.
The default is the smaller of RAM/8, RLIMIT RSS, or a limit
that tries to ensure that RLIMIT DATA or RLIMIT AS are not
exceeded, but with a lower bound of 4096 (four megabytes) and
an upper bound of 131072 (128 megabytes). If GCC is not able
to calculate RAM on a particular platform, the lower bound is
used. Setting this parameter very large effectively disables garbage
collection. Setting this parameter and ggc-min-expand to zero
causes a full collection to occur at every opportunity.
max-reload-search-insns
The maximum number of instruction reload should look backward
for equivalent register. Increasing values mean more aggressive op-
timization, making the compilation time increase with probably
slightly better performance.
max-cselib-memory-locations
The maximum number of memory locations cselib should take into
account. Increasing values mean more aggressive optimization,
making the compilation time increase with probably slightly better
performance.
max-sched-ready-insns
The maximum number of instructions ready to be issued the sched-
uler should consider at any given time during the first scheduling
pass. Increasing values mean more thorough searches, making the
compilation time increase with probably little benefit.
max-sched-region-blocks
The maximum number of blocks in a region to be considered for
interblock scheduling.
244 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
max-pipeline-region-blocks
The maximum number of blocks in a region to be considered for
pipelining in the selective scheduler.
max-sched-region-insns
The maximum number of insns in a region to be considered for
interblock scheduling.
max-pipeline-region-insns
The maximum number of insns in a region to be considered for
pipelining in the selective scheduler.
min-spec-prob
The minimum probability (in percents) of reaching a source block
for interblock speculative scheduling.
max-sched-extend-regions-iters
The maximum number of iterations through CFG to extend regions.
A value of 0 disables region extensions.
max-sched-insn-conflict-delay
The maximum conflict delay for an insn to be considered for spec-
ulative motion.
sched-spec-prob-cutoff
The minimal probability of speculation success (in percents), so
that speculative insns are scheduled.
sched-state-edge-prob-cutoff
The minimum probability an edge must have for the scheduler to
save its state across it.
sched-mem-true-dep-cost
Minimal distance (in CPU cycles) between store and load targeting
same memory locations.
selsched-max-lookahead
The maximum size of the lookahead window of selective scheduling.
It is a depth of search for available instructions.
selsched-max-sched-times
The maximum number of times that an instruction is scheduled
during selective scheduling. This is the limit on the number of
iterations through which the instruction may be pipelined.
selsched-insns-to-rename
The maximum number of best instructions in the ready list that
are considered for renaming in the selective scheduler.
sms-min-sc
The minimum value of stage count that swing modulo scheduler
generates.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 245
max-last-value-rtl
The maximum size measured as number of RTLs that can be
recorded in an expression in combiner for a pseudo register as last
known value of that register.
max-combine-insns
The maximum number of instructions the RTL combiner tries to
combine.
integer-share-limit
Small integer constants can use a shared data structure, reducing
the compiler’s memory usage and increasing its speed. This sets
the maximum value of a shared integer constant.
ssp-buffer-size
The minimum size of buffers (i.e. arrays) that receive stack smash-
ing protection when -fstack-protector is used.
min-size-for-stack-sharing
The minimum size of variables taking part in stack slot sharing
when not optimizing.
max-jump-thread-duplication-stmts
Maximum number of statements allowed in a block that needs to
be duplicated when threading jumps.
max-jump-thread-paths
The maximum number of paths to consider when searching for jump
threading opportunities. When arriving at a block, incoming edges
are only considered if the number of paths to be searched so far
multiplied by the number of incoming edges does not exhaust the
specified maximum number of paths to consider.
max-fields-for-field-sensitive
Maximum number of fields in a structure treated in a field sensitive
manner during pointer analysis.
prefetch-latency
Estimate on average number of instructions that are executed be-
fore prefetch finishes. The distance prefetched ahead is propor-
tional to this constant. Increasing this number may also lead to
less streams being prefetched (see simultaneous-prefetches).
simultaneous-prefetches
Maximum number of prefetches that can run at the same time.
l1-cache-line-size
The size of cache line in L1 data cache, in bytes.
l1-cache-size
The size of L1 data cache, in kilobytes.
l2-cache-size
The size of L2 data cache, in kilobytes.
246 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
prefetch-dynamic-strides
Whether the loop array prefetch pass should issue software prefetch
hints for strides that are non-constant. In some cases this may be
beneficial, though the fact the stride is non-constant may make it
hard to predict when there is clear benefit to issuing these hints.
Set to 1 if the prefetch hints should be issued for non-
constant strides. Set to 0 if prefetch hints should be issued
only for strides that are known to be constant and below
prefetch-minimum-stride.
prefetch-minimum-stride
Minimum constant stride, in bytes, to start using prefetch hints for.
If the stride is less than this threshold, prefetch hints will not be
issued.
This setting is useful for processors that have hardware prefetchers,
in which case there may be conflicts between the hardware prefetch-
ers and the software prefetchers. If the hardware prefetchers have a
maximum stride they can handle, it should be used here to improve
the use of software prefetchers.
A value of -1 means we don’t have a threshold and therefore prefetch
hints can be issued for any constant stride.
This setting is only useful for strides that are known and constant.
destructive-interference-size
constructive-interference-size
The values for the C++17 variables std::hardware_destructive_
interference_size and std::hardware_constructive_
interference_size. The destructive interference size is
the minimum recommended offset between two independent
concurrently-accessed objects; the constructive interference size is
the maximum recommended size of contiguous memory accessed
together. Typically both will be the size of an L1 cache line for
the target, in bytes. For a generic target covering a range of L1
cache line sizes, typically the constructive interference size will be
the small end of the range and the destructive size will be the
large end.
The destructive interference size is intended to be used for layout,
and thus has ABI impact. The default value is not expected to
be stable, and on some targets varies with -mtune, so use of this
variable in a context where ABI stability is important, such as the
public interface of a library, is strongly discouraged; if it is used in
that context, users can stabilize the value using this option.
The constructive interference size is less sensitive, as it is typically
only used in a ‘static_assert’ to make sure that a type fits within
a cache line.
See also -Winterference-size.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 247
loop-interchange-max-num-stmts
The maximum number of stmts in a loop to be interchanged.
loop-interchange-stride-ratio
The minimum ratio between stride of two loops for interchange to
be profitable.
min-insn-to-prefetch-ratio
The minimum ratio between the number of instructions and the
number of prefetches to enable prefetching in a loop.
prefetch-min-insn-to-mem-ratio
The minimum ratio between the number of instructions and the
number of memory references to enable prefetching in a loop.
use-canonical-types
Whether the compiler should use the “canonical” type system.
Should always be 1, which uses a more efficient internal mecha-
nism for comparing types in C++ and Objective-C++. However, if
bugs in the canonical type system are causing compilation failures,
set this value to 0 to disable canonical types.
switch-conversion-max-branch-ratio
Switch initialization conversion refuses to create arrays that are big-
ger than switch-conversion-max-branch-ratio times the num-
ber of branches in the switch.
switch-lower-slow-alg-max-cases
Maximum number of cases for slow switch lowering algorithms to
be used.
max-partial-antic-length
Maximum length of the partial antic set computed during the tree
partial redundancy elimination optimization (-ftree-pre) when
optimizing at -O3 and above. For some sorts of source code the en-
hanced partial redundancy elimination optimization can run away,
consuming all of the memory available on the host machine. This
parameter sets a limit on the length of the sets that are computed,
which prevents the runaway behavior. Setting a value of 0 for this
parameter allows an unlimited set length.
rpo-vn-max-loop-depth
Maximum loop depth that is value-numbered optimistically. When
the limit hits the innermost rpo-vn-max-loop-depth loops and the
outermost loop in the loop nest are value-numbered optimistically
and the remaining ones not.
sccvn-max-alias-queries-per-access
Maximum number of alias-oracle queries we perform when looking
for redundancies for loads and stores. If this limit is hit the search
is aborted and the load or store is not considered redundant. The
number of queries is algorithmically limited to the number of stores
on all paths from the load to the function entry.
248 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
ira-max-loops-num
IRA uses regional register allocation by default. If a function con-
tains more loops than the number given by this parameter, only at
most the given number of the most frequently-executed loops form
regions for regional register allocation.
ira-max-conflict-table-size
Although IRA uses a sophisticated algorithm to compress the con-
flict table, the table can still require excessive amounts of memory
for huge functions. If the conflict table for a function could be more
than the size in MB given by this parameter, the register alloca-
tor instead uses a faster, simpler, and lower-quality algorithm that
does not require building a pseudo-register conflict table.
ira-loop-reserved-regs
IRA can be used to evaluate more accurate register pressure in
loops for decisions to move loop invariants (see -O3). The number
of available registers reserved for some other purposes is given by
this parameter. Default of the parameter is the best found from
numerous experiments.
ira-consider-dup-in-all-alts
Make IRA to consider matching constraint (duplicated operand
number) heavily in all available alternatives for preferred register
class. If it is set as zero, it means IRA only respects the match-
ing constraint when it’s in the only available alternative with an
appropriate register class. Otherwise, it means IRA will check all
available alternatives for preferred register class even if it has found
some choice with an appropriate register class and respect the found
qualified matching constraint.
ira-simple-lra-insn-threshold
Approximate function insn number in 1K units triggering simple
local RA.
lra-inheritance-ebb-probability-cutoff
LRA tries to reuse values reloaded in registers in subsequent in-
sns. This optimization is called inheritance. EBB is used as a
region to do this optimization. The parameter defines a minimal
fall-through edge probability in percentage used to add BB to inher-
itance EBB in LRA. The default value was chosen from numerous
runs of SPEC2000 on x86-64.
loop-invariant-max-bbs-in-loop
Loop invariant motion can be very expensive, both in compilation
time and in amount of needed compile-time memory, with very
large loops. Loops with more basic blocks than this parameter
won’t have loop invariant motion optimization performed on them.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 249
loop-max-datarefs-for-datadeps
Building data dependencies is expensive for very large loops. This
parameter limits the number of data references in loops that are
considered for data dependence analysis. These large loops are no
handled by the optimizations using loop data dependencies.
max-vartrack-size
Sets a maximum number of hash table slots to use during variable
tracking dataflow analysis of any function. If this limit is exceeded
with variable tracking at assignments enabled, analysis for that
function is retried without it, after removing all debug insns from
the function. If the limit is exceeded even without debug insns, var
tracking analysis is completely disabled for the function. Setting
the parameter to zero makes it unlimited.
max-vartrack-expr-depth
Sets a maximum number of recursion levels when attempting to
map variable names or debug temporaries to value expressions.
This trades compilation time for more complete debug information.
If this is set too low, value expressions that are available and could
be represented in debug information may end up not being used;
setting this higher may enable the compiler to find more complex
debug expressions, but compile time and memory use may grow.
max-debug-marker-count
Sets a threshold on the number of debug markers (e.g. begin stmt
markers) to avoid complexity explosion at inlining or expanding to
RTL. If a function has more such gimple stmts than the set limit,
such stmts will be dropped from the inlined copy of a function, and
from its RTL expansion.
min-nondebug-insn-uid
Use uids starting at this parameter for nondebug insns. The range
below the parameter is reserved exclusively for debug insns created
by -fvar-tracking-assignments, but debug insns may get (non-
overlapping) uids above it if the reserved range is exhausted.
ipa-sra-deref-prob-threshold
IPA-SRA replaces a pointer which is known not be NULL with
one or more new parameters only when the probability (in percent,
relative to function entry) of it being dereferenced is higher than
this parameter.
ipa-sra-ptr-growth-factor
IPA-SRA replaces a pointer to an aggregate with one or more new
parameters only when their cumulative size is less or equal to ipa-
sra-ptr-growth-factor times the size of the original pointer pa-
rameter.
250 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
ipa-sra-ptrwrap-growth-factor
Additional maximum allowed growth of total size of new parameters
that ipa-sra replaces a pointer to an aggregate with, if it points to
a local variable that the caller only writes to and passes it as an
argument to other functions.
ipa-sra-max-replacements
Maximum pieces of an aggregate that IPA-SRA tracks. As a conse-
quence, it is also the maximum number of replacements of a formal
parameter.
sra-max-scalarization-size-Ospeed
sra-max-scalarization-size-Osize
The two Scalar Reduction of Aggregates passes (SRA and IPA-
SRA) aim to replace scalar parts of aggregates with uses of in-
dependent scalar variables. These parameters control the maxi-
mum size, in storage units, of aggregate which is considered for
replacement when compiling for speed (sra-max-scalarization-
size-Ospeed) or size (sra-max-scalarization-size-Osize) re-
spectively.
sra-max-propagations
The maximum number of artificial accesses that Scalar Replace-
ment of Aggregates (SRA) will track, per one local variable, in
order to facilitate copy propagation.
tm-max-aggregate-size
When making copies of thread-local variables in a transaction, this
parameter specifies the size in bytes after which variables are saved
with the logging functions as opposed to save/restore code sequence
pairs. This option only applies when using -fgnu-tm.
graphite-max-nb-scop-params
To avoid exponential effects in the Graphite loop transforms, the
number of parameters in a Static Control Part (SCoP) is bounded.
A value of zero can be used to lift the bound. A variable whose
value is unknown at compilation time and defined outside a SCoP
is a parameter of the SCoP.
hardcfr-max-blocks
Disable -fharden-control-flow-redundancy for functions with a
larger number of blocks than the specified value. Zero removes any
limit.
hardcfr-max-inline-blocks
Force -fharden-control-flow-redundancy to use out-of-line
checking for functions with a larger number of basic blocks than
the specified value.
loop-block-tile-size
Loop blocking or strip mining transforms, enabled with -floop-
block or -floop-strip-mine, strip mine each loop in the loop nest
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 251
ipa-max-aa-steps
During its analysis of function bodies, IPA-CP employs alias anal-
ysis in order to track values pointed to by function parameters. In
order not spend too much time analyzing huge functions, it gives
up and consider all memory clobbered after examining ipa-max-
aa-steps statements modifying memory.
ipa-max-switch-predicate-bounds
Maximal number of boundary endpoints of case ranges of switch
statement. For switch exceeding this limit, IPA-CP will not con-
struct cloning cost predicate, which is used to estimate cloning
benefit, for default case of the switch statement.
ipa-max-param-expr-ops
IPA-CP will analyze conditional statement that references some
function parameter to estimate benefit for cloning upon certain
constant value. But if number of operations in a parameter expres-
sion exceeds ipa-max-param-expr-ops, the expression is treated
as complicated one, and is not handled by IPA analysis.
lto-partitions
Specify desired number of partitions produced during WHOPR
compilation. The number of partitions should exceed the number
of CPUs used for compilation.
lto-min-partition
Size of minimal partition for WHOPR (in estimated instructions).
This prevents expenses of splitting very small programs into too
many partitions.
lto-max-partition
Size of max partition for WHOPR (in estimated instructions). to
provide an upper bound for individual size of partition. Meant to
be used only with balanced partitioning.
lto-max-streaming-parallelism
Maximal number of parallel processes used for LTO streaming.
cxx-max-namespaces-for-diagnostic-help
The maximum number of namespaces to consult for suggestions
when C++ name lookup fails for an identifier.
sink-frequency-threshold
The maximum relative execution frequency (in percents) of the tar-
get block relative to a statement’s original block to allow statement
sinking of a statement. Larger numbers result in more aggressive
statement sinking. A small positive adjustment is applied for state-
ments with memory operands as those are even more profitable so
sink.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 253
max-stores-to-sink
The maximum number of conditional store pairs that can be sunk.
Set to 0 if either vectorization (-ftree-vectorize) or if-conversion
(-ftree-loop-if-convert) is disabled.
case-values-threshold
The smallest number of different values for which it is best to use
a jump-table instead of a tree of conditional branches. If the value
is 0, use the default for the machine.
jump-table-max-growth-ratio-for-size
The maximum code size growth ratio when expanding into a jump
table (in percent). The parameter is used when optimizing for size.
jump-table-max-growth-ratio-for-speed
The maximum code size growth ratio when expanding into a jump
table (in percent). The parameter is used when optimizing for
speed.
tree-reassoc-width
Set the maximum number of instructions executed in parallel in re-
associated tree. This parameter overrides target dependent heuris-
tics used by default if has non zero value.
sched-pressure-algorithm
Choose between the two available implementations of -fsched-
pressure. Algorithm 1 is the original implementation and is the
more likely to prevent instructions from being reordered. Algorithm
2 was designed to be a compromise between the relatively conser-
vative approach taken by algorithm 1 and the rather aggressive
approach taken by the default scheduler. It relies more heavily on
having a regular register file and accurate register pressure classes.
See haifa-sched.cc in the GCC sources for more details.
The default choice depends on the target.
max-slsr-cand-scan
Set the maximum number of existing candidates that are consid-
ered when seeking a basis for a new straight-line strength reduction
candidate.
asan-globals
Enable buffer overflow detection for global objects. This
kind of protection is enabled by default if you are using
-fsanitize=address option. To disable global objects protection
use --param asan-globals=0.
asan-stack
Enable buffer overflow detection for stack objects. This kind of
protection is enabled by default when using -fsanitize=address.
To disable stack protection use --param asan-stack=0 option.
254 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
asan-instrument-reads
Enable buffer overflow detection for memory reads. This
kind of protection is enabled by default when using
-fsanitize=address. To disable memory reads protection use
--param asan-instrument-reads=0.
asan-instrument-writes
Enable buffer overflow detection for memory writes. This
kind of protection is enabled by default when using
-fsanitize=address. To disable memory writes protection use
--param asan-instrument-writes=0 option.
asan-memintrin
Enable detection for built-in functions. This kind of protection is
enabled by default when using -fsanitize=address. To disable
built-in functions protection use --param asan-memintrin=0.
asan-use-after-return
Enable detection of use-after-return. This kind of protection is
enabled by default when using the -fsanitize=address option.
To disable it use --param asan-use-after-return=0.
Note: By default the check is disabled at run time. To enable it, add
detect_stack_use_after_return=1 to the environment variable
ASAN_OPTIONS.
asan-instrumentation-with-call-threshold
If number of memory accesses in function being instrumented
is greater or equal to this number, use callbacks instead
of inline checks. E.g. to disable inline code use --param
asan-instrumentation-with-call-threshold=0.
asan-kernel-mem-intrinsic-prefix
If nonzero, prefix calls to memcpy, memset and memmove with
‘__asan_’ or ‘__hwasan_’ for -fsanitize=kernel-address or
‘-fsanitize=kernel-hwaddress’, respectively.
hwasan-instrument-stack
Enable hwasan instrumentation of statically sized stack-allocated
variables. This kind of instrumentation is enabled by default when
using -fsanitize=hwaddress and disabled by default when using
-fsanitize=kernel-hwaddress. To disable stack instrumentation
use --param hwasan-instrument-stack=0, and to enable it use
--param hwasan-instrument-stack=1.
hwasan-random-frame-tag
When using stack instrumentation, decide tags for stack variables
using a deterministic sequence beginning at a random tag for
each frame. With this parameter unset tags are chosen using
the same sequence but beginning from 1. This is enabled
by default for -fsanitize=hwaddress and unavailable for
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 255
parloops-schedule
Schedule type of omp schedule for loops parallelized by parloops
(static, dynamic, guided, auto, runtime).
parloops-min-per-thread
The minimum number of iterations per thread of an innermost
parallelized loop for which the parallelized variant is preferred over
the single threaded one. Note that for a parallelized loop nest the
minimum number of iterations of the outermost loop per thread is
two.
max-ssa-name-query-depth
Maximum depth of recursion when querying properties of SSA
names in things like fold routines. One level of recursion corre-
sponds to following a use-def chain.
max-speculative-devirt-maydefs
The maximum number of may-defs we analyze when looking for a
must-def specifying the dynamic type of an object that invokes a
virtual call we may be able to devirtualize speculatively.
ranger-debug
Specifies the type of debug output to be issued for ranges.
unroll-jam-min-percent
The minimum percentage of memory references that must be opti-
mized away for the unroll-and-jam transformation to be considered
profitable.
unroll-jam-max-unroll
The maximum number of times the outer loop should be unrolled
by the unroll-and-jam transformation.
max-rtl-if-conversion-unpredictable-cost
Maximum permissible cost for the sequence that would be gener-
ated by the RTL if-conversion pass for a branch that is considered
unpredictable.
max-variable-expansions-in-unroller
If -fvariable-expansion-in-unroller is used, the maximum
number of times that an individual variable will be expanded
during loop unrolling.
partial-inlining-entry-probability
Maximum probability of the entry BB of split region (in percent
relative to entry BB of the function) to make partial inlining hap-
pen.
max-tracked-strlens
Maximum number of strings for which strlen optimization pass will
track string lengths.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 257
gcse-after-reload-partial-fraction
The threshold ratio for performing partial redundancy elimination
after reload.
gcse-after-reload-critical-fraction
The threshold ratio of critical edges execution count that permit
performing redundancy elimination after reload.
max-loop-header-insns
The maximum number of insns in loop header duplicated by the
copy loop headers pass.
vect-epilogues-nomask
Enable loop epilogue vectorization using smaller vector size.
vect-partial-vector-usage
Controls when the loop vectorizer considers using partial vector
loads and stores as an alternative to falling back to scalar code. 0
stops the vectorizer from ever using partial vector loads and stores.
1 allows partial vector loads and stores if vectorization removes
the need for the code to iterate. 2 allows partial vector loads and
stores in all loops. The parameter only has an effect on targets that
support partial vector loads and stores.
vect-inner-loop-cost-factor
The maximum factor which the loop vectorizer applies to the cost
of statements in an inner loop relative to the loop being vectorized.
The factor applied is the maximum of the estimated number of
iterations of the inner loop and this parameter. The default value
of this parameter is 50.
vect-induction-float
Enable loop vectorization of floating point inductions.
vect-force-slp
Force the use of SLP when vectorizing, fail if not possible.
vrp-block-limit
Maximum number of basic blocks before VRP switches to a lower
memory algorithm.
vrp-sparse-threshold
Maximum number of basic blocks before VRP uses a sparse bitmap
cache.
vrp-switch-limit
Maximum number of outgoing edges in a switch before VRP will
not process it.
vrp-vector-threshold
Maximum number of basic blocks for VRP to use a basic cache
vector.
258 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
avoid-fma-max-bits
Maximum number of bits for which we avoid creating FMAs.
fully-pipelined-fma
Whether the target fully pipelines FMA instructions. If non-zero,
reassociation considers the benefit of parallelizing FMA’s multipli-
cation part and addition part, assuming FMUL and FMA use the
same units that can also do FADD.
sms-loop-average-count-threshold
A threshold on the average loop count considered by the swing
modulo scheduler.
sms-dfa-history
The number of cycles the swing modulo scheduler considers when
checking conflicts using DFA.
graphite-allow-codegen-errors
Whether codegen errors should be ICEs when -fchecking.
sms-max-ii-factor
A factor for tuning the upper bound that swing modulo scheduler
uses for scheduling a loop.
lra-max-considered-reload-pseudos
The max number of reload pseudos which are considered during
spilling a non-reload pseudo.
max-pow-sqrt-depth
Maximum depth of sqrt chains to use when synthesizing exponen-
tiation by a real constant.
max-dse-active-local-stores
Maximum number of active local stores in RTL dead store elimi-
nation.
asan-instrument-allocas
Enable asan allocas/VLAs protection.
max-iterations-computation-cost
Bound on the cost of an expression to compute the number of iter-
ations.
max-isl-operations
Maximum number of isl operations, 0 means unlimited.
graphite-max-arrays-per-scop
Maximum number of arrays per scop.
max-vartrack-reverse-op-size
Max. size of loc list for which reverse ops should be added.
fsm-scale-path-stmts
Scale factor to apply to the number of statements in a threading
path crossing a loop backedge when comparing to --param=max-
jump-thread-duplication-stmts.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 259
uninit-control-dep-attempts
Maximum number of nested calls to search for control dependencies
during uninitialized variable analysis.
uninit-max-chain-len
Maximum number of predicates anded for each predicate ored in
the normalized predicate chain.
uninit-max-num-chains
Maximum number of predicates ored in the normalized predicate
chain.
sched-autopref-queue-depth
Hardware autoprefetcher scheduler model control flag. Number of
lookahead cycles the model looks into; at ’ ’ only enable instruction
sorting heuristic.
loop-versioning-max-inner-insns
The maximum number of instructions that an inner loop can have
before the loop versioning pass considers it too big to copy.
loop-versioning-max-outer-insns
The maximum number of instructions that an outer loop can have
before the loop versioning pass considers it too big to copy, dis-
counting any instructions in inner loops that directly benefit from
versioning.
ssa-name-def-chain-limit
The maximum number of SSA NAME assignments to follow in
determining a property of a variable such as its value. This limits
the number of iterations or recursive calls GCC performs when
optimizing certain statements or when determining their validity
prior to issuing diagnostics.
store-merging-max-size
Maximum size of a single store merging region in bytes.
store-forwarding-max-distance
Maximum number of instruction distance that a small store for-
warded to a larger load may stall. Value ’0’ disables the cost checks
for the avoid-store-forwarding pass.
hash-table-verification-limit
The number of elements for which hash table verification is done
for each searched element.
max-find-base-term-values
Maximum number of VALUEs handled during a single
find base term call.
analyzer-max-enodes-per-program-point
The maximum number of exploded nodes per program point within
the analyzer, before terminating analysis of that point.
260 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
analyzer-max-constraints
The maximum number of constraints per state.
analyzer-min-snodes-for-call-summary
The minimum number of supernodes within a function for the an-
alyzer to consider summarizing its effects at call sites.
analyzer-max-enodes-for-full-dump
The maximum depth of exploded nodes that should appear in a
dot dump before switching to a less verbose format.
analyzer-max-recursion-depth
The maximum number of times a callsite can appear in a call stack
within the analyzer, before terminating analysis of a call that would
recurse deeper.
analyzer-max-svalue-depth
The maximum depth of a symbolic value, before approximating the
value as unknown.
analyzer-max-infeasible-edges
The maximum number of infeasible edges to reject before declaring
a diagnostic as infeasible.
gimple-fe-computed-hot-bb-threshold
The number of executions of a basic block which is considered hot.
The parameter is used only in GIMPLE FE.
analyzer-bb-explosion-factor
The maximum number of ’after supernode’ exploded nodes within
the analyzer per supernode, before terminating analysis.
analyzer-text-art-string-ellipsis-threshold
The number of bytes at which to ellipsize string literals in analyzer
text art diagrams.
analyzer-text-art-ideal-canvas-width
The ideal width in characters of text art diagrams generated by the
analyzer.
analyzer-text-art-string-ellipsis-head-len
The number of literal bytes to show at the head of a string literal
in text art when ellipsizing it.
analyzer-text-art-string-ellipsis-tail-len
The number of literal bytes to show at the tail of a string literal in
text art when ellipsizing it.
ranger-logical-depth
Maximum depth of logical expression evaluation ranger will look
through when evaluating outgoing edge ranges.
ranger-recompute-depth
Maximum depth of instruction chains to consider for recomputation
in the outgoing range calculator.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 261
relation-block-limit
Maximum number of relations the oracle will register in a basic
block.
transitive-relations-work-bound
Work bound when discovering transitive relations from existing re-
lations.
min-pagesize
Minimum page size for warning purposes.
openacc-kernels
Specify mode of OpenACC ‘kernels’ constructs handling. With
--param=openacc-kernels=decompose, OpenACC ‘kernels’ con-
structs are decomposed into parts, a sequence of compute con-
structs, each then handled individually. This is work in progress.
With --param=openacc-kernels=parloops, OpenACC ‘kernels’
constructs are handled by the ‘parloops’ pass, en bloc. This is
the current default.
openacc-privatization
Control whether the -fopt-info-omp-note and applicable
-fdump-tree-*-details options emit OpenACC privatization
diagnostics. With --param=openacc-privatization=quiet,
don’t diagnose. This is the current default. With
--param=openacc-privatization=noisy, do diagnose.
cycle-accurate-model
Specifies whether GCC should assume that the scheduling descrip-
tion is mostly a cycle-accurate model of the target processor, where
the code is intended to run on, in the absence of cache misses.
Nonzero means that the selected scheduling model is accurate and
likely describes an in-order processor, and that scheduling will ag-
gressively spill to try and fill any pipeline bubbles. This is the
current default. Zero could mean scheduling descrption might not
be available/accurate or perhaps not applicale at all such as for
modern out-of-order processors.
The following choices of name are available on AArch64 targets:
aarch64-vect-compare-costs
When vectorizing, consider using multiple different approaches and
use the cost model to choose the cheapest one. This includes:
• Trying both SVE and Advanced SIMD, when SVE is available.
• Trying to use 64-bit Advanced SIMD vectors for the smallest
data elements, rather than using 128-bit vectors for everything.
• Trying to use “unpacked” SVE vectors for smaller elements.
This includes storing smaller elements in larger containers and
accessing elements with extending loads and truncating stores.
262 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
aarch64-float-recp-precision
The number of Newton iterations for calculating the reciprocal for
float type. The precision of division is proportional to this param
when division approximation is enabled. The default value is 1.
aarch64-double-recp-precision
The number of Newton iterations for calculating the reciprocal for
double type. The precision of division is propotional to this param
when division approximation is enabled. The default value is 2.
aarch64-autovec-preference
Force an ISA selection strategy for auto-vectorization.
‘default’ Use the default heuristics.
‘asimd-only’
Use only Advanced SIMD for auto-vectorization.
‘sve-only’
Use only SVE for auto-vectorization.
‘prefer-asimd’
Use both Advanced SIMD and SVE. Prefer Advanced
SIMD when the costs are deemed equal.
‘prefer-sve’
Use both Advanced SIMD and SVE. Prefer SVE when
the costs are deemed equal.
aarch64-ldp-policy
Fine-grained policy for load pairs. With --param=aarch64-ldp-
policy=default, use the policy of the tuning structure. This is
the current default. With --param=aarch64-ldp-policy=always,
emit ldp regardless of alignment. With --param=aarch64-ldp-
policy=never, do not emit ldp. With --param=aarch64-ldp-
policy=aligned, emit ldp only if the source pointer is aligned to
at least double the alignment of the type.
aarch64-stp-policy
Fine-grained policy for store pairs. With --param=aarch64-stp-
policy=default, use the policy of the tuning structure. This is
the current default. With --param=aarch64-stp-policy=always,
emit stp regardless of alignment. With --param=aarch64-stp-
policy=never, do not emit stp. With --param=aarch64-stp-
policy=aligned, emit stp only if the source pointer is aligned to
at least double the alignment of the type.
aarch64-ldp-alias-check-limit
Limit on the number of alias checks performed by the AArch64
load/store pair fusion pass when attempting to form an ldp/stp.
Higher values make the pass more aggressive at re-ordering loads
over stores, at the expense of increased compile time.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 263
aarch64-ldp-writeback
Param to control which writeback opportunities we try to handle
in the AArch64 load/store pair fusion pass. A value of zero disables
writeback handling. One means we try to form pairs involving one
or more existing individual writeback accesses where possible. A
value of two means we also try to opportunistically form writeback
opportunities by folding in trailing destructive updates of the base
register used by a pair.
aarch64-loop-vect-issue-rate-niters
The tuning for some AArch64 CPUs tries to take both latencies
and issue rates into account when deciding whether a loop should
be vectorized using SVE, vectorized using Advanced SIMD, or not
vectorized at all. If this parameter is set to n, GCC will not use
this heuristic for loops that are known to execute in fewer than n
Advanced SIMD iterations.
aarch64-vect-unroll-limit
The vectorizer will use available tuning information to determine
whether it would be beneficial to unroll the main vectorized loop
and by how much. This parameter set’s the upper bound of how
much the vectorizer will unroll the main loop. The default value is
four.
gcn-preferred-vectorization-factor
Preferred vectorization factor: ‘default’, ‘32’, ‘64’.
The following choices of name are available on i386 and x86 64 targets:
x86-stlf-window-ninsns
Instructions number above which STFL stall penalty can be com-
pensated.
x86-stv-max-visits
The maximum number of use and def visits when discovering a STV
chain before the discovery is aborted.
-p
-pg Generate extra code to write profile information suitable for the analysis pro-
gram prof (for -p) or gprof (for -pg). You must use this option when compiling
the source files you want data about, and you must also use it when linking.
You can use the function attribute no_instrument_function to suppress pro-
filing of individual functions when compiling with these options. See Sec-
tion 6.35.1 [Common Function Attributes], page 604.
-fprofile-arcs
Add code so that program flow arcs are instrumented. During execution the
program records how many times each branch and call is executed and how
many times it is taken or returns. On targets that support constructors with
priority support, profiling properly handles constructors, destructors and C++
constructors (and destructors) of classes which are used as a type of a global
variable.
When the compiled program exits it saves this data to a file called
auxname.gcda for each source file. The data may be used for profile-directed
optimizations (-fbranch-probabilities), or for test coverage analysis
(-ftest-coverage). Each object file’s auxname is generated from the name
of the output file, if explicitly specified and it is not the final executable,
otherwise it is the basename of the source file. In both cases any suffix is
removed (e.g. foo.gcda for input file dir/foo.c, or dir/foo.gcda for output
file specified as -o dir/foo.o).
Note that if a command line directly links source files, the corresponding .gcda
files will be prefixed with the unsuffixed name of the output file. E.g. gcc a.c
b.c -o binary would generate binary-a.gcda and binary-b.gcda files.
-fcondition-coverage
Add code so that program conditions are instrumented. During execution the
program records what terms in a conditional contributes to a decision, which
can be used to verify that all terms in a Boolean function are tested and have
an independent effect on the outcome of a decision. The result can be read with
gcov --conditions.
See Section 10.5 [Cross-profiling], page 1067.
--coverage
This option is used to compile and link code instrumented for coverage analysis.
The option is a synonym for -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage (when com-
piling) and -lgcov (when linking). See the documentation for those options for
more details.
• Compile the source files with -fprofile-arcs plus optimization and code
generation options. For test coverage analysis, use the additional -ftest-
coverage option. You do not need to profile every source file in a program.
• Compile the source files additionally with -fprofile-abs-path to create
absolute path names in the .gcno files. This allows gcov to find the cor-
rect sources in projects where compilations occur with different working
directories.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 265
• Link your object files with -lgcov or -fprofile-arcs (the latter implies
the former).
• Run the program on a representative workload to generate the arc profile
information. This may be repeated any number of times. You can run
concurrent instances of your program, and provided that the file system
supports locking, the data files will be correctly updated. Unless a strict
ISO C dialect option is in effect, fork calls are detected and correctly
handled without double counting.
Moreover, an object file can be recompiled multiple times and the cor-
responding .gcda file merges as long as the source file and the compiler
options are unchanged.
• For profile-directed optimizations, compile the source files again with
the same optimization and code generation options plus -fbranch-
probabilities (see Section 3.12 [Options that Control Optimization],
page 185).
• For test coverage analysis, use gcov to produce human readable information
from the .gcno and .gcda files. Refer to the gcov documentation for
further information.
With -fprofile-arcs, for each function of your program GCC creates a pro-
gram flow graph, then finds a spanning tree for the graph. Only arcs that are
not on the spanning tree have to be instrumented: the compiler adds code to
count the number of times that these arcs are executed. When an arc is the only
exit or only entrance to a block, the instrumentation code can be added to the
block; otherwise, a new basic block must be created to hold the instrumentation
code.
With -fcondition-coverage, for each conditional in your program GCC cre-
ates a bitset and records the exercised boolean values that have an independent
effect on the outcome of that expression.
-ftest-coverage
Produce a notes file that the gcov code-coverage utility (see Chapter 10 [gcov—
a Test Coverage Program], page 1051) can use to show program coverage. Each
source file’s note file is called auxname.gcno. Refer to the -fprofile-arcs
option above for a description of auxname and instructions on how to generate
test coverage data. Coverage data matches the source files more closely if you
do not optimize.
-fprofile-abs-path
Automatically convert relative source file names to absolute path names in the
.gcno files. This allows gcov to find the correct sources in projects where
compilations occur with different working directories.
-fprofile-dir=path
Set the directory to search for the profile data files in to path. This option affects
only the profile data generated by -fprofile-generate, -ftest-coverage,
-fprofile-arcs and used by -fprofile-use and -fbranch-probabilities
and its related options. Both absolute and relative paths can be used. By
266 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
default, GCC uses the current directory as path, thus the profile data file ap-
pears in the same directory as the object file. In order to prevent the file name
clashing, if the object file name is not an absolute path, we mangle the abso-
lute path of the sourcename.gcda file and use it as the file name of a .gcda
file. See details about the file naming in -fprofile-arcs. See similar option
-fprofile-note.
When an executable is run in a massive parallel environment, it is recommended
to save profile to different folders. That can be done with variables in path that
are exported during run-time:
%p process ID.
%q{VAR} value of environment variable VAR
-fprofile-generate
-fprofile-generate=path
Enable options usually used for instrumenting application to produce profile
useful for later recompilation with profile feedback based optimization. You
must use -fprofile-generate both when compiling and when linking your
program.
The following options are enabled: -fprofile-arcs, -fprofile-values,
-finline-functions, and -fipa-bit-cp.
If path is specified, GCC looks at the path to find the profile feedback data
files. See -fprofile-dir.
To optimize the program based on the collected profile information, use
-fprofile-use. See Section 3.12 [Optimize Options], page 185, for more
information.
-fprofile-info-section
-fprofile-info-section=name
Register the profile information in the specified section instead of using a con-
structor/destructor. The section name is name if it is specified, otherwise the
section name defaults to .gcov_info. A pointer to the profile information
generated by -fprofile-arcs is placed in the specified section for each trans-
lation unit. This option disables the profile information registration through
a constructor and it disables the profile information processing through a de-
structor. This option is not intended to be used in hosted environments such
as GNU/Linux. It targets freestanding environments (for example embedded
systems) with limited resources which do not support constructors/destructors
or the C library file I/O.
The linker could collect the input sections in a continuous memory block and
define start and end symbols. A GNU linker script example which defines a
linker output section follows:
.gcov_info :
{
PROVIDE (__gcov_info_start = .);
KEEP (*(.gcov_info))
PROVIDE (__gcov_info_end = .);
}
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 267
The program could dump the profiling information registered in this linker set
for example like this:
#include <gcov.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
static void
dump (const void *d, unsigned n, void *arg)
{
const unsigned char *c = d;
static void
filename (const char *f, void *arg)
{
__gcov_filename_to_gcfn (f, dump, arg );
}
static void *
allocate (unsigned length, void *arg)
{
return malloc (length);
}
static void
dump_gcov_info (void)
{
const struct gcov_info *const *info = __gcov_info_start;
const struct gcov_info *const *end = __gcov_info_end;
int
main (void)
{
dump_gcov_info ();
return 0;
}
to_gcda functions and merge the profile information into .gcda files on the
host filesystem.
-fprofile-note=path
If path is specified, GCC saves .gcno file into path location. If you combine
the option with multiple source files, the .gcno file will be overwritten.
-fprofile-prefix-path=path
This option can be used in combination with profile-generate=profile dir
and profile-use=profile dir to inform GCC where is the base directory of
built source tree. By default profile dir will contain files with mangled absolute
paths of all object files in the built project. This is not desirable when direc-
tory used to build the instrumented binary differs from the directory used to
build the binary optimized with profile feedback because the profile data will
not be found during the optimized build. In such setups -fprofile-prefix-
path=path with path pointing to the base directory of the build can be used to
strip the irrelevant part of the path and keep all file names relative to the main
build directory.
-fprofile-prefix-map=old=new
When compiling files residing in directory old, record profiling information
(with --coverage) describing them as if the files resided in directory new in-
stead. See also -ffile-prefix-map and -fcanon-prefix-map.
-fprofile-update=method
Alter the update method for an application instrumented for profile feedback
based optimization. The method argument should be one of ‘single’, ‘atomic’
or ‘prefer-atomic’. The first one is useful for single-threaded applications,
while the second one prevents profile corruption by emitting thread-safe code.
Warning: When an application does not properly join all threads (or creates
an detached thread), a profile file can be still corrupted.
Using ‘prefer-atomic’ would be transformed either to ‘atomic’, when sup-
ported by a target, or to ‘single’ otherwise. The GCC driver automatically
selects ‘prefer-atomic’ when -pthread is present in the command line, oth-
erwise the default method is ‘single’.
If ‘atomic’ is selected, then the profile information is updated using atomic
operations on a best-effort basis. Ideally, the profile information is updated
through atomic operations in hardware. If the target platform does not support
the required atomic operations in hardware, however, libatomic is available,
then the profile information is updated through calls to libatomic. If the
target platform neither supports the required atomic operations in hardware
nor libatomic, then the profile information is not atomically updated and
a warning is issued. In this case, the obtained profiling information may be
corrupt for multi-threaded applications.
For performance reasons, if 64-bit counters are used for the profiling information
and the target platform only supports 32-bit atomic operations in hardware,
then the performance critical profiling updates are done using two 32-bit atomic
operations for each counter update. If a signal interrupts these two operations
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 269
To get more accurate stack traces, it is possible to use options such as -O0, -O1,
or -Og (which, for instance, prevent most function inlining), -fno-optimize-
sibling-calls (which prevents optimizing sibling and tail recursive calls; this
option is implicit for -O0, -O1, or -Og), or -fno-ipa-icf (which disables Iden-
tical Code Folding for functions). Since multiple runs of the program may yield
backtraces with different addresses due to ASLR (Address Space Layout Ran-
domization), it may be desirable to turn ASLR off. On Linux, this can be
achieved with ‘setarch `uname -m` -R ./prog’.
-fsanitize=kernel-address
Enable AddressSanitizer for Linux kernel. See https://github.com/google/
kernel-sanitizers for more details.
-fsanitize=hwaddress
Enable Hardware-assisted AddressSanitizer, which uses a hardware ability
to ignore the top byte of a pointer to allow the detection of memory
errors with a low memory overhead. Memory access instructions are
instrumented to detect out-of-bounds and use-after-free bugs. The option
enables -fsanitize-address-use-after-scope. See https://clang.
llvm.org/docs/HardwareAssistedAddressSanitizerDesign.html for more
details. The run-time behavior can be influenced using the HWASAN_OPTIONS
environment variable. When set to help=1, the available options are shown at
startup of the instrumented program. The option cannot be combined with
-fsanitize=thread or -fsanitize=address, and is currently only available
on AArch64.
-fsanitize=kernel-hwaddress
Enable Hardware-assisted AddressSanitizer for compilation of the Linux kernel.
Similar to -fsanitize=kernel-address but using an alternate instrumenta-
tion method, and similar to -fsanitize=hwaddress but with instrumentation
differences necessary for compiling the Linux kernel. These differences are to
avoid hwasan library initialization calls and to account for the stack pointer
having a different value in its top byte.
Note: This option has different defaults to the -fsanitize=hwaddress. Instru-
menting the stack and alloca calls are not on by default but are still possible
by specifying the command-line options --param hwasan-instrument-stack=1
and --param hwasan-instrument-allocas=1 respectively. Using a random
frame tag is not implemented for kernel instrumentation.
-fsanitize=pointer-compare
Instrument comparison operation (<, <=, >, >=) with pointer operands.
The option must be combined with either -fsanitize=kernel-
address or -fsanitize=address The option cannot be combined with
-fsanitize=thread. Note: By default the check is disabled at run time.
To enable it, add detect_invalid_pointer_pairs=2 to the environment
variable ASAN_OPTIONS. Using detect_invalid_pointer_pairs=1 detects
invalid operation only when both pointers are non-null.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 271
-fsanitize=pointer-subtract
Instrument subtraction with pointer operands. The option must be combined
with either -fsanitize=kernel-address or -fsanitize=address The option
cannot be combined with -fsanitize=thread. Note: By default the check is
disabled at run time. To enable it, add detect_invalid_pointer_pairs=2
to the environment variable ASAN_OPTIONS. Using detect_invalid_pointer_
pairs=1 detects invalid operation only when both pointers are non-null.
-fsanitize=shadow-call-stack
Enable ShadowCallStack, a security enhancement mechanism used to protect
programs against return address overwrites (e.g. stack buffer overflows.) It
works by saving a function’s return address to a separately allocated shadow
call stack in the function prologue and restoring the return address from the
shadow call stack in the function epilogue. Instrumentation only occurs in
functions that need to save the return address to the stack.
Currently it only supports the aarch64 platform. It is specifically designed for
linux kernels that enable the CONFIG SHADOW CALL STACK option. For
the user space programs, runtime support is not currently provided in libc and
libgcc. Users who want to use this feature in user space need to provide their
own support for the runtime. It should be noted that this may cause the ABI
rules to be broken.
On aarch64, the instrumentation makes use of the platform register x18. This
generally means that any code that may run on the same thread as code com-
piled with ShadowCallStack must be compiled with the flag -ffixed-x18, oth-
erwise functions compiled without -ffixed-x18 might clobber x18 and so cor-
rupt the shadow stack pointer.
Also, because there is no userspace runtime support, code compiled with Shad-
owCallStack cannot use exception handling. Use -fno-exceptions to turn off
exceptions.
See https://clang.llvm.org/docs/ShadowCallStack.html for more details.
-fsanitize=thread
Enable ThreadSanitizer, a fast data race detector. Memory access instructions
are instrumented to detect data race bugs. See https://github.com/google/
sanitizers/wiki#threadsanitizer for more details. The run-time behavior
can be influenced using the TSAN_OPTIONS environment variable; see https://
github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/ThreadSanitizerFlags for a list of
supported options. The option cannot be combined with -fsanitize=address,
-fsanitize=leak.
Note that sanitized atomic builtins cannot throw exceptions when operating on
invalid memory addresses with non-call exceptions (-fnon-call-exceptions).
-fsanitize=leak
Enable LeakSanitizer, a memory leak detector. This option only matters for
linking of executables. The executable is linked against a library that over-
rides malloc and other allocator functions. See https://github.com/google/
sanitizers/wiki/AddressSanitizerLeakSanitizer for more details. The
272 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fsanitize=signed-integer-overflow
This option enables signed integer overflow checking. We check that
the result of +, *, and both unary and binary - does not overflow
in the signed arithmetics. This also detects INT_MIN / -1 signed
division. Note, integer promotion rules must be taken into account.
That is, the following is not an overflow:
signed char a = SCHAR_MAX;
a++;
-fsanitize=bounds
This option enables instrumentation of array bounds. Various
out of bounds accesses are detected. Flexible array members,
flexible array member-like arrays, and initializers of variables with
static storage are not instrumented, with the exception of flexible
array member-like arrays for which -fstrict-flex-arrays
or -fstrict-flex-arrays= options or strict_flex_array
attributes say they shouldn’t be treated like flexible array
member-like arrays.
-fsanitize=bounds-strict
This option enables strict instrumentation of array bounds. Most
out of bounds accesses are detected, including flexible array
member-like arrays. Initializers of variables with static storage are
not instrumented.
-fsanitize=alignment
This option enables checking of alignment of pointers when they are
dereferenced, or when a reference is bound to insufficiently aligned
target, or when a method or constructor is invoked on insufficiently
aligned object.
-fsanitize=object-size
This option enables instrumentation of memory references using
the __builtin_dynamic_object_size function. Various out of
bounds pointer accesses are detected.
-fsanitize=float-divide-by-zero
Detect floating-point division by zero. Unlike other similar
options, -fsanitize=float-divide-by-zero is not enabled by
-fsanitize=undefined, since floating-point division by zero can
be a legitimate way of obtaining infinities and NaNs.
-fsanitize=float-cast-overflow
This option enables floating-point type to integer conversion check-
ing. We check that the result of the conversion does not overflow.
Unlike other similar options, -fsanitize=float-cast-overflow
is not enabled by -fsanitize=undefined. This option does not
work well with FE_INVALID exceptions enabled.
274 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fsanitize=nonnull-attribute
This option enables instrumentation of calls, checking whether null
values are not passed to arguments marked as requiring a non-null
value by the nonnull function attribute.
-fsanitize=returns-nonnull-attribute
This option enables instrumentation of return statements in func-
tions marked with returns_nonnull function attribute, to detect
returning of null values from such functions.
-fsanitize=bool
This option enables instrumentation of loads from bool. If a value
other than 0/1 is loaded, a run-time error is issued.
-fsanitize=enum
This option enables instrumentation of loads from an enum type.
If a value outside the range of values for the enum type is loaded,
a run-time error is issued.
-fsanitize=vptr
This option enables instrumentation of C++ member function calls,
member accesses and some conversions between pointers to base
and derived classes, to verify the referenced object has the correct
dynamic type.
-fsanitize=pointer-overflow
This option enables instrumentation of pointer arithmetics. If the
pointer arithmetics overflows, a run-time error is issued.
-fsanitize=builtin
This option enables instrumentation of arguments to selected
builtin functions. If an invalid value is passed to such arguments,
a run-time error is issued. E.g. passing 0 as the argument to
__builtin_ctz or __builtin_clz invokes undefined behavior
and is diagnosed by this option.
Note that sanitizers tend to increase the rate of false positive warnings, most
notably those around -Wmaybe-uninitialized. We recommend against com-
bining -Werror and [the use of] sanitizers.
While -ftrapv causes traps for signed overflows to be emitted,
-fsanitize=undefined gives a diagnostic message. This currently works only
for the C family of languages.
-fno-sanitize=all
This option disables all previously enabled sanitizers. -fsanitize=all is not
allowed, as some sanitizers cannot be used together.
-fasan-shadow-offset=number
This option forces GCC to use custom shadow offset in AddressSanitizer checks.
It is useful for experimenting with different shadow memory layouts in Kernel
AddressSanitizer.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 275
-fsanitize-sections=s1,s2,...
Sanitize global variables in selected user-defined sections. si may contain wild-
cards.
-fsanitize-recover[=opts]
-fsanitize-recover= controls error recovery mode for sanitizers mentioned in
comma-separated list of opts. Enabling this option for a sanitizer component
causes it to attempt to continue running the program as if no error happened.
This means multiple runtime errors can be reported in a single program run,
and the exit code of the program may indicate success even when errors have
been reported. The -fno-sanitize-recover= option can be used to alter this
behavior: only the first detected error is reported and program then exits with
a non-zero exit code.
Currently this feature only works for -fsanitize=undefined (and its
suboptions except for -fsanitize=unreachable and -fsanitize=return),
-fsanitize=float-cast-overflow, -fsanitize=float-divide-by-
zero, -fsanitize=bounds-strict, -fsanitize=kernel-address and
-fsanitize=address. For these sanitizers error recovery is turned on by
default, except -fsanitize=address, for which this feature is experimental.
-fsanitize-recover=all and -fno-sanitize-recover=all is also accepted,
the former enables recovery for all sanitizers that support it, the latter disables
recovery for all sanitizers that support it.
Even if a recovery mode is turned on the compiler side, it needs to be also
enabled on the runtime library side, otherwise the failures are still fatal. The
runtime library defaults to halt_on_error=0 for ThreadSanitizer and Unde-
finedBehaviorSanitizer, while default value for AddressSanitizer is halt_on_
error=1. This can be overridden through setting the halt_on_error flag in
the corresponding environment variable.
Syntax without an explicit opts parameter is deprecated. It is equivalent to
specifying an opts list of:
undefined,float-cast-overflow,float-divide-by-zero,bounds-strict
-fsanitize-address-use-after-scope
Enable sanitization of local variables to detect use-after-scope bugs. The option
sets -fstack-reuse to ‘none’.
-fsanitize-trap[=opts]
The -fsanitize-trap= option instructs the compiler to report for sanitiz-
ers mentioned in comma-separated list of opts undefined behavior using __
builtin_trap rather than a libubsan library routine. If this option is en-
abled for certain sanitizer, it takes precedence over the -fsanitizer-recover=
for that sanitizer, __builtin_trap will be emitted and be fatal regardless of
whether recovery is enabled or disabled using -fsanitize-recover=.
The advantage of this is that the libubsan library is not needed and is not
linked in, so this is usable even in freestanding environments.
Currently this feature works with -fsanitize=undefined (and its suboptions
except for -fsanitize=vptr), -fsanitize=float-cast-overflow,
276 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fsanitize-undefined-trap-on-error
The -fsanitize-undefined-trap-on-error option is deprecated equivalent
of -fsanitize-trap=all.
-fsanitize-coverage=trace-pc
Enable coverage-guided fuzzing code instrumentation. Inserts a call to __
sanitizer_cov_trace_pc into every basic block.
-fsanitize-coverage=trace-cmp
Enable dataflow guided fuzzing code instrumentation. Inserts a call
to __sanitizer_cov_trace_cmp1, __sanitizer_cov_trace_cmp2,
__sanitizer_cov_trace_cmp4 or __sanitizer_cov_trace_cmp8 for integral
comparison with both operands variable or __sanitizer_cov_trace_
const_cmp1, __sanitizer_cov_trace_const_cmp2, __sanitizer_cov_
trace_const_cmp4 or __sanitizer_cov_trace_const_cmp8 for integral
comparison with one operand constant, __sanitizer_cov_trace_cmpf
or __sanitizer_cov_trace_cmpd for float or double comparisons and
__sanitizer_cov_trace_switch for switch statements.
-fcf-protection=[full|branch|return|none|check]
Enable code instrumentation of control-flow transfers to increase program se-
curity by checking that target addresses of control-flow transfer instructions
(such as indirect function call, function return, indirect jump) are valid. This
prevents diverting the flow of control to an unexpected target. This is intended
to protect against such threats as Return-oriented Programming (ROP), and
similarly call/jmp-oriented programming (COP/JOP).
The value branch tells the compiler to implement checking of validity of control-
flow transfer at the point of indirect branch instructions, i.e. call/jmp instruc-
tions. The value return implements checking of validity at the point of return-
ing from a function. The value full is an alias for specifying both branch and
return. The value none turns off instrumentation.
To override -fcf-protection, -fcf-protection=none needs to be added and
then with -fcf-protection=xxx.
The value check is used for the final link with link-time optimization (LTO). An
error is issued if LTO object files are compiled with different -fcf-protection
values. The value check is ignored at the compile time.
The macro __CET__ is defined when -fcf-protection is used. The first bit of
__CET__ is set to 1 for the value branch and the second bit of __CET__ is set
to 1 for the return.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 277
You can also use the nocf_check attribute to identify which functions and calls
should be skipped from instrumentation (see Section 6.35 [Function Attributes],
page 604).
Currently the x86 GNU/Linux target provides an implementation based on Intel
Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET) which works for i686 processor or
newer.
-fharden-compares
For every logical test that survives gimple optimizations and is not the condition
in a conditional branch (for example, conditions tested for conditional moves,
or to store in boolean variables), emit extra code to compute and verify the
reversed condition, and to call __builtin_trap if the results do not match.
Use with ‘-fharden-conditional-branches’ to cover all conditionals.
-fharden-conditional-branches
For every non-vectorized conditional branch that survives gimple optimizations,
emit extra code to compute and verify the reversed condition, and to call __
builtin_trap if the result is unexpected. Use with ‘-fharden-compares’ to
cover all conditionals.
-fharden-control-flow-redundancy
Emit extra code to set booleans when entering basic blocks, and to verify and
trap, at function exits, when the booleans do not form an execution path that
is compatible with the control flow graph.
Verification takes place before returns, before mandatory tail calls (see
below) and, optionally, before escaping exceptions with -fhardcfr-check-
exceptions, before returning calls with -fhardcfr-check-returning-calls,
and before noreturn calls with -fhardcfr-check-noreturn-calls). Tuning
options --param hardcfr-max-blocks and --param hardcfr-max-inline-
blocks are available.
Tail call optimization takes place too late to affect control flow redundancy, but
calls annotated as mandatory tail calls by language front-ends, and any calls
marked early enough as potential tail calls would also have verification issued
before the call, but these possibilities are merely theoretical, as these conditions
can only be met when using custom compiler plugins.
-fhardcfr-skip-leaf
Disable -fharden-control-flow-redundancy in leaf functions.
-fhardcfr-check-exceptions
When -fharden-control-flow-redundancy is active, check the recorded exe-
cution path against the control flow graph at exception escape points, as if the
function body was wrapped with a cleanup handler that performed the check
and reraised. This option is enabled by default; use -fno-hardcfr-check-
exceptions to disable it.
-fhardcfr-check-returning-calls
When -fharden-control-flow-redundancy is active, check the recorded exe-
cution path against the control flow graph before any function call immediately
278 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3
-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS
-ftrivial-auto-var-init=zero
-fPIE -pie -Wl,-z,relro,-z,now
-fstack-protector-strong
-fstack-clash-protection
-fcf-protection=full (x86 GNU/Linux only)
2. Fixed limit on the size of the static frame of functions: when it is topped
by a particular function, stack checking is not reliable and a warning is
issued by the compiler.
3. Inefficiency: because of both the modified allocation strategy and the
generic implementation, code performance is hampered.
Note that old-style stack checking is also the fallback method for ‘specific’ if
no target support has been added in the compiler.
‘-fstack-check=’ is designed for Ada’s needs to detect infinite recursion and
stack overflows. ‘specific’ is an excellent choice when compiling Ada code.
It is not generally sufficient to protect against stack-clash attacks. To protect
against those you want ‘-fstack-clash-protection’.
-fstack-clash-protection
Generate code to prevent stack clash style attacks. When this option is enabled,
the compiler will only allocate one page of stack space at a time and each page
is accessed immediately after allocation. Thus, it prevents allocations from
jumping over any stack guard page provided by the operating system.
Most targets do not fully support stack clash protection. However, on those
targets -fstack-clash-protection will protect dynamic stack allocations.
-fstack-clash-protection may also provide limited protection for static
stack allocations if the target supports -fstack-check=specific.
-fstack-limit-register=reg
-fstack-limit-symbol=sym
-fno-stack-limit
Generate code to ensure that the stack does not grow beyond a certain value,
either the value of a register or the address of a symbol. If a larger stack is
required, a signal is raised at run time. For most targets, the signal is raised
before the stack overruns the boundary, so it is possible to catch the signal
without taking special precautions.
For instance, if the stack starts at absolute address ‘0x80000000’ and grows
downwards, you can use the flags -fstack-limit-symbol=__stack_limit and
-Wl,--defsym,__stack_limit=0x7ffe0000 to enforce a stack limit of 128KB.
Note that this may only work with the GNU linker.
You can locally override stack limit checking by using the no_stack_limit
function attribute (see Section 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604).
-fsplit-stack
Generate code to automatically split the stack before it overflows. The resulting
program has a discontiguous stack which can only overflow if the program is
unable to allocate any more memory. This is most useful when running threaded
programs, as it is no longer necessary to calculate a good stack size to use for
each thread. This is currently only implemented for the x86 targets running
GNU/Linux.
When code compiled with -fsplit-stack calls code compiled without
-fsplit-stack, there may not be much stack space available for the latter
code to run. If compiling all code, including library code, with -fsplit-stack
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 281
is not an option, then the linker can fix up these calls so that the code
compiled without -fsplit-stack always has a large stack. Support for this is
implemented in the gold linker in GNU binutils release 2.21 and later.
-fstrub=disable
Disable stack scrubbing entirely, ignoring any strub attributes. See See Sec-
tion 6.37.1 [Common Type Attributes], page 692.
-fstrub=strict
Functions default to strub mode disabled, and apply strictly the restriction
that only functions associated with strub-callable modes (at-calls,
callable and always_inline internal) are callable by functions with
strub-enabled modes (at-calls and internal).
-fstrub=relaxed
Restore the default stack scrub (strub) setting, namely, strub is only en-
abled as required by strub attributes associated with function and data types.
Relaxed means that strub contexts are only prevented from calling functions
explicitly associated with strub mode disabled. This option is only useful to
override other -fstrub=* options that precede it in the command line.
-fstrub=at-calls
Enable at-calls strub mode where viable. The primary use of this option
is for testing. It exercises the strub machinery in scenarios strictly local to a
translation unit. This strub mode modifies function interfaces, so any function
that is visible to other translation units, or that has its address taken, will
not be affected by this option. Optimization options may also affect viability.
See the strub attribute documentation for details on viability and eligibility
requirements.
-fstrub=internal
Enable internal strub mode where viable. The primary use of this option
is for testing. This option is intended to exercise thoroughly parts of the
strub machinery that implement the less efficient, but interface-preserving
strub mode. Functions that would not be affected by this option are quite
uncommon.
-fstrub=all
Enable some strub mode where viable. When both strub modes are viable,
at-calls is preferred. -fdump-ipa-strubm adds function attributes that tell
which mode was selected for each function. The primary use of this option is
for testing, to exercise thoroughly the strub machinery.
-fvtable-verify=[std|preinit|none]
This option is only available when compiling C++ code. It turns on (or off, if
using -fvtable-verify=none) the security feature that verifies at run time,
for every virtual call, that the vtable pointer through which the call is made
is valid for the type of the object, and has not been corrupted or overwritten.
If an invalid vtable pointer is detected at run time, an error is reported and
execution of the program is immediately halted.
282 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
This instrumentation is also done for functions expanded inline in other func-
tions. The profiling calls indicate where, conceptually, the inline function is
entered and exited. This means that addressable versions of such functions
must be available. If all your uses of a function are expanded inline, this may
mean an additional expansion of code size. If you use extern inline in your
C code, an addressable version of such functions must be provided. (This is
normally the case anyway, but if you get lucky and the optimizer always ex-
pands the functions inline, you might have gotten away without providing static
copies.)
A function may be given the attribute no_instrument_function, in which case
this instrumentation is not done. This can be used, for example, for the profiling
functions listed above, high-priority interrupt routines, and any functions from
which the profiling functions cannot safely be called (perhaps signal handlers, if
the profiling routines generate output or allocate memory). See Section 6.35.1
[Common Function Attributes], page 604.
-finstrument-functions-once
This is similar to -finstrument-functions, but the profiling functions are
called only once per instrumented function, i.e. the first profiling function
is called after the first entry into the instrumented function and the second
profiling function is called before the exit corresponding to this first entry.
The definition of once for the purpose of this option is a little vague because
the implementation is not protected against data races. As a result, the imple-
mentation only guarantees that the profiling functions are called at least once
per process and at most once per thread, but the calls are always paired, that
is to say, if a thread calls the first function, then it will call the second function,
unless it never reaches the exit of the instrumented function.
-finstrument-functions-exclude-file-list=file,file,...
Set the list of functions that are excluded from instrumentation (see the descrip-
tion of -finstrument-functions). If the file that contains a function definition
matches with one of file, then that function is not instrumented. The match is
done on substrings: if the file parameter is a substring of the file name, it is
considered to be a match.
For example:
-finstrument-functions-exclude-file-list=/bits/stl,include/sys
excludes any inline function defined in files whose pathnames contain /bits/stl
or include/sys.
If, for some reason, you want to include letter ‘,’ in one of sym, write ‘\,’. For
example, -finstrument-functions-exclude-file-list='\,\,tmp' (note
the single quote surrounding the option).
-finstrument-functions-exclude-function-list=sym,sym,...
This is similar to -finstrument-functions-exclude-file-list, but this
option sets the list of function names to be excluded from instrumentation.
The function name to be matched is its user-visible name, such as
vector<int> blah(const vector<int> &), not the internal mangled name
284 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
If you are invoking the preprocessor from a shell or shell-like program you may
need to use the shell’s quoting syntax to protect characters such as spaces that
have a meaning in the shell syntax.
If you wish to define a function-like macro on the command line, write its
argument list with surrounding parentheses before the equals sign (if any).
Parentheses are meaningful to most shells, so you should quote the option.
With sh and csh, -D'name(args...)=definition' works.
-D and -U options are processed in the order they are given on the command
line. All -imacros file and -include file options are processed after all -D
and -U options.
-U name Cancel any previous definition of name, either built in or provided with a -D
option.
-include file
Process file as if #include "file" appeared as the first line of the primary
source file. However, the first directory searched for file is the preprocessor’s
working directory instead of the directory containing the main source file. If
not found there, it is searched for in the remainder of the #include "..."
search chain as normal.
If multiple -include options are given, the files are included in the order they
appear on the command line.
-imacros file
Exactly like -include, except that any output produced by scanning file is
thrown away. Macros it defines remain defined. This allows you to acquire all
the macros from a header without also processing its declarations.
All files specified by -imacros are processed before all files specified by
-include.
-undef Do not predefine any system-specific or GCC-specific macros. The standard
predefined macros remain defined.
-pthread Define additional macros required for using the POSIX threads library. You
should use this option consistently for both compilation and linking. This
option is supported on GNU/Linux targets, most other Unix derivatives, and
also on x86 Cygwin and MinGW targets.
-M Instead of outputting the result of preprocessing, output a rule suitable for make
describing the dependencies of the main source file. The preprocessor outputs
one make rule containing the object file name for that source file, a colon, and
the names of all the included files, including those coming from -include or
-imacros command-line options.
Unless specified explicitly (with -MT or -MQ), the object file name consists of
the name of the source file with any suffix replaced with object file suffix and
with any leading directory parts removed. If there are many included files then
the rule is split into several lines using ‘\’-newline. The rule has no commands.
This option does not suppress the preprocessor’s debug output, such as -dM. To
avoid mixing such debug output with the dependency rules you should explicitly
286 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
specify the dependency output file with -MF, or use an environment variable like
DEPENDENCIES_OUTPUT (see Section 3.22 [Environment Variables], page 552).
Debug output is still sent to the regular output stream as normal.
Passing -M to the driver implies -E, and suppresses warnings with an implicit
-w.
-MM Like -M but do not mention header files that are found in system header di-
rectories, nor header files that are included, directly or indirectly, from such a
header.
This implies that the choice of angle brackets or double quotes in an ‘#include’
directive does not in itself determine whether that header appears in -MM de-
pendency output.
-MF file When used with -M or -MM, specifies a file to write the dependencies to. If no
-MF switch is given the preprocessor sends the rules to the same place it would
send preprocessed output.
When used with the driver options -MD or -MMD, -MF overrides the default
dependency output file.
If file is -, then the dependencies are written to stdout.
-MG In conjunction with an option such as -M requesting dependency generation, -MG
assumes missing header files are generated files and adds them to the depen-
dency list without raising an error. The dependency filename is taken directly
from the #include directive without prepending any path. -MG also suppresses
preprocessed output, as a missing header file renders this useless.
This feature is used in automatic updating of makefiles.
-Mno-modules
Disable dependency generation for compiled module interfaces.
-MP This option instructs CPP to add a phony target for each dependency other
than the main file, causing each to depend on nothing. These dummy rules
work around errors make gives if you remove header files without updating the
Makefile to match.
This is typical output:
test.o: test.c test.h
test.h:
-MT target
Change the target of the rule emitted by dependency generation. By default
CPP takes the name of the main input file, deletes any directory components
and any file suffix such as ‘.c’, and appends the platform’s usual object suffix.
The result is the target.
An -MT option sets the target to be exactly the string you specify. If you want
multiple targets, you can specify them as a single argument to -MT, or use
multiple -MT options.
For example, -MT '$(objpfx)foo.o' might give
$(objpfx)foo.o: foo.c
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 287
-MQ target
Same as -MT, but it quotes any characters which are special to Make.
-MQ '$(objpfx)foo.o' gives
$$(objpfx)foo.o: foo.c
The default target is automatically quoted, as if it were given with -MQ.
-MD -MD is equivalent to -M -MF file, except that -E is not implied. The driver
determines file based on whether an -o option is given. If it is, the driver uses
its argument but with a suffix of .d, otherwise it takes the name of the input
file, removes any directory components and suffix, and applies a .d suffix.
If -MD is used in conjunction with -E, any -o switch is understood to specify
the dependency output file (see [-MF], page 286), but if used without -E, each
-o is understood to specify a target object file.
Since -E is not implied, -MD can be used to generate a dependency output file
as a side effect of the compilation process.
-MMD Like -MD except mention only user header files, not system header files.
-fpreprocessed
Indicate to the preprocessor that the input file has already been preprocessed.
This suppresses things like macro expansion, trigraph conversion, escaped new-
line splicing, and processing of most directives. The preprocessor still recognizes
and removes comments, so that you can pass a file preprocessed with -C to the
compiler without problems. In this mode the integrated preprocessor is little
more than a tokenizer for the front ends.
-fpreprocessed is implicit if the input file has one of the extensions ‘.i’, ‘.ii’
or ‘.mi’. These are the extensions that GCC uses for preprocessed files created
by -save-temps.
-fdirectives-only
When preprocessing, handle directives, but do not expand macros.
The option’s behavior depends on the -E and -fpreprocessed options.
With -E, preprocessing is limited to the handling of directives such as #define,
#ifdef, and #error. Other preprocessor operations, such as macro expansion
and trigraph conversion are not performed. In addition, the -dD option is
implicitly enabled.
With -fpreprocessed, predefinition of command line and most builtin macros
is disabled. Macros such as __LINE__, which are contextually dependent, are
handled normally. This enables compilation of files previously preprocessed
with -E -fdirectives-only.
With both -E and -fpreprocessed, the rules for -fpreprocessed take prece-
dence. This enables full preprocessing of files previously preprocessed with -E
-fdirectives-only.
-fdollars-in-identifiers
Accept ‘$’ in identifiers.
-fextended-identifiers
Accept universal character names and extended characters in identifiers. This
option is enabled by default for C99 (and later C standard versions) and C++.
288 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fno-canonical-system-headers
When preprocessing, do not shorten system header paths with canonicalization.
-fmax-include-depth=depth
Set the maximum depth of the nested #include. The default is 200.
-fsearch-include-path[=kind]
Look for input files on the #include path, not just the current directory. This
is particularly useful with C++20 modules, for which both header units and
module interface units need to be compiled directly:
g++ -c -std=c++20 -fmodules -fsearch-include-path bits/stdc++.h bits/std.cc
kind defaults to ‘user’, which looks on the #include "..." search path; you
can also explicitly specify ‘system’ for the #include <...> search path.
-ftabstop=width
Set the distance between tab stops. This helps the preprocessor report correct
column numbers in warnings or errors, even if tabs appear on the line. If the
value is less than 1 or greater than 100, the option is ignored. The default is 8.
-ftrack-macro-expansion[=level]
Track locations of tokens across macro expansions. This allows the compiler to
emit diagnostic about the current macro expansion stack when a compilation
error occurs in a macro expansion. Using this option makes the preprocessor
and the compiler consume more memory. The level parameter can be used
to choose the level of precision of token location tracking thus decreasing the
memory consumption if necessary. Value ‘0’ of level de-activates this option.
Value ‘1’ tracks tokens locations in a degraded mode for the sake of minimal
memory overhead. In this mode all tokens resulting from the expansion of an
argument of a function-like macro have the same location. Value ‘2’ tracks
tokens locations completely. This value is the most memory hungry. When this
option is given no argument, the default parameter value is ‘2’.
Note that -ftrack-macro-expansion=2 is activated by default.
-fmacro-prefix-map=old=new
When preprocessing files residing in directory old, expand the __FILE__ and
__BASE_FILE__ macros as if the files resided in directory new instead. This can
be used to change an absolute path to a relative path by using . for new which
can result in more reproducible builds that are location independent. This
option also affects __builtin_FILE() during compilation. See also -ffile-
prefix-map and -fcanon-prefix-map.
-fexec-charset=charset
Set the execution character set, used for string and character constants. The
default is UTF-8. charset can be any encoding supported by the system’s iconv
library routine.
-fwide-exec-charset=charset
Set the wide execution character set, used for wide string and character con-
stants. The default is one of UTF-32BE, UTF-32LE, UTF-16BE, or UTF-16LE,
whichever corresponds to the width of wchar_t and the big-endian or little-
endian byte order being used for code generation. As with -fexec-charset,
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 289
charset can be any encoding supported by the system’s iconv library rou-
tine; however, you will have problems with encodings that do not fit exactly in
wchar_t.
-finput-charset=charset
Set the input character set, used for translation from the character set of the
input file to the source character set used by GCC. If the locale does not specify,
or GCC cannot get this information from the locale, the default is UTF-8. This
can be overridden by either the locale or this command-line option. Currently
the command-line option takes precedence if there’s a conflict. charset can be
any encoding supported by the system’s iconv library routine.
-fpch-deps
When using precompiled headers (see Section 3.23 [Precompiled Headers],
page 555), this flag causes the dependency-output flags to also list the
files from the precompiled header’s dependencies. If not specified, only the
precompiled header are listed and not the files that were used to create it,
because those files are not consulted when a precompiled header is used.
-fpch-preprocess
This option allows use of a precompiled header (see Section 3.23 [Precompiled
Headers], page 555) together with -E. It inserts a special #pragma, #pragma
GCC pch_preprocess "filename" in the output to mark the place where the
precompiled header was found, and its filename. When -fpreprocessed is in
use, GCC recognizes this #pragma and loads the PCH.
This option is off by default, because the resulting preprocessed output is only
really suitable as input to GCC. It is switched on by -save-temps.
You should not write this #pragma in your own code, but it is safe to edit the
filename if the PCH file is available in a different location. The filename may
be absolute or it may be relative to GCC’s current directory.
-fworking-directory
Enable generation of linemarkers in the preprocessor output that let the com-
piler know the current working directory at the time of preprocessing. When
this option is enabled, the preprocessor emits, after the initial linemarker, a
second linemarker with the current working directory followed by two slashes.
GCC uses this directory, when it’s present in the preprocessed input, as the di-
rectory emitted as the current working directory in some debugging information
formats. This option is implicitly enabled if debugging information is enabled,
but this can be inhibited with the negated form -fno-working-directory. If
the -P flag is present in the command line, this option has no effect, since no
#line directives are emitted whatsoever.
-A predicate=answer
Make an assertion with the predicate predicate and answer answer. This form
is preferred to the older form -A predicate(answer), which is still supported,
because it does not use shell special characters.
-A -predicate=answer
Cancel an assertion with the predicate predicate and answer answer.
290 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-C Do not discard comments. All comments are passed through to the output file,
except for comments in processed directives, which are deleted along with the
directive.
You should be prepared for side effects when using -C; it causes the preproces-
sor to treat comments as tokens in their own right. For example, comments
appearing at the start of what would be a directive line have the effect of turn-
ing that line into an ordinary source line, since the first token on the line is no
longer a ‘#’.
-CC Do not discard comments, including during macro expansion. This is like -C,
except that comments contained within macros are also passed through to the
output file where the macro is expanded.
In addition to the side effects of the -C option, the -CC option causes all C++-
style comments inside a macro to be converted to C-style comments. This
is to prevent later use of that macro from inadvertently commenting out the
remainder of the source line.
The -CC option is generally used to support lint comments.
-P Inhibit generation of linemarkers in the output from the preprocessor. This
might be useful when running the preprocessor on something that is not C code,
and will be sent to a program which might be confused by the linemarkers.
-traditional
-traditional-cpp
Try to imitate the behavior of pre-standard C preprocessors, as opposed to ISO
C preprocessors. See the GNU CPP manual for details.
Note that GCC does not otherwise attempt to emulate a pre-standard C com-
piler, and these options are only supported with the -E switch, or when invoking
CPP explicitly.
-trigraphs
Support ISO C trigraphs. These are three-character sequences, all starting with
‘??’, that are defined by ISO C to stand for single characters. For example, ‘??/’
stands for ‘\’, so ‘'??/n'’ is a character constant for a newline.
The nine trigraphs and their replacements are
Trigraph: ??( ??) ??< ??> ??= ??/ ??' ??! ??-
Replacement: [ ] { } # \ ^ | ~
By default, GCC ignores trigraphs, but in standard-conforming modes it con-
verts them. See the -std and -ansi options.
-remap Enable special code to work around file systems which only permit very short
file names, such as MS-DOS.
-H Print the name of each header file used, in addition to other normal activities.
Each name is indented to show how deep in the ‘#include’ stack it is. Precom-
piled header files are also printed, even if they are found to be invalid; an invalid
precompiled header file is printed with ‘...x’ and a valid one with ‘...!’ .
-dletters
Says to make debugging dumps during compilation as specified by letters. The
flags documented here are those relevant to the preprocessor. Other letters
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 291
are interpreted by the compiler proper, or reserved for future versions of GCC,
and so are silently ignored. If you specify letters whose behavior conflicts, the
result is undefined. See Section 3.19 [Developer Options], page 312, for more
information.
-dM Instead of the normal output, generate a list of ‘#define’ directives
for all the macros defined during the execution of the preprocessor,
including predefined macros. This gives you a way of finding out
what is predefined in your version of the preprocessor. Assuming
you have no file foo.h, the command
touch foo.h; cpp -dM foo.h
shows all the predefined macros.
If you use -dM without the -E option, -dM is interpreted as a syn-
onym for -fdump-rtl-mach. See Section “Developer Options” in
gcc.
-dD Like -dM except that it outputs both the ‘#define’ directives and
the result of preprocessing. Both kinds of output go to the standard
output file.
-dN Like -dD, but emit only the macro names, not their expansions.
-dI Output ‘#include’ directives in addition to the result of prepro-
cessing.
-dU Like -dD except that only macros that are expanded, or whose de-
finedness is tested in preprocessor directives, are output; the output
is delayed until the use or test of the macro; and ‘#undef’ directives
are also output for macros tested but undefined at the time.
-fdebug-cpp
This option is only useful for debugging GCC. When used from CPP or with
-E, it dumps debugging information about location maps. Every token in the
output is preceded by the dump of the map its location belongs to.
When used from GCC without -E, this option has no effect.
-Wp,option
You can use -Wp,option to bypass the compiler driver and pass option directly
through to the preprocessor. If option contains commas, it is split into multiple
options at the commas. However, many options are modified, translated or
interpreted by the compiler driver before being passed to the preprocessor,
and -Wp forcibly bypasses this phase. The preprocessor’s direct interface is
undocumented and subject to change, so whenever possible you should avoid
using -Wp and let the driver handle the options instead.
-Xpreprocessor option
Pass option as an option to the preprocessor. You can use this to supply
system-specific preprocessor options that GCC does not recognize.
If you want to pass an option that takes an argument, you must use
-Xpreprocessor twice, once for the option and once for the argument.
292 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-no-integrated-cpp
Perform preprocessing as a separate pass before compilation. By default, GCC
performs preprocessing as an integrated part of input tokenization and parsing.
If this option is provided, the appropriate language front end (cc1, cc1plus,
or cc1obj for C, C++, and Objective-C, respectively) is instead invoked twice,
once for preprocessing only and once for actual compilation of the preprocessed
input. This option may be useful in conjunction with the -B or -wrapper
options to specify an alternate preprocessor or perform additional processing of
the program source between normal preprocessing and compilation.
The linker searches a standard list of directories for the library. The directories
searched include several standard system directories plus any that you specify
with -L.
Static libraries are archives of object files, and have file names like
liblibrary.a. Some targets also support shared libraries, which typically
have names like liblibrary.so. If both static and shared libraries are
found, the linker gives preference to linking with the shared library unless the
-static option is used.
It makes a difference where in the command you write this option; the linker
searches and processes libraries and object files in the order they are specified.
Thus, ‘foo.o -lz bar.o’ searches library ‘z’ after file foo.o but before bar.o.
If bar.o refers to functions in ‘z’, those functions may not be loaded.
-lobjc You need this special case of the -l option in order to link an Objective-C or
Objective-C++ program.
-nostartfiles
Do not use the standard system startup files when linking. The standard system
libraries are used normally, unless -nostdlib, -nolibc, or -nodefaultlibs is
used.
-nodefaultlibs
Do not use the standard system libraries when linking. Only the libraries you
specify are passed to the linker, and options specifying linkage of the system
libraries, such as -static-libgcc or -shared-libgcc, are ignored. The stan-
dard startup files are used normally, unless -nostartfiles is used.
The compiler may generate calls to memcmp, memset, memcpy and memmove.
These entries are usually resolved by entries in libc. These entry points should
be supplied through some other mechanism when this option is specified.
-nolibc Do not use the C library or system libraries tightly coupled with it when linking.
Still link with the startup files, libgcc or toolchain provided language support
libraries such as libgnat, libgfortran or libstdc++ unless options prevent-
ing their inclusion are used as well. This typically removes -lc from the link
command line, as well as system libraries that normally go with it and become
meaningless when absence of a C library is assumed, for example -lpthread or
-lm in some configurations. This is intended for bare-board targets when there
is indeed no C library available.
-nostdlib
Do not use the standard system startup files or libraries when linking. No
startup files and only the libraries you specify are passed to the linker, and
options specifying linkage of the system libraries, such as -static-libgcc or
-shared-libgcc, are ignored.
The compiler may generate calls to memcmp, memset, memcpy and memmove.
These entries are usually resolved by entries in libc. These entry points should
be supplied through some other mechanism when this option is specified.
One of the standard libraries bypassed by -nostdlib and -nodefaultlibs
is libgcc.a, a library of internal subroutines which GCC uses to overcome
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 295
must also specify the same set of options used for compilation (-fpic, -fPIC,
or model suboptions) when you specify this linker option.1
-shared-libgcc
-static-libgcc
On systems that provide libgcc as a shared library, these options force the
use of either the shared or static version, respectively. If no shared version
of libgcc was built when the compiler was configured, these options have no
effect.
There are several situations in which an application should use the shared
libgcc instead of the static version. The most common of these is when the ap-
plication wishes to throw and catch exceptions across different shared libraries.
In that case, each of the libraries as well as the application itself should use the
shared libgcc.
Therefore, the G++ driver automatically adds -shared-libgcc whenever you
build a shared library or a main executable, because C++ programs typically
use exceptions, so this is the right thing to do.
If, instead, you use the GCC driver to create shared libraries, you may find
that they are not always linked with the shared libgcc. If GCC finds, at its
configuration time, that you have a non-GNU linker or a GNU linker that does
not support option --eh-frame-hdr, it links the shared version of libgcc into
shared libraries by default. Otherwise, it takes advantage of the linker and
optimizes away the linking with the shared version of libgcc, linking with the
static version of libgcc by default. This allows exceptions to propagate through
such shared libraries, without incurring relocation costs at library load time.
However, if a library or main executable is supposed to throw or catch excep-
tions, you must link it using the G++ driver, or using the option -shared-
libgcc, such that it is linked with the shared libgcc.
-static-libasan
When the -fsanitize=address option is used to link a program, the GCC
driver automatically links against libasan. If libasan is available as a shared
library, and the -static option is not used, then this links against the shared
version of libasan. The -static-libasan option directs the GCC driver to
link libasan statically, without necessarily linking other libraries statically.
-static-libtsan
When the -fsanitize=thread option is used to link a program, the GCC
driver automatically links against libtsan. If libtsan is available as a shared
library, and the -static option is not used, then this links against the shared
version of libtsan. The -static-libtsan option directs the GCC driver to
link libtsan statically, without necessarily linking other libraries statically.
1
On some systems, ‘gcc -shared’ needs to build supplementary stub code for constructors to work. On
multi-libbed systems, ‘gcc -shared’ must select the correct support libraries to link against. Failing to
supply the correct flags may lead to subtle defects. Supplying them in cases where they are not necessary
is innocuous. -shared suppresses the addition of startup code to alter the floating-point environment as
done with -ffast-math, -Ofast or -funsafe-math-optimizations on some targets.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 297
-static-liblsan
When the -fsanitize=leak option is used to link a program, the GCC driver
automatically links against liblsan. If liblsan is available as a shared library,
and the -static option is not used, then this links against the shared version of
liblsan. The -static-liblsan option directs the GCC driver to link liblsan
statically, without necessarily linking other libraries statically.
-static-libubsan
When the -fsanitize=undefined option is used to link a program, the GCC
driver automatically links against libubsan. If libubsan is available as a
shared library, and the -static option is not used, then this links against the
shared version of libubsan. The -static-libubsan option directs the GCC
driver to link libubsan statically, without necessarily linking other libraries
statically.
-static-libstdc++
When the g++ program is used to link a C++ program, it normally automatically
links against libstdc++. If libstdc++ is available as a shared library, and
the -static option is not used, then this links against the shared version of
libstdc++. That is normally fine. However, it is sometimes useful to freeze
the version of libstdc++ used by the program without going all the way to a
fully static link. The -static-libstdc++ option directs the g++ driver to link
libstdc++ statically, without necessarily linking other libraries statically.
-symbolic
Bind references to global symbols when building a shared object. Warn about
any unresolved references (unless overridden by the link editor option -Xlinker
-z -Xlinker defs). Only a few systems support this option.
-T script Use script as the linker script. This option is supported by most systems using
the GNU linker. On some targets, such as bare-board targets without an oper-
ating system, the -T option may be required when linking to avoid references
to undefined symbols.
-Xlinker option
Pass option as an option to the linker. You can use this to supply system-specific
linker options that GCC does not recognize.
If you want to pass an option that takes a separate argument, you must use
-Xlinker twice, once for the option and once for the argument. For example,
to pass -assert definitions, you must write -Xlinker -assert -Xlinker
definitions. It does not work to write -Xlinker "-assert definitions",
because this passes the entire string as a single argument, which is not what
the linker expects.
When using the GNU linker, it is usually more convenient to pass arguments to
linker options using the option=value syntax than as separate arguments. For
example, you can specify -Xlinker -Map=output.map rather than -Xlinker
-Map -Xlinker output.map. Other linkers may not support this syntax for
command-line options.
298 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-Wl,option
Pass option as an option to the linker. If option contains commas, it is split into
multiple options at the commas. You can use this syntax to pass an argument
to the option. For example, -Wl,-Map,output.map passes -Map output.map to
the linker. When using the GNU linker, you can also get the same effect with
-Wl,-Map=output.map.
-u symbol Pretend the symbol symbol is undefined, to force linking of library modules to
define it. You can use -u multiple times with different symbols to force loading
of additional library modules.
-z keyword
-z is passed directly on to the linker along with the keyword keyword. See
the section in the documentation of your linker for permitted values and their
meanings.
tories. However, you should not use this option to add directories that contain
vendor-supplied system header files; use -isystem for that.
The -isystem and -idirafter options also mark the directory as a system
directory, so that it gets the same special treatment that is applied to the
standard system directories.
If a standard system include directory, or a directory specified with -isystem,
is also specified with -I, the -I option is ignored. The directory is still searched
but as a system directory at its normal position in the system include chain.
This is to ensure that GCC’s procedure to fix buggy system headers and the
ordering for the #include_next directive are not inadvertently changed. If you
really need to change the search order for system directories, use the -nostdinc
and/or -isystem options.
-I- Split the include path. This option has been deprecated. Please use -iquote
instead for -I directories before the -I- and remove the -I- option.
Any directories specified with -I options before -I- are searched only
for headers requested with #include "file"; they are not searched for
#include <file>. If additional directories are specified with -I options after
the -I-, those directories are searched for all ‘#include’ directives.
In addition, -I- inhibits the use of the directory of the current file directory
as the first search directory for #include "file". There is no way to override
this effect of -I-.
-iprefix prefix
Specify prefix as the prefix for subsequent -iwithprefix options. If the prefix
represents a directory, you should include the final ‘/’.
-iwithprefix dir
-iwithprefixbefore dir
Append dir to the prefix specified previously with -iprefix, and add the re-
sulting directory to the include search path. -iwithprefixbefore puts it in
the same place -I would; -iwithprefix puts it where -idirafter would.
-isysroot dir
This option is like the --sysroot option, but applies only to header files (except
for Darwin targets, where it applies to both header files and libraries). See the
--sysroot option for more information.
-imultilib dir
Use dir as a subdirectory of the directory containing target-specific C++ headers.
-nostdinc
Do not search the standard system directories for header files. Only the di-
rectories explicitly specified with -I, -iquote, -isystem, and/or -idirafter
options (and the directory of the current file, if appropriate) are searched.
-nostdinc++
Do not search for header files in the C++-specific standard directories, but do
still search the other standard directories. (This option is used when building
the C++ library.)
300 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
--embed-dir=dir
Append dir directory to the list of searched directories for #embed preprocessing
directive or __has_embed macro. There are no default directories for #embed.
If dir begins with ‘=’ or $SYSROOT, then the ‘=’ or $SYSROOT is replaced by the
sysroot prefix; see --sysroot and -isysroot.
-iplugindir=dir
Set the directory to search for plugins that are passed by -fplugin=name instead
of -fplugin=path/name.so. This option is not meant to be used by the user,
but only passed by the driver.
-Ldir Add directory dir to the list of directories to be searched for -l.
-Bprefix This option specifies where to find the executables, libraries, include files, and
data files of the compiler itself.
The compiler driver program runs one or more of the subprograms cpp, cc1,
as and ld. It tries prefix as a prefix for each program it tries to run, both
with and without ‘machine/version/’ for the corresponding target machine
and compiler version.
For each subprogram to be run, the compiler driver first tries the -B prefix,
if any. If that name is not found, or if -B is not specified, the driver tries
two standard prefixes, /usr/lib/gcc/ and /usr/local/lib/gcc/. If neither
of those results in a file name that is found, the unmodified program name is
searched for using the directories specified in your PATH environment variable.
The compiler checks to see if the path provided by -B refers to a directory, and
if necessary it adds a directory separator character at the end of the path.
-B prefixes that effectively specify directory names also apply to libraries in
the linker, because the compiler translates these options into -L options for
the linker. They also apply to include files in the preprocessor, because the
compiler translates these options into -isystem options for the preprocessor.
In this case, the compiler appends ‘include’ to the prefix.
The runtime support file libgcc.a can also be searched for using the -B prefix,
if needed. If it is not found there, the two standard prefixes above are tried,
and that is all. The file is left out of the link if it is not found by those means.
Another way to specify a prefix much like the -B prefix is to use the environment
variable GCC_EXEC_PREFIX. See Section 3.22 [Environment Variables], page 552.
As a special kludge, if the path provided by -B is [dir/]stageN/, where N is
a number in the range 0 to 9, then it is replaced by [dir/]include. This is to
help with boot-strapping the compiler.
-no-canonical-prefixes
Do not expand any symbolic links, resolve references to ‘/../’ or ‘/./’, or make
the path absolute when generating a relative prefix.
--sysroot=dir
Use dir as the logical root directory for headers and libraries. For example, if
the compiler normally searches for headers in /usr/include and libraries in
/usr/lib, it instead searches dir/usr/include and dir/usr/lib.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 301
If you use both this option and the -isysroot option, then the --sysroot
option applies to libraries, but the -isysroot option applies to header files.
The GNU linker (beginning with version 2.16) has the necessary support for
this option. If your linker does not support this option, the header file aspect
of --sysroot still works, but the library aspect does not.
--no-sysroot-suffix
For some targets, a suffix is added to the root directory specified with
--sysroot, depending on the other options used, so that headers may for
example be found in dir/suffix/usr/include instead of dir/usr/include.
This option disables the addition of such a suffix.
p = &local1;
local1 = 10;
....
}
{
int local2;
local2 = 20;
...
}
Another example:
struct A
{
A(int k) : i(k), j(k) { }
int i;
int j;
};
A *ap;
void bar()
{
foo(A(10)); // temp object's lifetime ends when foo returns
{
A a(20);
....
}
ap->i+= 10; // ap references out of scope temp whose space
// is reused with a. What is the value of ap->i?
}
-ftrapv This option generates traps for signed overflow on addition, subtraction, multi-
plication operations. The options -ftrapv and -fwrapv override each other, so
using -ftrapv -fwrapv on the command-line results in -fwrapv being effective.
Note that only active options override, so using -ftrapv -fwrapv -fno-wrapv
on the command-line results in -ftrapv being effective.
-fwrapv This option instructs the compiler to assume that signed arithmetic overflow of
addition, subtraction and multiplication wraps around using twos-complement
representation. This flag enables some optimizations and disables others. The
options -ftrapv and -fwrapv override each other, so using -ftrapv -fwrapv
on the command-line results in -fwrapv being effective. Note that only active
options override, so using -ftrapv -fwrapv -fno-wrapv on the command-line
results in -ftrapv being effective.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 303
-fwrapv-pointer
This option instructs the compiler to assume that pointer arithmetic overflow on
addition and subtraction wraps around using twos-complement representation.
This flag disables some optimizations which assume pointer overflow is invalid.
-fstrict-overflow
This option implies -fno-wrapv -fno-wrapv-pointer and when negated im-
plies -fwrapv -fwrapv-pointer.
-fexceptions
Enable exception handling. Generates extra code needed to propagate excep-
tions. For some targets, this implies GCC generates frame unwind information
for all functions, which can produce significant data size overhead, although
it does not affect execution. If you do not specify this option, GCC enables
it by default for languages like C++ that normally require exception handling,
and disables it for languages like C that do not normally require it. However,
you may need to enable this option when compiling C code that needs to inter-
operate properly with exception handlers written in C++. You may also wish
to disable this option if you are compiling older C++ programs that don’t use
exception handling.
-fnon-call-exceptions
Generate code that allows trapping instructions to throw exceptions. Note
that this requires platform-specific runtime support that does not exist every-
where. Moreover, it only allows trapping instructions to throw exceptions, i.e.
memory references or floating-point instructions. It does not allow exceptions
to be thrown from arbitrary signal handlers such as SIGALRM. This enables
-fexceptions.
-fdelete-dead-exceptions
Consider that instructions that may throw exceptions but don’t otherwise con-
tribute to the execution of the program can be optimized away. This does not
affect calls to functions except those with the pure or const attributes. This
option is enabled by default for the Ada and C++ compilers, as permitted by
the language specifications. Optimization passes that cause dead exceptions to
be removed are enabled independently at different optimization levels.
-funwind-tables
Similar to -fexceptions, except that it just generates any needed static data,
but does not affect the generated code in any other way. You normally do
not need to enable this option; instead, a language processor that needs this
handling enables it on your behalf.
-fasynchronous-unwind-tables
Generate unwind table in DWARF format, if supported by target machine.
The table is exact at each instruction boundary, so it can be used for stack
unwinding from asynchronous events (such as debugger or garbage collector).
-fno-gnu-unique
On systems with recent GNU assembler and C library, the C++ compiler uses
the STB_GNU_UNIQUE binding to make sure that definitions of template static
304 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
data members and static local variables in inline functions are unique even in
the presence of RTLD_LOCAL; this is necessary to avoid problems with a library
used by two different RTLD_LOCAL plugins depending on a definition in one of
them and therefore disagreeing with the other one about the binding of the
symbol. But this causes dlclose to be ignored for affected DSOs; if your
program relies on reinitialization of a DSO via dlclose and dlopen, you can
use -fno-gnu-unique.
-fpcc-struct-return
Return “short” struct and union values in memory like longer ones, rather
than in registers. This convention is less efficient, but it has the advantage
of allowing intercallability between GCC-compiled files and files compiled with
other compilers, particularly the Portable C Compiler (pcc).
The precise convention for returning structures in memory depends on the tar-
get configuration macros.
Short structures and unions are those whose size and alignment match that of
some integer type.
Warning: code compiled with the -fpcc-struct-return switch is not binary
compatible with code compiled with the -freg-struct-return switch. Use it
to conform to a non-default application binary interface.
-freg-struct-return
Return struct and union values in registers when possible. This is more effi-
cient for small structures than -fpcc-struct-return.
If you specify neither -fpcc-struct-return nor -freg-struct-return, GCC
defaults to whichever convention is standard for the target. If there is no stan-
dard convention, GCC defaults to -fpcc-struct-return, except on targets
where GCC is the principal compiler. In those cases, we can choose the stan-
dard, and we chose the more efficient register return alternative.
Warning: code compiled with the -freg-struct-return switch is not binary
compatible with code compiled with the -fpcc-struct-return switch. Use it
to conform to a non-default application binary interface.
-fshort-enums
Allocate to an enum type only as many bytes as it needs for the declared range of
possible values. Specifically, the enum type is equivalent to the smallest integer
type that has enough room. This option has no effect for an enumeration type
with a fixed underlying type.
Warning: the -fshort-enums switch causes GCC to generate code that is not
binary compatible with code generated without that switch. Use it to conform
to a non-default application binary interface.
-fshort-wchar
Override the underlying type for wchar_t to be short unsigned int instead
of the default for the target. This option is useful for building programs to run
under WINE.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 305
Warning: the -fshort-wchar switch causes GCC to generate code that is not
binary compatible with code generated without that switch. Use it to conform
to a non-default application binary interface.
-fcommon In C code, this option controls the placement of global variables defined with-
out an initializer, known as tentative definitions in the C standard. Tentative
definitions are distinct from declarations of a variable with the extern keyword,
which do not allocate storage.
The default is -fno-common, which specifies that the compiler places uninitial-
ized global variables in the BSS section of the object file. This inhibits the
merging of tentative definitions by the linker so you get a multiple-definition
error if the same variable is accidentally defined in more than one compilation
unit.
The -fcommon places uninitialized global variables in a common block. This
allows the linker to resolve all tentative definitions of the same variable in
different compilation units to the same object, or to a non-tentative definition.
This behavior is inconsistent with C++, and on many targets implies a speed
and code size penalty on global variable references. It is mainly useful to enable
legacy code to link without errors.
-fno-ident
Ignore the #ident directive.
-finhibit-size-directive
Don’t output a .size assembler directive, or anything else that would cause
trouble if the function is split in the middle, and the two halves are placed at
locations far apart in memory. This option is used when compiling crtstuff.c;
you should not need to use it for anything else.
-fverbose-asm
Put extra commentary information in the generated assembly code to make it
more readable. This option is generally only of use to those who actually need
to read the generated assembly code (perhaps while debugging the compiler
itself).
-fno-verbose-asm, the default, causes the extra information to be omitted and
is useful when comparing two assembler files.
The added comments include:
• information on the compiler version and command-line options,
• the source code lines associated with the assembly instructions, in the form
FILENAME:LINENUMBER:CONTENT OF LINE,
• hints on which high-level expressions correspond to the various assembly
instruction operands.
For example, given this C source file:
int test (int n)
{
int i;
int total = 0;
306 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
return total;
}
compiling to (x86 64) assembly via -S and emitting the result direct to stdout
via -o -
gcc -S test.c -fverbose-asm -Os -o -
gives output similar to this:
.file "test.c"
# GNU C11 (GCC) version 7.0.0 20160809 (experimental) (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
[...snip...]
# options passed:
[...snip...]
.text
.globl test
.type test, @function
test:
.LFB0:
.cfi_startproc
# test.c:4: int total = 0;
xorl %eax, %eax # <retval>
# test.c:6: for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
xorl %edx, %edx # i
.L2:
# test.c:6: for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
cmpl %edi, %edx # n, i
jge .L5 #,
# test.c:7: total += i * i;
movl %edx, %ecx # i, tmp92
imull %edx, %ecx # i, tmp92
# test.c:6: for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
incl %edx # i
# test.c:7: total += i * i;
addl %ecx, %eax # tmp92, <retval>
jmp .L2 #
.L5:
# test.c:10: }
ret
.cfi_endproc
.LFE0:
.size test, .-test
.ident "GCC: (GNU) 7.0.0 20160809 (experimental)"
.section .note.GNU-stack,"",@progbits
The comments are intended for humans rather than machines and hence the
precise format of the comments is subject to change.
-frecord-gcc-switches
This switch causes the command line used to invoke the compiler to be recorded
into the object file that is being created. This switch is only implemented on
some targets and the exact format of the recording is target and binary file
format dependent, but it usually takes the form of a section containing ASCII
text. This switch is related to the -fverbose-asm switch, but that switch
only records information in the assembler output file as comments, so it never
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 307
reaches the object file. See also -grecord-gcc-switches for another way of
storing compiler options into the object file.
-fpic Generate position-independent code (PIC) suitable for use in a shared library,
if supported for the target machine. Such code accesses all constant addresses
through a global offset table (GOT). The dynamic loader resolves the GOT
entries when the program starts (the dynamic loader is not part of GCC; it
is part of the operating system). If the GOT size for the linked executable
exceeds a machine-specific maximum size, you get an error message from the
linker indicating that -fpic does not work; in that case, recompile with -fPIC
instead. (These maximums are 8k on the SPARC, 28k on AArch64 and 32k on
the m68k and RS/6000. The x86 has no such limit.)
Position-independent code requires special support, and therefore works only on
certain machines. For the x86, GCC supports PIC for System V but not for the
Sun 386i. Code generated for the IBM RS/6000 is always position-independent.
When this flag is set, the macros __pic__ and __PIC__ are defined to 1.
-fPIC If supported for the target machine, emit position-independent code, suitable
for dynamic linking and avoiding any limit on the size of the global offset table.
This option makes a difference on AArch64, m68k, PowerPC and SPARC.
Position-independent code requires special support, and therefore works only
on certain machines.
When this flag is set, the macros __pic__ and __PIC__ are defined to 2.
-fpie
-fPIE These options are similar to -fpic and -fPIC, but the generated position-
independent code can be only linked into executables. Usually these options
are used to compile code that will be linked using the -pie GCC option.
-fpie and -fPIE both define the macros __pie__ and __PIE__. The macros
have the value 1 for -fpie and 2 for -fPIE.
-fno-plt Do not use the PLT for external function calls in position-independent code.
Instead, load the callee address at call sites from the GOT and branch to it.
This leads to more efficient code by eliminating PLT stubs and exposing GOT
loads to optimizations. On architectures such as 32-bit x86 where PLT stubs
expect the GOT pointer in a specific register, this gives more register allocation
freedom to the compiler. Lazy binding requires use of the PLT; with -fno-plt
all external symbols are resolved at load time.
Alternatively, the function attribute noplt can be used to avoid calls through
the PLT for specific external functions.
In position-dependent code, a few targets also convert calls to functions that
are marked to not use the PLT to use the GOT instead.
-fno-jump-tables
Do not use jump tables for switch statements even where it would be more effi-
cient than other code generation strategies. This option is of use in conjunction
with -fpic or -fPIC for building code that forms part of a dynamic linker and
cannot reference the address of a jump table. On some targets, jump tables do
not require a GOT and this option is not needed.
308 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fno-bit-tests
Do not use bit tests for switch statements even where it would be more efficient
than other code generation strategies.
-ffixed-reg
Treat the register named reg as a fixed register; generated code should never
refer to it (except perhaps as a stack pointer, frame pointer or in some other
fixed role).
reg must be the name of a register. The register names accepted are machine-
specific and are defined in the REGISTER_NAMES macro in the machine descrip-
tion macro file.
This flag does not have a negative form, because it specifies a three-way choice.
-fcall-used-reg
Treat the register named reg as an allocable register that is clobbered by func-
tion calls. It may be allocated for temporaries or variables that do not live
across a call. Functions compiled this way do not save and restore the register
reg.
It is an error to use this flag with the frame pointer or stack pointer. Use of this
flag for other registers that have fixed pervasive roles in the machine’s execution
model produces disastrous results.
This flag does not have a negative form, because it specifies a three-way choice.
-fcall-saved-reg
Treat the register named reg as an allocable register saved by functions. It may
be allocated even for temporaries or variables that live across a call. Functions
compiled this way save and restore the register reg if they use it.
It is an error to use this flag with the frame pointer or stack pointer. Use of this
flag for other registers that have fixed pervasive roles in the machine’s execution
model produces disastrous results.
A different sort of disaster results from the use of this flag for a register in which
function values may be returned.
This flag does not have a negative form, because it specifies a three-way choice.
-fpack-struct[=n]
Without a value specified, pack all structure members together without holes.
When a value is specified (which must be a small power of two), pack structure
members according to this value, representing the maximum alignment (that
is, objects with default alignment requirements larger than this are output
potentially unaligned at the next fitting location.
Warning: the -fpack-struct switch causes GCC to generate code that is not
binary compatible with code generated without that switch. Additionally, it
makes the code suboptimal. Use it to conform to a non-default application
binary interface.
-fleading-underscore
This option and its counterpart, -fno-leading-underscore, forcibly change
the way C symbols are represented in the object file. One use is to help link
with legacy assembly code.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 309
-ftls-model=model
Alter the thread-local storage model to be used (see Section 6.69 [Thread-
Local], page 1012). The model argument should be one of ‘global-dynamic’,
‘local-dynamic’, ‘initial-exec’ or ‘local-exec’. Note that the choice is
subject to optimization: the compiler may use a more efficient model for sym-
bols not visible outside of the translation unit, or if -fpic is not given on the
command line.
The default without -fpic is ‘initial-exec’; with -fpic the default is
‘global-dynamic’.
-ftrampolines
For targets that normally need trampolines for nested functions, always gener-
ate them instead of using descriptors. Otherwise, for targets that do not need
them, like for example HP-PA or IA-64, do nothing.
A trampoline is a small piece of code that is created at run time on the stack
when the address of a nested function is taken, and is used to call the nested
function indirectly. Therefore, it requires the stack to be made executable in
order for the program to work properly.
-fno-trampolines is enabled by default on a language by language basis to
let the compiler avoid generating them, if it computes that this is safe, and
replace them with descriptors. Descriptors are made up of data only, but the
generated code must be prepared to deal with them. As of this writing, -fno-
trampolines is enabled by default only for Ada.
Moreover, code compiled with -ftrampolines and code compiled with -fno-
trampolines are not binary compatible if nested functions are present. This
option must therefore be used on a program-wide basis and be manipulated
with extreme care.
For languages other than Ada, the -ftrampolines and -fno-trampolines op-
tions currently have no effect, and trampolines are always generated on plat-
forms that need them for nested functions.
-ftrampoline-impl=[stack|heap]
By default, trampolines are generated on stack. However, certain platforms
(such as the Apple M1) do not permit an executable stack. Compiling with
-ftrampoline-impl=heap generate calls to __gcc_nested_func_ptr_created
and __gcc_nested_func_ptr_deleted in order to allocate and deallocate
trampoline space on the executable heap. These functions are implemented in
libgcc, and will only be provided on specific targets: x86 64 Darwin, x86 64
and aarch64 Linux. PLEASE NOTE : Heap trampolines are not guaranteed to
be correctly deallocated if you setjmp, instantiate nested functions, and then
longjmp back to a state prior to having allocated those nested functions.
310 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fvisibility=[default|internal|hidden|protected]
Set the default ELF image symbol visibility to the specified option—all symbols
are marked with this unless overridden within the code. Using this feature can
very substantially improve linking and load times of shared object libraries,
produce more optimized code, provide near-perfect API export and prevent
symbol clashes. It is strongly recommended that you use this in any shared
objects you distribute.
Despite the nomenclature, ‘default’ always means public; i.e., available to be
linked against from outside the shared object. ‘protected’ and ‘internal’ are
pretty useless in real-world usage so the only other commonly used option is
‘hidden’. The default if -fvisibility isn’t specified is ‘default’, i.e., make
every symbol public.
A good explanation of the benefits offered by ensuring ELF symbols have
the correct visibility is given by “How To Write Shared Libraries” by Ulrich
Drepper (which can be found at https://www.akkadia.org/drepper/)—
however a superior solution made possible by this option to marking things
hidden when the default is public is to make the default hidden and
mark things public. This is the norm with DLLs on Windows and with
-fvisibility=hidden and __attribute__ ((visibility("default")))
instead of __declspec(dllexport) you get almost identical semantics with
identical syntax. This is a great boon to those working with cross-platform
projects.
For those adding visibility support to existing code, you may find #pragma GCC
visibility of use. This works by you enclosing the declarations you wish
to set visibility for with (for example) #pragma GCC visibility push(hidden)
and #pragma GCC visibility pop. Bear in mind that symbol visibility should
be viewed as part of the API interface contract and thus all new code should
always specify visibility when it is not the default; i.e., declarations only for
use within the local DSO should always be marked explicitly as hidden as so
to avoid PLT indirection overheads—making this abundantly clear also aids
readability and self-documentation of the code. Note that due to ISO C++
specification requirements, operator new and operator delete must always
be of default visibility.
Be aware that headers from outside your project, in particular system head-
ers and headers from any other library you use, may not be expecting to be
compiled with visibility other than the default. You may need to explicitly say
#pragma GCC visibility push(default) before including any such headers.
extern declarations are not affected by -fvisibility, so a lot of code can be
recompiled with -fvisibility=hidden with no modifications. However, this
means that calls to extern functions with no explicit visibility use the PLT, so
it is more effective to use __attribute ((visibility)) and/or #pragma GCC
visibility to tell the compiler which extern declarations should be treated
as hidden.
Note that -fvisibility does affect C++ vague linkage entities. This means
that, for instance, an exception class that is be thrown between DSOs must
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 311
be explicitly marked with default visibility so that the ‘type_info’ nodes are
unified between the DSOs.
An overview of these techniques, their benefits and how to use them is at
https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/Visibility.
-fstrict-volatile-bitfields
This option should be used if accesses to volatile bit-fields (or other structure
fields, although the compiler usually honors those types anyway) should use a
single access of the width of the field’s type, aligned to a natural alignment if
possible. For example, targets with memory-mapped peripheral registers might
require all such accesses to be 16 bits wide; with this flag you can declare
all peripheral bit-fields as unsigned short (assuming short is 16 bits on these
targets) to force GCC to use 16-bit accesses instead of, perhaps, a more efficient
32-bit access.
If this option is disabled, the compiler uses the most efficient instruction. In
the previous example, that might be a 32-bit load instruction, even though
that accesses bytes that do not contain any portion of the bit-field, or memory-
mapped registers unrelated to the one being updated.
In some cases, such as when the packed attribute is applied to a structure
field, it may not be possible to access the field with a single read or write that
is correctly aligned for the target machine. In this case GCC falls back to
generating multiple accesses rather than code that will fault or truncate the
result at run time.
Note: Due to restrictions of the C/C++11 memory model, write accesses are not
allowed to touch non bit-field members. It is therefore recommended to define
all bits of the field’s type as bit-field members.
The default value of this option is determined by the application binary interface
for the target processor.
-fsync-libcalls
This option controls whether any out-of-line instance of the __sync family of
functions may be used to implement the C++11 __atomic family of functions.
The default value of this option is enabled, thus the only useful form of the
option is -fno-sync-libcalls. This option is used in the implementation of
the libatomic runtime library.
-fzero-init-padding-bits=value
Guarantee zero initalization of padding bits in automatic variable initializ-
ers. Certain languages guarantee zero initialization of padding bits in certain
cases, e.g. C23 when using empty initializers ({}), or C++ when using zero-
initialization or C guarantees that fields not specified in an initializer have
their padding bits zero initialized. This option allows to change when padding
bits in initializers are guaranteed to be zero initialized. The default is -fzero-
init-padding-bits=standard, which makes no further guarantees than the
corresponding standard. E.g.
struct A { char a; unsigned long long b; char c; };
union B { char a; unsigned long long b; };
struct A a = {}; // C23 guarantees padding bits are zero.
312 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
struct A b = { 1, 2, 3 }; // No guarantees.
union B c = {}; // C23 guarantees padding bits are zero.
union B d = { 1 }; // No guarantees.
-fzero-init-padding-bits=unions guarantees zero initialization of padding
bits in unions on top of what the standards guarantee, if the initializer of
an union is empty (then all bits of the union are zero initialized) or if the
initialized member of the union is smaller than the size of the union (in that case
guarantees padding bits outside of the initialized member to be zero initialized).
This was the GCC behavior before GCC 15 and in the above example guarantees
zero initialization of last sizeof (unsigned long long) - 1 bytes in the union.
-fzero-init-padding-bits=all guarantees additionally zero initialization of
padding bits of other aggregates, so the padding in between b.a and b.b (if
any) and tail padding in the structure (if any).
-fcallgraph-info
-fcallgraph-info=MARKERS
Makes the compiler output callgraph information for the program, on a per-
object-file basis. The information is generated in the common VCG format.
It can be decorated with additional, per-node and/or per-edge information,
if a list of comma-separated markers is additionally specified. When the su
marker is specified, the callgraph is decorated with stack usage information; it
is equivalent to -fstack-usage. When the da marker is specified, the callgraph
is decorated with information about dynamically allocated objects.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 313
-fdump-rtl-cprop_hardreg
Dump after hard register copy propagation.
-fdump-rtl-csa
Dump after combining stack adjustments.
-fdump-rtl-cse1
-fdump-rtl-cse2
-fdump-rtl-cse1 and -fdump-rtl-cse2 enable dumping after the
two common subexpression elimination passes.
-fdump-rtl-dce
Dump after the standalone dead code elimination passes.
-fdump-rtl-dbr
Dump after delayed branch scheduling.
-fdump-rtl-dce1
-fdump-rtl-dce2
-fdump-rtl-dce1 and -fdump-rtl-dce2 enable dumping after the
two dead store elimination passes.
-fdump-rtl-eh
Dump after finalization of EH handling code.
-fdump-rtl-eh_ranges
Dump after conversion of EH handling range regions.
-fdump-rtl-expand
Dump after RTL generation.
-fdump-rtl-fwprop1
-fdump-rtl-fwprop2
-fdump-rtl-fwprop1 and -fdump-rtl-fwprop2 enable dumping
after the two forward propagation passes.
-fdump-rtl-gcse1
-fdump-rtl-gcse2
-fdump-rtl-gcse1 and -fdump-rtl-gcse2 enable dumping after
global common subexpression elimination.
-fdump-rtl-init-regs
Dump after the initialization of the registers.
-fdump-rtl-initvals
Dump after the computation of the initial value sets.
-fdump-rtl-into_cfglayout
Dump after converting to cfglayout mode.
-fdump-rtl-ira
Dump after iterated register allocation.
-fdump-rtl-jump
Dump after the second jump optimization.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 315
-fdump-rtl-loop2
-fdump-rtl-loop2 enables dumping after the rtl loop optimization
passes.
-fdump-rtl-mach
Dump after performing the machine dependent reorganization pass,
if that pass exists.
-fdump-rtl-mode_sw
Dump after removing redundant mode switches.
-fdump-rtl-rnreg
Dump after register renumbering.
-fdump-rtl-outof_cfglayout
Dump after converting from cfglayout mode.
-fdump-rtl-peephole2
Dump after the peephole pass.
-fdump-rtl-postreload
Dump after post-reload optimizations.
-fdump-rtl-pro_and_epilogue
Dump after generating the function prologues and epilogues.
-fdump-rtl-sched1
-fdump-rtl-sched2
-fdump-rtl-sched1 and -fdump-rtl-sched2 enable dumping af-
ter the basic block scheduling passes.
-fdump-rtl-ree
Dump after sign/zero extension elimination.
-fdump-rtl-seqabstr
Dump after common sequence discovery.
-fdump-rtl-shorten
Dump after shortening branches.
-fdump-rtl-sibling
Dump after sibling call optimizations.
-fdump-rtl-split1
-fdump-rtl-split2
-fdump-rtl-split3
-fdump-rtl-split4
-fdump-rtl-split5
These options enable dumping after five rounds of instruction split-
ting.
-fdump-rtl-sms
Dump after modulo scheduling. This pass is only run on some
architectures.
316 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fdump-rtl-stack
Dump after conversion from GCC’s “flat register file” registers to
the x87’s stack-like registers. This pass is only run on x86 variants.
-fdump-rtl-subreg1
-fdump-rtl-subreg2
-fdump-rtl-subreg1 and -fdump-rtl-subreg2 enable dumping
after the two subreg expansion passes.
-fdump-rtl-unshare
Dump after all rtl has been unshared.
-fdump-rtl-vartrack
Dump after variable tracking.
-fdump-rtl-vregs
Dump after converting virtual registers to hard registers.
-fdump-rtl-web
Dump after live range splitting.
-fdump-rtl-regclass
-fdump-rtl-subregs_of_mode_init
-fdump-rtl-subregs_of_mode_finish
-fdump-rtl-dfinit
-fdump-rtl-dfinish
These dumps are defined but always produce empty files.
-da
-fdump-rtl-all
Produce all the dumps listed above.
-dA Annotate the assembler output with miscellaneous debugging in-
formation.
-dD Dump all macro definitions, at the end of preprocessing, in addition
to normal output.
-dH Produce a core dump whenever an error occurs.
-dp Annotate the assembler output with a comment indicating which
pattern and alternative is used. The length and cost of each in-
struction are also printed.
-dP Dump the RTL in the assembler output as a comment before each
instruction. Also turns on -dp annotation.
-dx Just generate RTL for a function instead of compiling it. Usually
used with -fdump-rtl-expand.
-fdump-debug
Dump debugging information generated during the debug generation phase.
-fdump-earlydebug
Dump debugging information generated during the early debug generation
phase.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 317
-fdump-noaddr
When doing debugging dumps, suppress address output. This makes it more
feasible to use diff on debugging dumps for compiler invocations with different
compiler binaries and/or different text / bss / data / heap / stack / dso start
locations.
-freport-bug
Collect and dump debug information into a temporary file if an internal compiler
error (ICE) occurs.
-fdump-unnumbered
When doing debugging dumps, suppress instruction numbers and address out-
put. This makes it more feasible to use diff on debugging dumps for compiler
invocations with different options, in particular with and without -g.
-fdump-unnumbered-links
When doing debugging dumps (see -d option above), suppress instruction num-
bers for the links to the previous and next instructions in a sequence.
-fdump-ipa-switch
-fdump-ipa-switch-options
Control the dumping at various stages of inter-procedural analysis language tree
to a file. The file name is generated by appending a switch specific suffix to the
source file name, and the file is created in the same directory as the output file.
The following dumps are possible:
‘strubm’ Dump after selecting strub modes, and recording the selections as
function attributes.
Additionally, the options -optimized, -missed, -note, and -all can be pro-
vided, with the same meaning as for -fopt-info, defaulting to -optimized.
For example, -fdump-ipa-inline-optimized-missed will emit information on
callsites that were inlined, along with callsites that were not inlined.
By default, the dump will contain messages about successful optimizations
(equivalent to -optimized) together with low-level details about the analysis.
-fdump-lang
Dump language-specific information. The file name is made by appending
.lang to the source file name.
318 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fdump-lang-all
-fdump-lang-switch
-fdump-lang-switch-options
-fdump-lang-switch-options=filename
Control the dumping of language-specific information. The options and file-
name portions behave as described in the -fdump-tree option. The following
switch values are accepted:
‘all’
Enable all language-specific dumps.
‘class’ Dump class hierarchy information. Virtual table information is
emitted unless ’slim’ is specified. This option is applicable to C++
only.
‘module’ Dump module information. Options lineno (locations), graph
(reachability), blocks (clusters), uid (serialization), alias (merge-
able), asmname (Elrond), eh (mapper) & vops (macros) may pro-
vide additional information. This option is applicable to C++ only.
‘raw’ Dump the raw internal tree data. This option is applicable to C++
only.
-fdump-passes
Print on stderr the list of optimization passes that are turned on and off by
the current command-line options.
-fdump-statistics-option
Enable and control dumping of pass statistics in a separate file. The file name
is generated by appending a suffix ending in ‘.statistics’ to the source file
name, and the file is created in the same directory as the output file. If the
‘-option’ form is used, ‘-stats’ causes counters to be summed over the whole
compilation unit while ‘-details’ dumps every event as the passes generate
them. The default with no option is to sum counters for each function compiled.
-fdump-tree-all
-fdump-tree-switch
-fdump-tree-switch-options
-fdump-tree-switch-options=filename
Control the dumping at various stages of processing the intermediate language
tree to a file. If the ‘-options’ form is used, options is a list of ‘-’ separated
options which control the details of the dump. Not all options are applicable
to all dumps; those that are not meaningful are ignored. The following options
are available
‘address’ Print the address of each node. Usually this is not meaningful as it
changes according to the environment and source file. Its primary
use is for tying up a dump file with a debug environment.
‘asmname’ If DECL_ASSEMBLER_NAME has been set for a given decl, use that
in the dump instead of DECL_NAME. Its primary use is ease of use
working backward from mangled names in the assembly file.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 319
To determine what tree dumps are available or find the dump for a pass of
interest follow the steps below.
1. Invoke GCC with -fdump-passes and in the stderr output look for a
code that corresponds to the pass you are interested in. For example,
the codes tree-evrp, tree-vrp1, and tree-vrp2 correspond to the three
Value Range Propagation passes. The number at the end distinguishes
distinct invocations of the same pass.
2. To enable the creation of the dump file, append the pass code to the
-fdump- option prefix and invoke GCC with it. For example, to enable
the dump from the Early Value Range Propagation pass, invoke GCC with
the -fdump-tree-evrp option. Optionally, you may specify the name of
the dump file. If you don’t specify one, GCC creates as described below.
3. Find the pass dump in a file whose name is composed of three components
separated by a period: the name of the source file GCC was invoked to
compile, a numeric suffix indicating the pass number followed by the letter
‘t’ for tree passes (and the letter ‘r’ for RTL passes), and finally the pass
code. For example, the Early VRP pass dump might be in a file named
myfile.c.038t.evrp in the current working directory. Note that the nu-
meric codes are not stable and may change from one version of GCC to
another.
-fopt-info
-fopt-info-options
-fopt-info-options=filename
Controls optimization dumps from various optimization passes. If the
‘-options’ form is used, options is a list of ‘-’ separated option keywords to
select the dump details and optimizations.
The options can be divided into three groups:
1. options describing what kinds of messages should be emitted,
2. options describing the verbosity of the dump, and
3. options describing which optimizations should be included.
The options from each group can be freely mixed as they are non-overlapping.
However, in case of any conflicts, the later options override the earlier options
on the command line.
The following options control which kinds of messages should be emitted:
‘optimized’
Print information when an optimization is successfully applied. It
is up to a pass to decide which information is relevant. For example,
the vectorizer passes print the source location of loops which are
successfully vectorized.
‘missed’ Print information about missed optimizations. Individual passes
control which information to include in the output.
‘note’ Print verbose information about optimizations, such as certain
transformations, more detailed messages about decisions etc.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 321
-fdisable-ipa-pass
Disable IPA pass pass. pass is the pass name. If the same pass
is statically invoked in the compiler multiple times, the pass name
should be appended with a sequential number starting from 1.
-fdisable-rtl-pass
-fdisable-rtl-pass=range-list
Disable RTL pass pass. pass is the pass name. If the same pass is
statically invoked in the compiler multiple times, the pass name
should be appended with a sequential number starting from 1.
range-list is a comma-separated list of function ranges or assem-
bler names. Each range is a number pair separated by a colon.
The range is inclusive in both ends. If the range is trivial, the
number pair can be simplified as a single number. If the function’s
call graph node’s uid falls within one of the specified ranges, the
pass is disabled for that function. The uid is shown in the function
header of a dump file, and the pass names can be dumped by using
option -fdump-passes.
-fdisable-tree-pass
-fdisable-tree-pass=range-list
Disable tree pass pass. See -fdisable-rtl for the description of
option arguments.
-fenable-ipa-pass
Enable IPA pass pass. pass is the pass name. If the same pass
is statically invoked in the compiler multiple times, the pass name
should be appended with a sequential number starting from 1.
-fenable-rtl-pass
-fenable-rtl-pass=range-list
Enable RTL pass pass. See -fdisable-rtl for option argument
description and examples.
-fenable-tree-pass
-fenable-tree-pass=range-list
Enable tree pass pass. See -fdisable-rtl for the description of
option arguments.
Here are some examples showing uses of these options.
-fchecking
-fchecking=n
Enable internal consistency checking. The default depends on the compiler
configuration. -fchecking=2 enables further internal consistency checking that
might affect code generation.
-frandom-seed=string
This option provides a seed that GCC uses in place of random numbers in
generating certain symbol names that have to be different in every compiled
file. It is also used to place unique stamps in coverage data files and the object
files that produce them. You can use the -frandom-seed option to produce
reproducibly identical object files.
The string can either be a number (decimal, octal or hex) or an arbitrary string
(in which case it’s converted to a number by computing CRC32).
The string should be different for every file you compile.
-save-temps
Store the usual “temporary” intermediate files permanently; name them as
auxiliary output files, as specified described under -dumpbase and -dumpdir.
When used in combination with the -x command-line option, -save-temps is
sensible enough to avoid overwriting an input source file with the same extension
as an intermediate file. The corresponding intermediate file may be obtained
by renaming the source file before using -save-temps.
-save-temps=cwd
Equivalent to -save-temps -dumpdir ./.
-save-temps=obj
Equivalent to -save-temps -dumpdir outdir/, where outdir/ is the directory
of the output file specified after the -o option, including any directory separa-
tors. If the -o option is not used, the -save-temps=obj switch behaves like
-save-temps=cwd.
-time[=file]
Report the CPU time taken by each subprocess in the compilation sequence.
For C source files, this is the compiler proper and assembler (plus the linker if
linking is done).
Without the specification of an output file, the output looks like this:
# cc1 0.12 0.01
# as 0.00 0.01
The first number on each line is the “user time”, that is time spent executing
the program itself. The second number is “system time”, time spent executing
operating system routines on behalf of the program. Both numbers are in
seconds.
With the specification of an output file, the output is appended to the named
file, and it looks like this:
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 325
The “user time” and the “system time” are moved before the program name,
and the options passed to the program are displayed, so that one can later tell
what file was being compiled, and with which options.
-fdump-final-insns[=file]
Dump the final internal representation (RTL) to file. If the optional argument
is omitted (or if file is .), the name of the dump file is determined by appending
.gkd to the dump base name, see -dumpbase.
-fcompare-debug[=opts]
If no error occurs during compilation, run the compiler a second time, adding
opts and -fcompare-debug-second to the arguments passed to the second
compilation. Dump the final internal representation in both compilations, and
print an error if they differ.
If the equal sign is omitted, the default -gtoggle is used.
The environment variable GCC_COMPARE_DEBUG, if defined, non-empty and
nonzero, implicitly enables -fcompare-debug. If GCC_COMPARE_DEBUG is
defined to a string starting with a dash, then it is used for opts, otherwise the
default -gtoggle is used.
-fcompare-debug=, with the equal sign but without opts, is equivalent to -fno-
compare-debug, which disables the dumping of the final representation and the
second compilation, preventing even GCC_COMPARE_DEBUG from taking effect.
To verify full coverage during -fcompare-debug testing, set GCC_COMPARE_
DEBUG to say -fcompare-debug-not-overridden, which GCC rejects as
an invalid option in any actual compilation (rather than preprocessing,
assembly or linking). To get just a warning, setting GCC_COMPARE_DEBUG to
‘-w%n-fcompare-debug not overridden’ will do.
-fcompare-debug-second
This option is implicitly passed to the compiler for the second compilation
requested by -fcompare-debug, along with options to silence warnings, and
omitting other options that would cause the compiler to produce output to files
or to standard output as a side effect. Dump files and preserved temporary files
are renamed so as to contain the .gk additional extension during the second
compilation, to avoid overwriting those generated by the first.
When this option is passed to the compiler driver, it causes the first compilation
to be skipped, which makes it useful for little other than debugging the compiler
proper.
-gtoggle Turn off generation of debug info, if leaving out this option generates it, or turn
it on at level 2 otherwise. The position of this argument in the command line
does not matter; it takes effect after all other options are processed, and it does
so only once, no matter how many times it is given. This is mainly intended to
be used with -fcompare-debug.
326 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fvar-tracking-assignments-toggle
Toggle -fvar-tracking-assignments, in the same way that -gtoggle toggles
-g.
-Q Makes the compiler print out each function name as it is compiled, and print
some statistics about each pass when it finishes.
-ftime-report
Makes the compiler print some statistics to stderr about the time consumed by
each pass when it finishes.
If SARIF output of diagnostics was requested via -fdiagnostics-
format=sarif-file or -fdiagnostics-format=sarif-stderr then the
-ftime-report information is instead emitted in JSON form as part of SARIF
output. The precise format of this JSON data is subject to change, and the
values may not exactly match those emitted to stderr due to being written out
at a slightly different place within the compiler.
-ftime-report-details
Record the time consumed by infrastructure parts separately for each pass.
-fira-verbose=n
Control the verbosity of the dump file for the integrated register allocator. The
default value is 5. If the value n is greater or equal to 10, the dump output is
sent to stderr using the same format as n minus 10.
-flto-report
Prints a report with internal details on the workings of the link-time optimizer.
The contents of this report vary from version to version. It is meant to be useful
to GCC developers when processing object files in LTO mode (via -flto).
Disabled by default.
-flto-report-wpa
Like -flto-report, but only print for the WPA phase of link-time optimization.
-fmem-report
Makes the compiler print some statistics about permanent memory allocation
when it finishes.
-fmem-report-wpa
Makes the compiler print some statistics about permanent memory allocation
for the WPA phase only.
-fpre-ipa-mem-report
-fpost-ipa-mem-report
Makes the compiler print some statistics about permanent memory allocation
before or after interprocedural optimization.
-fmultiflags
This option enables multilib-aware TFLAGS to be used to build target libraries
with options different from those the compiler is configured to use by default,
through the use of specs (see Section 3.21 [Spec Files], page 543) set up by
compiler internals, by the target, or by builders at configure time.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 327
Like TFLAGS, this allows the target libraries to be built for portable baseline
environments, while the compiler defaults to more demanding ones. That’s
useful because users can easily override the defaults the compiler is configured
to use to build their own programs, if the defaults are not ideal for their target
environment, whereas rebuilding the runtime libraries is usually not as easy or
desirable.
Unlike TFLAGS, the use of specs enables different flags to be se-
lected for different multilibs. The way to accomplish that
is to build with ‘make TFLAGS=-fmultiflags’, after configuring
‘--with-specs=%{fmultiflags:...}’.
This option is discarded by the driver once it’s done processing driver self spec.
It is also useful to check that TFLAGS are being used to build
all target libraries, by configuring a non-bootstrap compiler
‘--with-specs='%{!fmultiflags:%emissing TFLAGS}'’ and building
the compiler and target libraries.
-fprofile-report
Makes the compiler print some statistics about consistency of the (estimated)
profile and effect of individual passes.
-fstack-usage
Makes the compiler output stack usage information for the program, on a per-
function basis. The filename for the dump is made by appending .su to the
auxname. auxname is generated from the name of the output file, if explicitly
specified and it is not an executable, otherwise it is the basename of the source
file. An entry is made up of three fields:
• The name of the function.
• A number of bytes.
• One or more qualifiers: static, dynamic, bounded.
The qualifier static means that the function manipulates the stack statically: a
fixed number of bytes are allocated for the frame on function entry and released
on function exit; no stack adjustments are otherwise made in the function. The
second field is this fixed number of bytes.
The qualifier dynamic means that the function manipulates the stack dynami-
cally: in addition to the static allocation described above, stack adjustments are
made in the body of the function, for example to push/pop arguments around
function calls. If the qualifier bounded is also present, the amount of these ad-
justments is bounded at compile time and the second field is an upper bound of
the total amount of stack used by the function. If it is not present, the amount
of these adjustments is not bounded at compile time and the second field only
represents the bounded part.
-fstats Emit statistics about front-end processing at the end of the compilation. This
option is supported only by the C++ front end, and the information is generally
only useful to the G++ development team.
-fdbg-cnt-list
Print the name and the counter upper bound for all debug counters.
328 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-fdbg-cnt=counter-value-list
Set the internal debug counter lower and upper bound. counter-value-list is
a comma-separated list of name:lower bound1-upper bound1 [:lower bound2-
upper bound2...] tuples which sets the name of the counter and list of closed
intervals. The lower bound is optional and is zero initialized if not set. For
example, with -fdbg-cnt=dce:2-4:10-11,tail_call:10, dbg_cnt(dce) re-
turns true only for second, third, fourth, tenth and eleventh invocation. For
dbg_cnt(tail_call) true is returned for first 10 invocations.
-print-file-name=library
Print the full absolute name of the library file library that would be used when
linking—and don’t do anything else. With this option, GCC does not compile
or link anything; it just prints the file name.
-print-multi-directory
Print the directory name corresponding to the multilib selected by any other
switches present in the command line. This directory is supposed to exist in
GCC_EXEC_PREFIX.
-print-multi-lib
Print the mapping from multilib directory names to compiler switches that
enable them. The directory name is separated from the switches by ‘;’, and
each switch starts with an ‘@’ instead of the ‘-’, without spaces between multiple
switches. This is supposed to ease shell processing.
-print-multi-os-directory
Print the path to OS libraries for the selected multilib, relative to some lib
subdirectory. If OS libraries are present in the lib subdirectory and no multilibs
are used, this is usually just ., if OS libraries are present in libsuffix sibling
directories this prints e.g. ../lib64, ../lib or ../lib32, or if OS libraries are
present in lib/subdir subdirectories it prints e.g. amd64, sparcv9 or ev6.
-print-multiarch
Print the path to OS libraries for the selected multiarch, relative to some lib
subdirectory.
-print-prog-name=program
Like -print-file-name, but searches for a program such as cpp.
-print-libgcc-file-name
Same as -print-file-name=libgcc.a.
This is useful when you use -nostdlib or -nodefaultlibs but you do want to
link with libgcc.a. You can do:
gcc -nostdlib files... `gcc -print-libgcc-file-name`
-print-search-dirs
Print the name of the configured installation directory and a list of program
and library directories gcc searches—and don’t do anything else.
This is useful when gcc prints the error message ‘installation problem,
cannot exec cpp0: No such file or directory’. To resolve this you either
need to put cpp0 and the other compiler components where gcc expects to find
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 329
them, or you can set the environment variable GCC_EXEC_PREFIX to the direc-
tory where you installed them. Don’t forget the trailing ‘/’. See Section 3.22
[Environment Variables], page 552.
-print-sysroot
Print the target sysroot directory that is used during compilation. This is the
target sysroot specified either at configure time or using the --sysroot option,
possibly with an extra suffix that depends on compilation options. If no target
sysroot is specified, the option prints nothing.
-print-sysroot-headers-suffix
Print the suffix added to the target sysroot when searching for headers, or
give an error if the compiler is not configured with such a suffix—and don’t do
anything else.
-dumpmachine
Print the compiler’s target machine (for example, ‘i686-pc-linux-gnu’)—and
don’t do anything else.
-dumpversion
Print the compiler version (for example, 3.0, 6.3.0 or 7)—and don’t do any-
thing else. This is the compiler version used in filesystem paths and specs.
Depending on how the compiler has been configured it can be just a single
number (major version), two numbers separated by a dot (major and minor
version) or three numbers separated by dots (major, minor and patchlevel ver-
sion).
-dumpfullversion
Print the full compiler version—and don’t do anything else. The output is
always three numbers separated by dots, major, minor and patchlevel version.
-dumpspecs
Print the compiler’s built-in specs—and don’t do anything else. (This is used
when GCC itself is being built.) See Section 3.21 [Spec Files], page 543.
The default depends on the specific target configuration. Note that the LP64
and ILP32 ABIs are not link-compatible; you must compile your entire program
with the same ABI, and link with a compatible set of libraries.
-mbig-endian
Generate big-endian code. This is the default when GCC is configured for an
‘aarch64_be-*-*’ target.
-mgeneral-regs-only
Generate code which uses only the general-purpose registers. This will prevent
the compiler from using floating-point and Advanced SIMD registers but will
not impose any restrictions on the assembler.
-mlittle-endian
Generate little-endian code. This is the default when GCC is configured for an
‘aarch64-*-*’ but not an ‘aarch64_be-*-*’ target.
-mcmodel=tiny
Generate code for the tiny code model. The program and its statically defined
symbols must be within 1MB of each other. Programs can be statically or
dynamically linked.
-mcmodel=small
Generate code for the small code model. The program and its statically defined
symbols must be within 4GB of each other. Programs can be statically or
dynamically linked. This is the default code model.
-mcmodel=large
Generate code for the large code model. This makes no assumptions about
addresses and sizes of sections. Programs can be statically linked only. The
-mcmodel=large option is incompatible with -mabi=ilp32, -fpic and -fPIC.
-mtp=name
Specify the system register to use as a thread pointer. The valid values are
‘tpidr_el0’, ‘tpidrro_el0’, ‘tpidr_el1’, ‘tpidr_el2’, ‘tpidr_el3’. For back-
wards compatibility the aliases ‘el0’, ‘el1’, ‘el2’, ‘el3’ are also accepted. The
default setting is ‘tpidr_el0’. It is recommended to compile all code intended
to interoperate with the same value of this option to avoid accessing a different
thread pointer from the wrong exception level.
-mstrict-align
-mno-strict-align
Avoid or allow generating memory accesses that may not be aligned on a natural
object boundary as described in the architecture specification.
-momit-leaf-frame-pointer
-mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer
Omit or keep the frame pointer in leaf functions. The former behavior is the
default.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 331
-mstack-protector-guard=guard
-mstack-protector-guard-reg=reg
-mstack-protector-guard-offset=offset
Generate stack protection code using canary at guard. Supported locations are
‘global’ for a global canary or ‘sysreg’ for a canary in an appropriate system
register.
With the latter choice the options -mstack-protector-guard-reg=reg and
-mstack-protector-guard-offset=offset furthermore specify which system
register to use as base register for reading the canary, and from what offset
from that base register. There is no default register or offset as this is entirely
for use within the Linux kernel.
-mtls-dialect=desc
Use TLS descriptors as the thread-local storage mechanism for dynamic accesses
of TLS variables. This is the default.
-mtls-dialect=traditional
Use traditional TLS as the thread-local storage mechanism for dynamic accesses
of TLS variables.
-mtls-size=size
Specify bit size of immediate TLS offsets. Valid values are 12, 24, 32, 48. This
option requires binutils 2.26 or newer.
-mfix-cortex-a53-835769
-mno-fix-cortex-a53-835769
Enable or disable the workaround for the ARM Cortex-A53 erratum number
835769. This involves inserting a NOP instruction between memory instructions
and 64-bit integer multiply-accumulate instructions. This flag will be ignored
if an architecture or cpu is specified on the command line which does not need
the workaround.
-mfix-cortex-a53-843419
-mno-fix-cortex-a53-843419
Enable or disable the workaround for the ARM Cortex-A53 erratum number
843419. This erratum workaround is made at link time and this will only pass
the corresponding flag to the linker. This flag will be ignored if an architecture
or cpu is specified on the command line which does not need the workaround.
-mlow-precision-recip-sqrt
-mno-low-precision-recip-sqrt
Enable or disable the reciprocal square root approximation. This option only
has an effect if -ffast-math or -funsafe-math-optimizations is used as well.
Enabling this reduces precision of reciprocal square root results to about 16 bits
for single precision and to 32 bits for double precision.
-mlow-precision-sqrt
-mno-low-precision-sqrt
Enable or disable the square root approximation. This option only has an effect
if -ffast-math or -funsafe-math-optimizations is used as well. Enabling
this reduces precision of square root results to about 16 bits for single precision
332 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
cycle. In other words, the option tells GCC to tune for Neoverse cores that can
execute 4 128-bit Advanced SIMD arithmetic instructions a cycle and that can
execute an equivalent number of SVE arithmetic instructions per cycle (2 for
256-bit SVE, 4 for 128-bit SVE). This is more general than tuning for a specific
core like Neoverse V1 but is more specific than the default tuning described
below.
Additionally on native AArch64 GNU/Linux systems the value ‘native’ tunes
performance to the host system. This option has no effect if the compiler is
unable to recognize the processor of the host system.
Where none of -mtune=, -mcpu= or -march= are specified, the code is tuned to
perform well across a range of target processors.
This option cannot be suffixed by feature modifiers.
-mcpu=name
Specify the name of the target processor, optionally suffixed by one or more
feature modifiers. This option has the form -mcpu=cpu{+[no]feature}*, where
the permissible values for cpu are the same as those available for -mtune. The
permissible values for feature are documented in the sub-section on [-march
and -mcpu Feature Modifiers], page 336. Where conflicting feature modifiers
are specified, the right-most feature is used.
GCC uses name to determine what kind of instructions it can emit when gen-
erating assembly code (as if by -march) and to determine the target processor
for which to tune for performance (as if by -mtune). Where this option is used
in conjunction with -march or -mtune, those options take precedence over the
appropriate part of this option.
-mcpu=neoverse-512tvb is special in that it does not refer to a specific core,
but instead refers to all Neoverse cores that (a) implement SVE and (b) have
a total vector bandwidth of 512 bits a cycle. Unless overridden by -march,
-mcpu=neoverse-512tvb generates code that can run on a Neoverse V1 core,
since Neoverse V1 is the first Neoverse core with these properties. Unless over-
ridden by -mtune, -mcpu=neoverse-512tvb tunes code in the same way as for
-mtune=neoverse-512tvb.
-moverride=string
Override tuning decisions made by the back-end in response to a -mtune=
switch. The syntax, semantics, and accepted values for string in this option are
not guaranteed to be consistent across releases.
This option is only intended to be useful when developing GCC.
-mverbose-cost-dump
Enable verbose cost model dumping in the debug dump files. This option is
provided for use in debugging the compiler.
-mpc-relative-literal-loads
-mno-pc-relative-literal-loads
Enable or disable PC-relative literal loads. With this option literal pools are
accessed using a single instruction and emitted after each function. This lim-
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 335
its the maximum size of functions to 1MB. This is enabled by default for
-mcmodel=tiny.
-msign-return-address=scope
Select the function scope on which return address signing will be applied. Per-
missible values are ‘none’, which disables return address signing, ‘non-leaf’,
which enables pointer signing for functions which are not leaf functions, and
‘all’, which enables pointer signing for all functions. The default value is
‘none’. This option has been deprecated by -mbranch-protection.
-mbranch-protection=none|standard|pac-ret[+leaf+b-key]|bti|gcs
Select the branch protection features to use. ‘none’ is the default and turns
off all types of branch protection. ‘standard’ turns on all types of branch
protection features. If a feature has additional tuning options, then ‘standard’
sets it to its standard level. ‘pac-ret[+leaf]’ turns on return address signing
to its standard level: signing functions that save the return address to memory
(non-leaf functions will practically always do this) using the a-key. The optional
argument ‘leaf’ can be used to extend the signing to include leaf functions.
The optional argument ‘b-key’ can be used to sign the functions with the B-
key instead of the A-key. ‘bti’ turns on branch target identification mechanism.
‘gcs’ turns on guarded control stack compatible code generation.
-mharden-sls=opts
Enable compiler hardening against straight line speculation (SLS). opts is a
comma-separated list of the following options:
‘retbr’
‘blr’
In addition, ‘-mharden-sls=all’ enables all SLS hardening while
‘-mharden-sls=none’ disables all SLS hardening.
-mearly-ra=scope
Determine when to enable an early register allocation pass. This pass runs
before instruction scheduling and tries to find a spill-free allocation of floating-
point and vector code. It also tries to make use of strided multi-register in-
structions, such as SME2’s strided LD1 and ST1.
The possible values of scope are: all, which runs the pass on all functions;
strided, which runs the pass on functions that have access to strided multi-
register instructions; and none, which disables the pass.
-mearly-ra=all is the default for -O2 and above, and for -Os. -mearly-
ra=none is the default otherwise.
-mearly-ldp-fusion
Enable the copy of the AArch64 load/store pair fusion pass that runs before
register allocation. Enabled by default at ‘-O’ and above.
-mlate-ldp-fusion
Enable the copy of the AArch64 load/store pair fusion pass that runs after
register allocation. Enabled by default at ‘-O’ and above.
336 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-msve-vector-bits=bits
Specify the number of bits in an SVE vector register. This option only has an
effect when SVE is enabled.
GCC supports two forms of SVE code generation: “vector-length agnostic”
output that works with any size of vector register and “vector-length specific”
output that allows GCC to make assumptions about the vector length when it is
useful for optimization reasons. The possible values of ‘bits’ are: ‘scalable’,
‘128’, ‘256’, ‘512’, ‘1024’ and ‘2048’. Specifying ‘scalable’ selects vector-
length agnostic output. At present ‘-msve-vector-bits=128’ also generates
vector-length agnostic output for big-endian targets. All other values generate
vector-length specific code. The behavior of these values may change in future
releases and no value except ‘scalable’ should be relied on for producing code
that is portable across different hardware SVE vector lengths.
The default is ‘-msve-vector-bits=scalable’, which produces vector-length
agnostic code.
‘aes’ Enable the Armv8-a aes and pmull crypto extension. This also enables Ad-
vanced SIMD instructions.
‘sha2’ Enable the Armv8-a sha2 crypto extension. This also enables Advanced SIMD
instructions.
‘sha3’ Enable the sha512 and sha3 crypto extension. This also enables Advanced
SIMD instructions. Use of this option with architectures prior to Armv8.2-A is
not supported.
‘sm4’ Enable the sm3 and sm4 crypto extension. This also enables Advanced SIMD
instructions. Use of this option with architectures prior to Armv8.2-A is not
supported.
‘profile’ Enable the Statistical Profiling extension. This option is only to enable the
extension at the assembler level and does not affect code generation.
‘rng’ Enable the Armv8.5-a Random Number instructions. This option is only to
enable the extension at the assembler level and does not affect code generation.
‘memtag’ Enable the Armv8.5-a Memory Tagging Extensions. Use of this option with
architectures prior to Armv8.5-A is not supported.
‘sb’ Enable the Armv8-a Speculation Barrier instruction. This option is only to
enable the extension at the assembler level and does not affect code generation.
This option is enabled by default for -march=armv8.5-a.
‘ssbs’ Enable the Armv8-a Speculative Store Bypass Safe instruction. This option is
only to enable the extension at the assembler level and does not affect code
generation. This option is enabled by default for -march=armv8.5-a.
‘predres’ Enable the Armv8-a Execution and Data Prediction Restriction instructions.
This option is only to enable the extension at the assembler level and does not
affect code generation. This option is enabled by default for -march=armv8.5-
a.
‘sve2’ Enable the Armv8-a Scalable Vector Extension 2. This also enables SVE in-
structions.
‘sve2-bitperm’
Enable SVE2 bitperm instructions. This also enables SVE2 instructions.
‘sve2-sm4’
Enable SVE2 sm4 instructions. This also enables SVE2 instructions.
‘sve2-aes’
Enable SVE2 aes instructions. This also enables SVE2 instructions.
‘sve2-sha3’
Enable SVE2 sha3 instructions. This also enables SVE2 instructions.
‘sve2p1’ Enable SVE2.1 instructions. This also enables SVE2 instructions.
‘tme’ Enable the Transactional Memory Extension.
338 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘i8mm’ Enable 8-bit Integer Matrix Multiply instructions. This also enables Advanced
SIMD and floating-point instructions. This option is enabled by default for
-march=armv8.6-a. Use of this option with architectures prior to Armv8.2-A
is not supported.
‘f32mm’ Enable 32-bit Floating point Matrix Multiply instructions. This also enables
SVE instructions. Use of this option with architectures prior to Armv8.2-A is
not supported.
‘f64mm’ Enable 64-bit Floating point Matrix Multiply instructions. This also enables
SVE instructions. Use of this option with architectures prior to Armv8.2-A is
not supported.
‘bf16’ Enable brain half-precision floating-point instructions. This also enables Ad-
vanced SIMD and floating-point instructions. This option is enabled by default
for -march=armv8.6-a. Use of this option with architectures prior to Armv8.2-
A is not supported.
‘ls64’ Enable the 64-byte atomic load and store instructions for accelerators.
‘mops’ Enable the instructions to accelerate memory operations like memcpy, memmove,
memset. This option is enabled by default for -march=armv8.8-a
‘flagm’ Enable the Flag Manipulation instructions Extension.
‘pauth’ Enable the Pointer Authentication Extension.
‘cssc’ Enable the Common Short Sequence Compression instructions.
‘sme’ Enable the Scalable Matrix Extension.
‘sme-i16i64’
Enable the FEAT SME I16I64 extension to SME. This also enables SME in-
structions.
‘sme-f64f64’
Enable the FEAT SME F64F64 extension to SME. This also enables SME
instructions.
‘sme2’ Enable the Scalable Matrix Extension 2. This also enables SME instructions.
‘sme-b16b16’
Enable the FEAT SME B16B16 extension to SME. This also enables SME2
and SVE B16B16 instructions.
‘sme-f16f16’
Enable the FEAT SME F16F16 extension to SME. This also enables SME2
instructions.
‘sme2p1’ Enable the Scalable Matrix Extension version 2.1. This also enables SME2
instructions.
‘lse128’ Enable the LSE128 128-bit atomic instructions extension. This also enables
LSE instructions.
‘d128’ Enable support for 128-bit system register read/write instructions. This also
enables the LSE128 extension.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 339
-mcpu=cpu
Set architecture type, register usage, and instruction scheduling parameters for
cpu. There are also shortcut alias options available for backward compatibility
and convenience. Supported values for cpu are
‘arc600’ Compile for ARC600. Aliases: -mA6, -mARC600.
‘arc601’ Compile for ARC601. Alias: -mARC601.
‘arc700’ Compile for ARC700. Aliases: -mA7, -mARC700. This is the default
when configured with --with-cpu=arc700.
‘arcem’ Compile for ARC EM.
‘archs’ Compile for ARC HS.
‘em’ Compile for ARC EM CPU with no hardware extensions.
‘em4’ Compile for ARC EM4 CPU.
‘em4_dmips’
Compile for ARC EM4 DMIPS CPU.
‘em4_fpus’
Compile for ARC EM4 DMIPS CPU with the single-precision
floating-point extension.
‘em4_fpuda’
Compile for ARC EM4 DMIPS CPU with single-precision floating-
point and double assist instructions.
‘hs’ Compile for ARC HS CPU with no hardware extensions except the
atomic instructions.
‘hs34’ Compile for ARC HS34 CPU.
‘hs38’ Compile for ARC HS38 CPU.
‘hs38_linux’
Compile for ARC HS38 CPU with all hardware extensions on.
‘hs4x’ Compile for ARC HS4x CPU.
‘hs4xd’ Compile for ARC HS4xD CPU.
‘hs4x_rel31’
Compile for ARC HS4x CPU release 3.10a.
‘arc600_norm’
Compile for ARC 600 CPU with norm instructions enabled.
‘arc600_mul32x16’
Compile for ARC 600 CPU with norm and 32x16-bit multiply in-
structions enabled.
‘arc600_mul64’
Compile for ARC 600 CPU with norm and mul64-family instruc-
tions enabled.
344 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘arc601_norm’
Compile for ARC 601 CPU with norm instructions enabled.
‘arc601_mul32x16’
Compile for ARC 601 CPU with norm and 32x16-bit multiply in-
structions enabled.
‘arc601_mul64’
Compile for ARC 601 CPU with norm and mul64-family instruc-
tions enabled.
‘nps400’ Compile for ARC 700 on NPS400 chip.
‘em_mini’ Compile for ARC EM minimalist configuration featuring reduced
register set.
-mdpfp
-mdpfp-compact
Generate double-precision FPX instructions, tuned for the compact implemen-
tation.
-mdpfp-fast
Generate double-precision FPX instructions, tuned for the fast implementation.
-mno-dpfp-lrsr
Disable lr and sr instructions from using FPX extension aux registers.
-mea Generate extended arithmetic instructions. Currently only divaw, adds, subs,
and sat16 are supported. Only valid for -mcpu=ARC700.
-mno-mpy Do not generate mpy-family instructions for ARC700. This option is deprecated.
-mmul32x16
Generate 32x16-bit multiply and multiply-accumulate instructions.
-mmul64 Generate mul64 and mulu64 instructions. Only valid for -mcpu=ARC600.
-mnorm Generate norm instructions. This is the default if -mcpu=ARC700 is in effect.
-mspfp
-mspfp-compact
Generate single-precision FPX instructions, tuned for the compact implemen-
tation.
-mspfp-fast
Generate single-precision FPX instructions, tuned for the fast implementation.
-msimd Enable generation of ARC SIMD instructions via target-specific builtins. Only
valid for -mcpu=ARC700.
-msoft-float
This option ignored; it is provided for compatibility purposes only. Software
floating-point code is emitted by default, and this default can overridden by
FPX options; -mspfp, -mspfp-compact, or -mspfp-fast for single precision,
and -mdpfp, -mdpfp-compact, or -mdpfp-fast for double precision.
-mswap Generate swap instructions.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 345
-matomic This enables use of the locked load/store conditional extension to implement
atomic memory built-in functions. Not available for ARC 6xx or ARC EM
cores.
-mdiv-rem
Enable div and rem instructions for ARCv2 cores.
-mcode-density
Enable code density instructions for ARC EM. This option is on by default for
ARC HS.
-mll64 Enable double load/store operations for ARC HS cores.
-mtp-regno=regno
Specify thread pointer register number.
-mmpy-option=multo
Compile ARCv2 code with a multiplier design option. You can specify the
option using either a string or numeric value for multo. ‘wlh1’ is the default
value. The recognized values are:
‘0’
‘none’ No multiplier available.
‘1’
‘w’ 16x16 multiplier, fully pipelined. The following instructions are
enabled: mpyw and mpyuw.
‘2’
‘wlh1’ 32x32 multiplier, fully pipelined (1 stage). The following instruc-
tions are additionally enabled: mpy, mpyu, mpym, mpymu, and mpy_s.
‘3’
‘wlh2’ 32x32 multiplier, fully pipelined (2 stages). The following instruc-
tions are additionally enabled: mpy, mpyu, mpym, mpymu, and mpy_s.
‘4’
‘wlh3’ Two 16x16 multipliers, blocking, sequential. The following instruc-
tions are additionally enabled: mpy, mpyu, mpym, mpymu, and mpy_s.
‘5’
‘wlh4’ One 16x16 multiplier, blocking, sequential. The following instruc-
tions are additionally enabled: mpy, mpyu, mpym, mpymu, and mpy_s.
‘6’
‘wlh5’ One 32x4 multiplier, blocking, sequential. The following instruc-
tions are additionally enabled: mpy, mpyu, mpym, mpymu, and mpy_s.
‘7’
‘plus_dmpy’
ARC HS SIMD support.
‘8’
‘plus_macd’
ARC HS SIMD support.
346 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘9’
‘plus_qmacw’
ARC HS SIMD support.
This option is only available for ARCv2 cores.
-mfpu=fpu
Enables support for specific floating-point hardware extensions for ARCv2
cores. Supported values for fpu are:
‘fpus’ Enables support for single-precision floating-point hardware exten-
sions.
‘fpud’ Enables support for double-precision floating-point hardware exten-
sions. The single-precision floating-point extension is also enabled.
Not available for ARC EM.
‘fpuda’ Enables support for double-precision floating-point hardware
extensions using double-precision assist instructions. The
single-precision floating-point extension is also enabled. This
option is only available for ARC EM.
‘fpuda_div’
Enables support for double-precision floating-point hardware
extensions using double-precision assist instructions. The
single-precision floating-point, square-root, and divide extensions
are also enabled. This option is only available for ARC EM.
‘fpuda_fma’
Enables support for double-precision floating-point hardware
extensions using double-precision assist instructions. The
single-precision floating-point and fused multiply and add
hardware extensions are also enabled. This option is only available
for ARC EM.
‘fpuda_all’
Enables support for double-precision floating-point hardware exten-
sions using double-precision assist instructions. All single-precision
floating-point hardware extensions are also enabled. This option is
only available for ARC EM.
‘fpus_div’
Enables support for single-precision floating-point, square-root and
divide hardware extensions.
‘fpud_div’
Enables support for double-precision floating-point, square-root
and divide hardware extensions. This option includes option
‘fpus_div’. Not available for ARC EM.
‘fpus_fma’
Enables support for single-precision floating-point and fused mul-
tiply and add hardware extensions.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 347
‘fpud_fma’
Enables support for double-precision floating-point and fused mul-
tiply and add hardware extensions. This option includes option
‘fpus_fma’. Not available for ARC EM.
‘fpus_all’
Enables support for all single-precision floating-point hardware ex-
tensions.
‘fpud_all’
Enables support for all single- and double-precision floating-point
hardware extensions. Not available for ARC EM.
-mirq-ctrl-saved=register-range, blink, lp_count
Specifies general-purposes registers that the processor automatically
saves/restores on interrupt entry and exit. register-range is specified as two
registers separated by a dash. The register range always starts with r0, the
upper limit is fp register. blink and lp count are optional. This option is only
valid for ARC EM and ARC HS cores.
-mrgf-banked-regs=number
Specifies the number of registers replicated in second register bank on entry
to fast interrupt. Fast interrupts are interrupts with the highest priority level
P0. These interrupts save only PC and STATUS32 registers to avoid memory
transactions during interrupt entry and exit sequences. Use this option when
you are using fast interrupts in an ARC V2 family processor. Permitted values
are 4, 8, 16, and 32.
-mlpc-width=width
Specify the width of the lp_count register. Valid values for width are 8, 16, 20,
24, 28 and 32 bits. The default width is fixed to 32 bits. If the width is less than
32, the compiler does not attempt to transform loops in your program to use
the zero-delay loop mechanism unless it is known that the lp_count register
can hold the required loop-counter value. Depending on the width specified,
the compiler and run-time library might continue to use the loop mechanism for
various needs. This option defines macro __ARC_LPC_WIDTH__ with the value
of width.
-mrf16 This option instructs the compiler to generate code for a 16-entry register file.
This option defines the __ARC_RF16__ preprocessor macro.
-mbranch-index
Enable use of bi or bih instructions to implement jump tables.
The following options are passed through to the assembler, and also define preprocessor
macro symbols.
-mdsp-packa
Passed down to the assembler to enable the DSP Pack A extensions. Also sets
the preprocessor symbol __Xdsp_packa. This option is deprecated.
-mdvbf Passed down to the assembler to enable the dual Viterbi butterfly extension.
Also sets the preprocessor symbol __Xdvbf. This option is deprecated.
348 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mlock Passed down to the assembler to enable the locked load/store conditional ex-
tension. Also sets the preprocessor symbol __Xlock.
-mmac-d16
Passed down to the assembler. Also sets the preprocessor symbol __Xxmac_d16.
This option is deprecated.
-mmac-24 Passed down to the assembler. Also sets the preprocessor symbol __Xxmac_24.
This option is deprecated.
-mrtsc Passed down to the assembler to enable the 64-bit time-stamp counter exten-
sion instruction. Also sets the preprocessor symbol __Xrtsc. This option is
deprecated.
-mswape Passed down to the assembler to enable the swap byte ordering extension in-
struction. Also sets the preprocessor symbol __Xswape.
-mtelephony
Passed down to the assembler to enable dual- and single-operand instructions
for telephony. Also sets the preprocessor symbol __Xtelephony. This option is
deprecated.
-mxy Passed down to the assembler to enable the XY memory extension. Also sets
the preprocessor symbol __Xxy.
The following options control how the assembly code is annotated:
-misize Annotate assembler instructions with estimated addresses.
-mannotate-align
Does nothing. Preserved for backward compatibility.
The following options are passed through to the linker:
-marclinux
Passed through to the linker, to specify use of the arclinux emulation. This
option is enabled by default in tool chains built for arc-linux-uclibc and
arceb-linux-uclibc targets when profiling is not requested.
-marclinux_prof
Passed through to the linker, to specify use of the arclinux_prof emulation.
This option is enabled by default in tool chains built for arc-linux-uclibc
and arceb-linux-uclibc targets when profiling is requested.
The following options control the semantics of generated code:
-mlong-calls
Generate calls as register indirect calls, thus providing access to the full 32-bit
address range.
-mmedium-calls
Don’t use less than 25-bit addressing range for calls, which is the offset avail-
able for an unconditional branch-and-link instruction. Conditional execution
of function calls is suppressed, to allow use of the 25-bit range, rather than
the 21-bit range with conditional branch-and-link. This is the default for tool
chains built for arc-linux-uclibc and arceb-linux-uclibc targets.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 349
-G num Put definitions of externally-visible data in a small data section if that data
is no bigger than num bytes. The default value of num is 4 for any ARC
configuration, or 8 when we have double load/store operations.
-mno-sdata
Do not generate sdata references. This is the default for tool chains built for
arc-linux-uclibc and arceb-linux-uclibc targets.
-mvolatile-cache
Use ordinarily cached memory accesses for volatile references. This is the de-
fault.
-mno-volatile-cache
Enable cache bypass for volatile references.
The following options fine tune code generation:
-malign-call
Does nothing. Preserved for backward compatibility.
-mauto-modify-reg
Enable the use of pre/post modify with register displacement.
-mbbit-peephole
Does nothing. Preserved for backward compatibility.
-mno-brcc
This option disables a target-specific pass in arc_reorg to generate compare-
and-branch (brcc) instructions. It has no effect on generation of these instruc-
tions driven by the combiner pass.
-mcase-vector-pcrel
Use PC-relative switch case tables to enable case table shortening. This is the
default for -Os.
-mcompact-casesi
Enable compact casesi pattern. This is the default for -Os, and only available
for ARCv1 cores. This option is deprecated.
-mno-cond-exec
Disable the ARCompact-specific pass to generate conditional execution instruc-
tions.
Due to delay slot scheduling and interactions between operand numbers, literal
sizes, instruction lengths, and the support for conditional execution, the target-
independent pass to generate conditional execution is often lacking, so the ARC
port has kept a special pass around that tries to find more conditional execution
generation opportunities after register allocation, branch shortening, and delay
slot scheduling have been done. This pass generally, but not always, improves
performance and code size, at the cost of extra compilation time, which is why
there is an option to switch it off. If you have a problem with call instructions
exceeding their allowable offset range because they are conditionalized, you
should consider using -mmedium-calls instead.
350 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mearly-cbranchsi
Enable pre-reload use of the cbranchsi pattern.
-mexpand-adddi
Expand adddi3 and subdi3 at RTL generation time into add.f, adc etc. This
option is deprecated.
-mindexed-loads
Enable the use of indexed loads. This can be problematic because some opti-
mizers then assume that indexed stores exist, which is not the case.
-mlra Does nothing. Preserved for backward compatibility.
-mlra-priority-none
Don’t indicate any priority for target registers.
-mlra-priority-compact
Indicate target register priority for r0..r3 / r12..r15.
-mlra-priority-noncompact
Reduce target register priority for r0..r3 / r12..r15.
-mmillicode
When optimizing for size (using -Os), prologues and epilogues that have to
save or restore a large number of registers are often shortened by using call
to a special function in libgcc; this is referred to as a millicode call. As these
calls can pose performance issues, and/or cause linking issues when linking
in a nonstandard way, this option is provided to turn on or off millicode call
generation.
-mcode-density-frame
This option enable the compiler to emit enter and leave instructions. These
instructions are only valid for CPUs with code-density feature.
-mmixed-code
Does nothing. Preserved for backward compatibility.
-mq-class
Ths option is deprecated. Enable ‘q’ instruction alternatives. This is the default
for -Os.
-mRcq Does nothing. Preserved for backward compatibility.
-mRcw Does nothing. Preserved for backward compatibility.
-msize-level=level
Fine-tune size optimization with regards to instruction lengths and alignment.
The recognized values for level are:
‘0’ No size optimization. This level is deprecated and treated like ‘1’.
‘1’ Short instructions are used opportunistically.
‘2’ In addition, alignment of loops and of code after barriers are
dropped.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 351
-mdpfp_compact
Replaced by -mdpfp-compact.
-mdpfp_fast
Replaced by -mdpfp-fast.
-mdsp_packa
Replaced by -mdsp-packa.
-mEA Replaced by -mea.
-mmac_24 Replaced by -mmac-24.
-mmac_d16
Replaced by -mmac-d16.
-mspfp_compact
Replaced by -mspfp-compact.
-mspfp_fast
Replaced by -mspfp-fast.
-mtune=cpu
Values ‘arc600’, ‘arc601’, ‘arc700’ and ‘arc700-xmac’ for cpu are replaced by
‘ARC600’, ‘ARC601’, ‘ARC700’ and ‘ARC700-xmac’ respectively.
-multcost=num
Replaced by -mmultcost.
that all functions start with a recognizable set of instructions (or in fact one of
a choice from a small set of different function prologues), and this information
can be used to locate the start of functions inside an executable piece of code.
The default is -msched-prolog.
-mfloat-abi=name
Specifies which floating-point ABI to use. Permissible values are: ‘soft’,
‘softfp’ and ‘hard’.
Specifying ‘soft’ causes GCC to generate output containing library calls for
floating-point operations. ‘softfp’ allows the generation of code using hard-
ware floating-point instructions, but still uses the soft-float calling conventions.
‘hard’ allows generation of floating-point instructions and uses FPU-specific
calling conventions.
The default depends on the specific target configuration. Note that the hard-
float and soft-float ABIs are not link-compatible; you must compile your entire
program with the same ABI, and link with a compatible set of libraries.
-mgeneral-regs-only
Generate code which uses only the general-purpose registers. This will prevent
the compiler from using floating-point and Advanced SIMD registers but will
not impose any restrictions on the assembler.
-mlittle-endian
Generate code for a processor running in little-endian mode. This is the default
for all standard configurations.
-mbig-endian
Generate code for a processor running in big-endian mode; the default is to
compile code for a little-endian processor.
-mbe8
-mbe32 When linking a big-endian image select between BE8 and BE32 formats. The
option has no effect for little-endian images and is ignored. The default is de-
pendent on the selected target architecture. For ARMv6 and later architectures
the default is BE8, for older architectures the default is BE32. BE32 format
has been deprecated by ARM.
-march=name[+extension...]
This specifies the name of the target ARM architecture. GCC uses this name
to determine what kind of instructions it can emit when generating assembly
code. This option can be used in conjunction with or instead of the -mcpu=
option.
Permissible names are: ‘armv4t’, ‘armv5t’, ‘armv5te’, ‘armv6’, ‘armv6j’,
‘armv6k’, ‘armv6kz’, ‘armv6t2’, ‘armv6z’, ‘armv6zk’, ‘armv7’, ‘armv7-a’,
‘armv7ve’, ‘armv8-a’, ‘armv8.1-a’, ‘armv8.2-a’, ‘armv8.3-a’, ‘armv8.4-a’,
‘armv8.5-a’, ‘armv8.6-a’, ‘armv9-a’, ‘armv7-r’, ‘armv8-r’, ‘armv6-m’,
‘armv6s-m’, ‘armv7-m’, ‘armv7e-m’, ‘armv8-m.base’, ‘armv8-m.main’,
‘armv8.1-m.main’, ‘iwmmxt’ and ‘iwmmxt2’.
Additionally, the following architectures, which lack support for the Thumb
execution state, are recognized but support is deprecated: ‘armv4’.
354 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘+vfpv3-d16’
The VFPv3 floating-point instructions, with 16 double-
precision registers.
‘+vfpv3’ The VFPv3 floating-point instructions, with 32 double-
precision registers.
‘+vfpv3-d16-fp16’
The VFPv3 floating-point instructions, with 16 double-
precision registers and the half-precision floating-point
conversion operations.
‘+vfpv3-fp16’
The VFPv3 floating-point instructions, with 32 double-
precision registers and the half-precision floating-point
conversion operations.
‘+vfpv4-d16’
The VFPv4 floating-point instructions, with 16 double-
precision registers.
‘+vfpv4’ The VFPv4 floating-point instructions, with 32 double-
precision registers.
‘+neon’ The Advanced SIMD (Neon) v1 and the VFPv3
floating-point instructions. The extension
‘+neon-vfpv3’ can be used as an alias for this
extension.
‘+neon-fp16’
The Advanced SIMD (Neon) v1 and the VFPv3
floating-point instructions, with the half-precision
floating-point conversion operations.
‘+nosimd’ Disable the Advanced SIMD instructions (does not dis-
able floating point).
‘+nofp’ Disable the floating-point and Advanced SIMD instruc-
tions.
‘armv8-a’
‘+crc’ The Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) instructions.
‘+simd’ The ARMv8-A Advanced SIMD and floating-point in-
structions.
‘+crypto’ The cryptographic instructions.
‘+nocrypto’
Disable the cryptographic instructions.
‘+nofp’ Disable the floating-point, Advanced SIMD and cryp-
tographic instructions.
‘+sb’ Speculation Barrier Instruction.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 357
‘+predres’
Execution and Data Prediction Restriction
Instructions.
‘armv8.1-a’
‘+simd’ The ARMv8.1-A Advanced SIMD and floating-point
instructions.
‘+crypto’ The cryptographic instructions. This also enables the
Advanced SIMD and floating-point instructions.
‘+nocrypto’
Disable the cryptographic instructions.
‘+nofp’ Disable the floating-point, Advanced SIMD and cryp-
tographic instructions.
‘+sb’ Speculation Barrier Instruction.
‘+predres’
Execution and Data Prediction Restriction
Instructions.
‘armv8.2-a’
‘armv8.3-a’
‘+fp16’ The half-precision floating-point data processing
instructions. This also enables the Advanced SIMD
and floating-point instructions.
‘+fp16fml’
The half-precision floating-point fmla extension. This
also enables the half-precision floating-point extension
and Advanced SIMD and floating-point instructions.
‘+simd’ The ARMv8.1-A Advanced SIMD and floating-point
instructions.
‘+crypto’ The cryptographic instructions. This also enables the
Advanced SIMD and floating-point instructions.
‘+dotprod’
Enable the Dot Product extension. This also enables
Advanced SIMD instructions.
‘+nocrypto’
Disable the cryptographic extension.
‘+nofp’ Disable the floating-point, Advanced SIMD and cryp-
tographic instructions.
‘+sb’ Speculation Barrier Instruction.
‘+predres’
Execution and Data Prediction Restriction
Instructions.
358 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘+nocrypto’
Disable the cryptographic extension.
‘+nofp’ Disable the floating-point, Advanced SIMD and cryp-
tographic instructions.
‘+i8mm’ 8-bit Integer Matrix Multiply instructions. This
also enables Advanced SIMD and floating-point
instructions.
‘+bf16’ Brain half-precision floating-point instructions. This
also enables Advanced SIMD and floating-point
instructions.
‘armv8.6-a’
‘+fp16’ The half-precision floating-point data processing
instructions. This also enables the Advanced SIMD
and floating-point instructions as well as the Dot
Product extension and the half-precision floating-point
fmla extension.
‘+simd’ The ARMv8.3-A Advanced SIMD and floating-point
instructions as well as the Dot Product extension.
‘+crypto’ The cryptographic instructions. This also enables the
Advanced SIMD and floating-point instructions as well
as the Dot Product extension.
‘+nocrypto’
Disable the cryptographic extension.
‘+nofp’ Disable the floating-point, Advanced SIMD and cryp-
tographic instructions.
‘+i8mm’ 8-bit Integer Matrix Multiply instructions. This
also enables Advanced SIMD and floating-point
instructions.
‘+bf16’ Brain half-precision floating-point instructions. This
also enables Advanced SIMD and floating-point
instructions.
‘armv7-r’
‘+fp.sp’ The single-precision VFPv3 floating-point instructions.
The extension ‘+vfpv3xd’ can be used as an alias for
this extension.
‘+fp’ The VFPv3 floating-point instructions with 16 double-
precision registers. The extension +vfpv3-d16 can be
used as an alias for this extension.
‘+vfpv3xd-d16-fp16’
The single-precision VFPv3 floating-point instruc-
tions with 16 double-precision registers and the
half-precision floating-point conversion operations.
360 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘+vfpv3-d16-fp16’
The VFPv3 floating-point instructions with 16 double-
precision registers and the half-precision floating-point
conversion operations.
‘+nofp’ Disable the floating-point extension.
‘+idiv’ The ARM-state integer division instructions.
‘+noidiv’ Disable the ARM-state integer division extension.
‘armv7e-m’
‘+fp’ The single-precision VFPv4 floating-point instructions.
‘+fpv5’ The single-precision FPv5 floating-point instructions.
‘+fp.dp’ The single- and double-precision FPv5 floating-point
instructions.
‘+nofp’ Disable the floating-point extensions.
‘armv8.1-m.main’
‘+dsp’ The DSP instructions.
‘+mve’ The M-Profile Vector Extension (MVE) integer instruc-
tions.
‘+mve.fp’ The M-Profile Vector Extension (MVE) integer and
single precision floating-point instructions.
‘+fp’ The single-precision floating-point instructions.
‘+fp.dp’ The single- and double-precision floating-point instruc-
tions.
‘+nofp’ Disable the floating-point extension.
‘+cdecp0, +cdecp1, ... , +cdecp7’
Enable the Custom Datapath Extension (CDE) on se-
lected coprocessors according to the numbers given in
the options in the range 0 to 7.
‘+pacbti’ Enable the Pointer Authentication and Branch Target
Identification Extension.
‘armv8-m.main’
‘+dsp’ The DSP instructions.
‘+nodsp’ Disable the DSP extension.
‘+fp’ The single-precision floating-point instructions.
‘+fp.dp’ The single- and double-precision floating-point instruc-
tions.
‘+nofp’ Disable the floating-point extension.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 361
Code compiled with one value cannot necessarily expect to work with code
or libraries compiled with another value, if they exchange information using
structures or unions.
This option is deprecated.
-mabort-on-noreturn
Generate a call to the function abort at the end of a noreturn function. It is
executed if the function tries to return.
-mlong-calls
-mno-long-calls
Tells the compiler to perform function calls by first loading the address of the
function into a register and then performing a subroutine call on this register.
This switch is needed if the target function lies outside of the 64-megabyte
addressing range of the offset-based version of subroutine call instruction.
Even if this switch is enabled, not all function calls are turned into long calls.
The heuristic is that static functions, functions that have the short_call at-
tribute, functions that are inside the scope of a #pragma no_long_calls di-
rective, and functions whose definitions have already been compiled within the
current compilation unit are not turned into long calls. The exceptions to this
rule are that weak function definitions, functions with the long_call attribute
or the section attribute, and functions that are within the scope of a #pragma
long_calls directive are always turned into long calls.
This feature is not enabled by default. Specifying -mno-long-calls restores
the default behavior, as does placing the function calls within the scope of a
#pragma long_calls_off directive. Note these switches have no effect on how
the compiler generates code to handle function calls via function pointers.
-msingle-pic-base
Treat the register used for PIC addressing as read-only, rather than loading
it in the prologue for each function. The runtime system is responsible for
initializing this register with an appropriate value before execution begins.
-mpic-register=reg
Specify the register to be used for PIC addressing. For standard PIC base case,
the default is any suitable register determined by compiler. For single PIC base
case, the default is ‘R9’ if target is EABI based or stack-checking is enabled,
otherwise the default is ‘R10’.
-mpic-data-is-text-relative
Assume that the displacement between the text and data segments is fixed at
static link time. This permits using PC-relative addressing operations to access
data known to be in the data segment. For non-VxWorks RTP targets, this
option is enabled by default. When disabled on such targets, it will enable
-msingle-pic-base by default.
-mpoke-function-name
Write the name of each function into the text section, directly preceding the
function prologue. The generated code is similar to this:
t0
366 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
.ascii "arm_poke_function_name", 0
.align
t1
.word 0xff000000 + (t1 - t0)
arm_poke_function_name
mov ip, sp
stmfd sp!, {fp, ip, lr, pc}
sub fp, ip, #4
When performing a stack backtrace, code can inspect the value of pc stored at
fp + 0. If the trace function then looks at location pc - 12 and the top 8 bits
are set, then we know that there is a function name embedded immediately
preceding this location and has length ((pc[-3]) & 0xff000000).
-mthumb
-marm
Select between generating code that executes in ARM and Thumb states. The
default for most configurations is to generate code that executes in ARM
state, but the default can be changed by configuring GCC with the --with-
mode=state configure option.
You can also override the ARM and Thumb mode for each function by using the
target("thumb") and target("arm") function attributes (see Section 6.35.5
[ARM Function Attributes], page 639) or pragmas (see Section 6.67.15 [Function
Specific Option Pragmas], page 1010).
-mflip-thumb
Switch ARM/Thumb modes on alternating functions. This option is provided
for regression testing of mixed Thumb/ARM code generation, and is not in-
tended for ordinary use in compiling code.
-mtpcs-frame
Generate a stack frame that is compliant with the Thumb Procedure Call Stan-
dard for all non-leaf functions. (A leaf function is one that does not call any
other functions.) The default is -mno-tpcs-frame.
-mtpcs-leaf-frame
Generate a stack frame that is compliant with the Thumb Procedure Call Stan-
dard for all leaf functions. (A leaf function is one that does not call any other
functions.) The default is -mno-apcs-leaf-frame.
-mcallee-super-interworking
Gives all externally visible functions in the file being compiled an ARM in-
struction set header which switches to Thumb mode before executing the rest
of the function. This allows these functions to be called from non-interworking
code. This option is not valid in AAPCS configurations because interworking
is enabled by default.
-mcaller-super-interworking
Allows calls via function pointers (including virtual functions) to execute cor-
rectly regardless of whether the target code has been compiled for interworking
or not. There is a small overhead in the cost of executing a function pointer
if this option is enabled. This option is not valid in AAPCS configurations
because interworking is enabled by default.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 367
-mtp=name
Specify the access model for the thread local storage pointer. The model ‘soft’
generates calls to __aeabi_read_tp. Other accepted models are ‘tpidrurw’,
‘tpidruro’ and ‘tpidrprw’ which fetch the thread pointer from the correspond-
ing system register directly (supported from the arm6k architecture and later).
These system registers are accessed through the CP15 co-processor interface
and the argument ‘cp15’ is also accepted as a convenience alias of ‘tpidruro’.
The argument ‘auto’ uses the best available method for the selected processor.
The default setting is ‘auto’.
-mtls-dialect=dialect
Specify the dialect to use for accessing thread local storage. Two dialects are
supported—‘gnu’ and ‘gnu2’. The ‘gnu’ dialect selects the original GNU scheme
for supporting local and global dynamic TLS models. The ‘gnu2’ dialect selects
the GNU descriptor scheme, which provides better performance for shared li-
braries. The GNU descriptor scheme is compatible with the original scheme,
but does require new assembler, linker and library support. Initial and local
exec TLS models are unaffected by this option and always use the original
scheme.
-mword-relocations
Only generate absolute relocations on word-sized values (i.e. R ARM ABS32).
This is enabled by default on targets (uClinux, SymbianOS) where the runtime
loader imposes this restriction, and when -fpic or -fPIC is specified. This
option conflicts with -mslow-flash-data.
-mfix-cortex-m3-ldrd
Some Cortex-M3 cores can cause data corruption when ldrd instructions with
overlapping destination and base registers are used. This option avoids generat-
ing these instructions. This option is enabled by default when -mcpu=cortex-
m3 is specified.
-mfix-cortex-a57-aes-1742098
-mno-fix-cortex-a57-aes-1742098
-mfix-cortex-a72-aes-1655431
-mno-fix-cortex-a72-aes-1655431
Enable (disable) mitigation for an erratum on Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A72 that
affects the AES cryptographic instructions. This option is enabled by default
when either -mcpu=cortex-a57 or -mcpu=cortex-a72 is specified.
-munaligned-access
-mno-unaligned-access
Enables (or disables) reading and writing of 16- and 32- bit values from ad-
dresses that are not 16- or 32- bit aligned. By default unaligned access is
disabled for all pre-ARMv6, all ARMv6-M and for ARMv8-M Baseline archi-
tectures, and enabled for all other architectures. If unaligned access is not
enabled then words in packed data structures are accessed a byte at a time.
The ARM attribute Tag_CPU_unaligned_access is set in the generated object
file to either true or false, depending upon the setting of this option. If unaligned
368 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-maccumulate-args
Accumulate outgoing function arguments and acquire/release the needed stack
space for outgoing function arguments once in function prologue/epilogue.
Without this option, outgoing arguments are pushed before calling a function
and popped afterwards.
Popping the arguments after the function call can be expensive on AVR so
that accumulating the stack space might lead to smaller executables because
arguments need not be removed from the stack after such a function call.
This option can lead to reduced code size for functions that perform several
calls to functions that get their arguments on the stack like calls to printf-like
functions.
-mbranch-cost=cost
Set the branch costs for conditional branch instructions to cost. Reasonable
values for cost are small, non-negative integers. The default branch cost is 0.
-mcall-prologues
Functions prologues/epilogues are expanded as calls to appropriate subroutines.
Code size is smaller.
-mfuse-add
-mno-fuse-add
-mfuse-add=level
Optimize indirect memory accesses on reduced Tiny devices. The default uses
level=1 for optimizations -Og and -O1, and level=2 for higher optimizations.
Valid values for level are 0, 1 and 2.
-mfuse-move
-mno-fuse-move
-mfuse-move=level
Run a post reload optimization pass that tries to fuse move instructions and
to split multi-byte instructions into 8-bit operations. The default uses level=3
for optimization -O1, and level=23 for higher optimizations. Valid values for
level are in the range 0 . . . 23 which is a 3:2:2:2 mixed radix value. Each digit
controls some aspect of the optimization.
-mdouble=bits
-mlong-double=bits
Set the size (in bits) of the double or long double type, respectively.
Possible values for bits are 32 and 64. Whether or not a specific value for
bits is allowed depends on the --with-double= and --with-long-double=
configure options (https://gcc.gnu.org/install/configure.html#avr),
and the same applies for the default values of the options.
-mgas-isr-prologues
Interrupt service routines (ISRs) may use the __gcc_isr pseudo instruction
supported by GNU Binutils. If this option is on, the feature can still be dis-
abled for individual ISRs by means of the Section 6.35.6 [no_gccisr], page 641,
function attribute. This feature is activated per default if optimization is on
374 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
(but not with -Og, see Section 3.12 [Optimize Options], page 185), and if GNU
Binutils support PR21683 (https://sourceware.org/PR21683).
-mint8 Assume int to be 8-bit integer. This affects the sizes of all types: a char is 1
byte, an int is 1 byte, a long is 2 bytes, and long long is 4 bytes. Please note
that this option does not conform to the C standards, but it results in smaller
code size.
-mmain-is-OS_task
Do not save registers in main. The effect is the same like attaching attribute
Section 6.35.6 [OS_task], page 641, to main. It is activated per default if opti-
mization is on.
-mno-interrupts
Generated code is not compatible with hardware interrupts. Code size is
smaller.
-mrelax Try to replace CALL resp. JMP instruction by the shorter RCALL resp. RJMP in-
struction if applicable. Setting -mrelax just adds the --mlink-relax option to
the assembler’s command line and the --relax option to the linker’s command
line.
Jump relaxing is performed by the linker because jump offsets are not known
before code is located. Therefore, the assembler code generated by the compiler
is the same, but the instructions in the executable may differ from instructions
in the assembler code.
Relaxing must be turned on if linker stubs are needed, see the section on EIND
and linker stubs below.
-mrodata-in-ram
-mno-rodata-in-ram
Locate the .rodata sections for read-only data in RAM resp. in program mem-
ory. For most devices, there is no choice and this option acts rather like an
assertion.
Since v14 and for the AVR64* and AVR128* devices, .rodata is located
in flash memory per default, provided the required GNU Binutils support
(PR31124 (https://sourceware.org/PR31124)) is available. In that case,
-mrodata-in-ram can be used to return to the old layout with .rodata in
RAM.
-mstrict-X
Use address register X in a way proposed by the hardware. This means that X
is only used in indirect, post-increment or pre-decrement addressing.
Without this option, the X register may be used in the same way as Y or Z which
then is emulated by additional instructions. For example, loading a value with
X+const addressing with a small non-negative const < 64 to a register Rn is
performed as
adiw r26, const ; X += const
ld Rn, X ; Rn = *X
sbiw r26, const ; X -= const
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 375
-msplit-bit-shift
Split multi-byte shifts with a constant offset into a shift with a byte offset and a
residual shift with a non-byte offset. This optimization is turned on per default
for -O2 and higher, including -Os but excluding -Oz. Splitting of shifts with a
constant offset that is a multiple of 8 is controlled by -mfuse-move.
-msplit-ldst
Split multi-byte loads and stores into several byte loads and stores. This opti-
mization is turned on per default for -O2 and higher.
-mtiny-stack
Only change the lower 8 bits of the stack pointer.
-mfract-convert-truncate
Allow to use truncation instead of rounding towards zero for fractional fixed-
point types.
-nodevicelib
Don’t link against AVR-LibC’s device specific library lib<mcu>.a.
-nodevicespecs
Don’t add -specs=device-specs/specs-mcu to the compiler driver’s com-
mand line. The user takes responsibility for supplying the sub-processes like
compiler proper, assembler and linker with appropriate command line options.
This means that the user has to supply her private device specs file by means
of -specs=path-to-specs-file. There is no more need for option -mmcu=mcu.
This option can also serve as a replacement for the older way of specifying
custom device-specs files that needed -B some-path to point to a directory
which contains a folder named device-specs which contains a specs file named
specs-mcu, where mcu was specified by -mmcu=mcu.
-Waddr-space-convert
Warn about conversions between address spaces in the case where the resulting
address space is not contained in the incoming address space.
-Wmisspelled-isr
Warn if the ISR is misspelled, i.e. without vector prefix. Enabled by default.
3.20.6.1 EIND and Devices with More Than 128 Ki Bytes of Flash
Pointers in the implementation are 16 bits wide. The address of a function or label is
represented as word address so that indirect jumps and calls can target any code address
in the range of 64 Ki words.
In order to facilitate indirect jump on devices with more than 128 Ki bytes of program
memory space, there is a special function register called EIND that serves as most significant
part of the target address when EICALL or EIJMP instructions are used.
Indirect jumps and calls on these devices are handled as follows by the compiler and are
subject to some limitations:
• The compiler never sets EIND.
• The compiler uses EIND implicitly in EICALL/EIJMP instructions or might read EIND
directly in order to emulate an indirect call/jump by means of a RET instruction.
376 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
• The compiler assumes that EIND never changes during the startup code or during the
application. In particular, EIND is not saved/restored in function or interrupt service
routine prologue/epilogue.
• For indirect calls to functions and computed goto, the linker generates stubs. Stubs are
jump pads sometimes also called trampolines. Thus, the indirect call/jump jumps to
such a stub. The stub contains a direct jump to the desired address.
• Linker relaxation must be turned on so that the linker generates the stubs correctly in
all situations. See the compiler option -mrelax and the linker option --relax. There
are corner cases where the linker is supposed to generate stubs but aborts without
relaxation and without a helpful error message.
• The default linker script is arranged for code with EIND = 0. If code is supposed to
work for a setup with EIND != 0, a custom linker script has to be used in order to place
the sections whose name start with .trampolines into the segment where EIND points
to.
• The startup code from libgcc never sets EIND. Notice that startup code is a blend
of code from libgcc and AVR-LibC. For the impact of AVR-LibC on EIND, see the
AVR-LibC user manual (https://avrdudes.github.io/avr-libc/avr-libc-user-manual/).
• It is legitimate for user-specific startup code to set up EIND early, for example by means
of initialization code located in section .init3. Such code runs prior to general startup
code that initializes RAM and calls constructors, but after the bit of startup code from
AVR-LibC that sets EIND to the segment where the vector table is located.
#include <avr/io.h>
static void
__attribute__((section(".init3"),naked,used,no_instrument_function))
init3_set_eind (void)
{
__asm volatile ("ldi r24,pm_hh8(__trampolines_start)\n\t"
"out %i0,r24" :: "n" (&EIND) : "r24","memory");
}
The __trampolines_start symbol is defined in the linker script.
• Stubs are generated automatically by the linker if the following two conditions are met:
− The address of a label is taken by means of the gs modifier (short for generate
stubs) like so:
LDI r24, lo8(gs(func))
LDI r25, hi8(gs(func))
− The final location of that label is in a code segment outside the segment where the
stubs are located.
• The compiler emits such gs modifiers for code labels in the following situations:
− Taking address of a function or code label.
− Computed goto.
− If prologue-save function is used, see -mcall-prologues command-line option.
− Switch/case dispatch tables. If you do not want such dispatch tables you can
specify the -fno-jump-tables command-line option.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 377
For even more AVR-specific built-in macros see [AVR Named Address Spaces], page 591,
and Section 6.65.9 [AVR Built-in Functions], page 831.
__AVR_ARCH__
Build-in macro that resolves to a decimal number that identifies the architecture
and depends on the -mmcu=mcu option. Possible values are:
2, 25, 3, 31, 35, 4, 5, 51, 6
for mcu=avr2, avr25, avr3, avr31, avr35, avr4, avr5, avr51, avr6,
respectively and
100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107
for mcu=avrtiny, avrxmega2, avrxmega3, avrxmega4, avrxmega5, avrxmega6,
avrxmega7, respectively. If mcu specifies a device, this built-in macro is set
accordingly. For example, with -mmcu=atmega8 the macro is defined to 4.
__AVR_Device__
Setting -mmcu=device defines this built-in macro which reflects the
device’s name. For example, -mmcu=atmega8 defines the built-in macro
__AVR_ATmega8__, -mmcu=attiny261a defines __AVR_ATtiny261A__, etc.
The built-in macros’ names follow the scheme __AVR_Device__ where Device is
the device name as from the AVR user manual. The difference between Device
in the built-in macro and device in -mmcu=device is that the latter is always
lowercase.
If device is not a device but only a core architecture like ‘avr51’, this macro is
not defined.
__AVR_DEVICE_NAME__
Setting -mmcu=device defines this built-in macro to the device’s name. For
example, with -mmcu=atmega8 the macro is defined to atmega8.
If device is not a device but only a core architecture like ‘avr51’, this macro is
not defined.
__AVR_XMEGA__
The device / architecture belongs to the XMEGA family of devices.
__AVR_HAVE_ADIW__
The device has the ADIW and SBIW instructions.
__AVR_HAVE_ELPM__
The device has the ELPM instruction.
__AVR_HAVE_ELPMX__
The device has the ELPM Rn,Z and ELPM Rn,Z+ instructions.
__AVR_HAVE_LPMX__
The device has the LPM Rn,Z and LPM Rn,Z+ instructions.
__AVR_HAVE_MOVW__
The device has the MOVW instruction to perform 16-bit register-register moves.
__AVR_HAVE_MUL__
The device has a hardware multiplier.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 379
__AVR_HAVE_JMP_CALL__
The device has the JMP and CALL instructions. This is the case for devices with
more than 8 KiB of program memory.
__AVR_HAVE_EIJMP_EICALL__
__AVR_3_BYTE_PC__
The device has the EIJMP and EICALL instructions. This is the case for devices
with more than 128 KiB of program memory. This also means that the program
counter (PC) is 3 bytes wide.
__AVR_2_BYTE_PC__
The program counter (PC) is 2 bytes wide. This is the case for devices with up
to 128 KiB of program memory.
__AVR_HAVE_8BIT_SP__
__AVR_HAVE_16BIT_SP__
The stack pointer (SP) register is treated as 8-bit respectively 16-bit register
by the compiler. The definition of these macros is affected by -mtiny-stack.
__AVR_HAVE_SPH__
__AVR_SP8__
The device has the SPH (high part of stack pointer) special function register
or has an 8-bit stack pointer, respectively. The definition of these macros is
affected by -mmcu= and in the cases of -mmcu=avr2 and -mmcu=avr25 also by
-msp8.
__AVR_HAVE_RAMPD__
__AVR_HAVE_RAMPX__
__AVR_HAVE_RAMPY__
__AVR_HAVE_RAMPZ__
The device has the RAMPD, RAMPX, RAMPY, RAMPZ special function register, re-
spectively.
__NO_INTERRUPTS__
This macro reflects the -mno-interrupts command-line option.
__AVR_ERRATA_SKIP__
__AVR_ERRATA_SKIP_JMP_CALL__
Some AVR devices (AT90S8515, ATmega103) must not skip 32-bit instructions
because of a hardware erratum. Skip instructions are SBRS, SBRC, SBIS, SBIC
and CPSE. The second macro is only defined if __AVR_HAVE_JMP_CALL__ is also
set.
__AVR_ISA_RMW__
The device has Read-Modify-Write instructions (XCH, LAC, LAS and LAT).
__AVR_SFR_OFFSET__=offset
Instructions that can address I/O special function registers directly like IN, OUT,
SBI, etc. may use a different address as if addressed by an instruction to access
RAM like LD or STS. This offset depends on the device architecture and has to
be subtracted from the RAM address in order to get the respective I/O address.
380 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
__AVR_SHORT_CALLS__
The -mshort-calls command line option is set.
__AVR_PM_BASE_ADDRESS__=addr
Some devices support reading from flash memory by means of LD* instructions.
The flash memory is seen in the data address space at an offset of __AVR_PM_
BASE_ADDRESS__. If this macro is not defined, this feature is not available. If
defined, the address space is linear and there is no need to put .rodata into
RAM. This is handled by the default linker description file, and is currently
available for avrtiny and avrxmega3. Even more convenient, there is no need
to use address spaces like __flash or features like attribute progmem and pgm_
read_*.
__AVR_HAVE_FLMAP__
This macro is defined provided the following conditions are met:
• The device has the NVMCTRL_CTRLB.FLMAP bitfield. This applies to the
AVR64* and AVR128* devices.
• It’s not known at assembler-time which emulation will be used.
This implies the compiler was configured with GNU Binutils that implement
PR31124 (https://sourceware.org/PR31124).
__AVR_RODATA_IN_RAM__
This macro is undefined when the code is compiled for a core architecture.
When the code is compiled for a device, the macro is defined to 1 when the
.rodata sections for read-only data is located in RAM; and defined to 0, oth-
erwise.
__WITH_AVRLIBC__
The compiler is configured to be used together with AVR-Libc. See the --with-
avrlibc configure option.
__HAVE_SIGNAL_N__
The compiler supports the signal(num) and interrupt(num) Section 6.35.6
[function attributes], page 641, with an argument num that specifies the number
of the interrupt service routine.
__HAVE_DOUBLE_MULTILIB__
Defined if -mdouble= acts as a multilib option.
__HAVE_DOUBLE32__
__HAVE_DOUBLE64__
Defined if the compiler supports 32-bit double resp. 64-bit double. The actual
layout is specified by option -mdouble=.
__DEFAULT_DOUBLE__
The size in bits of double if -mdouble= is not set. To test the layout of double
in a program, use the built-in macro __SIZEOF_DOUBLE__.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 381
__HAVE_LONG_DOUBLE32__
__HAVE_LONG_DOUBLE64__
__HAVE_LONG_DOUBLE_MULTILIB__
__DEFAULT_LONG_DOUBLE__
Same as above, but for long double instead of double.
__WITH_DOUBLE_COMPARISON__
Reflects the --with-double-comparison={tristate|bool|libf7}
configure option (https://gcc.gnu.org/install/configure.html#avr) and
is defined to 2 or 3.
__WITH_LIBF7_LIBGCC__
__WITH_LIBF7_MATH__
__WITH_LIBF7_MATH_SYMBOLS__
Reflects the --with-libf7={libgcc|math|math-symbols} configure option (https://gcc.gnu.o
-mstack-check-l1
Do stack checking using information placed into L1 scratchpad memory by the
uClinux kernel.
-mid-shared-library
Generate code that supports shared libraries via the library ID method. This al-
lows for execute in place and shared libraries in an environment without virtual
memory management. This option implies -fPIC. With a ‘bfin-elf’ target,
this option implies -msim.
-mno-id-shared-library
Generate code that doesn’t assume ID-based shared libraries are being used.
This is the default.
-mleaf-id-shared-library
Generate code that supports shared libraries via the library ID method, but
assumes that this library or executable won’t link against any other ID shared
libraries. That allows the compiler to use faster code for jumps and calls.
-mno-leaf-id-shared-library
Do not assume that the code being compiled won’t link against any ID shared
libraries. Slower code is generated for jump and call insns.
-mshared-library-id=n
Specifies the identification number of the ID-based shared library being com-
piled. Specifying a value of 0 generates more compact code; specifying other
values forces the allocation of that number to the current library but is no more
space- or time-efficient than omitting this option.
-msep-data
Generate code that allows the data segment to be located in a different area of
memory from the text segment. This allows for execute in place in an environ-
ment without virtual memory management by eliminating relocations against
the text section.
-mno-sep-data
Generate code that assumes that the data segment follows the text segment.
This is the default.
-mlong-calls
-mno-long-calls
Tells the compiler to perform function calls by first loading the address of the
function into a register and then performing a subroutine call on this register.
This switch is needed if the target function lies outside of the 24-bit addressing
range of the offset-based version of subroutine call instruction.
This feature is not enabled by default. Specifying -mno-long-calls restores
the default behavior. Note these switches have no effect on how the compiler
generates code to handle function calls via function pointers.
-mfast-fp
Link with the fast floating-point library. This library relaxes some of the
IEEE floating-point standard’s rules for checking inputs against Not-a-Number
(NAN), in the interest of performance.
384 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-minline-plt
Enable inlining of PLT entries in function calls to functions that are not known
to bind locally. It has no effect without -mfdpic.
-mmulticore
Build a standalone application for multicore Blackfin processors. This option
causes proper start files and link scripts supporting multicore to be used, and
defines the macro __BFIN_MULTICORE. It can only be used with -mcpu=bf561[-
sirevision].
This option can be used with -mcorea or -mcoreb, which selects the one-
application-per-core programming model. Without -mcorea or -mcoreb, the
single-application/dual-core programming model is used. In this model, the
main function of Core B should be named as coreb_main.
If this option is not used, the single-core application programming model is
used.
-mcorea Build a standalone application for Core A of BF561 when using the one-
application-per-core programming model. Proper start files and link scripts
are used to support Core A, and the macro __BFIN_COREA is defined. This
option can only be used in conjunction with -mmulticore.
-mcoreb Build a standalone application for Core B of BF561 when using the
one-application-per-core programming model. Proper start files and link
scripts are used to support Core B, and the macro __BFIN_COREB is defined.
When this option is used, coreb_main should be used instead of main. This
option can only be used in conjunction with -mmulticore.
-msdram Build a standalone application for SDRAM. Proper start files and link scripts
are used to put the application into SDRAM, and the macro __BFIN_SDRAM is
defined. The loader should initialize SDRAM before loading the application.
-micplb Assume that ICPLBs are enabled at run time. This has an effect on certain
anomaly workarounds. For Linux targets, the default is to assume ICPLBs are
enabled; for standalone applications the default is off.
section, which is adjacent to the .neardata section. Put small read-only data
into the .rodata section. The corresponding sections used for large pieces of
data are .fardata, .far and .const.
-msdata=all
Put all data, not just small objects, into the sections reserved for small data,
and use addressing relative to the B14 register to access them.
-msdata=none
Make no use of the sections reserved for small data, and use absolute addresses
to access all data. Put all initialized global and static data in the .fardata
section, and all uninitialized data in the .far section. Put all constant data
into the .const section.
-mstack-align
-mno-stack-align
-mdata-align
-mno-data-align
-mconst-align
-mno-const-align
These options (‘no-’ options) arrange (eliminate arrangements) for the stack
frame, individual data and constants to be aligned for the maximum single
data access size for the chosen CPU model. The default is to arrange for 32-
bit alignment. ABI details such as structure layout are not affected by these
options.
-m32-bit
-m16-bit
-m8-bit Similar to the stack- data- and const-align options above, these options arrange
for stack frame, writable data and constants to all be 32-bit, 16-bit or 8-bit
aligned. The default is 32-bit alignment.
-mno-prologue-epilogue
-mprologue-epilogue
With -mno-prologue-epilogue, the normal function prologue and epilogue
which set up the stack frame are omitted and no return instructions or return
sequences are generated in the code. Use this option only together with visual
inspection of the compiled code: no warnings or errors are generated when
call-saved registers must be saved, or storage for local variables needs to be
allocated.
-melf Legacy no-op option.
-sim This option arranges to link with input-output functions from a simulator li-
brary. Code, initialized data and zero-initialized data are allocated consecu-
tively.
-sim2 Like -sim, but pass linker options to locate initialized data at 0x40000000 and
zero-initialized data at 0x80000000.
The -mistack option is required to handle the interrupt and isr function
attributes (see Section 6.35.9 [C-SKY Function Attributes], page 644).
-mmp Enable multiprocessor instructions; the default is off.
-mcp Enable coprocessor instructions; the default is off.
-mcache Enable coprocessor instructions; the default is off.
-msecurity
Enable C-SKY security instructions; the default is off.
-mtrust Enable C-SKY trust instructions; the default is off.
-mdsp
-medsp
-mvdsp Enable C-SKY DSP, Enhanced DSP, or Vector DSP instructions, respectively.
All of these options default to off.
-mdiv
-mno-div Generate divide instructions. Default is off.
-msmart
-mno-smart
Generate code for Smart Mode, using only registers numbered 0-7 to allow use of
16-bit instructions. This option is ignored for CK801 where this is the required
behavior, and it defaults to on for CK802. For other targets, the default is off.
-mhigh-registers
-mno-high-registers
Generate code using the high registers numbered 16-31. This option is not
supported on CK801, CK802, or CK803, and is enabled by default for other
processors.
-manchor
-mno-anchor
Generate code using global anchor symbol addresses.
-mpushpop
-mno-pushpop
Generate code using push and pop instructions. This option defaults to on.
-mmultiple-stld
-mstm
-mno-multiple-stld
-mno-stm Generate code using stm and ldm instructions. This option isn’t supported on
CK801 but is enabled by default on other processors.
-mconstpool
-mno-constpool
Create constant pools in the compiler instead of deferring it to the assembler.
This option is the default and required for correct code generation on CK801
and CK802, and is optional on other processors.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 389
-mstack-size
-mno-stack-size
Emit .stack_size directives for each function in the assembly output. This
option defaults to off.
-mccrt
-mno-ccrt
Generate code for the C-SKY compiler runtime instead of libgcc. This option
defaults to off.
-mbranch-cost=n
Set the branch costs to roughly n instructions. The default is 1.
-msched-prolog
-mno-sched-prolog
Permit scheduling of function prologue and epilogue sequences. Using this
option can result in code that is not compliant with the C-SKY V2 ABI prologue
requirements and that cannot be debugged or backtraced. It is disabled by
default.
-msim Links the library libsemi.a which is in compatible with simulator. Applicable
to ELF compiler only.
switch may require recompiling all other modules in a program, including sys-
tem libraries. Use this switch to conform to a non-default data model.
-mfix-and-continue
-ffix-and-continue
-findirect-data
Generate code suitable for fast turnaround development, such as to allow GDB
to dynamically load .o files into already-running programs. -findirect-data
and -ffix-and-continue are provided for backwards compatibility.
-all_load
Loads all members of static archive libraries. See man ld(1) for more informa-
tion.
-arch_errors_fatal
Cause the errors having to do with files that have the wrong architecture to be
fatal.
-bind_at_load
Causes the output file to be marked such that the dynamic linker will bind all
undefined references when the file is loaded or launched.
-bundle Produce a Mach-o bundle format file. See man ld(1) for more information.
-bundle_loader executable
This option specifies the executable that will load the build output file being
linked. See man ld(1) for more information.
-dynamiclib
When passed this option, GCC produces a dynamic library instead of an exe-
cutable when linking, using the Darwin libtool command.
-force_cpusubtype_ALL
This causes GCC’s output file to have the ‘ALL’ subtype, instead of one con-
trolled by the -mcpu or -march option.
-nodefaultrpaths
Do not add default run paths for the compiler library directories to executables,
modules or dynamic libraries. On macOS 10.5 and later, the embedded runpath
is added by default unless the user adds -nodefaultrpaths to the link line.
Run paths are needed (and therefore enforced) to build on macOS version 10.11
or later.
-allowable_client client_name
-client_name
-compatibility_version
-current_version
-dead_strip
-dependency-file
-dylib_file
-dylinker_install_name
-dynamic
-exported_symbols_list
-filelist
392 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-flat_namespace
-force_flat_namespace
-headerpad_max_install_names
-image_base
-init
-install_name
-keep_private_externs
-multi_module
-multiply_defined
-multiply_defined_unused
-noall_load
-no_dead_strip_inits_and_terms
-nofixprebinding
-nomultidefs
-noprebind
-noseglinkedit
-pagezero_size
-prebind
-prebind_all_twolevel_modules
-private_bundle
-read_only_relocs
-sectalign
-sectobjectsymbols
-whyload
-seg1addr
-sectcreate
-sectobjectsymbols
-sectorder
-segaddr
-segs_read_only_addr
-segs_read_write_addr
-seg_addr_table
-seg_addr_table_filename
-seglinkedit
-segprot
-segs_read_only_addr
-segs_read_write_addr
-single_module
-static
-sub_library
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 393
-sub_umbrella
-twolevel_namespace
-umbrella
-undefined
-unexported_symbols_list
-weak_reference_mismatches
-whatsloaded
These options are passed to the Darwin linker. The Darwin linker man page
describes them in detail.
-mno-soft-float
-msoft-float
Use (do not use) the hardware floating-point instructions for floating-point op-
erations. When -msoft-float is specified, functions in libgcc.a are used to
perform floating-point operations. Unless they are replaced by routines that
emulate the floating-point operations, or compiled in such a way as to call such
emulations routines, these routines issue floating-point operations. If you are
compiling for an Alpha without floating-point operations, you must ensure that
the library is built so as not to call them.
Note that Alpha implementations without floating-point operations are required
to have floating-point registers.
-mfp-reg
-mno-fp-regs
Generate code that uses (does not use) the floating-point register set. -mno-
fp-regs implies -msoft-float. If the floating-point register set is not used,
floating-point operands are passed in integer registers as if they were integers
and floating-point results are passed in $0 instead of $f0. This is a non-standard
calling sequence, so any function with a floating-point argument or return value
called by code compiled with -mno-fp-regs must also be compiled with that
option.
A typical use of this option is building a kernel that does not use, and hence
need not save and restore, any floating-point registers.
-mieee The Alpha architecture implements floating-point hardware optimized for max-
imum performance. It is mostly compliant with the IEEE floating-point stan-
dard. However, for full compliance, software assistance is required. This option
generates code fully IEEE-compliant code except that the inexact-flag is not
maintained (see below). If this option is turned on, the preprocessor macro
_IEEE_FP is defined during compilation. The resulting code is less efficient but
is able to correctly support denormalized numbers and exceptional IEEE values
such as not-a-number and plus/minus infinity. Other Alpha compilers call this
option -ieee_with_no_inexact.
394 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mieee-with-inexact
This is like -mieee except the generated code also maintains the IEEE inexact-
flag. Turning on this option causes the generated code to implement fully-
compliant IEEE math. In addition to _IEEE_FP, _IEEE_FP_EXACT is defined
as a preprocessor macro. On some Alpha implementations the resulting code
may execute significantly slower than the code generated by default. Since
there is very little code that depends on the inexact-flag, you should normally
not specify this option. Other Alpha compilers call this option -ieee_with_
inexact.
-mfp-trap-mode=trap-mode
This option controls what floating-point related traps are enabled. Other Alpha
compilers call this option -fptm trap-mode. The trap mode can be set to one
of four values:
‘n’ This is the default (normal) setting. The only traps that are en-
abled are the ones that cannot be disabled in software (e.g., division
by zero trap).
‘u’ In addition to the traps enabled by ‘n’, underflow traps are enabled
as well.
‘su’ Like ‘u’, but the instructions are marked to be safe for software
completion (see Alpha architecture manual for details).
‘sui’ Like ‘su’, but inexact traps are enabled as well.
-mfp-rounding-mode=rounding-mode
Selects the IEEE rounding mode. Other Alpha compilers call this option -fprm
rounding-mode. The rounding-mode can be one of:
‘n’ Normal IEEE rounding mode. Floating-point numbers are rounded
towards the nearest machine number or towards the even machine
number in case of a tie.
‘m’ Round towards minus infinity.
‘c’ Chopped rounding mode. Floating-point numbers are rounded to-
wards zero.
‘d’ Dynamic rounding mode. A field in the floating-point control reg-
ister (fpcr, see Alpha architecture reference manual) controls the
rounding mode in effect. The C library initializes this register for
rounding towards plus infinity. Thus, unless your program modifies
the fpcr, ‘d’ corresponds to round towards plus infinity.
-mtrap-precision=trap-precision
In the Alpha architecture, floating-point traps are imprecise. This means with-
out software assistance it is impossible to recover from a floating trap and
program execution normally needs to be terminated. GCC can generate code
that can assist operating system trap handlers in determining the exact loca-
tion that caused a floating-point trap. Depending on the requirements of an
application, different levels of precisions can be selected:
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 395
‘p’ Program precision. This option is the default and means a trap
handler can only identify which program caused a floating-point
exception.
‘f’ Function precision. The trap handler can determine the function
that caused a floating-point exception.
‘i’ Instruction precision. The trap handler can determine the exact
instruction that caused a floating-point exception.
Other Alpha compilers provide the equivalent options called -scope_safe and
-resumption_safe.
-mieee-conformant
This option marks the generated code as IEEE conformant. You must not use
this option unless you also specify -mtrap-precision=i and either -mfp-trap-
mode=su or -mfp-trap-mode=sui. Its only effect is to emit the line ‘.eflag
48’ in the function prologue of the generated assembly file.
-mbuild-constants
Normally GCC examines a 32- or 64-bit integer constant to see if it can construct
it from smaller constants in two or three instructions. If it cannot, it outputs
the constant as a literal and generates code to load it from the data segment
at run time.
Use this option to require GCC to construct all integer constants using code,
even if it takes more instructions (the maximum is six).
You typically use this option to build a shared library dynamic loader. Itself a
shared library, it must relocate itself in memory before it can find the variables
and constants in its own data segment.
-mbwx
-mno-bwx
-mcix
-mno-cix
-mfix
-mno-fix
-mmax
-mno-max Indicate whether GCC should generate code to use the optional BWX, CIX, FIX
and MAX instruction sets. The default is to use the instruction sets supported
by the CPU type specified via -mcpu= option or that of the CPU on which GCC
was built if none is specified.
-mfloat-vax
-mfloat-ieee
Generate code that uses (does not use) VAX F and G floating-point arithmetic
instead of IEEE single and double precision.
-mexplicit-relocs
-mno-explicit-relocs
Older Alpha assemblers provided no way to generate symbol relocations except
via assembler macros. Use of these macros does not allow optimal instruction
396 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
scheduling. GNU binutils as of version 2.12 supports a new syntax that al-
lows the compiler to explicitly mark which relocations should apply to which
instructions. This option is mostly useful for debugging, as GCC detects the
capabilities of the assembler when it is built and sets the default accordingly.
-msmall-data
-mlarge-data
When -mexplicit-relocs is in effect, static data is accessed via gp-relative
relocations. When -msmall-data is used, objects 8 bytes long or smaller are
placed in a small data area (the .sdata and .sbss sections) and are accessed
via 16-bit relocations off of the $gp register. This limits the size of the small
data area to 64KB, but allows the variables to be directly accessed via a single
instruction.
The default is -mlarge-data. With this option the data area is limited to just
below 2GB. Programs that require more than 2GB of data must use malloc or
mmap to allocate the data in the heap instead of in the program’s data segment.
When generating code for shared libraries, -fpic implies -msmall-data and
-fPIC implies -mlarge-data.
-msmall-text
-mlarge-text
When -msmall-text is used, the compiler assumes that the code of the entire
program (or shared library) fits in 4MB, and is thus reachable with a branch
instruction. When -msmall-data is used, the compiler can assume that all local
symbols share the same $gp value, and thus reduce the number of instructions
required for a function call from 4 to 1.
The default is -mlarge-text.
-mcpu=cpu_type
Set the instruction set and instruction scheduling parameters for machine type
cpu type. You can specify either the ‘EV’ style name or the corresponding chip
number. GCC supports scheduling parameters for the EV4, EV5 and EV6
family of processors and chooses the default values for the instruction set from
the processor you specify. If you do not specify a processor type, GCC defaults
to the processor on which the compiler was built.
Supported values for cpu type are
‘ev4’
‘ev45’
‘21064’ Schedules as an EV4 and has no instruction set extensions.
‘ev5’
‘21164’ Schedules as an EV5 and has no instruction set extensions.
‘ev56’
‘21164a’ Schedules as an EV5 and supports the BWX extension.
‘pca56’
‘21164pc’
‘21164PC’ Schedules as an EV5 and supports the BWX and MAX extensions.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 397
‘ev6’
‘21264’ Schedules as an EV6 and supports the BWX, FIX, and MAX ex-
tensions.
‘ev67’
‘21264a’ Schedules as an EV6 and supports the BWX, CIX, FIX, and MAX
extensions.
Native toolchains also support the value ‘native’, which selects the best archi-
tecture option for the host processor. -mcpu=native has no effect if GCC does
not recognize the processor.
-mtune=cpu_type
Set only the instruction scheduling parameters for machine type cpu type. The
instruction set is not changed.
Native toolchains also support the value ‘native’, which selects the best ar-
chitecture option for the host processor. -mtune=native has no effect if GCC
does not recognize the processor.
-mmemory-latency=time
Sets the latency the scheduler should assume for typical memory references
as seen by the application. This number is highly dependent on the memory
access patterns used by the application and the size of the external cache on
the machine.
Valid options for time are
‘number’ A decimal number representing clock cycles.
‘L1’
‘L2’
‘L3’
‘main’ The compiler contains estimates of the number of clock cycles for
“typical” EV4 & EV5 hardware for the Level 1, 2 & 3 caches (also
called Dcache, Scache, and Bcache), as well as to main memory.
Note that L3 is only valid for EV5.
-mjmp32
-mno-jmp32
Enable or disable generation of 32-bit jump instructions. Enabled for CPU v3
and above.
-malu32
-mno-alu32
Enable or disable generation of 32-bit ALU instructions. Enabled for CPU v3
and above.
-mv3-atomics
-mno-v3-atomics
Enable or disable instructions for general atomic operations introduced in CPU
v3. Enabled for CPU v3 and above.
-mbswap
-mno-bswap
Enable or disable byte swap instructions. Enabled for CPU v4 and above.
-msdiv
-mno-sdiv
Enable or disable signed division and modulus instructions. Enabled for CPU
v4 and above.
-msmov
-mno-smov
Enable or disable sign-extending move and memory load instructions. Enabled
for CPU v4 and above.
-mcpu=version
This specifies which version of the eBPF ISA to target. Newer versions may
not be supported by all kernels. The default is ‘v4’.
Supported values for version are:
‘v1’ The first stable eBPF ISA with no special features or extensions.
‘v2’ Supports the jump extensions, as in -mjmpext.
‘v3’ All features of v2, plus:
− 32-bit jump operations, as in -mjmp32
− 32-bit ALU operations, as in -malu32
− general atomic operations, as in -mv3-atomics
‘v4’ All features of v3, plus:
− Byte swap instructions, as in -mbswap
− Signed division and modulus instructions, as in -msdiv
− Sign-extending move and memory load instructions, as in
-msmov
-mco-re Enable BPF Compile Once - Run Everywhere (CO-RE) support. Requires and
is implied by -gbtf.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 399
-mno-co-re
Disable BPF Compile Once - Run Everywhere (CO-RE) support. BPF CO-RE
support is enabled by default when generating BTF debug information for the
BPF target.
-mxbpf Generate code for an expanded version of BPF, which relaxes some of the
restrictions imposed by the BPF architecture:
− Save and restore callee-saved registers at function entry and exit, respec-
tively.
-masm=dialect
Outputs assembly instructions using eBPF selected dialect. The default is
‘pseudoc’.
Supported values for dialect are:
‘normal’ Outputs normal assembly dialect.
‘pseudoc’ Outputs pseudo-c assembly dialect.
-minline-memops-threshold=bytes
Specifies a size threshold in bytes at or below which memmove, memcpy and
memset shall always be expanded inline. Operations dealing with sizes larger
than this threshold would have to be implemented using a library call instead
of being expanded inline, but since BPF doesn’t allow libcalls, exceeding this
threshold results in a compile-time error. The default is ‘1024’ bytes.
or -fpie, it assumes GOT entries and small data are within a 12-bit range from
the GOT base address; with -fPIC or -fPIE, GOT offsets are computed with
32 bits. With a ‘bfin-elf’ target, this option implies -msim.
-minline-plt
Enable inlining of PLT entries in function calls to functions that are not known
to bind locally. It has no effect without -mfdpic. It’s enabled by default if
optimizing for speed and compiling for shared libraries (i.e., -fPIC or -fpic),
or when an optimization option such as -O3 or above is present in the command
line.
-mTLS
Assume a large TLS segment when generating thread-local code.
-mtls
Do not assume a large TLS segment when generating thread-local code.
-mgprel-ro
Enable the use of GPREL relocations in the FDPIC ABI for data that is known
to be in read-only sections. It’s enabled by default, except for -fpic or -fpie:
even though it may help make the global offset table smaller, it trades 1 in-
struction for 4. With -fPIC or -fPIE, it trades 3 instructions for 4, one of
which may be shared by multiple symbols, and it avoids the need for a GOT
entry for the referenced symbol, so it’s more likely to be a win. If it is not,
-mno-gprel-ro can be used to disable it.
-multilib-library-pic
Link with the (library, not FD) pic libraries. It’s implied by -mlibrary-pic,
as well as by -fPIC and -fpic without -mfdpic. You should never have to use
it explicitly.
-mlinked-fp
Follow the EABI requirement of always creating a frame pointer whenever a
stack frame is allocated. This option is enabled by default and can be disabled
with -mno-linked-fp.
-mlong-calls
Use indirect addressing to call functions outside the current compilation unit.
This allows the functions to be placed anywhere within the 32-bit address space.
-malign-labels
Try to align labels to an 8-byte boundary by inserting NOPs into the previous
packet. This option only has an effect when VLIW packing is enabled. It
doesn’t create new packets; it merely adds NOPs to existing ones.
-mlibrary-pic
Generate position-independent EABI code.
-macc-4
Use only the first four media accumulator registers.
-macc-8
Use all eight media accumulator registers.
402 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mpack
Pack VLIW instructions.
-mno-pack
Do not pack VLIW instructions.
-mno-eflags
Do not mark ABI switches in e flags.
-mcond-move
Enable the use of conditional-move instructions (default).
This switch is mainly for debugging the compiler and will likely be removed in
a future version.
-mno-cond-move
Disable the use of conditional-move instructions.
This switch is mainly for debugging the compiler and will likely be removed in
a future version.
-mscc
Enable the use of conditional set instructions (default).
This switch is mainly for debugging the compiler and will likely be removed in
a future version.
-mno-scc
Disable the use of conditional set instructions.
This switch is mainly for debugging the compiler and will likely be removed in
a future version.
-mcond-exec
Enable the use of conditional execution (default).
This switch is mainly for debugging the compiler and will likely be removed in
a future version.
-mno-cond-exec
Disable the use of conditional execution.
This switch is mainly for debugging the compiler and will likely be removed in
a future version.
-mvliw-branch
Run a pass to pack branches into VLIW instructions (default).
This switch is mainly for debugging the compiler and will likely be removed in
a future version.
-mno-vliw-branch
Do not run a pass to pack branches into VLIW instructions.
This switch is mainly for debugging the compiler and will likely be removed in
a future version.
-mmulti-cond-exec
Enable optimization of && and || in conditional execution (default).
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 403
This switch is mainly for debugging the compiler and will likely be removed in
a future version.
-mno-multi-cond-exec
Disable optimization of && and || in conditional execution.
This switch is mainly for debugging the compiler and will likely be removed in
a future version.
-mnested-cond-exec
Enable nested conditional execution optimizations (default).
This switch is mainly for debugging the compiler and will likely be removed in
a future version.
-mno-nested-cond-exec
Disable nested conditional execution optimizations.
This switch is mainly for debugging the compiler and will likely be removed in
a future version.
-moptimize-membar
This switch removes redundant membar instructions from the compiler-
generated code. It is enabled by default.
-mno-optimize-membar
This switch disables the automatic removal of redundant membar instructions
from the generated code.
-mtomcat-stats
Cause gas to print out tomcat statistics.
-mcpu=cpu
Select the processor type for which to generate code. Possible values are ‘frv’,
‘fr550’, ‘tomcat’, ‘fr500’, ‘fr450’, ‘fr405’, ‘fr400’, ‘fr300’ and ‘simple’.
-tno-android-cc
Disable compilation effects of -mandroid, i.e., do not enable -mbionic, -fPIC,
-fno-exceptions and -fno-rtti by default.
-tno-android-ld
Disable linking effects of -mandroid, i.e., pass standard Linux linking options
to the linker.
-matomic-libcalls
Generate libcalls for atomic loads and stores when sync libcalls are disabled.
This option is enabled by default. It only affects the generation of atomic
libcalls by the HPPA backend.
Both the sync and libatomic libcall implementations use locking. As a result,
processor stores are not atomic with respect to other atomic operations. Pro-
cessor loads up to DImode are atomic with respect to other atomic operations
provided they are implemented as a single access.
The PA-RISC architecture does not support any atomic operations in hardware
except for the ldcw instruction. Thus, all atomic support is implemented using
sync and atomic libcalls. Sync libcall support is in libgcc.a. Atomic libcall
support is in libatomic.
This option generates __atomic_exchange calls for atomic stores. It also pro-
vides special handling for atomic DImode accesses on 32-bit targets.
-mbig-switch
Does nothing. Preserved for backward compatibility.
-mcaller-copies
The caller copies function arguments passed by hidden reference. This option
should be used with care as it is not compatible with the default 32-bit runtime.
However, only aggregates larger than eight bytes are passed by hidden reference
and the option provides better compatibility with OpenMP.
-mcoherent-ldcw
Use ldcw/ldcd coherent cache-control hint.
-mdisable-fpregs
Disable floating-point registers. Equivalent to -msoft-float.
-mdisable-indexing
Prevent the compiler from using indexing address modes. This avoids some
rather obscure problems when compiling MIG generated code under MACH.
-mfast-indirect-calls
Generate code that assumes calls never cross space boundaries. This allows
GCC to emit code that performs faster indirect calls.
This option does not work in the presence of shared libraries or nested functions.
-mfixed-range=register-range
Generate code treating the given register range as fixed registers. A fixed regis-
ter is one that the register allocator cannot use. This is useful when compiling
kernel code. A register range is specified as two registers separated by a dash.
Multiple register ranges can be specified separated by a comma.
-mgas Enable the use of assembler directives only GAS understands.
-mgnu-ld Use options specific to GNU ld. This passes -shared to ld when building a
shared library. It is the default when GCC is configured, explicitly or implic-
itly, with the GNU linker. This option does not affect which ld is called; it
only changes what parameters are passed to that ld. The ld that is called is
406 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mordered
Assume memory references are ordered and barriers are not needed.
-mportable-runtime
Use the portable calling conventions proposed by HP for ELF systems.
-mschedule=cpu-type
Schedule code according to the constraints for the machine type cpu-type. The
choices for cpu-type are ‘700’ ‘7100’, ‘7100LC’, ‘7200’, ‘7300’ and ‘8000’. Re-
fer to /usr/lib/sched.models on an HP-UX system to determine the proper
scheduling option for your machine. The default scheduling is ‘8000’.
-msio Generate the predefine, _SIO, for server IO. The default is -mwsio. This gen-
erates the predefines, __hp9000s700, __hp9000s700__ and _WSIO, for worksta-
tion IO. These options are available under HP-UX and HI-UX.
-msoft-float
Generate output containing library calls for floating point. Warning: the req-
uisite libraries are not available for all HPPA targets. Normally the facilities of
the machine’s usual C compiler are used, but this cannot be done directly in
cross-compilation. You must make your own arrangements to provide suitable
library functions for cross-compilation.
-msoft-float changes the calling convention in the output file; therefore, it is
only useful if you compile all of a program with this option. In particular, you
need to compile libgcc.a, the library that comes with GCC, with -msoft-
float in order for this to work.
-msoft-mult
Use software integer multiplication.
This disables the use of the xmpyu instruction.
-munix=unix-std
Generate compiler predefines and select a startfile for the specified UNIX stan-
dard. The choices for unix-std are ‘93’, ‘95’ and ‘98’. ‘93’ is supported on all
HP-UX versions. ‘95’ is available on HP-UX 10.10 and later. ‘98’ is available
on HP-UX 11.11 and later. The default values are ‘93’ for HP-UX 10.00, ‘95’
for HP-UX 10.10 though to 11.00, and ‘98’ for HP-UX 11.11 and later.
-munix=93 provides the same predefines as GCC 3.3 and 3.4. -munix=95 pro-
vides additional predefines for XOPEN_UNIX and _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED, and
the startfile unix95.o. -munix=98 provides additional predefines for _XOPEN_
UNIX, _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED, _INCLUDE__STDC_A1_SOURCE and _INCLUDE_
XOPEN_SOURCE_500, and the startfile unix98.o.
It is important to note that this option changes the interfaces for various library
routines. It also affects the operational behavior of the C library. Thus, extreme
care is needed in using this option.
Library code that is intended to operate with more than one UNIX standard
must test, set and restore the variable __xpg4_extended_mask as appropriate.
Most GNU software doesn’t provide this capability.
408 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-nolibdld
Suppress the generation of link options to search libdld.sl when the -static
option is specified on HP-UX 10 and later.
-static The HP-UX implementation of setlocale in libc has a dependency on libdld.sl.
There isn’t an archive version of libdld.sl. Thus, when the -static option is
specified, special link options are needed to resolve this dependency.
On HP-UX 10 and later, the GCC driver adds the necessary options to link
with libdld.sl when the -static option is specified. This causes the resulting
binary to be dynamic. On the 64-bit port, the linkers generate dynamic binaries
by default in any case. The -nolibdld option can be used to prevent the GCC
driver from adding these link options.
-threads Add support for multithreading with the dce thread library under HP-UX. This
option sets flags for both the preprocessor and linker.
-mauto-pic
Generate code that is self-relocatable. This implies -mconstant-gp. This is
useful when compiling firmware code.
-minline-float-divide-min-latency
Generate code for inline divides of floating-point values using the minimum
latency algorithm.
-minline-float-divide-max-throughput
Generate code for inline divides of floating-point values using the maximum
throughput algorithm.
-mno-inline-float-divide
Do not generate inline code for divides of floating-point values.
-minline-int-divide-min-latency
Generate code for inline divides of integer values using the minimum latency
algorithm.
-minline-int-divide-max-throughput
Generate code for inline divides of integer values using the maximum through-
put algorithm.
-mno-inline-int-divide
Do not generate inline code for divides of integer values.
-minline-sqrt-min-latency
Generate code for inline square roots using the minimum latency algorithm.
-minline-sqrt-max-throughput
Generate code for inline square roots using the maximum throughput algorithm.
-mno-inline-sqrt
Do not generate inline code for sqrt.
-mfused-madd
-mno-fused-madd
Do (don’t) generate code that uses the fused multiply/add or multiply/subtract
instructions. The default is to use these instructions.
-mno-dwarf2-asm
-mdwarf2-asm
Don’t (or do) generate assembler code for the DWARF line number debugging
info. This may be useful when not using the GNU assembler.
-mearly-stop-bits
-mno-early-stop-bits
Allow stop bits to be placed earlier than immediately preceding the instruction
that triggered the stop bit. This can improve instruction scheduling, but does
not always do so.
-mfixed-range=register-range
Generate code treating the given register range as fixed registers. A fixed regis-
ter is one that the register allocator cannot use. This is useful when compiling
410 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mno-sched-prefer-non-data-spec-insns
-msched-prefer-non-data-spec-insns
If enabled, data-speculative instructions are chosen for schedule only if there
are no other choices at the moment. This makes the use of the data speculation
much more conservative. The default setting is disabled.
-mno-sched-prefer-non-control-spec-insns
-msched-prefer-non-control-spec-insns
If enabled, control-speculative instructions are chosen for schedule only if there
are no other choices at the moment. This makes the use of the control specu-
lation much more conservative. The default setting is disabled.
-mno-sched-count-spec-in-critical-path
-msched-count-spec-in-critical-path
If enabled, speculative dependencies are considered during computation of the
instructions priorities. This makes the use of the speculation a bit more con-
servative. The default setting is disabled.
-msched-spec-ldc
Use a simple data speculation check. This option is on by default.
-msched-control-spec-ldc
Use a simple check for control speculation. This option is on by default.
-msched-stop-bits-after-every-cycle
Place a stop bit after every cycle when scheduling. This option is on by default.
-msched-fp-mem-deps-zero-cost
Assume that floating-point stores and loads are not likely to cause a conflict
when placed into the same instruction group. This option is disabled by default.
-msel-sched-dont-check-control-spec
Generate checks for control speculation in selective scheduling. This flag is
disabled by default.
-msched-max-memory-insns=max-insns
Limit on the number of memory insns per instruction group, giving lower prior-
ity to subsequent memory insns attempting to schedule in the same instruction
group. Frequently useful to prevent cache bank conflicts. The default value is
1.
-msched-max-memory-insns-hard-limit
Makes the limit specified by msched-max-memory-insns a hard limit, disallow-
ing more than that number in an instruction group. Otherwise, the limit is
“soft”, meaning that non-memory operations are preferred when the limit is
reached, but memory operations may still be scheduled.
-mdivide-enabled
Enable divide and modulus instructions.
-mmultiply-enabled
Enable multiply instructions.
-msign-extend-enabled
Enable sign extend instructions.
-muser-enabled
Enable user-defined instructions.
-mabi=base-abi-type
Generate code for the specified calling convention. base-abi-type can be one of:
‘lp64d’ Uses 64-bit general purpose registers and 32/64-bit floating-point
registers for parameter passing. Data model is LP64, where ‘int’
is 32 bits, while ‘long int’ and pointers are 64 bits.
‘lp64f’ Uses 64-bit general purpose registers and 32-bit floating-point reg-
isters for parameter passing. Data model is LP64, where ‘int’ is
32 bits, while ‘long int’ and pointers are 64 bits.
‘lp64s’ Uses 64-bit general purpose registers and no floating-point registers
for parameter passing. Data model is LP64, where ‘int’ is 32 bits,
while ‘long int’ and pointers are 64 bits.
-mfpu=fpu-type
Generate code for the specified FPU type, which can be one of:
‘64’ Allow the use of hardware floating-point instructions for 32-bit and
64-bit operations.
‘32’ Allow the use of hardware floating-point instructions for 32-bit op-
erations.
‘none’
‘0’ Prevent the use of hardware floating-point instructions.
-msimd=simd-type
Enable generation of LoongArch SIMD instructions for vectorization and via
builtin functions. The value can be one of:
‘lasx’ Enable generating instructions from the 256-bit LoongArch Ad-
vanced SIMD Extension (LASX) and the 128-bit LoongArch SIMD
Extension (LSX).
‘lsx’ Enable generating instructions from the 128-bit LoongArch SIMD
Extension (LSX).
‘none’ No LoongArch SIMD instruction may be generated.
-msoft-float
Force -mfpu=none and prevents the use of floating-point registers for parameter
passing. This option may change the target ABI.
-msingle-float
Force -mfpu=32 and allow the use of 32-bit floating-point registers for parameter
passing. This option may change the target ABI.
-mdouble-float
Force -mfpu=64 and allow the use of 32/64-bit floating-point registers for pa-
rameter passing. This option may change the target ABI.
-mlasx
-mno-lasx
-mlsx
-mno-lsx Incrementally adjust the scope of the SIMD extensions (none / LSX / LASX)
that can be used by the compiler for code generation. Enabling LASX with
414 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
mlasx automatically enables LSX, and diabling LSX with mno-lsx automati-
cally disables LASX. These driver-only options act upon the final msimd con-
figuration state and make incremental chagnes in the order they appear on the
GCC driver’s command line, deriving the final / canonicalized msimd option
that is passed to the compiler proper.
-mbranch-cost=n
Set the cost of branches to roughly n instructions.
-mcheck-zero-division
-mno-check-zero-divison
Trap (do not trap) on integer division by zero. The default is -mcheck-zero-
division for -O0 or -Og, and -mno-check-zero-division for other optimiza-
tion levels.
-mcond-move-int
-mno-cond-move-int
Conditional moves for integral data in general-purpose registers are enabled
(disabled). The default is -mcond-move-int.
-mcond-move-float
-mno-cond-move-float
Conditional moves for floating-point registers are enabled (disabled). The de-
fault is -mcond-move-float.
-mmemcpy
-mno-memcpy
Force (do not force) the use of memcpy for non-trivial block moves. The default
is -mno-memcpy, which allows GCC to inline most constant-sized copies. Setting
optimization level to -Os also forces the use of memcpy, but -mno-memcpy may
override this behavior if explicitly specified, regardless of the order these options
on the command line.
-mstrict-align
-mno-strict-align
Avoid or allow generating memory accesses that may not be aligned on a natural
object boundary as described in the architecture specification. The default is
-mno-strict-align.
-G num Put global and static data smaller than num bytes into a small data section.
The default value is 0.
-mmax-inline-memcpy-size=n
Inline all block moves (such as calls to memcpy or structure copies) less than or
equal to n bytes. The default value of n is 1024.
-mcmodel=code-model
Set the code model to one of:
‘tiny-static (Not implemented yet)’
‘tiny (Not implemented yet)’
‘normal’ The text segment must be within 128MB addressing space. The
data segment must be within 2GB addressing space.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 415
‘medium’ The text segment and data segment must be within 2GB addressing
space.
‘large (Not implemented yet)’
‘extreme’ This mode does not limit the size of the code segment and data seg-
ment. The -mcmodel=extreme option is incompatible with -fplt
and/or -mexplicit-relocs=none.
The default code model is normal.
-mexplicit-relocs=style
Set when to use assembler relocation operators when dealing with
symbolic addresses. The alternative is to use assembler macros instead,
which may limit instruction scheduling but allow linker relaxation. with
-mexplicit-relocs=none the assembler macros are always used, with
-mexplicit-relocs=always the assembler relocation operators are always
used, with -mexplicit-relocs=auto the compiler will use the relocation
operators where the linker relaxation is impossible to improve the code
quality, and macros elsewhere. The default value for the option is determined
with the assembler capability detected during GCC build-time and the
setting of -mrelax: -mexplicit-relocs=none if the assembler does not
support relocation operators at all, -mexplicit-relocs=always if the
assembler supports relocation operators but -mrelax is not enabled,
-mexplicit-relocs=auto if the assembler supports relocation operators and
-mrelax is enabled.
-mexplicit-relocs
An alias of -mexplicit-relocs=always for backward compatibility.
-mno-explicit-relocs
An alias of -mexplicit-relocs=none for backward compatibility.
-mdirect-extern-access
-mno-direct-extern-access
Do not use or use GOT to access external symbols. The default is -mno-direct-
extern-access: GOT is used for external symbols with default visibility, but
not used for other external symbols.
With -mdirect-extern-access, GOT is not used and all external symbols are
PC-relatively addressed. It is only suitable for environments where no dynamic
link is performed, like firmwares, OS kernels, executables linked with -static
or -static-pie. -mdirect-extern-access is not compatible with -fPIC or
-fpic.
-mrelax
-mno-relax
Take (do not take) advantage of linker relaxations. If -mpass-mrelax-to-as
is enabled, this option is also passed to the assembler. The default is deter-
mined during GCC build-time by detecting corresponding assembler support:
-mrelax if the assembler supports both the -mrelax option and the conditional
branch relaxation (it’s required or the .align directives and conditional branch
416 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mdiv32
-mno-div32
Use (do not use) div.w[u] and mod.w[u] instructions with input not sign-
extended. When build with -march=la664, it is enabled by default. The default
is -mno-div32.
-mlam-bh
-mno-lam-bh
Use (do not use) am{swap/add}[_db].{b/h} instructions. When build with
-march=la664, it is enabled by default. The default is -mno-lam-bh.
-mlamcas
-mno-lamcas
Use (do not use) amcas[_db].{b/h/w/d} instructions. When build with
-march=la664, it is enabled by default. The default is -mno-lamcas.
-mld-seq-sa
-mno-ld-seq-sa
Whether a load-load barrier (dbar 0x700) is needed. When build with
-march=la664, it is enabled by default. The default is -mno-ld-seq-sa, the
load-load barrier is needed.
-mtls-dialect=opt
This option controls which tls dialect may be used for general dynamic and
local dynamic TLS models.
-mannotate-tablejump
-mno-annotate-tablejump
Create an annotation section .discard.tablejump_annotate to correlate the
jirl instruction and the jump table when a jump table is used to optimize
the switch statement. Some external tools, for example objtool of the Linux
kernel building system, need the annotation to analysis the control flow. The
default is -mno-annotate-tablejump.
‘trad’ Use traditional TLS. This is the default.
‘desc’ Use TLS descriptors.
--param loongarch-vect-unroll-limit=n
The vectorizer will use available tuning information to determine whether it
would be beneficial to unroll the main vectorized loop and by how much. This
parameter set’s the upper bound of how much the vectorizer will unroll the
main loop. The default value is six.
not use this option when generating programs that will run on real hardware;
you must provide your own runtime library for whatever I/O functions are
needed.
-memregs=number
Specifies the number of memory-based pseudo-registers GCC uses during code
generation. These pseudo-registers are used like real registers, so there is a
tradeoff between GCC’s ability to fit the code into available registers, and the
performance penalty of using memory instead of registers. Note that all modules
in a program must be compiled with the same value for this option. Because
of that, you must not use this option with GCC’s default runtime libraries.
-G num Put global and static objects less than or equal to num bytes into the small
data or BSS sections instead of the normal data or BSS sections. The default
value of num is 8. The -msdata option must be set to one of ‘sdata’ or ‘use’
for this option to have any effect.
All modules should be compiled with the same -G num value. Compiling with
different values of num may or may not work; if it doesn’t the linker gives an
error message—incorrect code is not generated.
-mdebug Makes the M32R-specific code in the compiler display some statistics that might
help in debugging programs.
-malign-loops
Align all loops to a 32-byte boundary.
-mno-align-loops
Do not enforce a 32-byte alignment for loops. This is the default.
-missue-rate=number
Issue number instructions per cycle. number can only be 1 or 2.
-mbranch-cost=number
number can only be 1 or 2. If it is 1 then branches are preferred over conditional
code, if it is 2, then the opposite applies.
-mflush-trap=number
Specifies the trap number to use to flush the cache. The default is 12. Valid
numbers are between 0 and 15 inclusive.
-mno-flush-trap
Specifies that the cache cannot be flushed by using a trap.
-mflush-func=name
Specifies the name of the operating system function to call to flush the cache.
The default is ‘_flush_cache’, but a function call is only used if a trap is not
available.
-mno-flush-func
Indicates that there is no OS function for flushing the cache.
When used together, -march and -mtune select code that runs on a family of
similar processors but that is optimized for a particular microarchitecture.
-mcpu=cpu
Generate code for a specific M680x0 or ColdFire processor. The M680x0 cpus
are: ‘68000’, ‘68010’, ‘68020’, ‘68030’, ‘68040’, ‘68060’, ‘68302’, ‘68332’ and
‘cpu32’. The ColdFire cpus are given by the table below, which also classifies
the CPUs into families:
Family ‘-mcpu’ arguments
‘51’ ‘51’ ‘51ac’ ‘51ag’ ‘51cn’ ‘51em’ ‘51je’ ‘51jf’ ‘51jg’ ‘51jm’
‘51mm’ ‘51qe’ ‘51qm’
‘5206’ ‘5202’ ‘5204’ ‘5206’
‘5206e’ ‘5206e’
‘5208’ ‘5207’ ‘5208’
‘5211a’ ‘5210a’ ‘5211a’
‘5213’ ‘5211’ ‘5212’ ‘5213’
‘5216’ ‘5214’ ‘5216’
‘52235’ ‘52230’ ‘52231’ ‘52232’ ‘52233’ ‘52234’ ‘52235’
‘5225’ ‘5224’ ‘5225’
‘52259’ ‘52252’ ‘52254’ ‘52255’ ‘52256’ ‘52258’ ‘52259’
‘5235’ ‘5232’ ‘5233’ ‘5234’ ‘5235’ ‘523x’
‘5249’ ‘5249’
‘5250’ ‘5250’
‘5271’ ‘5270’ ‘5271’
‘5272’ ‘5272’
‘5275’ ‘5274’ ‘5275’
‘5282’ ‘5280’ ‘5281’ ‘5282’ ‘528x’
‘53017’ ‘53011’ ‘53012’ ‘53013’ ‘53014’ ‘53015’ ‘53016’ ‘53017’
‘5307’ ‘5307’
‘5329’ ‘5327’ ‘5328’ ‘5329’ ‘532x’
‘5373’ ‘5372’ ‘5373’ ‘537x’
‘5407’ ‘5407’
‘5475’ ‘5470’ ‘5471’ ‘5472’ ‘5473’ ‘5474’ ‘5475’ ‘547x’ ‘5480’ ‘5481’
‘5482’ ‘5483’ ‘5484’ ‘5485’
-mcpu=cpu overrides -march=arch if arch is compatible with cpu. Other com-
binations of -mcpu and -march are rejected.
GCC defines the macro __mcf_cpu_cpu when ColdFire target cpu is selected.
It also defines __mcf_family_family, where the value of family is given by the
table above.
-mtune=tune
Tune the code for a particular microarchitecture within the constraints set
by -march and -mcpu. The M680x0 microarchitectures are: ‘68000’, ‘68010’,
‘68020’, ‘68030’, ‘68040’, ‘68060’ and ‘cpu32’. The ColdFire microarchitectures
are: ‘cfv1’, ‘cfv2’, ‘cfv3’, ‘cfv4’ and ‘cfv4e’.
You can also use -mtune=68020-40 for code that needs to run relatively well
on 68020, 68030 and 68040 targets. -mtune=68020-60 is similar but includes
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 421
68060 targets as well. These two options select the same tuning decisions as
-m68020-40 and -m68020-60 respectively.
GCC defines the macros __mcarch and __mcarch__ when tuning for 680x0 ar-
chitecture arch. It also defines mcarch unless either -ansi or a non-GNU -std
option is used. If GCC is tuning for a range of architectures, as selected by
-mtune=68020-40 or -mtune=68020-60, it defines the macros for every archi-
tecture in the range.
GCC also defines the macro __muarch__ when tuning for ColdFire microarchi-
tecture uarch, where uarch is one of the arguments given above.
-m68000
-mc68000 Generate output for a 68000. This is the default when the compiler is configured
for 68000-based systems. It is equivalent to -march=68000.
Use this option for microcontrollers with a 68000 or EC000 core, including the
68008, 68302, 68306, 68307, 68322, 68328 and 68356.
-m68010 Generate output for a 68010. This is the default when the compiler is configured
for 68010-based systems. It is equivalent to -march=68010.
-m68020
-mc68020 Generate output for a 68020. This is the default when the compiler is configured
for 68020-based systems. It is equivalent to -march=68020.
-m68030 Generate output for a 68030. This is the default when the compiler is configured
for 68030-based systems. It is equivalent to -march=68030.
-m68040 Generate output for a 68040. This is the default when the compiler is configured
for 68040-based systems. It is equivalent to -march=68040.
This option inhibits the use of 68881/68882 instructions that have to be em-
ulated by software on the 68040. Use this option if your 68040 does not have
code to emulate those instructions.
-m68060 Generate output for a 68060. This is the default when the compiler is configured
for 68060-based systems. It is equivalent to -march=68060.
This option inhibits the use of 68020 and 68881/68882 instructions that have
to be emulated by software on the 68060. Use this option if your 68060 does
not have code to emulate those instructions.
-mcpu32 Generate output for a CPU32. This is the default when the compiler is config-
ured for CPU32-based systems. It is equivalent to -march=cpu32.
Use this option for microcontrollers with a CPU32 or CPU32+ core, including
the 68330, 68331, 68332, 68333, 68334, 68336, 68340, 68341, 68349 and 68360.
-m5200 Generate output for a 520X ColdFire CPU. This is the default when the com-
piler is configured for 520X-based systems. It is equivalent to -mcpu=5206, and
is now deprecated in favor of that option.
Use this option for microcontroller with a 5200 core, including the MCF5202,
MCF5203, MCF5204 and MCF5206.
-m5206e Generate output for a 5206e ColdFire CPU. The option is now deprecated in
favor of the equivalent -mcpu=5206e.
422 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-m528x Generate output for a member of the ColdFire 528X family. The option is now
deprecated in favor of the equivalent -mcpu=528x.
-m5307 Generate output for a ColdFire 5307 CPU. The option is now deprecated in
favor of the equivalent -mcpu=5307.
-m5407 Generate output for a ColdFire 5407 CPU. The option is now deprecated in
favor of the equivalent -mcpu=5407.
-mcfv4e Generate output for a ColdFire V4e family CPU (e.g. 547x/548x). This in-
cludes use of hardware floating-point instructions. The option is equivalent to
-mcpu=547x, and is now deprecated in favor of that option.
-m68020-40
Generate output for a 68040, without using any of the new instructions. This
results in code that can run relatively efficiently on either a 68020/68881 or a
68030 or a 68040. The generated code does use the 68881 instructions that are
emulated on the 68040.
The option is equivalent to -march=68020 -mtune=68020-40.
-m68020-60
Generate output for a 68060, without using any of the new instructions. This
results in code that can run relatively efficiently on either a 68020/68881 or a
68030 or a 68040. The generated code does use the 68881 instructions that are
emulated on the 68060.
The option is equivalent to -march=68020 -mtune=68020-60.
-mhard-float
-m68881 Generate floating-point instructions. This is the default for 68020 and above,
and for ColdFire devices that have an FPU. It defines the macro __HAVE_
68881__ on M680x0 targets and __mcffpu__ on ColdFire targets.
-msoft-float
Do not generate floating-point instructions; use library calls instead. This is the
default for 68000, 68010, and 68832 targets. It is also the default for ColdFire
devices that have no FPU.
-mdiv
-mno-div Generate (do not generate) ColdFire hardware divide and remainder instruc-
tions. If -march is used without -mcpu, the default is “on” for ColdFire archi-
tectures and “off” for M680x0 architectures. Otherwise, the default is taken
from the target CPU (either the default CPU, or the one specified by -mcpu).
For example, the default is “off” for -mcpu=5206 and “on” for -mcpu=5206e.
GCC defines the macro __mcfhwdiv__ when this option is enabled.
-mshort Consider type int to be 16 bits wide, like short int. Additionally, parameters
passed on the stack are also aligned to a 16-bit boundary even on targets whose
API mandates promotion to 32-bit.
-mno-short
Do not consider type int to be 16 bits wide. This is the default.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 423
-mnobitfield
-mno-bitfield
Do not use the bit-field instructions. The -m68000, -mcpu32 and -m5200 options
imply -mnobitfield.
-mbitfield
Do use the bit-field instructions. The -m68020 option implies -mbitfield. This
is the default if you use a configuration designed for a 68020.
-mrtd Use a different function-calling convention, in which functions that take a fixed
number of arguments return with the rtd instruction, which pops their argu-
ments while returning. This saves one instruction in the caller since there is no
need to pop the arguments there.
This calling convention is incompatible with the one normally used on Unix, so
you cannot use it if you need to call libraries compiled with the Unix compiler.
Also, you must provide function prototypes for all functions that take variable
numbers of arguments (including printf); otherwise incorrect code is generated
for calls to those functions.
In addition, seriously incorrect code results if you call a function with too many
arguments. (Normally, extra arguments are harmlessly ignored.)
The rtd instruction is supported by the 68010, 68020, 68030, 68040, 68060 and
CPU32 processors, but not by the 68000 or 5200.
The default is -mno-rtd.
-malign-int
-mno-align-int
Control whether GCC aligns int, long, long long, float, double, and long
double variables on a 32-bit boundary (-malign-int) or a 16-bit boundary
(-mno-align-int). Aligning variables on 32-bit boundaries produces code that
runs somewhat faster on processors with 32-bit busses at the expense of more
memory.
Warning: if you use the -malign-int switch, GCC aligns structures containing
the above types differently than most published application binary interface
specifications for the m68k.
Use the pc-relative addressing mode of the 68000 directly, instead of using a
global offset table. At present, this option implies -fpic, allowing at most a
16-bit offset for pc-relative addressing. -fPIC is not presently supported with
-mpcrel, though this could be supported for 68020 and higher processors.
-mno-strict-align
-mstrict-align
Do not (do) assume that unaligned memory references are handled by the sys-
tem.
-msep-data
Generate code that allows the data segment to be located in a different area of
memory from the text segment. This allows for execute-in-place in an environ-
ment without virtual memory management. This option implies -fPIC.
424 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mno-sep-data
Generate code that assumes that the data segment follows the text segment.
This is the default.
-mid-shared-library
Generate code that supports shared libraries via the library ID method. This
allows for execute-in-place and shared libraries in an environment without vir-
tual memory management. This option implies -fPIC.
-mno-id-shared-library
Generate code that doesn’t assume ID-based shared libraries are being used.
This is the default.
-mshared-library-id=n
Specifies the identification number of the ID-based shared library being com-
piled. Specifying a value of 0 generates more compact code; specifying other
values forces the allocation of that number to the current library, but is no more
space- or time-efficient than omitting this option.
-mxgot
-mno-xgot
When generating position-independent code for ColdFire, generate code that
works if the GOT has more than 8192 entries. This code is larger and slower
than code generated without this option. On M680x0 processors, this option is
not needed; -fPIC suffices.
GCC normally uses a single instruction to load values from the GOT. While
this is relatively efficient, it only works if the GOT is smaller than about 64k.
Anything larger causes the linker to report an error such as:
relocation truncated to fit: R_68K_GOT16O foobar
If this happens, you should recompile your code with -mxgot. It should then
work with very large GOTs. However, code generated with -mxgot is less
efficient, since it takes 4 instructions to fetch the value of a global symbol.
Note that some linkers, including newer versions of the GNU linker, can create
multiple GOTs and sort GOT entries. If you have such a linker, you should
only need to use -mxgot when compiling a single object file that accesses more
than 8192 GOT entries. Very few do.
These options have no effect unless GCC is generating position-independent
code.
-mlong-jump-table-offsets
Use 32-bit offsets in switch tables. The default is to use 16-bit offsets.
-mdiv
-mno-div Use the divide instruction. (Enabled by default).
-mrelax-immediate
-mno-relax-immediate
Allow arbitrary-sized immediates in bit operations.
-mwide-bitfields
-mno-wide-bitfields
Always treat bit-fields as int-sized.
-m4byte-functions
-mno-4byte-functions
Force all functions to be aligned to a 4-byte boundary.
-mcallgraph-data
-mno-callgraph-data
Emit callgraph information.
-mslow-bytes
-mno-slow-bytes
Prefer word access when reading byte quantities.
-mlittle-endian
-mbig-endian
Generate code for a little-endian target.
-m210
-m340 Generate code for the 210 processor.
-mno-lsim
Assume that runtime support has been provided and so omit the simulator
library (libsim.a) from the linker command line.
-mstack-increment=size
Set the maximum amount for a single stack increment operation. Large values
can increase the speed of programs that contain functions that need a large
amount of stack space, but they can also trigger a segmentation fault if the
stack is extended too much. The default value is 0x1000.
‘novectors’
for applications that do not require any of the MicroBlaze vectors.
This option may be useful for applications running within a moni-
toring application. This model uses crt3.o as a startup file.
Option -xl-mode-app-model is a deprecated alias for -mxl-mode-app-model.
-mpic-data-is-text-relative
Assume that the displacement between the text and data segments is fixed at
static link time. This allows data to be referenced by offset from start of text
address instead of GOT since PC-relative addressing is not supported.
Two additional variants of the o32 ABI are supported to enable a transition
from 32-bit to 64-bit registers. These are FPXX (-mfpxx) and FP64A (-mfp64
-mno-odd-spreg). The FPXX extension mandates that all code must execute
correctly when run using 32-bit or 64-bit registers. The code can be interlinked
with either FP32 or FP64, but not both. The FP64A extension is similar to the
FP64 extension but forbids the use of odd-numbered single-precision registers.
This can be used in conjunction with the FRE mode of FPUs in MIPS32R5
processors and allows both FP32 and FP64A code to interlink and run in the
same process without changing FPU modes.
-mabicalls
-mno-abicalls
Generate (do not generate) code that is suitable for SVR4-style dynamic ob-
jects. -mabicalls is the default for SVR4-based systems.
-mshared
-mno-shared
Generate (do not generate) code that is fully position-independent, and that can
therefore be linked into shared libraries. This option only affects -mabicalls.
All -mabicalls code has traditionally been position-independent, regardless of
options like -fPIC and -fpic. However, as an extension, the GNU toolchain
allows executables to use absolute accesses for locally-binding symbols. It can
also use shorter GP initialization sequences and generate direct calls to locally-
defined functions. This mode is selected by -mno-shared.
-mno-shared depends on binutils 2.16 or higher and generates objects that can
only be linked by the GNU linker. However, the option does not affect the ABI
of the final executable; it only affects the ABI of relocatable objects. Using
-mno-shared generally makes executables both smaller and quicker.
-mshared is the default.
-mplt
-mno-plt Assume (do not assume) that the static and dynamic linkers support PLTs and
copy relocations. This option only affects -mno-shared -mabicalls. For the
n64 ABI, this option has no effect without -msym32.
You can make -mplt the default by configuring GCC with --with-mips-plt.
The default is -mno-plt otherwise.
-mxgot
-mno-xgot
Lift (do not lift) the usual restrictions on the size of the global offset table.
GCC normally uses a single instruction to load values from the GOT. While
this is relatively efficient, it only works if the GOT is smaller than about 64k.
Anything larger causes the linker to report an error such as:
relocation truncated to fit: R_MIPS_GOT16 foobar
If this happens, you should recompile your code with -mxgot. This works with
very large GOTs, although the code is also less efficient, since it takes three
instructions to fetch the value of a global symbol.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 431
Note that some linkers can create multiple GOTs. If you have such a linker,
you should only need to use -mxgot when a single object file accesses more than
64k’s worth of GOT entries. Very few do.
These options have no effect unless GCC is generating position independent
code.
-mgp32 Assume that general-purpose registers are 32 bits wide.
-mgp64 Assume that general-purpose registers are 64 bits wide.
-mfp32 Assume that floating-point registers are 32 bits wide.
-mfp64 Assume that floating-point registers are 64 bits wide.
-mfpxx Do not assume the width of floating-point registers.
-mhard-float
Use floating-point coprocessor instructions.
-msoft-float
Do not use floating-point coprocessor instructions. Implement floating-point
calculations using library calls instead.
-mno-float
Equivalent to -msoft-float, but additionally asserts that the program be-
ing compiled does not perform any floating-point operations. This option is
presently supported only by some bare-metal MIPS configurations, where it
may select a special set of libraries that lack all floating-point support (includ-
ing, for example, the floating-point printf formats). If code compiled with
-mno-float accidentally contains floating-point operations, it is likely to suffer
a link-time or run-time failure.
-msingle-float
Assume that the floating-point coprocessor only supports single-precision oper-
ations.
-mdouble-float
Assume that the floating-point coprocessor supports double-precision opera-
tions. This is the default.
-modd-spreg
-mno-odd-spreg
Enable the use of odd-numbered single-precision floating-point registers for the
o32 ABI. This is the default for processors that are known to support these
registers. When using the o32 FPXX ABI, -mno-odd-spreg is set by default.
-mabs=2008
-mabs=legacy
These options control the treatment of the special not-a-number (NaN) IEEE
754 floating-point data with the abs.fmt and neg.fmt machine instructions.
By default or when -mabs=legacy is used the legacy treatment is selected. In
this case these instructions are considered arithmetic and avoided where correct
operation is required and the input operand might be a NaN. A longer sequence
432 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mnan=2008
-mnan=legacy
These options control the encoding of the special not-a-number (NaN) IEEE
754 floating-point data.
The -mnan=legacy option selects the legacy encoding. In this case quiet NaNs
(qNaNs) are denoted by the first bit of their trailing significand field being 0,
whereas signaling NaNs (sNaNs) are denoted by the first bit of their trailing
significand field being 1.
The -mnan=2008 option selects the IEEE 754-2008 encoding. In this case qNaNs
are denoted by the first bit of their trailing significand field being 1, whereas
sNaNs are denoted by the first bit of their trailing significand field being 0.
The default is -mnan=legacy unless GCC has been configured with --with-
nan=2008.
-mllsc
-mno-llsc
Use (do not use) ‘ll’, ‘sc’, and ‘sync’ instructions to implement atomic memory
built-in functions. When neither option is specified, GCC uses the instructions
if the target architecture supports them.
-mllsc is useful if the runtime environment can emulate the instructions and
-mno-llsc can be useful when compiling for nonstandard ISAs. You can
make either option the default by configuring GCC with --with-llsc and
--without-llsc respectively. --with-llsc is the default for some configura-
tions; see the installation documentation for details.
-mdsp
-mno-dsp Use (do not use) revision 1 of the MIPS DSP ASE. See Section 6.65.16 [MIPS
DSP Built-in Functions], page 870. This option defines the preprocessor macro
__mips_dsp. It also defines __mips_dsp_rev to 1.
-mdspr2
-mno-dspr2
Use (do not use) revision 2 of the MIPS DSP ASE. See Section 6.65.16 [MIPS
DSP Built-in Functions], page 870. This option defines the preprocessor macros
__mips_dsp and __mips_dspr2. It also defines __mips_dsp_rev to 2.
-msmartmips
-mno-smartmips
Use (do not use) the MIPS SmartMIPS ASE.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 433
-mpaired-single
-mno-paired-single
Use (do not use) paired-single floating-point instructions. See Section 6.65.17
[MIPS Paired-Single Support], page 875. This option requires hardware
floating-point support to be enabled.
-mdmx
-mno-mdmx
Use (do not use) MIPS Digital Media Extension instructions. This option can
only be used when generating 64-bit code and requires hardware floating-point
support to be enabled.
-mips3d
-mno-mips3d
Use (do not use) the MIPS-3D ASE. See Section 6.65.18.3 [MIPS-3D Built-in
Functions], page 879. The option -mips3d implies -mpaired-single.
-mmicromips
-mno-micromips
Generate (do not generate) microMIPS code.
MicroMIPS code generation can also be controlled on a per-function basis by
means of micromips and nomicromips attributes. See Section 6.35 [Function
Attributes], page 604, for more information.
-mmt
-mno-mt Use (do not use) MT Multithreading instructions.
-mmcu
-mno-mcu Use (do not use) the MIPS MCU ASE instructions.
-meva
-mno-eva Use (do not use) the MIPS Enhanced Virtual Addressing instructions.
-mvirt
-mno-virt
Use (do not use) the MIPS Virtualization (VZ) instructions.
-mxpa
-mno-xpa Use (do not use) the MIPS eXtended Physical Address (XPA) instructions.
-mcrc
-mno-crc Use (do not use) the MIPS Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) instructions.
-mginv
-mno-ginv
Use (do not use) the MIPS Global INValidate (GINV) instructions.
-mloongson-mmi
-mno-loongson-mmi
Use (do not use) the MIPS Loongson MultiMedia extensions Instructions
(MMI).
-mloongson-ext
-mno-loongson-ext
Use (do not use) the MIPS Loongson EXTensions (EXT) instructions.
434 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mloongson-ext2
-mno-loongson-ext2
Use (do not use) the MIPS Loongson EXTensions r2 (EXT2) instructions.
-mlong64 Force long types to be 64 bits wide. See -mlong32 for an explanation of the
default and the way that the pointer size is determined.
-mlong32 Force long, int, and pointer types to be 32 bits wide.
The default size of ints, longs and pointers depends on the ABI. All the
supported ABIs use 32-bit ints. The n64 ABI uses 64-bit longs, as does the
64-bit EABI; the others use 32-bit longs. Pointers are the same size as longs,
or the same size as integer registers, whichever is smaller.
-msym32
-mno-sym32
Assume (do not assume) that all symbols have 32-bit values, regardless of the
selected ABI. This option is useful in combination with -mabi=64 and -mno-
abicalls because it allows GCC to generate shorter and faster references to
symbolic addresses.
-G num Put definitions of externally-visible data in a small data section if that data is
no bigger than num bytes. GCC can then generate more efficient accesses to
the data; see -mgpopt for details.
The default -G option depends on the configuration.
-mlocal-sdata
-mno-local-sdata
Extend (do not extend) the -G behavior to local data too, such as to static
variables in C. -mlocal-sdata is the default for all configurations.
If the linker complains that an application is using too much small data, you
might want to try rebuilding the less performance-critical parts with -mno-
local-sdata. You might also want to build large libraries with -mno-local-
sdata, so that the libraries leave more room for the main program.
-mextern-sdata
-mno-extern-sdata
Assume (do not assume) that externally-defined data is in a small data section
if the size of that data is within the -G limit. -mextern-sdata is the default
for all configurations.
If you compile a module Mod with -mextern-sdata -G num -mgpopt, and Mod
references a variable Var that is no bigger than num bytes, you must make sure
that Var is placed in a small data section. If Var is defined by another module,
you must either compile that module with a high-enough -G setting or attach
a section attribute to Var’s definition. If Var is common, you must link the
application with a high-enough -G setting.
The easiest way of satisfying these restrictions is to compile and link every
module with the same -G option. However, you may wish to build a library
that supports several different small data limits. You can do this by compiling
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 435
the library with the highest supported -G setting and additionally using -mno-
extern-sdata to stop the library from making assumptions about externally-
defined data.
-mgpopt
-mno-gpopt
Use (do not use) GP-relative accesses for symbols that are known to be in a
small data section; see -G, -mlocal-sdata and -mextern-sdata. -mgpopt is
the default for all configurations.
-mno-gpopt is useful for cases where the $gp register might not hold the value
of _gp. For example, if the code is part of a library that might be used in a boot
monitor, programs that call boot monitor routines pass an unknown value in
$gp. (In such situations, the boot monitor itself is usually compiled with -G0.)
-mno-gpopt implies -mno-local-sdata and -mno-extern-sdata.
-membedded-data
-mno-embedded-data
Allocate variables to the read-only data section first if possible, then next in the
small data section if possible, otherwise in data. This gives slightly slower code
than the default, but reduces the amount of RAM required when executing,
and thus may be preferred for some embedded systems.
-muninit-const-in-rodata
-mno-uninit-const-in-rodata
Put uninitialized const variables in the read-only data section. This option is
only meaningful in conjunction with -membedded-data.
-mcode-readable=setting
Specify whether GCC may generate code that reads from executable sections.
There are three possible settings:
-mcode-readable=yes
Instructions may freely access executable sections. This is the de-
fault setting.
-mcode-readable=pcrel
MIPS16 PC-relative load instructions can access executable sec-
tions, but other instructions must not do so. This option is useful
on 4KSc and 4KSd processors when the code TLBs have the Read
Inhibit bit set. It is also useful on processors that can be configured
to have a dual instruction/data SRAM interface and that, like the
M4K, automatically redirect PC-relative loads to the instruction
RAM.
-mcode-readable=no
Instructions must not access executable sections. This option can
be useful on targets that are configured to have a dual instruc-
tion/data SRAM interface but that (unlike the M4K) do not auto-
matically redirect PC-relative loads to the instruction RAM.
436 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-msplit-addresses
-mno-split-addresses
Enable (disable) use of the %hi() and %lo() assembler relocation operators.
This option has been superseded by -mexplicit-relocs but is retained for
backwards compatibility.
-mexplicit-relocs=none
-mexplicit-relocs=base
-mexplicit-relocs=pcrel
-mexplicit-relocs
-mno-explicit-relocs
These options control whether explicit relocs (such as %gp rel) are used. The
default value depends on the version of GAS when GCC itself was built.
The base explicit-relocs support introdunced into GAS in 2001. The pcrel
explicit-relocs support introdunced into GAS in 2014, which supports %pcrel_
hi and %pcrel_lo.
-mcheck-zero-division
-mno-check-zero-division
Trap (do not trap) on integer division by zero.
The default is -mcheck-zero-division.
-mdivide-traps
-mdivide-breaks
MIPS systems check for division by zero by generating either a conditional
trap or a break instruction. Using traps results in smaller code, but is only
supported on MIPS II and later. Also, some versions of the Linux kernel have
a bug that prevents trap from generating the proper signal (SIGFPE). Use
-mdivide-traps to allow conditional traps on architectures that support them
and -mdivide-breaks to force the use of breaks.
The default is usually -mdivide-traps, but this can be overridden at configure
time using --with-divide=breaks. Divide-by-zero checks can be completely
disabled using -mno-check-zero-division.
-mload-store-pairs
-mno-load-store-pairs
Enable (disable) an optimization that pairs consecutive load or store instruc-
tions to enable load/store bonding. This option is enabled by default but only
takes effect when the selected architecture is known to support bonding.
-mstrict-align
-mno-strict-align
-munaligned-access
-mno-unaligned-access
Disable (enable) direct unaligned access for MIPS Release 6. MIPSr6 re-
quires load/store unaligned-access support, by hardware or trap&emulate. So
-mstrict-align may be needed by kernel. The options -munaligned-access
and -mno-unaligned-access are obsoleted, and only for backward-compatible.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 437
-mmemcpy
-mno-memcpy
Force (do not force) the use of memcpy for non-trivial block moves. The default
is -mno-memcpy, which allows GCC to inline most constant-sized copies.
-mlong-calls
-mno-long-calls
Disable (do not disable) use of the jal instruction. Calling functions using
jal is more efficient but requires the caller and callee to be in the same 256
megabyte segment.
This option has no effect on abicalls code. The default is -mno-long-calls.
-mmad
-mno-mad Enable (disable) use of the mad, madu and mul instructions, as provided by the
R4650 ISA.
-mimadd
-mno-imadd
Enable (disable) use of the madd and msub integer instructions. The default
is -mimadd on architectures that support madd and msub except for the 74k
architecture where it was found to generate slower code.
-mfused-madd
-mno-fused-madd
Enable (disable) use of the floating-point multiply-accumulate instructions,
when they are available. The default is -mfused-madd.
On the R8000 CPU when multiply-accumulate instructions are used, the in-
termediate product is calculated to infinite precision and is not subject to the
FCSR Flush to Zero bit. This may be undesirable in some circumstances. On
other processors the result is numerically identical to the equivalent computa-
tion using separate multiply, add, subtract and negate instructions.
-nocpp Tell the MIPS assembler to not run its preprocessor over user assembler files
(with a ‘.s’ suffix) when assembling them.
-mfix-24k
-mno-fix-24k
Work around the 24K E48 (lost data on stores during refill) errata. The
workarounds are implemented by the assembler rather than by GCC.
-mfix-r4000
-mno-fix-r4000
Work around certain R4000 CPU errata:
− A double-word or a variable shift may give an incorrect result if executed
immediately after starting an integer division.
− A double-word or a variable shift may give an incorrect result if executed
while an integer multiplication is in progress.
− An integer division may give an incorrect result if started in a delay slot of
a taken branch or a jump.
438 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mfix-r4400
-mno-fix-r4400
Work around certain R4400 CPU errata:
− A double-word or a variable shift may give an incorrect result if executed
immediately after starting an integer division.
-mfix-r10000
-mno-fix-r10000
Work around certain R10000 errata:
− ll/sc sequences may not behave atomically on revisions prior to 3.0. They
may deadlock on revisions 2.6 and earlier.
This option can only be used if the target architecture supports branch-likely
instructions. -mfix-r10000 is the default when -march=r10000 is used; -mno-
fix-r10000 is the default otherwise.
-mfix-r5900
-mno-fix-r5900
Do not attempt to schedule the preceding instruction into the delay slot of a
branch instruction placed at the end of a short loop of six instructions or fewer
and always schedule a nop instruction there instead. The short loop bug under
certain conditions causes loops to execute only once or twice, due to a hardware
bug in the R5900 chip. The workaround is implemented by the assembler rather
than by GCC.
-mfix-rm7000
-mno-fix-rm7000
Work around the RM7000 dmult/dmultu errata. The workarounds are imple-
mented by the assembler rather than by GCC.
-mfix-vr4120
-mno-fix-vr4120
Work around certain VR4120 errata:
− dmultu does not always produce the correct result.
− div and ddiv do not always produce the correct result if one of the operands
is negative.
The workarounds for the division errata rely on special functions in libgcc.a.
At present, these functions are only provided by the mips64vr*-elf configura-
tions.
Other VR4120 errata require a NOP to be inserted between certain pairs of
instructions. These errata are handled by the assembler, not by GCC itself.
-mfix-vr4130
Work around the VR4130 mflo/mfhi errata. The workarounds are implemented
by the assembler rather than by GCC, although GCC avoids using mflo and
mfhi if the VR4130 macc, macchi, dmacc and dmacchi instructions are available
instead.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 439
-mfix-sb1
-mno-fix-sb1
Work around certain SB-1 CPU core errata. (This flag currently works around
the SB-1 revision 2 “F1” and “F2” floating-point errata.)
-mr10k-cache-barrier=setting
Specify whether GCC should insert cache barriers to avoid the side effects of
speculation on R10K processors.
In common with many processors, the R10K tries to predict the outcome of
a conditional branch and speculatively executes instructions from the “taken”
branch. It later aborts these instructions if the predicted outcome is wrong.
However, on the R10K, even aborted instructions can have side effects.
This problem only affects kernel stores and, depending on the system, kernel
loads. As an example, a speculatively-executed store may load the target mem-
ory into cache and mark the cache line as dirty, even if the store itself is later
aborted. If a DMA operation writes to the same area of memory before the
“dirty” line is flushed, the cached data overwrites the DMA-ed data. See the
R10K processor manual for a full description, including other potential prob-
lems.
One workaround is to insert cache barrier instructions before every memory
access that might be speculatively executed and that might have side effects
even if aborted. -mr10k-cache-barrier=setting controls GCC’s implemen-
tation of this workaround. It assumes that aborted accesses to any byte in the
following regions does not have side effects:
1. the memory occupied by the current function’s stack frame;
2. the memory occupied by an incoming stack argument;
3. the memory occupied by an object with a link-time-constant address.
It is the kernel’s responsibility to ensure that speculative accesses to these
regions are indeed safe.
If the input program contains a function declaration such as:
void foo (void);
then the implementation of foo must allow j foo and jal foo to be executed
speculatively. GCC honors this restriction for functions it compiles itself. It
expects non-GCC functions (such as hand-written assembly code) to do the
same.
The option has three forms:
-mr10k-cache-barrier=load-store
Insert a cache barrier before a load or store that might be specula-
tively executed and that might have side effects even if aborted.
-mr10k-cache-barrier=store
Insert a cache barrier before a store that might be speculatively
executed and that might have side effects even if aborted.
-mr10k-cache-barrier=none
Disable the insertion of cache barriers. This is the default setting.
440 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mflush-func=func
-mno-flush-func
Specifies the function to call to flush the I and D caches, or to not call any
such function. If called, the function must take the same arguments as the
common _flush_func, that is, the address of the memory range for which the
cache is being flushed, the size of the memory range, and the number 3 (to flush
both caches). The default depends on the target GCC was configured for, but
commonly is either _flush_func or __cpu_flush.
-mbranch-cost=num
Set the cost of branches to roughly num “simple” instructions. This cost is only
a heuristic and is not guaranteed to produce consistent results across releases. A
zero cost redundantly selects the default, which is based on the -mtune setting.
-mbranch-likely
-mno-branch-likely
Enable or disable use of Branch Likely instructions, regardless of the default
for the selected architecture. By default, Branch Likely instructions may be
generated if they are supported by the selected architecture. An exception
is for the MIPS32 and MIPS64 architectures and processors that implement
those architectures; for those, Branch Likely instructions are not be generated
by default because the MIPS32 and MIPS64 architectures specifically deprecate
their use.
-mcompact-branches=never
-mcompact-branches=optimal
-mcompact-branches=always
These options control which form of branches will be generated. The default is
-mcompact-branches=optimal.
The -mcompact-branches=never option ensures that compact branch instruc-
tions will never be generated.
The -mcompact-branches=always option ensures that a compact branch in-
struction will be generated if available for MIPS Release 6 onwards. If a com-
pact branch instruction is not available (or pre-R6), a delay slot form of the
branch will be used instead.
If it is used for MIPS16/microMIPS targets, it will be just ignored now. The
behaviour for MIPS16/microMIPS may change in future, since they do have
some compact branch instructions.
The -mcompact-branches=optimal option will cause a delay slot branch to be
used if one is available in the current ISA and the delay slot is successfully
filled. If the delay slot is not filled, a compact branch will be chosen if one is
available.
-mfp-exceptions
-mno-fp-exceptions
Specifies whether FP exceptions are enabled. This affects how FP instructions
are scheduled for some processors. The default is that FP exceptions are en-
abled.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 441
For instance, on the SB-1, if FP exceptions are disabled, and we are emitting
64-bit code, then we can use both FP pipes. Otherwise, we can only use one
FP pipe.
-mvr4130-align
-mno-vr4130-align
The VR4130 pipeline is two-way superscalar, but can only issue two instructions
together if the first one is 8-byte aligned. When this option is enabled, GCC
aligns pairs of instructions that it thinks should execute in parallel.
This option only has an effect when optimizing for the VR4130. It normally
makes code faster, but at the expense of making it bigger. It is enabled by
default at optimization level -O3.
-msynci
-mno-synci
Enable (disable) generation of synci instructions on architectures that sup-
port it. The synci instructions (if enabled) are generated when __builtin__
_clear_cache is compiled.
This option defaults to -mno-synci, but the default can be overridden by con-
figuring GCC with --with-synci.
When compiling code for single processor systems, it is generally safe to use
synci. However, on many multi-core (SMP) systems, it does not invalidate the
instruction caches on all cores and may lead to undefined behavior.
-mrelax-pic-calls
-mno-relax-pic-calls
Try to turn PIC calls that are normally dispatched via register $25 into direct
calls. This is only possible if the linker can resolve the destination at link time
and if the destination is within range for a direct call.
-mrelax-pic-calls is the default if GCC was configured to use an assem-
bler and a linker that support the .reloc assembly directive and -mexplicit-
relocs is in effect. With -mno-explicit-relocs, this optimization can be
performed by the assembler and the linker alone without help from the com-
piler.
-mmcount-ra-address
-mno-mcount-ra-address
Emit (do not emit) code that allows _mcount to modify the calling function’s
return address. When enabled, this option extends the usual _mcount interface
with a new ra-address parameter, which has type intptr_t * and is passed in
register $12. _mcount can then modify the return address by doing both of the
following:
• Returning the new address in register $31.
• Storing the new address in *ra-address, if ra-address is nonnull.
-mframe-header-opt
-mno-frame-header-opt
Enable (disable) frame header optimization in the o32 ABI. When using the o32
ABI, calling functions will allocate 16 bytes on the stack for the called function
to write out register arguments. When enabled, this optimization will suppress
the allocation of the frame header if it can be determined that it is unused.
This optimization is off by default at all optimization levels.
-mlxc1-sxc1
-mno-lxc1-sxc1
When applicable, enable (disable) the generation of lwxc1, swxc1, ldxc1, sdxc1
instructions. Enabled by default.
-mmadd4
-mno-madd4
When applicable, enable (disable) the generation of 4-operand madd.s, madd.d
and related instructions. Enabled by default.
-mlibfuncs
-mno-libfuncs
Specify that intrinsic library functions are being compiled, passing all values in
registers, no matter the size.
-mepsilon
-mno-epsilon
Generate floating-point comparison instructions that compare with respect to
the rE epsilon register.
-mabi=mmixware
-mabi=gnu
Generate code that passes function parameters and return values that (in the
called function) are seen as registers $0 and up, as opposed to the GNU ABI
which uses global registers $231 and up.
-mzero-extend
-mno-zero-extend
When reading data from memory in sizes shorter than 64 bits, use (do not use)
zero-extending load instructions by default, rather than sign-extending ones.
-mknuthdiv
-mno-knuthdiv
Make the result of a division yielding a remainder have the same sign as the
divisor. With the default, -mno-knuthdiv, the sign of the remainder follows the
sign of the dividend. Both methods are arithmetically valid, the latter being
almost exclusively used.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 443
-mtoplevel-symbols
-mno-toplevel-symbols
Prepend (do not prepend) a ‘:’ to all global symbols, so the assembly code can
be used with the PREFIX assembly directive.
-melf Generate an executable in the ELF format, rather than the default ‘mmo’ format
used by the mmix simulator.
-mbranch-predict
-mno-branch-predict
Use (do not use) the probable-branch instructions, when static branch predic-
tion indicates a probable branch.
-mbase-addresses
-mno-base-addresses
Generate (do not generate) code that uses base addresses. Using a base address
automatically generates a request (handled by the assembler and the linker)
for a constant to be set up in a global register. The register is used for one or
more base address requests within the range 0 to 255 from the value held in the
register. The generally leads to short and fast code, but the number of different
data items that can be addressed is limited. This means that a program that
uses lots of static data may require -mno-base-addresses.
-msingle-exit
-mno-single-exit
Force (do not force) generated code to have a single exit point in each function.
-mreturn-pointer-on-d0
When generating a function that returns a pointer, return the pointer in both
a0 and d0. Otherwise, the pointer is returned only in a0, and attempts to call
such functions without a prototype result in errors. Note that this option is on
by default; use -mno-return-pointer-on-d0 to disable it.
-mno-crt0
Do not link in the C run-time initialization object file.
-mrelax Indicate to the linker that it should perform a relaxation optimization pass to
shorten branches, calls and absolute memory addresses. This option only has
an effect when used on the command line for the final link step.
This option makes symbolic debugging impossible.
-mliw Allow the compiler to generate Long Instruction Word instructions if the target
is the ‘AM33’ or later. This is the default. This option defines the preprocessor
macro __LIW__.
-mno-liw Do not allow the compiler to generate Long Instruction Word instructions. This
option defines the preprocessor macro __NO_LIW__.
-msetlb Allow the compiler to generate the SETLB and Lcc instructions if the target
is the ‘AM33’ or later. This is the default. This option defines the preprocessor
macro __SETLB__.
-mno-setlb
Do not allow the compiler to generate SETLB or Lcc instructions. This option
defines the preprocessor macro __NO_SETLB__.
The option also sets the ISA to use. If the MCU name is one that is known
to only support the 430 ISA then that is selected, otherwise the 430X ISA is
selected. A generic MCU name of ‘msp430’ can also be used to select the 430
ISA. Similarly the generic ‘msp430x’ MCU name selects the 430X ISA.
In addition an MCU-specific linker script is added to the linker command line.
The script’s name is the name of the MCU with .ld appended. Thus specifying
-mmcu=xxx on the gcc command line defines the C preprocessor symbol __XXX__
and cause the linker to search for a script called xxx.ld.
The ISA and hardware multiply supported for the different MCUs is hard-coded
into GCC. However, an external ‘devices.csv’ file can be used to extend device
support beyond those that have been hard-coded.
GCC searches for the ‘devices.csv’ file using the following methods in the
given precedence order, where the first method takes precendence over the sec-
ond which takes precedence over the third.
Include path specified with -I and -L
‘devices.csv’ will be searched for in each of the directories speci-
fied by include paths and linker library search paths.
Path specified by the environment variable ‘MSP430_GCC_INCLUDE_DIR’
Define the value of the global environment variable
‘MSP430_GCC_INCLUDE_DIR’ to the full path to the directory
containing devices.csv, and GCC will search this directory for
devices.csv. If devices.csv is found, this directory will also be
registered as an include path, and linker library path. Header files
and linker scripts in this directory can therefore be used without
manually specifying -I and -L on the command line.
The ‘msp430-elf{,bare}/include/devices’ directory
Finally, GCC will examine ‘msp430-elf{,bare}/include/devices’
from the toolchain root directory. This directory does not exist
in a default installation, but if the user has created it and copied
‘devices.csv’ there, then the MCU data will be read. As above,
this directory will also be registered as an include path, and linker
library path.
If none of the above search methods find ‘devices.csv’, then the hard-coded
MCU data is used.
-mwarn-mcu
-mno-warn-mcu
This option enables or disables warnings about conflicts between the MCU name
specified by the -mmcu option and the ISA set by the -mcpu option and/or the
hardware multiply support set by the -mhwmult option. It also toggles warnings
about unrecognized MCU names. This option is on by default.
-mcpu= Specifies the ISA to use. Accepted values are ‘msp430’, ‘msp430x’ and
‘msp430xv2’. This option is deprecated. The -mmcu= option should be used to
select the ISA.
446 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-msim Link to the simulator runtime libraries and linker script. Overrides any scripts
that would be selected by the -mmcu= option.
-mlarge Use large-model addressing (20-bit pointers, 20-bit size_t).
-msmall Use small-model addressing (16-bit pointers, 16-bit size_t).
-mrelax This option is passed to the assembler and linker, and allows the linker to
perform certain optimizations that cannot be done until the final link.
mhwmult= Describes the type of hardware multiply supported by the target. Accepted
values are ‘none’ for no hardware multiply, ‘16bit’ for the original 16-bit-only
multiply supported by early MCUs. ‘32bit’ for the 16/32-bit multiply sup-
ported by later MCUs and ‘f5series’ for the 16/32-bit multiply supported by
F5-series MCUs. A value of ‘auto’ can also be given. This tells GCC to de-
duce the hardware multiply support based upon the MCU name provided by
the -mmcu option. If no -mmcu option is specified or if the MCU name is not
recognized then no hardware multiply support is assumed. auto is the default
setting.
Hardware multiplies are normally performed by calling a library routine. This
saves space in the generated code. When compiling at -O3 or higher however
the hardware multiplier is invoked inline. This makes for bigger, but faster
code.
The hardware multiply routines disable interrupts whilst running and restore
the previous interrupt state when they finish. This makes them safe to use
inside interrupt handlers as well as in normal code.
-minrt Enable the use of a minimum runtime environment - no static initializers or
constructors. This is intended for memory-constrained devices. The compiler
includes special symbols in some objects that tell the linker and runtime which
code fragments are required.
-mtiny-printf
Enable reduced code size printf and puts library functions. The ‘tiny’ imple-
mentations of these functions are not reentrant, so must be used with caution
in multi-threaded applications.
Support for streams has been removed and the string to be printed will always
be sent to stdout via the write syscall. The string is not buffered before it is
sent to write.
This option requires Newlib Nano IO, so GCC must be configured with
‘--enable-newlib-nano-formatted-io’.
-mmax-inline-shift=
This option takes an integer between 0 and 64 inclusive, and sets the maximum
number of inline shift instructions which should be emitted to perform a shift
operation by a constant amount. When this value needs to be exceeded, an
mspabi helper function is used instead. The default value is 4.
This only affects cases where a shift by multiple positions cannot be completed
with a single instruction (e.g. all shifts >1 on the 430 ISA).
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 447
Shifts of a 32-bit value are at least twice as costly, so the value passed for this
option is divided by 2 and the resulting value used instead.
-mcode-region=
-mdata-region=
These options tell the compiler where to place functions and data that do not
have one of the lower, upper, either or section attributes. Possible values
are lower, upper, either or any. The first three behave like the corresponding
attribute. The fourth possible value - any - is the default. It leaves placement
entirely up to the linker script and how it assigns the standard sections (.text,
.data, etc) to the memory regions.
-msilicon-errata=
This option passes on a request to assembler to enable the fixes for the named
silicon errata.
-msilicon-errata-warn=
This option passes on a request to the assembler to enable warning messages
when a silicon errata might need to be applied.
-mwarn-devices-csv
-mno-warn-devices-csv
Warn if ‘devices.csv’ is not found or there are problem parsing it (default:
on).
-mno-ext-perf2
Do not generate performance extension 2 instructions.
-mext-string
Generate string extension instructions.
-mno-ext-string
Do not generate string extension instructions.
-mv3push Generate v3 push25/pop25 instructions.
-mno-v3push
Do not generate v3 push25/pop25 instructions.
-m16-bit Generate 16-bit instructions.
-mno-16-bit
Do not generate 16-bit instructions.
-misr-vector-size=num
Specify the size of each interrupt vector, which must be 4 or 16.
-mcache-block-size=num
Specify the size of each cache block, which must be a power of 2 between 4 and
512.
-march=arch
Specify the name of the target architecture.
-mcmodel=code-model
Set the code model to one of
‘small’ All the data and read-only data segments must be within 512KB
addressing space. The text segment must be within 16MB address-
ing space.
‘medium’ The data segment must be within 512KB while the read-only data
segment can be within 4GB addressing space. The text segment
should be still within 16MB addressing space.
‘large’ All the text and data segments can be within 4GB addressing space.
-mctor-dtor
Enable constructor/destructor feature.
-mrelax Guide linker to relax instructions.
and ‘sm_89’. The default depends on how the compiler has been configured,
see --with-arch.
This option sets the value of the preprocessor macro __PTX_SM__; for instance,
for ‘sm_35’, it has the value ‘350’.
-misa=architecture-string
Alias of -march=.
-march-map=architecture-string
Select the closest available -march= value that is not more capable. For instance,
for -march-map=sm_50 select -march=sm_35, and for -march-map=sm_53 select
-march=sm_53.
-mptx=version-string
Generate code for the specified PTX ISA version. Valid version strings are ‘3.1’,
‘4.1’, ‘4.2’, ‘6.0’, ‘6.3’, ‘7.0’, and ‘7.8’. The default PTX ISA version is 6.0,
unless a higher version is required for specified PTX ISA target architecture via
option -march=.
This option sets the values of the preprocessor macros __PTX_ISA_VERSION_
MAJOR__ and __PTX_ISA_VERSION_MINOR__; for instance, for ‘3.1’ the macros
have the values ‘3’ and ‘1’, respectively.
-mmainkernel
Link in code for a main kernel. This is for stand-alone instead of offloading
execution.
-moptimize
Apply partitioned execution optimizations. This is the default when any level
of optimization is selected.
-msoft-stack
Generate code that does not use .local memory directly for stack storage.
Instead, a per-warp stack pointer is maintained explicitly. This enables variable-
length stack allocation (with variable-length arrays or alloca), and when global
memory is used for underlying storage, makes it possible to access automatic
variables from other threads, or with atomic instructions. This code generation
variant is used for OpenMP offloading, but the option is exposed on its own for
the purpose of testing the compiler; to generate code suitable for linking into
programs using OpenMP offloading, use option -mgomp.
-muniform-simt
Switch to code generation variant that allows to execute all threads in each
warp, while maintaining memory state and side effects as if only one thread in
each warp was active outside of OpenMP SIMD regions. All atomic operations
and calls to runtime (malloc, free, vprintf) are conditionally executed (iff current
lane index equals the master lane index), and the register being assigned is
copied via a shuffle instruction from the master lane. Outside of SIMD regions
lane 0 is the master; inside, each thread sees itself as the master. Shared
memory array int __nvptx_uni[] stores all-zeros or all-ones bitmasks for each
warp, indicating current mode (0 outside of SIMD regions). Each thread can
450 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
bitwise-and the bitmask at position tid.y with current lane index to compute
the master lane index.
-mgomp Generate code for use in OpenMP offloading: enables -msoft-stack and
-muniform-simt options, and selects corresponding multilib variant.
-msfimm Enable generation of compare and set flag with immediate (l.sf*i) instruc-
tions. By default extra instructions will be generated to store the immediate
to a register first.
-mshftimm
Enable generation of shift with immediate (l.srai, l.srli, l.slli) instruc-
tions. By default extra instructions will be generated to store the immediate
to a register first.
-mcmodel=small
Generate OpenRISC code for the small model: The GOT is limited to 64k.
This is the default model.
-mcmodel=large
Generate OpenRISC code for the large model: The GOT may grow up to 4G
in size.
so the GNU linker cannot adjust them when shortening adjacent LDI32 pseudo
instructions.
-misa-spec=ISA-spec-string
Specify the version of the RISC-V Unprivileged (formerly User-Level) ISA spec-
ification to produce code conforming to. The possibilities for ISA-spec-string
are:
2.2 Produce code conforming to version 2.2.
20190608 Produce code conforming to version 20190608.
20191213 Produce code conforming to version 20191213.
The default is -misa-spec=20191213 unless GCC has been configured with
--with-isa-spec= specifying a different default version.
-march=ISA-string
Generate code for given RISC-V ISA (e.g. ‘rv64im’). ISA strings must be lower-
case. Examples include ‘rv64i’, ‘rv32g’, ‘rv32e’, and ‘rv32imaf’. Additionally,
a special value help (-march=help) is accepted to list all supported extensions.
The syntax of the ISA string is defined as follows:
The string must start with ‘rv32’ or ‘rv64’, followed by
‘i’, ‘e’, or ‘g’, referred to as the base ISA.
The subsequent part of the string is a list of extension names.
Extension
names can be categorized as multi-letter (e.g. ‘zba’) and single-
letter (e.g. ‘v’). Single-letter extensions can appear consecutively,
but multi-letter extensions must be separated by underscores.
An underscore can appear anywhere after the base ISA. It has no
specific
effect but is used to improve readability and can act as a separator.
Extension names may include an optional version number, following
the
syntax ‘<major>p<minor>’ or ‘<major>’, (e.g. ‘m2p1’ or ‘m2’).
Supported extension are listed below:
Extension Supported
Description
Name Version
i 2.0, Base integer extension.
2.1
e 2.0 Reduced base integer extension.
ziccif 1.0 Main memory supports instruction fetch with atomicity re-
quirement.
zvkn 1.0 Vector NIST Algorithm Suite extension, ‘zvkn’ will expand
to ‘zvkned’, ‘zvknhb’, ‘zvkb’ and ‘zvkt’.
zvknc 1.0 Vector NIST Algorithm Suite with carryless multiply exten-
sion, ‘zvknc’ will expand to ‘zvkn’ and ‘zvbc’.
zvkng 1.0 Vector NIST Algorithm Suite with GCM extension, ‘zvkng’
will expand to ‘zvkn’ and ‘zvkg’.
zvks 1.0 Vector ShangMi algorithm suite extension, ‘zvks’ will expand
to ‘zvksed’, ‘zvksh’, ‘zvkb’ and ‘zvkt’.
smepmp 1.0 PMP Enhancements for memory access and execution pre-
vention on Machine mode.
xtheadcondmov
1.0 T-head conditional move extension.
xtheadfmemidx
1.0 T-head indexed memory operations for floating-point regis-
ters extension.
xtheadmemidx
1.0 T-head indexed memory operation extension.
xtheadmempair
1.0 T-head two-GPR memory operation extension.
xventanacondops
1.0 Ventana integer conditional operations extension.
When -mtune= is not specified, use the setting from -mcpu, the default is
‘rocket’ if both are not specified.
The ‘size’ choice is not intended for use by end-users. This is used when -Os is
specified. It overrides the instruction cost info provided by -mtune=, but does
not override the pipeline info. This helps reduce code size while still giving
good performance.
-mpreferred-stack-boundary=num
Attempt to keep the stack boundary aligned to a 2 raised to num byte boundary.
If -mpreferred-stack-boundary is not specified, the default is 4 (16 bytes or
128-bits).
Warning: If you use this switch, then you must build all modules with the same
value, including any libraries. This includes the system libraries and startup
modules.
-msmall-data-limit=n
Put global and static data smaller than n bytes into a special section (on some
targets).
-msave-restore
-mno-save-restore
Do or don’t use smaller but slower prologue and epilogue code that uses library
function calls. The default is to use fast inline prologues and epilogues.
-mmovcc
-mno-movcc
Do or don’t produce branchless conditional-move code sequences even with
targets that do not have specific instructions for conditional operations. If
enabled, sequences of ALU operations are produced using base integer ISA
instructions where profitable.
-minline-atomics
-mno-inline-atomics
Do or don’t use smaller but slower subword atomic emulation code that uses
libatomic function calls. The default is to use fast inline subword atomics that
do not require libatomic.
-minline-strlen
-mno-inline-strlen
Do or do not attempt to inline strlen calls if possible. Inlining will only be done
if the string is properly aligned and instructions for accelerated processing are
available. The default is to not inline strlen calls.
-minline-strcmp
-mno-inline-strcmp
Do or do not attempt to inline strcmp calls if possible. Inlining will only be done
if the strings are properly aligned and instructions for accelerated processing
are available. The default is to not inline strcmp calls.
The --param riscv-strcmp-inline-limit=n parameter controls the maxi-
mum number of bytes compared by the inlined code. The default value is
64.
462 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-minline-strncmp
-mno-inline-strncmp
Do or do not attempt to inline strncmp calls if possible. Inlining will only
be done if the strings are properly aligned and instructions for accelerated
processing are available. The default is to not inline strncmp calls.
The --param riscv-strcmp-inline-limit=n parameter controls the maxi-
mum number of bytes compared by the inlined code. The default value is
64.
-mshorten-memrefs
-mno-shorten-memrefs
Do or do not attempt to make more use of compressed load/store instructions
by replacing a load/store of ’base register + large offset’ with a new load/store
of ’new base + small offset’. If the new base gets stored in a compressed register,
then the new load/store can be compressed. Currently targets 32-bit integer
load/stores only.
-mstrict-align
-mno-strict-align
Do not or do generate unaligned memory accesses. The default is set depending
on whether the processor we are optimizing for supports fast unaligned access
or not.
-mscalar-strict-align
-mno-scalar-strict-align
Do not or do generate unaligned memory accesses. The default is set depending
on whether the processor we are optimizing for supports fast unaligned access
or not. This is an alias for -mstrict-align.
-mvector-strict-align
-mno-vector-strict-align
Do not or do generate unaligned vector memory accesses. The default is set
to off unless the processor we are optimizing for explicitly supports element-
misaligned vector memory access.
-mcmodel=medlow
Generate code for the medium-low code model. The program and its statically
defined symbols must lie within a single 2 GiB address range and must lie
between absolute addresses −2 GiB and +2 GiB. Programs can be statically
or dynamically linked. This is the default code model unless GCC has been
configured with --with-cmodel= specifying a different default code model.
-mcmodel=medany
Generate code for the medium-any code model. The program and its statically
defined symbols must be within any single 2 GiB address range. Programs can
be statically or dynamically linked.
The code generated by the medium-any code model is position-independent, but
is not guaranteed to function correctly when linked into position-independent
executables or libraries.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 463
-mcmodel=large
Generate code for a large code model, which has no restrictions on size or
placement of symbols.
-mexplicit-relocs
-mno-exlicit-relocs
Use or do not use assembler relocation operators when dealing with symbolic
addresses. The alternative is to use assembler macros instead, which may limit
optimization.
-mrelax
-mno-relax
Take advantage of linker relaxations to reduce the number of instructions re-
quired to materialize symbol addresses. The default is to take advantage of
linker relaxations.
-mriscv-attribute
-mno-riscv-attribute
Emit (do not emit) RISC-V attribute to record extra information into ELF
objects. This feature requires at least binutils 2.32.
-mcsr-check
-mno-csr-check
Enables or disables the CSR checking.
-malign-data=type
Control how GCC aligns variables and constants of array, structure, or union
types. Supported values for type are ‘xlen’ which uses x register width as the
alignment value, and ‘natural’ which uses natural alignment. ‘xlen’ is the
default.
-mbig-endian
Generate big-endian code. This is the default when GCC is configured for a
‘riscv64be-*-*’ or ‘riscv32be-*-*’ target.
-mlittle-endian
Generate little-endian code. This is the default when GCC is configured
for a ‘riscv64-*-*’ or ‘riscv32-*-*’ but not a ‘riscv64be-*-*’ or
‘riscv32be-*-*’ target.
-mstack-protector-guard=guard
-mstack-protector-guard-reg=reg
-mstack-protector-guard-offset=offset
Generate stack protection code using canary at guard. Supported locations are
‘global’ for a global canary or ‘tls’ for per-thread canary in the TLS block.
With the latter choice the options -mstack-protector-guard-reg=reg and
-mstack-protector-guard-offset=offset furthermore specify which register
to use as base register for reading the canary, and from what offset from that
base register. There is no default register or offset as this is entirely for use
within the Linux kernel.
464 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mtls-dialect=desc
Use TLS descriptors as the thread-local storage mechanism for dynamic accesses
of TLS variables.
-mtls-dialect=trad
Use traditional TLS as the thread-local storage mechanism for dynamic accesses
of TLS variables. This is the default.
-mcmpb
-mno-cmpb
-mhard-dfp
-mno-hard-dfp
You use these options to specify which instructions are available on the pro-
cessor you are using. The default value of these options is determined when
configuring GCC. Specifying the -mcpu=cpu_type overrides the specification
of these options. We recommend you use the -mcpu=cpu_type option rather
than the options listed above.
Specifying -mpowerpc-gpopt allows GCC to use the optional PowerPC architec-
ture instructions in the General Purpose group, including floating-point square
root. Specifying -mpowerpc-gfxopt allows GCC to use the optional PowerPC
architecture instructions in the Graphics group, including floating-point select.
The -mmfcrf option allows GCC to generate the move from condition register
field instruction implemented on the POWER4 processor and other processors
that support the PowerPC V2.01 architecture. The -mpopcntb option allows
GCC to generate the popcount and double-precision FP reciprocal estimate
instruction implemented on the POWER5 processor and other processors that
support the PowerPC V2.02 architecture. The -mpopcntd option allows GCC
to generate the popcount instruction implemented on the POWER7 proces-
sor and other processors that support the PowerPC V2.06 architecture. The
-mfprnd option allows GCC to generate the FP round to integer instructions
implemented on the POWER5+ processor and other processors that support the
PowerPC V2.03 architecture. The -mcmpb option allows GCC to generate the
compare bytes instruction implemented on the POWER6 processor and other
processors that support the PowerPC V2.05 architecture. The -mhard-dfp
option allows GCC to generate the decimal floating-point instructions imple-
mented on some POWER processors.
The -mpowerpc64 option allows GCC to generate the additional 64-bit instruc-
tions that are found in the full PowerPC64 architecture and to treat GPRs as
64-bit, doubleword quantities. GCC defaults to -mno-powerpc64.
-mcpu=cpu_type
Set architecture type, register usage, and instruction scheduling parameters for
machine type cpu type. Supported values for cpu type are ‘401’, ‘403’, ‘405’,
‘405fp’, ‘440’, ‘440fp’, ‘464’, ‘464fp’, ‘476’, ‘476fp’, ‘505’, ‘601’, ‘602’, ‘603’,
‘603e’, ‘604’, ‘604e’, ‘620’, ‘630’, ‘740’, ‘7400’, ‘7450’, ‘750’, ‘801’, ‘821’, ‘823’,
‘860’, ‘970’, ‘8540’, ‘a2’, ‘e300c2’, ‘e300c3’, ‘e500mc’, ‘e500mc64’, ‘e5500’,
‘e6500’, ‘ec603e’, ‘G3’, ‘G4’, ‘G5’, ‘titan’, ‘power3’, ‘power4’, ‘power5’,
‘power5+’, ‘power6’, ‘power6x’, ‘power7’, ‘power8’, ‘power9’, ‘power10’,
‘power11’, ‘powerpc’, ‘powerpc64’, ‘powerpc64le’, ‘rs64’, and ‘native’.
-mcpu=powerpc, -mcpu=powerpc64, and -mcpu=powerpc64le specify pure 32-
bit PowerPC (either endian), 64-bit big endian PowerPC and 64-bit little endian
PowerPC architecture machine types, with an appropriate, generic processor
model assumed for scheduling purposes.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 467
Specifying ‘native’ as cpu type detects and selects the architecture option that
corresponds to the host processor of the system performing the compilation.
-mcpu=native has no effect if GCC does not recognize the processor.
The other options specify a specific processor. Code generated under those
options runs best on that processor, and may not run at all on others.
The -mcpu options automatically enable or disable the following options:
-maltivec -mfprnd -mhard-float -mmfcrf -mmultiple
-mpopcntb -mpopcntd -mpowerpc64
-mpowerpc-gpopt -mpowerpc-gfxopt
-mmulhw -mdlmzb -mmfpgpr -mvsx
-mcrypto -mhtm -mpower8-fusion
-mquad-memory -mquad-memory-atomic -mfloat128
-mfloat128-hardware -mprefixed -mpcrel -mmma
-mrop-protect
The particular options set for any particular CPU varies between compiler
versions, depending on what setting seems to produce optimal code for that
CPU; it doesn’t necessarily reflect the actual hardware’s capabilities. If you
wish to set an individual option to a particular value, you may specify it after
the -mcpu option, like -mcpu=970 -mno-altivec.
On AIX, the -maltivec and -mpowerpc64 options are not enabled or disabled
by the -mcpu option at present because AIX does not have full support for these
options. You may still enable or disable them individually if you’re sure it’ll
work in your environment.
-mtune=cpu_type
Set the instruction scheduling parameters for machine type cpu type, but do not
set the architecture type or register usage, as -mcpu=cpu_type does. The same
values for cpu type are used for -mtune as for -mcpu. If both are specified,
the code generated uses the architecture and registers set by -mcpu, but the
scheduling parameters set by -mtune.
-mcmodel=small
Generate PowerPC64 code for the small model: The TOC is limited to 64k.
-mcmodel=medium
Generate PowerPC64 code for the medium model: The TOC and other static
data may be up to a total of 4G in size. This is the default for 64-bit Linux.
-mcmodel=large
Generate PowerPC64 code for the large model: The TOC may be up to 4G in
size. Other data and code is only limited by the 64-bit address space.
-maltivec
-mno-altivec
Generate code that uses (does not use) AltiVec instructions, and also enable the
use of built-in functions that allow more direct access to the AltiVec instruction
set. You may also need to set -mabi=altivec to adjust the current ABI with
AltiVec ABI enhancements.
When -maltivec is used, the element order for AltiVec intrinsics such as vec_
splat, vec_extract, and vec_insert match array element order correspond-
ing to the endianness of the target. That is, element zero identifies the leftmost
468 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mfloat128
-mno-float128
Enable/disable the float128 keyword for IEEE 128-bit floating point and use
either software emulation for IEEE 128-bit floating point or hardware instruc-
tions.
The VSX instruction set (-mvsx) must be enabled to use the IEEE 128-bit
floating point support. The IEEE 128-bit floating point is only supported on
Linux.
The default for -mfloat128 is enabled on PowerPC Linux systems using the
VSX instruction set, and disabled on other systems.
If you use the ISA 3.0 instruction set (-mcpu=power9) on a 64-bit system, the
IEEE 128-bit floating point support will also enable the generation of ISA 3.0
IEEE 128-bit floating point instructions. Otherwise, if you do not specify to
generate ISA 3.0 instructions or you are targeting a 32-bit big endian system,
IEEE 128-bit floating point will be done with software emulation.
-mfloat128-hardware
-mno-float128-hardware
Enable/disable using ISA 3.0 hardware instructions to support the float128
data type.
The default for -mfloat128-hardware is enabled on PowerPC Linux systems
using the ISA 3.0 instruction set, and disabled on other systems.
-m32
-m64 Generate code for 32-bit or 64-bit environments of Darwin and SVR4 targets
(including GNU/Linux). The 32-bit environment sets int, long and pointer
to 32 bits and generates code that runs on any PowerPC variant. The 64-bit
environment sets int to 32 bits and long and pointer to 64 bits, and generates
code for PowerPC64, as for -mpowerpc64.
-mfull-toc
-mno-fp-in-toc
-mno-sum-in-toc
-mminimal-toc
Modify generation of the TOC (Table Of Contents), which is created for every
executable file. The -mfull-toc option is selected by default. In that case,
GCC allocates at least one TOC entry for each unique non-automatic variable
reference in your program. GCC also places floating-point constants in the
TOC. However, only 16,384 entries are available in the TOC.
If you receive a linker error message that saying you have overflowed the avail-
able TOC space, you can reduce the amount of TOC space used with the -mno-
fp-in-toc and -mno-sum-in-toc options. -mno-fp-in-toc prevents GCC
from putting floating-point constants in the TOC and -mno-sum-in-toc forces
GCC to generate code to calculate the sum of an address and a constant at run
time instead of putting that sum into the TOC. You may specify one or both
of these options. Each causes GCC to produce very slightly slower and larger
code at the expense of conserving TOC space.
470 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
If you still run out of space in the TOC even when you specify both of these
options, specify -mminimal-toc instead. This option causes GCC to make only
one TOC entry for every file. When you specify this option, GCC produces
code that is slower and larger but which uses extremely little TOC space. You
may wish to use this option only on files that contain less frequently-executed
code.
-maix64
-maix32 Enable 64-bit AIX ABI and calling convention: 64-bit pointers, 64-bit long
type, and the infrastructure needed to support them. Specifying -maix64 im-
plies -mpowerpc64, while -maix32 disables the 64-bit ABI and implies -mno-
powerpc64. GCC defaults to -maix32.
-mxl-compat
-mno-xl-compat
Produce code that conforms more closely to IBM XL compiler semantics when
using AIX-compatible ABI. Pass floating-point arguments to prototyped func-
tions beyond the register save area (RSA) on the stack in addition to argument
FPRs. Do not assume that most significant double in 128-bit long double value
is properly rounded when comparing values and converting to double. Use XL
symbol names for long double support routines.
The AIX calling convention was extended but not initially documented to han-
dle an obscure K&R C case of calling a function that takes the address of
its arguments with fewer arguments than declared. IBM XL compilers access
floating-point arguments that do not fit in the RSA from the stack when a
subroutine is compiled without optimization. Because always storing floating-
point arguments on the stack is inefficient and rarely needed, this option is not
enabled by default and only is necessary when calling subroutines compiled by
IBM XL compilers without optimization.
-malign-natural
-malign-power
On AIX, 32-bit Darwin, and 64-bit PowerPC GNU/Linux, the option -malign-
natural overrides the ABI-defined alignment of larger types, such as floating-
point doubles, on their natural size-based boundary. The option -malign-
power instructs GCC to follow the ABI-specified alignment rules. GCC defaults
to the standard alignment defined in the ABI.
On 64-bit Darwin, natural alignment is the default, and -malign-power is not
supported.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 471
-msoft-float
-mhard-float
Generate code that does not use (uses) the floating-point register set. Software
floating-point emulation is provided if you use the -msoft-float option, and
pass the option to GCC when linking.
-mmultiple
-mno-multiple
Generate code that uses (does not use) the load multiple word instructions
and the store multiple word instructions. These instructions are generated
by default on POWER systems, and not generated on PowerPC systems. Do
not use -mmultiple on little-endian PowerPC systems, since those instructions
do not work when the processor is in little-endian mode. The exceptions are
PPC740 and PPC750 which permit these instructions in little-endian mode.
-mupdate
-mno-update
Generate code that uses (does not use) the load or store instructions that update
the base register to the address of the calculated memory location. These
instructions are generated by default. If you use -mno-update, there is a small
window between the time that the stack pointer is updated and the address
of the previous frame is stored, which means code that walks the stack frame
across interrupts or signals may get corrupted data.
-mavoid-indexed-addresses
-mno-avoid-indexed-addresses
Generate code that tries to avoid (not avoid) the use of indexed load or store
instructions. These instructions can incur a performance penalty on Power6
processors in certain situations, such as when stepping through large arrays
that cross a 16M boundary. This option is enabled by default when targeting
Power6 and disabled otherwise.
-mfused-madd
-mno-fused-madd
Generate code that uses (does not use) the floating-point multiply and accu-
mulate instructions. These instructions are generated by default if hardware
floating point is used. The machine-dependent -mfused-madd option is now
mapped to the machine-independent -ffp-contract=fast option, and -mno-
fused-madd is mapped to -ffp-contract=off.
-mmulhw
-mno-mulhw
Generate code that uses (does not use) the half-word multiply and multiply-
accumulate instructions on the IBM 405, 440, 464 and 476 processors. These
instructions are generated by default when targeting those processors.
-mdlmzb
-mno-dlmzb
Generate code that uses (does not use) the string-search ‘dlmzb’ instruction on
the IBM 405, 440, 464 and 476 processors. This instruction is generated by
default when targeting those processors.
472 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mno-bit-align
-mbit-align
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems do not (do) force structures
and unions that contain bit-fields to be aligned to the base type of the bit-field.
For example, by default a structure containing nothing but 8 unsigned bit-
fields of length 1 is aligned to a 4-byte boundary and has a size of 4 bytes. By
using -mno-bit-align, the structure is aligned to a 1-byte boundary and is 1
byte in size.
-mno-strict-align
-mstrict-align
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems do not (do) assume that un-
aligned memory references are handled by the system.
-mrelocatable
-mno-relocatable
Generate code that allows (does not allow) a static executable to be relocated
to a different address at run time. A simple embedded PowerPC system loader
should relocate the entire contents of .got2 and 4-byte locations listed in the
.fixup section, a table of 32-bit addresses generated by this option. For this
to work, all objects linked together must be compiled with -mrelocatable
or -mrelocatable-lib. -mrelocatable code aligns the stack to an 8-byte
boundary.
-mrelocatable-lib
-mno-relocatable-lib
Like -mrelocatable, -mrelocatable-lib generates a .fixup section to allow
static executables to be relocated at run time, but -mrelocatable-lib does
not use the smaller stack alignment of -mrelocatable. Objects compiled with
-mrelocatable-lib may be linked with objects compiled with any combination
of the -mrelocatable options.
-mno-toc
-mtoc On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems do not (do) assume that reg-
ister 2 contains a pointer to a global area pointing to the addresses used in the
program.
-mlittle
-mlittle-endian
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code for the processor
in little-endian mode. The -mlittle-endian option is the same as -mlittle.
-mbig
-mbig-endian
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code for the processor
in big-endian mode. The -mbig-endian option is the same as -mbig.
-mdynamic-no-pic
On Darwin / macOS systems, compile code so that it is not relocatable, but
that its external references are relocatable. The resulting code is suitable for
applications, but not shared libraries.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 473
-msingle-pic-base
Treat the register used for PIC addressing as read-only, rather than loading
it in the prologue for each function. The runtime system is responsible for
initializing this register with an appropriate value before execution begins.
-mprioritize-restricted-insns=priority
This option controls the priority that is assigned to dispatch-slot restricted
instructions during the second scheduling pass. The argument priority takes
the value ‘0’, ‘1’, or ‘2’ to assign no, highest, or second-highest (respectively)
priority to dispatch-slot restricted instructions.
-msched-costly-dep=dependence_type
This option controls which dependences are considered costly by the target
during instruction scheduling. The argument dependence type takes one of the
following values:
‘no’ No dependence is costly.
‘all’ All dependences are costly.
‘true_store_to_load’
A true dependence from store to load is costly.
‘store_to_load’
Any dependence from store to load is costly.
number Any dependence for which the latency is greater than or equal to
number is costly.
-minsert-sched-nops=scheme
This option controls which NOP insertion scheme is used during the second
scheduling pass. The argument scheme takes one of the following values:
‘no’ Don’t insert NOPs.
‘pad’ Pad with NOPs any dispatch group that has vacant issue slots,
according to the scheduler’s grouping.
‘regroup_exact’
Insert NOPs to force costly dependent insns into separate groups.
Insert exactly as many NOPs as needed to force an insn to a new
group, according to the estimated processor grouping.
number Insert NOPs to force costly dependent insns into separate groups.
Insert number NOPs to force an insn to a new group.
-mcall-sysv
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code using calling
conventions that adhere to the March 1995 draft of the System V Application
Binary Interface, PowerPC processor supplement. This is the default unless
you configured GCC using ‘powerpc-*-eabiaix’.
-mcall-sysv-eabi
-mcall-eabi
Specify both -mcall-sysv and -meabi options.
474 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mcall-sysv-noeabi
Specify both -mcall-sysv and -mno-eabi options.
-mcall-aixdesc
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code for the AIX
operating system.
-mcall-linux
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code for the Linux-
based GNU system.
-mcall-freebsd
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code for the FreeBSD
operating system.
-mcall-netbsd
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code for the NetBSD
operating system.
-mcall-openbsd
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code for the OpenBSD
operating system.
-mtraceback=traceback_type
Select the type of traceback table. Valid values for traceback type are ‘full’,
‘part’, and ‘no’.
-maix-struct-return
Return all structures in memory (as specified by the AIX ABI).
-msvr4-struct-return
Return structures smaller than 8 bytes in registers (as specified by the SVR4
ABI).
-mabi=abi-type
Extend the current ABI with a particular extension, or remove such
extension. Valid values are: ‘altivec’, ‘no-altivec’, ‘ibmlongdouble’,
‘ieeelongdouble’, ‘elfv1’, ‘elfv2’, and for AIX: ‘vec-extabi’,
‘vec-default’.
-mabi=ibmlongdouble
Change the current ABI to use IBM extended-precision long double. This is
not likely to work if your system defaults to using IEEE extended-precision long
double. If you change the long double type from IEEE extended-precision, the
compiler will issue a warning unless you use the -Wno-psabi option. Requires
-mlong-double-128 to be enabled.
-mabi=ieeelongdouble
Change the current ABI to use IEEE extended-precision long double. This is
not likely to work if your system defaults to using IBM extended-precision long
double. If you change the long double type from IBM extended-precision, the
compiler will issue a warning unless you use the -Wno-psabi option. Requires
-mlong-double-128 to be enabled.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 475
-mabi=elfv1
Change the current ABI to use the ELFv1 ABI. This is the default ABI for
big-endian PowerPC 64-bit Linux. Overriding the default ABI requires special
system support and is likely to fail in spectacular ways.
-mabi=elfv2
Change the current ABI to use the ELFv2 ABI. This is the default ABI for
little-endian PowerPC 64-bit Linux. Overriding the default ABI requires special
system support and is likely to fail in spectacular ways.
-mgnu-attribute
-mno-gnu-attribute
Emit .gnu attribute assembly directives to set tag/value pairs in a
.gnu.attributes section that specify ABI variations in function parameters or
return values.
-mprototype
-mno-prototype
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems assume that all calls to vari-
able argument functions are properly prototyped. Otherwise, the compiler must
insert an instruction before every non-prototyped call to set or clear bit 6 of the
condition code register (CR) to indicate whether floating-point values are passed
in the floating-point registers in case the function takes variable arguments.
With -mprototype, only calls to prototyped variable argument functions set or
clear the bit.
-msim On embedded PowerPC systems, assume that the startup module is called sim-
crt0.o and that the standard C libraries are libsim.a and libc.a. This is
the default for ‘powerpc-*-eabisim’ configurations.
-mmvme On embedded PowerPC systems, assume that the startup module is called
crt0.o and the standard C libraries are libmvme.a and libc.a.
-mads On embedded PowerPC systems, assume that the startup module is called
crt0.o and the standard C libraries are libads.a and libc.a.
-myellowknife
On embedded PowerPC systems, assume that the startup module is called
crt0.o and the standard C libraries are libyk.a and libc.a.
-mvxworks
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems, specify that you are compiling
for a VxWorks system.
-memb On embedded PowerPC systems, set the PPC_EMB bit in the ELF flags header
to indicate that ‘eabi’ extended relocations are used.
-meabi
-mno-eabi
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems do (do not) adhere to the
Embedded Applications Binary Interface (EABI), which is a set of modifications
to the System V.4 specifications. Selecting -meabi means that the stack is
476 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
expansion (non-loop and loop) of block compare is disabled. The default value
is target-specific.
-mblock-compare-inline-loop-limit=num
Generate an inline expansion using loop code for all block compares that are
less than or equal to num bytes, but greater than the limit for non-loop inline
block compare expansion. If the block length is not constant, at most num
bytes will be compared before memcmp is called to compare the remainder of the
block. The default value is target-specific.
-mstring-compare-inline-limit=num
Compare at most num string bytes with inline code. If the difference or end of
string is not found at the end of the inline compare a call to strcmp or strncmp
will take care of the rest of the comparison. The default is 64 bytes.
-G num On embedded PowerPC systems, put global and static items less than or equal
to num bytes into the small data or BSS sections instead of the normal data
or BSS section. By default, num is 8. The -G num switch is also passed to the
linker. All modules should be compiled with the same -G num value.
-mregnames
-mno-regnames
On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems do (do not) emit register
names in the assembly language output using symbolic forms.
-mlongcall
-mno-longcall
By default assume that all calls are far away so that a longer and more expensive
calling sequence is required. This is required for calls farther than 32 megabytes
(33,554,432 bytes) from the current location. A short call is generated if the
compiler knows the call cannot be that far away. This setting can be overridden
by the shortcall function attribute, or by #pragma longcall(0).
Some linkers are capable of detecting out-of-range calls and generating glue
code on the fly. On these systems, long calls are unnecessary and generate
slower code. As of this writing, the AIX linker can do this, as can the GNU
linker for PowerPC/64. It is planned to add this feature to the GNU linker for
32-bit PowerPC systems as well.
On PowerPC64 ELFv2 and 32-bit PowerPC systems with newer GNU linkers,
GCC can generate long calls using an inline PLT call sequence (see -mpltseq).
PowerPC with -mbss-plt and PowerPC64 ELFv1 (big-endian) do not support
inline PLT calls.
On Darwin/PPC systems, #pragma longcall generates jbsr callee, L42,
plus a branch island (glue code). The two target addresses represent the callee
and the branch island. The Darwin/PPC linker prefers the first address and
generates a bl callee if the PPC bl instruction reaches the callee directly;
otherwise, the linker generates bl L42 to call the branch island. The branch
island is appended to the body of the calling function; it computes the full
32-bit address of the callee and jumps to it.
478 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
On Mach-O (Darwin) systems, this option directs the compiler emit to the glue
for every direct call, and the Darwin linker decides whether to use or discard
it.
In the future, GCC may ignore all longcall specifications when the linker is
known to generate glue.
-mpltseq
-mno-pltseq
Implement (do not implement) -fno-plt and long calls using an inline PLT call
sequence that supports lazy linking and long calls to functions in dlopen’d
shared libraries. Inline PLT calls are only supported on PowerPC64 ELFv2
and 32-bit PowerPC systems with newer GNU linkers, and are enabled by
default if the support is detected when configuring GCC, and, in the case of 32-
bit PowerPC, if GCC is configured with --enable-secureplt. -mpltseq code
and -mbss-plt 32-bit PowerPC relocatable objects may not be linked together.
-mtls-markers
-mno-tls-markers
Mark (do not mark) calls to __tls_get_addr with a relocation specifying the
function argument. The relocation allows the linker to reliably associate func-
tion call with argument setup instructions for TLS optimization, which in turn
allows GCC to better schedule the sequence.
-mrecip
-mno-recip
This option enables use of the reciprocal estimate and reciprocal square root
estimate instructions with additional Newton-Raphson steps to increase pre-
cision instead of doing a divide or square root and divide for floating-point
arguments. You should use the -ffast-math option when using -mrecip (or at
least -funsafe-math-optimizations, -ffinite-math-only, -freciprocal-
math and -fno-trapping-math). Note that while the throughput of the se-
quence is generally higher than the throughput of the non-reciprocal instruc-
tion, the precision of the sequence can be decreased by up to 2 ulp (i.e. the
inverse of 1.0 equals 0.99999994) for reciprocal square roots.
-mrecip=opt
This option controls which reciprocal estimate instructions may be used. opt
is a comma-separated list of options, which may be preceded by a ! to invert
the option:
‘all’ Enable all estimate instructions.
‘default’ Enable the default instructions, equivalent to -mrecip.
‘none’ Disable all estimate instructions, equivalent to -mno-recip.
‘div’ Enable the reciprocal approximation instructions for both single
and double precision.
‘divf’ Enable the single-precision reciprocal approximation instructions.
‘divd’ Enable the double-precision reciprocal approximation instructions.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 479
-msave-toc-indirect
-mno-save-toc-indirect
Generate (do not generate) code to save the TOC value in the reserved stack
location in the function prologue if the function calls through a pointer on AIX
and 64-bit Linux systems. If the TOC value is not saved in the prologue, it is
saved just before the call through the pointer. The -mno-save-toc-indirect
option is the default.
-mcompat-align-parm
-mno-compat-align-parm
Generate (do not generate) code to pass structure parameters with a maximum
alignment of 64 bits, for compatibility with older versions of GCC.
Older versions of GCC (prior to 4.9.0) incorrectly did not align a structure
parameter on a 128-bit boundary when that structure contained a member
requiring 128-bit alignment. This is corrected in more recent versions of GCC.
This option may be used to generate code that is compatible with functions
compiled with older versions of GCC.
The -mno-compat-align-parm option is the default.
-mstack-protector-guard=guard
-mstack-protector-guard-reg=reg
-mstack-protector-guard-offset=offset
Generate stack protection code using canary at guard. Supported locations are
‘global’ for global canary or ‘tls’ for per-thread canary in the TLS block (the
default with GNU libc version 2.4 or later).
With the latter choice the options -mstack-protector-guard-reg=reg and
-mstack-protector-guard-offset=offset furthermore specify which register
to use as base register for reading the canary, and from what offset from that
base register. The default for those is as specified in the relevant ABI.
-mpcrel
-mno-pcrel
Generate (do not generate) pc-relative addressing. The -mpcrel option re-
quires that the medium code model (-mcmodel=medium) and prefixed addressing
(-mprefixed) options are enabled.
-mprefixed
-mno-prefixed
Generate (do not generate) addressing modes using prefixed load and store
instructions. The -mprefixed option requires that the option -mcpu=power10
(or later) is enabled.
-mmma
-mno-mma Generate (do not generate) the MMA instructions. The -mma option requires
that the option -mcpu=power10 (or later) is enabled.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 481
-mrop-protect
-mno-rop-protect
Generate (do not generate) ROP protection instructions when the target proces-
sor supports them. Currently this option disables the shrink-wrap optimization
(-fshrink-wrap).
-mprivileged
-mno-privileged
Generate (do not generate) code that will run in privileged state.
-mblock-ops-unaligned-vsx
-mno-block-ops-unaligned-vsx
Generate (do not generate) unaligned vsx loads and stores for inline expansion
of memcpy and memmove.
--param rs6000-vect-unroll-limit=
The vectorizer will check with target information to determine whether it would
be beneficial to unroll the main vectorized loop and by how much. This pa-
rameter sets the upper bound of how much the vectorizer will unroll the main
loop. The default value is four.
3.20.42 RX Options
These command-line options are defined for RX targets:
-m64bit-doubles
-m32bit-doubles
Make the double data type be 64 bits (-m64bit-doubles) or 32 bits (-m32bit-
doubles) in size. The default is -m32bit-doubles. Note RX floating-point
hardware only works on 32-bit values, which is why the default is -m32bit-
doubles.
-fpu
-nofpu Enables (-fpu) or disables (-nofpu) the use of RX floating-point hardware.
The default is enabled for the RX600 series and disabled for the RX200 series.
Floating-point instructions are only generated for 32-bit floating-point values,
however, so the FPU hardware is not used for doubles if the -m64bit-doubles
option is used.
Note If the -fpu option is enabled then -funsafe-math-optimizations is also
enabled automatically. This is because the RX FPU instructions are themselves
unsafe.
-mcpu=name
Selects the type of RX CPU to be targeted. Currently three types are sup-
ported, the generic ‘RX600’ and ‘RX200’ series hardware and the specific ‘RX610’
CPU. The default is ‘RX600’.
The only difference between ‘RX600’ and ‘RX610’ is that the ‘RX610’ does not
support the MVTIPL instruction.
The ‘RX200’ series does not have a hardware floating-point unit and so -nofpu
is enabled by default when this type is selected.
482 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mbig-endian-data
-mlittle-endian-data
Store data (but not code) in the big-endian format. The default is -mlittle-
endian-data, i.e. to store data in the little-endian format.
-msmall-data-limit=N
Specifies the maximum size in bytes of global and static variables which can be
placed into the small data area. Using the small data area can lead to smaller
and faster code, but the size of area is limited and it is up to the programmer to
ensure that the area does not overflow. Also when the small data area is used
one of the RX’s registers (usually r13) is reserved for use pointing to this area,
so it is no longer available for use by the compiler. This could result in slower
and/or larger code if variables are pushed onto the stack instead of being held
in this register.
Note, common variables (variables that have not been initialized) and constants
are not placed into the small data area as they are assigned to other sections
in the output executable.
The default value is zero, which disables this feature. Note, this feature is
not enabled by default with higher optimization levels (-O2 etc) because of the
potentially detrimental effects of reserving a register. It is up to the programmer
to experiment and discover whether this feature is of benefit to their program.
See the description of the -mpid option for a description of how the actual
register to hold the small data area pointer is chosen.
-msim
-mno-sim Use the simulator runtime. The default is to use the libgloss board-specific
runtime.
-mas100-syntax
-mno-as100-syntax
When generating assembler output use a syntax that is compatible with Rene-
sas’s AS100 assembler. This syntax can also be handled by the GAS assembler,
but it has some restrictions so it is not generated by default.
-mmax-constant-size=N
Specifies the maximum size, in bytes, of a constant that can be used as an
operand in a RX instruction. Although the RX instruction set does allow
constants of up to 4 bytes in length to be used in instructions, a longer value
equates to a longer instruction. Thus in some circumstances it can be beneficial
to restrict the size of constants that are used in instructions. Constants that
are too big are instead placed into a constant pool and referenced via register
indirection.
The value N can be between 0 and 4. A value of 0 (the default) or 4 means
that constants of any size are allowed.
-mrelax Enable linker relaxation. Linker relaxation is a process whereby the linker
attempts to reduce the size of a program by finding shorter versions of various
instructions. Disabled by default.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 483
-mint-register=N
Specify the number of registers to reserve for fast interrupt handler functions.
The value N can be between 0 and 4. A value of 1 means that register r13 is
reserved for the exclusive use of fast interrupt handlers. A value of 2 reserves
r13 and r12. A value of 3 reserves r13, r12 and r11, and a value of 4 reserves
r13 through r10. A value of 0, the default, does not reserve any registers.
-msave-acc-in-interrupts
Specifies that interrupt handler functions should preserve the accumulator reg-
ister. This is only necessary if normal code might use the accumulator register,
for example because it performs 64-bit multiplications. The default is to ignore
the accumulator as this makes the interrupt handlers faster.
-mpid
-mno-pid Enables the generation of position independent data. When enabled any access
to constant data is done via an offset from a base address held in a register.
This allows the location of constant data to be determined at run time with-
out requiring the executable to be relocated, which is a benefit to embedded
applications with tight memory constraints. Data that can be modified is not
affected by this option.
Note, using this feature reserves a register, usually r13, for the constant data
base address. This can result in slower and/or larger code, especially in com-
plicated functions.
The actual register chosen to hold the constant data base address depends upon
whether the -msmall-data-limit and/or the -mint-register command-line
options are enabled. Starting with register r13 and proceeding downwards,
registers are allocated first to satisfy the requirements of -mint-register, then
-mpid and finally -msmall-data-limit. Thus it is possible for the small data
area register to be r8 if both -mint-register=4 and -mpid are specified on
the command line.
By default this feature is not enabled. The default can be restored via the
-mno-pid command-line option.
-mno-warn-multiple-fast-interrupts
-mwarn-multiple-fast-interrupts
Prevents GCC from issuing a warning message if it finds more than one fast
interrupt handler when it is compiling a file. The default is to issue a warning
for each extra fast interrupt handler found, as the RX only supports one such
interrupt.
-mallow-string-insns
-mno-allow-string-insns
Enables or disables the use of the string manipulation instructions SMOVF,
SCMPU, SMOVB, SMOVU, SUNTIL SWHILE and also the RMPA instruction. These
instructions may prefetch data, which is not safe to do if accessing an I/O
register. (See section 12.2.7 of the RX62N Group User’s Manual for more in-
formation).
The default is to allow these instructions, but it is not possible for GCC to
reliably detect all circumstances where a string instruction might be used to
484 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
stack frame; when -mpacked-stack is in effect, the backchain is placed into the
topmost word of the 96/160 byte register save area.
In general, code compiled with -mbackchain is call-compatible with code com-
piled with -mno-backchain; however, use of the backchain for debugging pur-
poses usually requires that the whole binary is built with -mbackchain. Note
that the combination of -mbackchain, -mpacked-stack and -mhard-float is
not supported. In order to build a linux kernel use -msoft-float.
The default is to not maintain the backchain.
-mpacked-stack
-mno-packed-stack
Use (do not use) the packed stack layout. When -mno-packed-stack is speci-
fied, the compiler uses the all fields of the 96/160 byte register save area only for
their default purpose; unused fields still take up stack space. When -mpacked-
stack is specified, register save slots are densely packed at the top of the register
save area; unused space is reused for other purposes, allowing for more efficient
use of the available stack space. However, when -mbackchain is also in effect,
the topmost word of the save area is always used to store the backchain, and
the return address register is always saved two words below the backchain.
As long as the stack frame backchain is not used, code generated with
-mpacked-stack is call-compatible with code generated with -mno-packed-
stack. Note that some non-FSF releases of GCC 2.95 for S/390 or zSeries
generated code that uses the stack frame backchain at run time, not just for
debugging purposes. Such code is not call-compatible with code compiled
with -mpacked-stack. Also, note that the combination of -mbackchain,
-mpacked-stack and -mhard-float is not supported. In order to build a
linux kernel use -msoft-float.
The default is to not use the packed stack layout.
-msmall-exec
-mno-small-exec
Generate (or do not generate) code using the bras instruction to do subroutine
calls. This only works reliably if the total executable size does not exceed 64k.
The default is to use the basr instruction instead, which does not have this
limitation.
-m64
-m31 When -m31 is specified, generate code compliant to the GNU/Linux for S/390
ABI. When -m64 is specified, generate code compliant to the GNU/Linux for
zSeries ABI. This allows GCC in particular to generate 64-bit instructions.
For the ‘s390’ targets, the default is -m31, while the ‘s390x’ targets default to
-m64.
-mzarch
-mesa When -mzarch is specified, generate code using the instructions available on
z/Architecture. When -mesa is specified, generate code using the instructions
available on ESA/390. Note that -mesa is not possible with -m64. When
generating code compliant to the GNU/Linux for S/390 ABI, the default is
486 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mesa. When generating code compliant to the GNU/Linux for zSeries ABI,
the default is -mzarch.
-mhtm
-mno-htm The -mhtm option enables a set of builtins making use of instructions available
with the transactional execution facility introduced with the IBM zEnterprise
EC12 machine generation Section 6.65.34 [S/390 System z Built-in Functions],
page 968. -mhtm is enabled by default when using -march=zEC12.
-mvx
-mno-vx When -mvx is specified, generate code using the instructions available with the
vector extension facility introduced with the IBM z13 machine generation. This
option changes the ABI for some vector type values with regard to alignment
and calling conventions. In case vector type values are being used in an ABI-
relevant context a GAS ‘.gnu_attribute’ command will be added to mark the
resulting binary with the ABI used. -mvx is enabled by default when using
-march=z13.
-mzvector
-mno-zvector
The -mzvector option enables vector language extensions and builtins using
instructions available with the vector extension facility introduced with the
IBM z13 machine generation. This option adds support for ‘vector’ to be
used as a keyword to define vector type variables and arguments. ‘vector’
is only available when GNU extensions are enabled. It will not be expanded
when requesting strict standard compliance e.g. with -std=c99. In addition
to the GCC low-level builtins -mzvector enables a set of builtins added for
compatibility with AltiVec-style implementations like Power and Cell. In order
to make use of these builtins the header file vecintrin.h needs to be included.
-mzvector is disabled by default.
-mmvcle
-mno-mvcle
Generate (or do not generate) code using the mvcle instruction to perform
block moves. When -mno-mvcle is specified, use a mvc loop instead. This is
the default unless optimizing for size.
-mdebug
-mno-debug
Print (or do not print) additional debug information when compiling. The
default is to not print debug information.
-march=cpu-type
Generate code that runs on cpu-type, which is the name of a system
representing a certain processor type. Possible values for cpu-type are
‘z900’/‘arch5’, ‘z990’/‘arch6’, ‘z9-109’, ‘z9-ec’/‘arch7’, ‘z10’/‘arch8’,
‘z196’/‘arch9’, ‘zEC12’, ‘z13’/‘arch11’, ‘z14’/‘arch12’, ‘z15’/‘arch13’,
‘z16’/‘arch14’, and ‘native’.
The default is -march=z900.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 487
Specifying ‘native’ as cpu type can be used to select the best architecture
option for the host processor. -march=native has no effect if GCC does not
recognize the processor.
-mtune=cpu-type
Tune to cpu-type everything applicable about the generated code, except for
the ABI and the set of available instructions. The list of cpu-type values is the
same as for -march. The default is the value used for -march.
-mtpf-trace
-mno-tpf-trace
Generate code that adds (does not add) in TPF OS specific branches to trace
routines in the operating system. This option is off by default, even when
compiling for the TPF OS.
-mtpf-trace-skip
-mno-tpf-trace-skip
Generate code that changes (does not change) the default branch targets en-
abled by -mtpf-trace to point to specialized trace routines providing the ability
of selectively skipping function trace entries for the TPF OS. This option is off
by default, even when compiling for the TPF OS and specifying -mtpf-trace.
-mfused-madd
-mno-fused-madd
Generate code that uses (does not use) the floating-point multiply and accu-
mulate instructions. These instructions are generated by default if hardware
floating point is used.
-mwarn-framesize=framesize
Emit a warning if the current function exceeds the given frame size. Because
this is a compile-time check it doesn’t need to be a real problem when the
program runs. It is intended to identify functions that most probably cause a
stack overflow. It is useful to be used in an environment with limited stack size
e.g. the linux kernel.
-mwarn-dynamicstack
Emit a warning if the function calls alloca or uses dynamically-sized arrays.
This is generally a bad idea with a limited stack size.
-mstack-guard=stack-guard
-mstack-size=stack-size
If these options are provided the S/390 back end emits additional instructions
in the function prologue that trigger a trap if the stack size is stack-guard bytes
above the stack-size (remember that the stack on S/390 grows downward).
If the stack-guard option is omitted the smallest power of 2 larger than the
frame size of the compiled function is chosen. These options are intended to
be used to help debugging stack overflow problems. The additionally emitted
code causes only little overhead and hence can also be used in production-like
systems without greater performance degradation. The given values have to be
exact powers of 2 and stack-size has to be greater than stack-guard without
exceeding 64k. In order to be efficient the extra code makes the assumption
488 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
that the stack starts at an address aligned to the value given by stack-size. The
stack-guard option can only be used in conjunction with stack-size.
-mhotpatch=pre-halfwords,post-halfwords
If the hotpatch option is enabled, a “hot-patching” function prologue is gener-
ated for all functions in the compilation unit. The funtion label is prepended
with the given number of two-byte NOP instructions (pre-halfwords, maximum
1000000). After the label, 2 * post-halfwords bytes are appended, using the
largest NOP like instructions the architecture allows (maximum 1000000).
If both arguments are zero, hotpatching is disabled.
This option can be overridden for individual functions with the hotpatch at-
tribute.
3.20.44 SH Options
These ‘-m’ options are defined for the SH implementations:
-m1 Generate code for the SH1.
-m2 Generate code for the SH2.
-m2e Generate code for the SH2e.
-m2a-nofpu
Generate code for the SH2a without FPU, or for a SH2a-FPU in such a way
that the floating-point unit is not used.
-m2a-single-only
Generate code for the SH2a-FPU, in such a way that no double-precision
floating-point operations are used.
-m2a-single
Generate code for the SH2a-FPU assuming the floating-point unit is in single-
precision mode by default.
-m2a Generate code for the SH2a-FPU assuming the floating-point unit is in double-
precision mode by default.
-m3 Generate code for the SH3.
-m3e Generate code for the SH3e.
-m4-nofpu
Generate code for the SH4 without a floating-point unit.
-m4-single-only
Generate code for the SH4 with a floating-point unit that only supports single-
precision arithmetic.
-m4-single
Generate code for the SH4 assuming the floating-point unit is in single-precision
mode by default.
-m4 Generate code for the SH4.
-m4-100 Generate code for SH4-100.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 489
-m4-100-nofpu
Generate code for SH4-100 in such a way that the floating-point unit is not
used.
-m4-100-single
Generate code for SH4-100 assuming the floating-point unit is in single-precision
mode by default.
-m4-100-single-only
Generate code for SH4-100 in such a way that no double-precision floating-point
operations are used.
-m4-200 Generate code for SH4-200.
-m4-200-nofpu
Generate code for SH4-200 without in such a way that the floating-point unit
is not used.
-m4-200-single
Generate code for SH4-200 assuming the floating-point unit is in single-precision
mode by default.
-m4-200-single-only
Generate code for SH4-200 in such a way that no double-precision floating-point
operations are used.
-m4-300 Generate code for SH4-300.
-m4-300-nofpu
Generate code for SH4-300 without in such a way that the floating-point unit
is not used.
-m4-300-single
Generate code for SH4-300 in such a way that no double-precision floating-point
operations are used.
-m4-300-single-only
Generate code for SH4-300 in such a way that no double-precision floating-point
operations are used.
-m4-340 Generate code for SH4-340 (no MMU, no FPU).
-m4-500 Generate code for SH4-500 (no FPU). Passes -isa=sh4-nofpu to the assembler.
-m4a-nofpu
Generate code for the SH4al-dsp, or for a SH4a in such a way that the floating-
point unit is not used.
-m4a-single-only
Generate code for the SH4a, in such a way that no double-precision floating-
point operations are used.
-m4a-single
Generate code for the SH4a assuming the floating-point unit is in
single-precision mode by default.
490 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mpadstruct
This option is deprecated. It pads structures to multiple of 4 bytes, which is
incompatible with the SH ABI.
-matomic-model=model
Sets the model of atomic operations and additional parameters as a comma
separated list. For details on the atomic built-in functions see Section 6.59
[ atomic Builtins], page 786. The following models and parameters are sup-
ported:
‘none’ Disable compiler generated atomic sequences and emit library calls
for atomic operations. This is the default if the target is not sh*-
*-linux*.
‘soft-gusa’
Generate GNU/Linux compatible gUSA software atomic sequences
for the atomic built-in functions. The generated atomic sequences
require additional support from the interrupt/exception handling
code of the system and are only suitable for SH3* and SH4* single-
core systems. This option is enabled by default when the target
is sh*-*-linux* and SH3* or SH4*. When the target is SH4A,
this option also partially utilizes the hardware atomic instructions
movli.l and movco.l to create more efficient code, unless ‘strict’
is specified.
‘soft-tcb’
Generate software atomic sequences that use a variable in the
thread control block. This is a variation of the gUSA sequences
which can also be used on SH1* and SH2* targets. The
generated atomic sequences require additional support from the
interrupt/exception handling code of the system and are only
suitable for single-core systems. When using this model, the
‘gbr-offset=’ parameter has to be specified as well.
‘soft-imask’
Generate software atomic sequences that temporarily disable inter-
rupts by setting SR.IMASK = 1111. This model works only when the
program runs in privileged mode and is only suitable for single-core
systems. Additional support from the interrupt/exception handling
code of the system is not required. This model is enabled by default
when the target is sh*-*-linux* and SH1* or SH2*.
‘hard-llcs’
Generate hardware atomic sequences using the movli.l and
movco.l instructions only. This is only available on SH4A and is
suitable for multi-core systems. Since the hardware instructions
support only 32 bit atomic variables access to 8 or 16 bit variables
is emulated with 32 bit accesses. Code compiled with this
option is also compatible with other software atomic model
interrupt/exception handling systems if executed on an SH4A
492 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘call-table’
Calls a library function that uses a lookup table for small divisors
and the div1 instruction with case distinction for larger divisors.
Division by zero calculates an unspecified result and does not trap.
This is the default for SH4. Specifying this for targets that do not
have dynamic shift instructions defaults to call-div1.
When a division strategy has not been specified the default strategy is selected
based on the current target. For SH2A the default strategy is to use the divs
and divu instructions instead of library function calls.
-maccumulate-outgoing-args
Reserve space once for outgoing arguments in the function prologue rather than
around each call. Generally beneficial for performance and size. Also needed
for unwinding to avoid changing the stack frame around conditional code.
-mdivsi3_libfunc=name
Set the name of the library function used for 32-bit signed division to name.
This only affects the name used in the ‘call’ division strategies, and the com-
piler still expects the same sets of input/output/clobbered registers as if this
option were not present.
-mfixed-range=register-range
Generate code treating the given register range as fixed registers. A fixed regis-
ter is one that the register allocator cannot use. This is useful when compiling
kernel code. A register range is specified as two registers separated by a dash.
Multiple register ranges can be specified separated by a comma.
-mbranch-cost=num
Assume num to be the cost for a branch instruction. Higher numbers make the
compiler try to generate more branch-free code if possible. If not specified the
value is selected depending on the processor type that is being compiled for.
-mzdcbranch
-mno-zdcbranch
Assume (do not assume) that zero displacement conditional branch instruc-
tions bt and bf are fast. If -mzdcbranch is specified, the compiler prefers
zero displacement branch code sequences. This is enabled by default when
generating code for SH4 and SH4A. It can be explicitly disabled by specifying
-mno-zdcbranch.
-mcbranch-force-delay-slot
Force the usage of delay slots for conditional branches, which stuffs the delay
slot with a nop if a suitable instruction cannot be found. By default this option
is disabled. It can be enabled to work around hardware bugs as found in the
original SH7055.
-mfused-madd
-mno-fused-madd
Generate code that uses (does not use) the floating-point multiply and accu-
mulate instructions. These instructions are generated by default if hardware
494 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
handler for one of these instructions, and then the trap handler emulates the
effect of the instruction. Because of the trap handler overhead, this is much
slower than calling the ABI library routines. Thus the -msoft-quad-float
option is the default.
-mno-unaligned-doubles
-munaligned-doubles
Assume that doubles have 8-byte alignment. This is the default.
With -munaligned-doubles, GCC assumes that doubles have 8-byte alignment
only if they are contained in another type, or if they have an absolute address.
Otherwise, it assumes they have 4-byte alignment. Specifying this option avoids
some rare compatibility problems with code generated by other compilers. It is
not the default because it results in a performance loss, especially for floating-
point code.
-muser-mode
-mno-user-mode
Do not generate code that can only run in supervisor mode. This is relevant
only for the casa instruction emitted for the LEON3 processor. This is the
default.
-mfaster-structs
-mno-faster-structs
With -mfaster-structs, the compiler assumes that structures should have
8-byte alignment. This enables the use of pairs of ldd and std instructions
for copies in structure assignment, in place of twice as many ld and st pairs.
However, the use of this changed alignment directly violates the SPARC ABI.
Thus, it’s intended only for use on targets where the developer acknowledges
that their resulting code is not directly in line with the rules of the ABI.
-mstd-struct-return
-mno-std-struct-return
With -mstd-struct-return, the compiler generates checking code in functions
returning structures or unions to detect size mismatches between the two sides
of function calls, as per the 32-bit ABI.
The default is -mno-std-struct-return. This option has no effect in 64-bit
mode.
-mcpu=cpu_type
Set the instruction set, register set, and instruction scheduling parameters for
machine type cpu type. Supported values for cpu type are ‘v7’, ‘cypress’,
‘v8’, ‘supersparc’, ‘hypersparc’, ‘leon’, ‘leon3’, ‘leon3v7’, ‘leon5’,
‘sparclite’, ‘f930’, ‘f934’, ‘sparclite86x’, ‘sparclet’, ‘tsc701’, ‘v9’,
‘ultrasparc’, ‘ultrasparc3’, ‘niagara’, ‘niagara2’, ‘niagara3’, ‘niagara4’,
‘niagara7’ and ‘m8’.
Native Solaris and GNU/Linux toolchains also support the value ‘native’,
which selects the best architecture option for the host processor. -mcpu=native
has no effect if GCC does not recognize the processor.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 497
Default instruction scheduling parameters are used for values that select an
architecture and not an implementation. These are ‘v7’, ‘v8’, ‘sparclite’,
‘sparclet’, ‘v9’.
Here is a list of each supported architecture and their supported implementa-
tions.
v7 cypress, leon3v7
v8 supersparc, hypersparc, leon, leon3, leon5
sparclite f930, f934, sparclite86x
sparclet tsc701
v9 ultrasparc, ultrasparc3, niagara, niagara2, niagara3, niagara4, nia-
gara7, m8
By default (unless configured otherwise), GCC generates code for the V7 vari-
ant of the SPARC architecture. With -mcpu=cypress, the compiler addition-
ally optimizes it for the Cypress CY7C602 chip, as used in the SPARCSta-
tion/SPARCServer 3xx series. This is also appropriate for the older SPARC-
Station 1, 2, IPX etc.
With -mcpu=v8, GCC generates code for the V8 variant of the SPARC archi-
tecture. The only difference from V7 code is that the compiler emits the integer
multiply and integer divide instructions which exist in SPARC-V8 but not in
SPARC-V7. With -mcpu=supersparc, the compiler additionally optimizes it
for the SuperSPARC chip, as used in the SPARCStation 10, 1000 and 2000
series.
With -mcpu=sparclite, GCC generates code for the SPARClite variant of the
SPARC architecture. This adds the integer multiply, integer divide step and
scan (ffs) instructions which exist in SPARClite but not in SPARC-V7. With
-mcpu=f930, the compiler additionally optimizes it for the Fujitsu MB86930
chip, which is the original SPARClite, with no FPU. With -mcpu=f934, the
compiler additionally optimizes it for the Fujitsu MB86934 chip, which is the
more recent SPARClite with FPU.
With -mcpu=sparclet, GCC generates code for the SPARClet variant of the
SPARC architecture. This adds the integer multiply, multiply/accumulate,
integer divide step and scan (ffs) instructions which exist in SPARClet but
not in SPARC-V7. With -mcpu=tsc701, the compiler additionally optimizes it
for the TEMIC SPARClet chip.
With -mcpu=v9, GCC generates code for the V9 variant of the SPARC ar-
chitecture. This adds 64-bit integer and floating-point move instructions, 3
additional floating-point condition code registers and conditional move instruc-
tions. With -mcpu=ultrasparc, the compiler additionally optimizes it for the
Sun UltraSPARC I/II/IIi chips. With -mcpu=ultrasparc3, the compiler addi-
tionally optimizes it for the Sun UltraSPARC III/III+/IIIi/IIIi+/IV/IV+ chips.
With -mcpu=niagara, the compiler additionally optimizes it for Sun Ultra-
SPARC T1 chips. With -mcpu=niagara2, the compiler additionally optimizes
it for Sun UltraSPARC T2 chips. With -mcpu=niagara3, the compiler addi-
tionally optimizes it for Sun UltraSPARC T3 chips. With -mcpu=niagara4,
498 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mtune=cpu_type
Set the instruction scheduling parameters for machine type cpu type, but do
not set the instruction set or register set that the option -mcpu=cpu_type does.
The same values for -mcpu=cpu_type can be used for -mtune=cpu_type, but
the only useful values are those that select a particular CPU implementation.
Those are ‘cypress’, ‘supersparc’, ‘hypersparc’, ‘leon’, ‘leon3’,
‘leon3v7’, ‘leon5’, ‘f930’, ‘f934’, ‘sparclite86x’, ‘tsc701’, ‘ultrasparc’,
‘ultrasparc3’, ‘niagara’, ‘niagara2’, ‘niagara3’, ‘niagara4’, ‘niagara7’
and ‘m8’. With native Solaris and GNU/Linux toolchains, ‘native’ can also
be used.
-mv8plus
-mno-v8plus
With -mv8plus, GCC generates code for the SPARC-V8+ ABI. The difference
from the V8 ABI is that the global and out registers are considered 64 bits
wide. This is enabled by default on Solaris in 32-bit mode for all SPARC-V9
processors.
-mvis
-mno-vis With -mvis, GCC generates code that takes advantage of the UltraSPARC
Visual Instruction Set extensions. The default is -mno-vis.
-mvis2
-mno-vis2
With -mvis2, GCC generates code that takes advantage of version 2.0 of the
UltraSPARC Visual Instruction Set extensions. The default is -mvis2 when
targeting a cpu that supports such instructions, such as UltraSPARC-III and
later. Setting -mvis2 also sets -mvis.
-mvis3
-mno-vis3
With -mvis3, GCC generates code that takes advantage of version 3.0 of the
UltraSPARC Visual Instruction Set extensions. The default is -mvis3 when
targeting a cpu that supports such instructions, such as niagara-3 and later.
Setting -mvis3 also sets -mvis2 and -mvis.
-mvis4
-mno-vis4
With -mvis4, GCC generates code that takes advantage of version 4.0 of the
UltraSPARC Visual Instruction Set extensions. The default is -mvis4 when
targeting a cpu that supports such instructions, such as niagara-7 and later.
Setting -mvis4 also sets -mvis3, -mvis2 and -mvis.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 499
-mvis4b
-mno-vis4b
With -mvis4b, GCC generates code that takes advantage of version 4.0 of
the UltraSPARC Visual Instruction Set extensions, plus the additional VIS
instructions introduced in the Oracle SPARC Architecture 2017. The default
is -mvis4b when targeting a cpu that supports such instructions, such as m8
and later. Setting -mvis4b also sets -mvis4, -mvis3, -mvis2 and -mvis.
-mcbcond
-mno-cbcond
With -mcbcond, GCC generates code that takes advantage of the UltraSPARC
Compare-and-Branch-on-Condition instructions. The default is -mcbcond when
targeting a CPU that supports such instructions, such as Niagara-4 and later.
-mfmaf
-mno-fmaf
With -mfmaf, GCC generates code that takes advantage of the UltraSPARC
Fused Multiply-Add Floating-point instructions. The default is -mfmaf when
targeting a CPU that supports such instructions, such as Niagara-3 and later.
-mfsmuld
-mno-fsmuld
With -mfsmuld, GCC generates code that takes advantage of the Floating-point
Multiply Single to Double (FsMULd) instruction. The default is -mfsmuld
when targeting a CPU supporting the architecture versions V8 or V9 with
FPU except -mcpu=leon.
-mpopc
-mno-popc
With -mpopc, GCC generates code that takes advantage of the UltraSPARC
Population Count instruction. The default is -mpopc when targeting a CPU
that supports such an instruction, such as Niagara-2 and later.
-msubxc
-mno-subxc
With -msubxc, GCC generates code that takes advantage of the UltraSPARC
Subtract-Extended-with-Carry instruction. The default is -msubxc when tar-
geting a CPU that supports such an instruction, such as Niagara-7 and later.
-mfix-at697f
Enable the documented workaround for the single erratum of the Atmel AT697F
processor (which corresponds to erratum #13 of the AT697E processor).
-mfix-ut699
Enable the documented workarounds for the floating-point errata and the data
cache nullify errata of the UT699 processor.
-mfix-ut700
Enable the documented workaround for the back-to-back store errata of the
UT699E/UT700 processor.
500 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mfix-gr712rc
Enable the documented workaround for the back-to-back store errata of the
GR712RC processor.
These ‘-m’ options are supported in addition to the above on SPARC-V9 processors in
64-bit environments:
-m32
-m64 Generate code for a 32-bit or 64-bit environment. The 32-bit environment sets
int, long and pointer to 32 bits. The 64-bit environment sets int to 32 bits and
long and pointer to 64 bits.
-mcmodel=which
Set the code model to one of
‘medlow’ The Medium/Low code model: 64-bit addresses, programs must be
linked in the low 32 bits of memory. Programs can be statically or
dynamically linked.
‘medmid’ The Medium/Middle code model: 64-bit addresses, programs must
be linked in the low 44 bits of memory, the text and data segments
must be less than 2GB in size and the data segment must be located
within 2GB of the text segment.
‘medany’ The Medium/Anywhere code model: 64-bit addresses, programs
may be linked anywhere in memory, the text and data segments
must be less than 2GB in size and the data segment must be located
within 2GB of the text segment.
‘embmedany’
The Medium/Anywhere code model for embedded systems: 64-bit
addresses, the text and data segments must be less than 2GB in
size, both starting anywhere in memory (determined at link time).
The global register %g4 points to the base of the data segment.
Programs are statically linked and PIC is not supported.
-mmemory-model=mem-model
Set the memory model in force on the processor to one of
‘default’ The default memory model for the processor and operating system.
‘rmo’ Relaxed Memory Order
‘pso’ Partial Store Order
‘tso’ Total Store Order
‘sc’ Sequential Consistency
These memory models are formally defined in Appendix D of the SPARC-V9
architecture manual, as set in the processor’s PSTATE.MM field.
-mstack-bias
-mno-stack-bias
With -mstack-bias, GCC assumes that the stack pointer, and frame pointer
if present, are offset by −2047 which must be added back when making stack
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 501
-mno-app-regs
This option causes r2 and r5 to be treated as fixed registers.
-non-static
Link an RTP executable against shared libraries rather than static libraries.
The options -static and -shared can also be used for RTPs (see Section 3.16
[Link Options], page 292); -static is the default.
-Bstatic
-Bdynamic
These options are passed down to the linker. They are defined for compatibility
with Diab.
-Xbind-lazy
Enable lazy binding of function calls. This option is equivalent to -Wl,-z,now
and is defined for compatibility with Diab.
-Xbind-now
Disable lazy binding of function calls. This option is the default and is defined
for compatibility with Diab.
‘i486’ Intel i486 CPU. (No scheduling is implemented for this chip.)
‘i586’
‘pentium’ Intel Pentium CPU with no MMX support.
‘lakemont’
Intel Lakemont MCU, based on Intel Pentium CPU.
‘pentium-mmx’
Intel Pentium MMX CPU, based on Pentium core with MMX in-
struction set support.
‘pentiumpro’
Intel Pentium Pro CPU.
‘i686’ When used with -march, the Pentium Pro instruction set is used,
so the code runs on all i686 family chips. When used with -mtune,
it has the same meaning as ‘generic’.
‘pentium2’
Intel Pentium II CPU, based on Pentium Pro core with MMX and
FXSR instruction set support.
‘pentium3’
‘pentium3m’
Intel Pentium III CPU, based on Pentium Pro core with MMX,
FXSR and SSE instruction set support.
‘pentium-m’
Intel Pentium M; low-power version of Intel Pentium III CPU with
MMX, SSE, SSE2 and FXSR instruction set support. Used by
Centrino notebooks.
‘pentium4’
‘pentium4m’
Intel Pentium 4 CPU with MMX, SSE, SSE2 and FXSR instruction
set support.
‘prescott’
Improved version of Intel Pentium 4 CPU with MMX, SSE, SSE2,
SSE3 and FXSR instruction set support.
‘nocona’ Improved version of Intel Pentium 4 CPU with 64-bit extensions,
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3 and FXSR instruction set support.
‘core2’ Intel Core 2 CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3,
SSSE3, CX16, SAHF and FXSR instruction set support.
‘nehalem’
‘corei7’ Intel Nehalem CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX, SSE, SSE2,
SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF and FXSR
instruction set support.
508 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘westmere’
Intel Westmere CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX, SSE, SSE2,
SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF, FXSR
and PCLMUL instruction set support.
‘sandybridge’
‘corei7-avx’
Intel Sandy Bridge CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX, SSE, SSE2,
SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF, FXSR,
AVX, XSAVE and PCLMUL instruction set support.
‘ivybridge’
‘core-avx-i’
Intel Ivy Bridge CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX, SSE, SSE2,
SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF, FXSR,
AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL, FSGSBASE, RDRND and F16C instruc-
tion set support.
‘haswell’
‘core-avx2’
Intel Haswell CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX, SSE, SSE2,
SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF, FXSR,
AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL, FSGSBASE, RDRND, F16C, AVX2,
BMI, BMI2, LZCNT, FMA, MOVBE and HLE instruction set
support.
‘broadwell’
Intel Broadwell CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX, SSE, SSE2,
SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF, FXSR,
AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL, FSGSBASE, RDRND, F16C, AVX2,
BMI, BMI2, LZCNT, FMA, MOVBE, HLE, RDSEED, ADCX and
PREFETCHW instruction set support.
‘skylake’ Intel Skylake CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX, SSE, SSE2,
SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF, FXSR,
AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL, FSGSBASE, RDRND, F16C, AVX2,
BMI, BMI2, LZCNT, FMA, MOVBE, HLE, RDSEED, ADCX,
PREFETCHW, AES, CLFLUSHOPT, XSAVEC, XSAVES and
SGX instruction set support.
‘skylake-avx512’
Intel Skylake Server CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX, SSE,
SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF,
FXSR, AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL, FSGSBASE, RDRND, F16C,
AVX2, BMI, BMI2, LZCNT, FMA, MOVBE, HLE, RDSEED,
ADCX, PREFETCHW, AES, CLFLUSHOPT, XSAVEC,
XSAVES, SGX, AVX512F, CLWB, AVX512VL, AVX512BW,
AVX512DQ and AVX512CD instruction set support.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 509
‘cascadelake’
Intel Cascade Lake CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX, SSE, SSE2,
SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF, FXSR,
AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL, FSGSBASE, RDRND, F16C, AVX2,
BMI, BMI2, LZCNT, FMA, MOVBE, HLE, RDSEED, ADCX,
PREFETCHW, AES, CLFLUSHOPT, XSAVEC, XSAVES,
SGX, AVX512F, CLWB, AVX512VL, AVX512BW, AVX512DQ,
AVX512CD and AVX512VNNI instruction set support.
‘cannonlake’
Intel Cannon Lake Server CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX,
SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16,
SAHF, FXSR, AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL, FSGSBASE, RDRND,
F16C, AVX2, BMI, BMI2, LZCNT, FMA, MOVBE, HLE,
RDSEED, ADCX, PREFETCHW, AES, CLFLUSHOPT,
XSAVEC, XSAVES, SGX, AVX512F, AVX512VL, AVX512BW,
AVX512DQ, AVX512CD, PKU, AVX512VBMI, AVX512IFMA
and SHA instruction set support.
‘cooperlake’
Intel Cooper Lake CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX, SSE, SSE2,
SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF, FXSR,
AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL, FSGSBASE, RDRND, F16C, AVX2,
BMI, BMI2, LZCNT, FMA, MOVBE, HLE, RDSEED, ADCX,
PREFETCHW, AES, CLFLUSHOPT, XSAVEC, XSAVES,
SGX, AVX512F, CLWB, AVX512VL, AVX512BW, AVX512DQ,
AVX512CD, AVX512VNNI and AVX512BF16 instruction set
support.
‘icelake-client’
Intel Ice Lake Client CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX, SSE,
SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF,
FXSR, AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL, FSGSBASE, RDRND, F16C,
AVX2, BMI, BMI2, LZCNT, FMA, MOVBE, HLE, RDSEED,
ADCX, PREFETCHW, AES, CLFLUSHOPT, XSAVEC,
XSAVES, SGX, AVX512F, AVX512VL, AVX512BW, AVX512DQ,
AVX512CD, PKU, AVX512VBMI, AVX512IFMA, SHA,
AVX512VNNI, GFNI, VAES, AVX512VBMI2 , VPCLMULQDQ,
AVX512BITALG, RDPID and AVX512VPOPCNTDQ instruction
set support.
‘icelake-server’
Intel Ice Lake Server CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX, SSE,
SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF,
FXSR, AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL, FSGSBASE, RDRND, F16C,
AVX2, BMI, BMI2, LZCNT, FMA, MOVBE, HLE, RDSEED,
ADCX, PREFETCHW, AES, CLFLUSHOPT, XSAVEC,
XSAVES, SGX, AVX512F, AVX512VL, AVX512BW, AVX512DQ,
AVX512CD, PKU, AVX512VBMI, AVX512IFMA, SHA,
510 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘arrowlake-s’
‘lunarlake’
Intel Arrow Lake S/Lunar Lake CPU with 64-bit extensions,
MOVBE, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2,
POPCNT, AES, PREFETCHW, PCLMUL, RDRND, XSAVE,
XSAVEC, XSAVES, XSAVEOPT, FSGSBASE, PTWRITE,
RDPID, SGX, GFNI-SSE, CLWB, MOVDIRI, MOVDIR64B,
CLDEMOTE, WAITPKG, ADCX, AVX, AVX2, BMI, BMI2,
F16C, FMA, LZCNT, PCONFIG, PKU, VAES, VPCLMULQDQ,
SERIALIZE, HRESET, KL, WIDEKL, AVX-VNNI, UINTR,
AVXIFMA, AVXVNNIINT8, AVXNECONVERT, CMPCCX-
ADD, AVXVNNIINT16, SHA512, SM3 and SM4 instruction set
support.
‘pantherlake’
Intel Panther Lake CPU with 64-bit extensions, MOVBE,
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT,
AES, PREFETCHW, PCLMUL, RDRND, XSAVE, XSAVEC,
XSAVES, XSAVEOPT, FSGSBASE, PTWRITE, RDPID, SGX,
GFNI-SSE, CLWB, MOVDIRI, MOVDIR64B, CLDEMOTE,
WAITPKG, ADCX, AVX, AVX2, BMI, BMI2, F16C, FMA,
LZCNT, PCONFIG, PKU, VAES, VPCLMULQDQ, SERIALIZE,
HRESET, KL, WIDEKL, AVX-VNNI, UINTR, AVXIFMA,
AVXVNNIINT8, AVXNECONVERT, CMPCCXADD, AVXVN-
NIINT16, SHA512, SM3, SM4 and PREFETCHI instruction set
support.
‘sapphirerapids’
‘emeraldrapids’
Intel Sapphire Rapids/Emerald Rapids CPU with 64-bit
extensions, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2,
POPCNT, CX16, SAHF, FXSR, AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL,
FSGSBASE, RDRND, F16C, AVX2, BMI, BMI2, LZCNT,
FMA, MOVBE, HLE, RDSEED, ADCX, PREFETCHW,
AES, CLFLUSHOPT, XSAVEC, XSAVES, SGX, AVX512F,
AVX512VL, AVX512BW, AVX512DQ, AVX512CD, PKU,
AVX512VBMI, AVX512IFMA, SHA, AVX512VNNI, GFNI,
VAES, AVX512VBMI2, VPCLMULQDQ, AVX512BITALG,
RDPID, AVX512VPOPCNTDQ, PCONFIG, WBNOINVD,
CLWB, MOVDIRI, MOVDIR64B, ENQCMD, CLDEMOTE,
PTWRITE, WAITPKG, SERIALIZE, TSXLDTRK, UINTR,
AMX-BF16, AMX-TILE, AMX-INT8, AVX-VNNI, AVX512-FP16
and AVX512BF16 instruction set support.
512 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘graniterapids’
Intel Granite Rapids CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX,
SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16,
SAHF, FXSR, AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL, FSGSBASE, RDRND,
F16C, AVX2, BMI, BMI2, LZCNT, FMA, MOVBE, HLE,
RDSEED, ADCX, PREFETCHW, AES, CLFLUSHOPT,
XSAVEC, XSAVES, SGX, AVX512F, AVX512VL, AVX512BW,
AVX512DQ, AVX512CD, PKU, AVX512VBMI, AVX512IFMA,
SHA, AVX512VNNI, GFNI, VAES, AVX512VBMI2, VP-
CLMULQDQ, AVX512BITALG, RDPID, AVX512VPOPCNTDQ,
PCONFIG, WBNOINVD, CLWB, MOVDIRI, MOVDIR64B,
ENQCMD, CLDEMOTE, PTWRITE, WAITPKG, SERIALIZE,
TSXLDTRK, UINTR, AMX-BF16, AMX-TILE, AMX-INT8,
AVX-VNNI, AVX512-FP16, AVX512BF16, AMX-FP16 and
PREFETCHI instruction set support.
‘graniterapids-d’
Intel Granite Rapids D CPU with 64-bit extensions, MMX,
SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16,
SAHF, FXSR, AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL, FSGSBASE, RDRND,
F16C, AVX2, BMI, BMI2, LZCNT, FMA, MOVBE, HLE,
RDSEED, ADCX, PREFETCHW, AES, CLFLUSHOPT,
XSAVEC, XSAVES, SGX, AVX512F, AVX512VL, AVX512BW,
AVX512DQ, AVX512CD, PKU, AVX512VBMI, AVX512IFMA,
SHA, AVX512VNNI, GFNI, VAES, AVX512VBMI2, VP-
CLMULQDQ, AVX512BITALG, RDPID, AVX512VPOPCNTDQ,
PCONFIG, WBNOINVD, CLWB, MOVDIRI, MOVDIR64B,
ENQCMD, CLDEMOTE, PTWRITE, WAITPKG, SERIALIZE,
TSXLDTRK, UINTR, AMX-BF16, AMX-TILE, AMX-INT8,
AVX-VNNI, AVX512FP16, AVX512BF16, AMX-FP16,
PREFETCHI and AMX-COMPLEX instruction set support.
‘diamondrapids’
Intel Diamond Rapids CPU with 64-bit extensions, MOVBE,
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT,
CX16, SAHF, FXSR, AVX, XSAVE, PCLMUL, FSGSBASE,
RDRND, F16C, AVX2, BMI, BMI2, LZCNT, FMA, MOVBE,
HLE, RDSEED, ADCX, PREFETCHW, AES, CLFLUSHOPT,
XSAVEC, XSAVES, SGX, AVX512F, AVX512VL, AVX512BW,
AVX512DQ, AVX512CD, PKU, AVX512VBMI, AVX512IFMA,
SHA, AVX512VNNI, GFNI, VAES, AVX512VBMI2, VP-
CLMULQDQ, AVX512BITALG, RDPID, AVX512VPOPCNTDQ,
PCONFIG, WBNOINVD, CLWB, MOVDIRI, MOVDIR64B,
ENQCMD, CLDEMOTE, PTWRITE, WAITPKG, SERIALIZE,
TSXLDTRK, UINTR, AMX-BF16, AMX-TILE, AMX-INT8,
AVX-VNNI, AVX512FP16, AVX512BF16, AMX-FP16,
PREFETCHI, AMX-COMPLEX, AVX10.1-512, AVX-IFMA,
AVX-NE-CONVERT, AVX-VNNI-INT16, AVX-VNNI-INT8,
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 513
‘bonnell’
‘atom’ Intel Bonnell CPU with 64-bit extensions, MOVBE, MMX, SSE,
SSE2, SSE3 and SSSE3 instruction set support.
‘silvermont’
‘slm’ Intel Silvermont CPU with 64-bit extensions, MOVBE, MMX, SSE,
SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF,
FXSR, PCLMUL, PREFETCHW and RDRND instruction set sup-
port.
‘goldmont’
Intel Goldmont CPU with 64-bit extensions, MOVBE, MMX, SSE,
SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, CX16, SAHF,
FXSR, PCLMUL, PREFETCHW, RDRND, AES, SHA, RDSEED,
XSAVE, XSAVEC, XSAVES, XSAVEOPT, CLFLUSHOPT and
FSGSBASE instruction set support.
‘goldmont-plus’
Intel Goldmont Plus CPU with 64-bit extensions, MOVBE,
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT,
CX16, SAHF, FXSR, PCLMUL, PREFETCHW, RDRND, AES,
SHA, RDSEED, XSAVE, XSAVEC, XSAVES, XSAVEOPT,
CLFLUSHOPT, FSGSBASE, PTWRITE, RDPID and SGX
instruction set support.
‘sierraforest’
Intel Sierra Forest CPU with 64-bit extensions, MOVBE,
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT,
AES, PREFETCHW, PCLMUL, RDRND, XSAVE, XSAVEC,
XSAVES, XSAVEOPT, FSGSBASE, PTWRITE, RDPID, SGX,
GFNI-SSE, CLWB, MOVDIRI, MOVDIR64B, CLDEMOTE,
WAITPKG, ADCX, AVX, AVX2, BMI, BMI2, F16C, FMA,
LZCNT, PCONFIG, PKU, VAES, VPCLMULQDQ, SERIALIZE,
HRESET, KL, WIDEKL, AVX-VNNI, AVXIFMA, AVXVN-
NIINT8, AVXNECONVERT, CMPCCXADD, ENQCMD and
UINTR instruction set support.
514 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘grandridge’
Intel Grand Ridge CPU with 64-bit extensions, MOVBE,
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT,
AES, PREFETCHW, PCLMUL, RDRND, XSAVE, XSAVEC,
XSAVES, XSAVEOPT, FSGSBASE, PTWRITE, RDPID, SGX,
GFNI-SSE, CLWB, MOVDIRI, MOVDIR64B, CLDEMOTE,
WAITPKG, ADCX, AVX, AVX2, BMI, BMI2, F16C, FMA,
LZCNT, PCONFIG, PKU, VAES, VPCLMULQDQ, SERIALIZE,
HRESET, KL, WIDEKL, AVX-VNNI, AVXIFMA, AVXVN-
NIINT8, AVXNECONVERT, CMPCCXADD, ENQCMD and
UINTR instruction set support.
‘clearwaterforest’
Intel Clearwater Forest CPU with 64-bit extensions, MOVBE,
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT,
AES, PREFETCHW, PCLMUL, RDRND, XSAVE, XSAVEC,
XSAVES, XSAVEOPT, FSGSBASE, PTWRITE, RDPID, SGX,
GFNI-SSE, CLWB, MOVDIRI, MOVDIR64B, CLDEMOTE,
WAITPKG, ADCX, AVX, AVX2, BMI, BMI2, F16C, FMA,
LZCNT, PCONFIG, PKU, VAES, VPCLMULQDQ, SERIALIZE,
HRESET, KL, WIDEKL, AVX-VNNI, ENQCMD, UINTR,
AVXIFMA, AVXVNNIINT8, AVXNECONVERT, CMPCCX-
ADD, AVXVNNIINT16, SHA512, SM3, SM4, USER MSR and
PREFETCHI instruction set support.
‘k6’ AMD K6 CPU with MMX instruction set support.
‘k6-2’
‘k6-3’ Improved versions of AMD K6 CPU with MMX and 3DNow! in-
struction set support.
‘athlon’
‘athlon-tbird’
AMD Athlon CPU with MMX, 3dNOW!, enhanced 3DNow! and
SSE prefetch instructions support.
‘athlon-4’
‘athlon-xp’
‘athlon-mp’
Improved AMD Athlon CPU with MMX, 3DNow!, enhanced
3DNow! and full SSE instruction set support.
‘k8’
‘opteron’
‘athlon64’
‘athlon-fx’
Processors based on the AMD K8 core with x86-64 instruction set
support, including the AMD Opteron, Athlon 64, and Athlon 64 FX
processors. (This supersets MMX, SSE, SSE2, 3DNow!, enhanced
3DNow! and 64-bit instruction set extensions.)
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 515
‘k8-sse3’
‘opteron-sse3’
‘athlon64-sse3’
Improved versions of AMD K8 cores with SSE3 instruction set sup-
port.
‘amdfam10’
‘barcelona’
CPUs based on AMD Family 10h cores with x86-64 instruction
set support. (This supersets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A,
3DNow!, enhanced 3DNow!, ABM and 64-bit instruction set exten-
sions.)
‘bdver1’ CPUs based on AMD Family 15h cores with x86-64 instruction
set support. (This supersets FMA4, AVX, XOP, LWP, AES,
PCLMUL, CX16, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, SSSE3,
SSE4.1, SSE4.2, ABM and 64-bit instruction set extensions.)
‘bdver2’ AMD Family 15h core based CPUs with x86-64 instruction set sup-
port. (This supersets BMI, TBM, F16C, FMA, FMA4, AVX, XOP,
LWP, AES, PCLMUL, CX16, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A,
SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, ABM and 64-bit instruction set exten-
sions.)
‘bdver3’ AMD Family 15h core based CPUs with x86-64 instruction set
support. (This supersets BMI, TBM, F16C, FMA, FMA4, FS-
GSBASE, AVX, XOP, LWP, AES, PCLMUL, CX16, MMX, SSE,
SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, ABM and 64-bit in-
struction set extensions.)
‘bdver4’ AMD Family 15h core based CPUs with x86-64 instruction set
support. (This supersets BMI, BMI2, TBM, F16C, FMA, FMA4,
FSGSBASE, AVX, AVX2, XOP, LWP, AES, PCLMUL, CX16,
MOVBE, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, SSSE3, SSE4.1,
SSE4.2, ABM and 64-bit instruction set extensions.)
‘znver1’ AMD Family 17h core based CPUs with x86-64 instruction set
support. (This supersets BMI, BMI2, F16C, FMA, FSGSBASE,
AVX, AVX2, ADCX, RDSEED, MWAITX, SHA, CLZERO,
AES, PCLMUL, CX16, MOVBE, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3,
SSE4A, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, ABM, XSAVEC, XSAVES,
CLFLUSHOPT, POPCNT, and 64-bit instruction set extensions.)
‘znver2’ AMD Family 17h core based CPUs with x86-64 instruction set
support. (This supersets BMI, BMI2, CLWB, F16C, FMA,
FSGSBASE, AVX, AVX2, ADCX, RDSEED, MWAITX, SHA,
CLZERO, AES, PCLMUL, CX16, MOVBE, MMX, SSE, SSE2,
SSE3, SSE4A, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, ABM, XSAVEC, XSAVES,
CLFLUSHOPT, POPCNT, RDPID, WBNOINVD, and 64-bit
instruction set extensions.)
516 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘znver3’ AMD Family 19h core based CPUs with x86-64 instruction set
support. (This supersets BMI, BMI2, CLWB, F16C, FMA,
FSGSBASE, AVX, AVX2, ADCX, RDSEED, MWAITX, SHA,
CLZERO, AES, PCLMUL, CX16, MOVBE, MMX, SSE, SSE2,
SSE3, SSE4A, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, ABM, XSAVEC, XSAVES,
CLFLUSHOPT, POPCNT, RDPID, WBNOINVD, PKU,
VPCLMULQDQ, VAES, and 64-bit instruction set extensions.)
‘znver4’ AMD Family 19h core based CPUs with x86-64 instruction set
support. (This supersets BMI, BMI2, CLWB, F16C, FMA,
FSGSBASE, AVX, AVX2, ADCX, RDSEED, MWAITX, SHA,
CLZERO, AES, PCLMUL, CX16, MOVBE, MMX, SSE,
SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, ABM, XSAVEC,
XSAVES, CLFLUSHOPT, POPCNT, RDPID, WBNOINVD,
PKU, VPCLMULQDQ, VAES, AVX512F, AVX512DQ,
AVX512IFMA, AVX512CD, AVX512BW, AVX512VL,
AVX512BF16, AVX512VBMI, AVX512VBMI2, AVX512VNNI,
AVX512BITALG, AVX512VPOPCNTDQ, GFNI and 64-bit
instruction set extensions.)
‘znver5’ AMD Family 1ah core based CPUs with x86-64 instruction
set support. (This supersets BMI, BMI2, CLWB, F16C,
FMA, FSGSBASE, AVX, AVX2, ADCX, RDSEED, MWAITX,
SHA, CLZERO, AES, PCLMUL, CX16, MOVBE, MMX,
SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, ABM,
XSAVEC, XSAVES, CLFLUSHOPT, POPCNT, RDPID,
WBNOINVD, PKU, VPCLMULQDQ, VAES, AVX512F,
AVX512DQ, AVX512IFMA, AVX512CD, AVX512BW,
AVX512VL, AVX512BF16, AVX512VBMI, AVX512VBMI2,
AVX512VNNI, AVX512BITALG, AVX512VPOPCNTDQ, GFNI,
AVXVNNI, MOVDIRI, MOVDIR64B, AVX512VP2INTERSECT,
PREFETCHI and 64-bit instruction set extensions.)
‘btver1’ CPUs based on AMD Family 14h cores with x86-64 instruction set
support. (This supersets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4A,
CX16, ABM and 64-bit instruction set extensions.)
‘btver2’ CPUs based on AMD Family 16h cores with x86-64 instruction
set support. This includes MOVBE, F16C, BMI, AVX, PCLMUL,
AES, SSE4.2, SSE4.1, CX16, ABM, SSE4A, SSSE3, SSE3, SSE2,
SSE, MMX and 64-bit instruction set extensions.
‘winchip-c6’
IDT WinChip C6 CPU, dealt in same way as i486 with additional
MMX instruction set support.
‘winchip2’
IDT WinChip 2 CPU, dealt in same way as i486 with additional
MMX and 3DNow! instruction set support.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 517
‘c3’ VIA C3 CPU with MMX and 3DNow! instruction set support. (No
scheduling is implemented for this chip.)
‘c3-2’ VIA C3-2 (Nehemiah/C5XL) CPU with MMX and SSE instruction
set support. (No scheduling is implemented for this chip.)
‘c7’ VIA C7 (Esther) CPU with MMX, SSE, SSE2 and SSE3 instruction
set support. (No scheduling is implemented for this chip.)
‘samuel-2’
VIA Eden Samuel 2 CPU with MMX and 3DNow! instruction set
support. (No scheduling is implemented for this chip.)
‘nehemiah’
VIA Eden Nehemiah CPU with MMX and SSE instruction set sup-
port. (No scheduling is implemented for this chip.)
‘esther’ VIA Eden Esther CPU with MMX, SSE, SSE2 and SSE3 instruc-
tion set support. (No scheduling is implemented for this chip.)
‘eden-x2’ VIA Eden X2 CPU with x86-64, MMX, SSE, SSE2 and SSE3 in-
struction set support. (No scheduling is implemented for this chip.)
‘eden-x4’ VIA Eden X4 CPU with x86-64, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3,
SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX and AVX2 instruction set support. (No
scheduling is implemented for this chip.)
‘nano’ Generic VIA Nano CPU with x86-64, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3 and
SSSE3 instruction set support. (No scheduling is implemented for
this chip.)
‘nano-1000’
VIA Nano 1xxx CPU with x86-64, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3 and
SSSE3 instruction set support. (No scheduling is implemented for
this chip.)
‘nano-2000’
VIA Nano 2xxx CPU with x86-64, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3 and
SSSE3 instruction set support. (No scheduling is implemented for
this chip.)
‘nano-3000’
VIA Nano 3xxx CPU with x86-64, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3
and SSE4.1 instruction set support. (No scheduling is implemented
for this chip.)
‘nano-x2’ VIA Nano Dual Core CPU with x86-64, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3,
SSSE3 and SSE4.1 instruction set support. (No scheduling is im-
plemented for this chip.)
‘nano-x4’ VIA Nano Quad Core CPU with x86-64, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3,
SSSE3 and SSE4.1 instruction set support. (No scheduling is im-
plemented for this chip.)
518 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘lujiazui’
ZHAOXIN lujiazui CPU with x86-64, MOVBE, MMX, SSE,
SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT, AES, PCLMUL,
RDRND, XSAVE, XSAVEOPT, FSGSBASE, CX16, ABM,
BMI, BMI2, FXSR, RDSEED instruction set support. While
the CPUs do support AVX and F16C, these aren’t enabled by
-march=lujiazui for performance reasons.
‘yongfeng’
ZHAOXIN yongfeng CPU with x86-64, MOVBE, MMX, SSE,
SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, POPCNT, AES,
PCLMUL, RDRND, XSAVE, XSAVEOPT, FSGSBASE, CX16,
ABM, BMI, BMI2, F16C, FXSR, RDSEED, AVX2, FMA, SHA,
LZCNT instruction set support.
‘shijidadao’
ZHAOXIN shijidadao CPU with x86-64, MOVBE, MMX, SSE,
SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, POPCNT, AES,
PCLMUL, RDRND, XSAVE, XSAVEOPT, FSGSBASE, CX16,
ABM, BMI, BMI2, F16C, FXSR, RDSEED, AVX2, FMA, SHA,
LZCNT instruction set support.
‘geode’ AMD Geode embedded processor with MMX and 3DNow! instruc-
tion set support.
-mtune=cpu-type
Tune to cpu-type everything applicable about the generated code, except for
the ABI and the set of available instructions. While picking a specific cpu-type
schedules things appropriately for that particular chip, the compiler does not
generate any code that cannot run on the default machine type unless you use a
-march=cpu-type option. For example, if GCC is configured for i686-pc-linux-
gnu then -mtune=pentium4 generates code that is tuned for Pentium 4 but still
runs on i686 machines.
The choices for cpu-type are the same as for -march. In addition, -mtune
supports 2 extra choices for cpu-type:
‘generic’ Produce code optimized for the most common IA32/AMD64/
EM64T processors. If you know the CPU on which your code will
run, then you should use the corresponding -mtune or -march
option instead of -mtune=generic. But, if you do not know
exactly what CPU users of your application will have, then you
should use this option.
As new processors are deployed in the marketplace, the behavior of
this option will change. Therefore, if you upgrade to a newer version
of GCC, code generation controlled by this option will change to
reflect the processors that are most common at the time that version
of GCC is released.
There is no -march=generic option because -march indicates the
instruction set the compiler can use, and there is no generic instruc-
tion set applicable to all processors. In contrast, -mtune indicates
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 519
-mno-fancy-math-387
Some 387 emulators do not support the sin, cos and sqrt instructions for the
387. Specify this option to avoid generating those instructions. This option
is overridden when -march indicates that the target CPU always has an FPU
and so the instruction does not need emulation. These instructions are not
generated unless you also use the -funsafe-math-optimizations switch.
-malign-double
-mno-align-double
Control whether GCC aligns double, long double, and long long variables on
a two-word boundary or a one-word boundary. Aligning double variables on a
two-word boundary produces code that runs somewhat faster on a Pentium at
the expense of more memory.
On x86-64, -malign-double is enabled by default.
Warning: if you use the -malign-double switch, structures containing the
above types are aligned differently than the published application binary inter-
face specifications for the x86-32 and are not binary compatible with structures
in code compiled without that switch.
-m96bit-long-double
-m128bit-long-double
These switches control the size of long double type. The x86-32 application
binary interface specifies the size to be 96 bits, so -m96bit-long-double is the
default in 32-bit mode.
Modern architectures (Pentium and newer) prefer long double to be aligned
to an 8- or 16-byte boundary. In arrays or structures conforming to the ABI,
this is not possible. So specifying -m128bit-long-double aligns long double
to a 16-byte boundary by padding the long double with an additional 32-bit
zero.
In the x86-64 compiler, -m128bit-long-double is the default choice as its ABI
specifies that long double is aligned on 16-byte boundary.
Notice that neither of these options enable any extra precision over the x87
standard of 80 bits for a long double.
Warning: if you override the default value for your target ABI, this changes
the size of structures and arrays containing long double variables, as well as
modifying the function calling convention for functions taking long double.
Hence they are not binary-compatible with code compiled without that switch.
-mlong-double-64
-mlong-double-80
-mlong-double-128
These switches control the size of long double type. A size of 64 bits makes the
long double type equivalent to the double type. This is the default for 32-bit
Bionic C library. A size of 128 bits makes the long double type equivalent to
the __float128 type. This is the default for 64-bit Bionic C library.
Warning: if you override the default value for your target ABI, this changes
the size of structures and arrays containing long double variables, as well as
522 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
modifying the function calling convention for functions taking long double.
Hence they are not binary-compatible with code compiled without that switch.
-malign-data=type
Control how GCC aligns variables. Supported values for type are ‘compat’
uses increased alignment value compatible uses GCC 4.8 and earlier, ‘abi’ uses
alignment value as specified by the psABI, and ‘cacheline’ uses increased
alignment value to match the cache line size. ‘compat’ is the default.
-mlarge-data-threshold=threshold
When -mcmodel=medium or -mcmodel=large is specified, data objects larger
than threshold are placed in large data sections. The default is 65535.
-mrtd Use a different function-calling convention, in which functions that take a fixed
number of arguments return with the ret num instruction, which pops their
arguments while returning. This saves one instruction in the caller since there
is no need to pop the arguments there.
You can specify that an individual function is called with this calling sequence
with the function attribute stdcall. You can also override the -mrtd option
by using the function attribute cdecl. See Section 6.35 [Function Attributes],
page 604.
Warning: this calling convention is incompatible with the one normally used on
Unix, so you cannot use it if you need to call libraries compiled with the Unix
compiler.
Also, you must provide function prototypes for all functions that take variable
numbers of arguments (including printf); otherwise incorrect code is generated
for calls to those functions.
In addition, seriously incorrect code results if you call a function with too many
arguments. (Normally, extra arguments are harmlessly ignored.)
-mregparm=num
Control how many registers are used to pass integer arguments. By default, no
registers are used to pass arguments, and at most 3 registers can be used. You
can control this behavior for a specific function by using the function attribute
regparm. See Section 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604.
Warning: if you use this switch, and num is nonzero, then you must build all
modules with the same value, including any libraries. This includes the system
libraries and startup modules.
-msseregparm
Use SSE register passing conventions for float and double arguments and return
values. You can control this behavior for a specific function by using the func-
tion attribute sseregparm. See Section 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604.
Warning: if you use this switch then you must build all modules with the same
value, including any libraries. This includes the system libraries and startup
modules.
-mvect8-ret-in-mem
Return 8-byte vectors in memory instead of MMX registers. This is the de-
fault on VxWorks to match the ABI of the Sun Studio compilers until version
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 523
12. Only use this option if you need to remain compatible with existing code
produced by those previous compiler versions or older versions of GCC.
-mpc32
-mpc64
-mpc80
Set 80387 floating-point precision to 32, 64 or 80 bits. When -mpc32 is specified,
the significands of results of floating-point operations are rounded to 24 bits
(single precision); -mpc64 rounds the significands of results of floating-point
operations to 53 bits (double precision) and -mpc80 rounds the significands
of results of floating-point operations to 64 bits (extended double precision),
which is the default. When this option is used, floating-point operations in
higher precisions are not available to the programmer without setting the FPU
control word explicitly.
Setting the rounding of floating-point operations to less than the default 80 bits
can speed some programs by 2% or more. Note that some mathematical libraries
assume that extended-precision (80-bit) floating-point operations are enabled
by default; routines in such libraries could suffer significant loss of accuracy,
typically through so-called “catastrophic cancellation”, when this option is used
to set the precision to less than extended precision.
-mdaz-ftz
The flush-to-zero (FTZ) and denormals-are-zero (DAZ) flags in the MXCSR
register are used to control floating-point calculations.SSE and AVX instruc-
tions including scalar and vector instructions could benefit from enabling the
FTZ and DAZ flags when -mdaz-ftz is specified. Don’t set FTZ/DAZ flags
when -mno-daz-ftz or -shared is specified, -mdaz-ftz will set FTZ/DAZ flags
even with -shared.
-mstackrealign
Realign the stack at entry. On the x86, the -mstackrealign option generates
an alternate prologue and epilogue that realigns the run-time stack if necessary.
This supports mixing legacy codes that keep 4-byte stack alignment with mod-
ern codes that keep 16-byte stack alignment for SSE compatibility. See also the
attribute force_align_arg_pointer, applicable to individual functions.
-mpreferred-stack-boundary=num
Attempt to keep the stack boundary aligned to a 2 raised to num byte boundary.
If -mpreferred-stack-boundary is not specified, the default is 4 (16 bytes or
128 bits).
Warning: When generating code for the x86-64 architecture with SSE exten-
sions disabled, -mpreferred-stack-boundary=3 can be used to keep the stack
boundary aligned to 8 byte boundary. Since x86-64 ABI require 16 byte stack
alignment, this is ABI incompatible and intended to be used in controlled envi-
ronment where stack space is important limitation. This option leads to wrong
code when functions compiled with 16 byte stack alignment (such as functions
from a standard library) are called with misaligned stack. In this case, SSE
instructions may lead to misaligned memory access traps. In addition, variable
arguments are handled incorrectly for 16 byte aligned objects (including x87
524 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
long double and int128), leading to wrong results. You must build all modules
with -mpreferred-stack-boundary=3, including any libraries. This includes
the system libraries and startup modules.
-mincoming-stack-boundary=num
Assume the incoming stack is aligned to a 2 raised to num byte boundary.
If -mincoming-stack-boundary is not specified, the one specified by
-mpreferred-stack-boundary is used.
On Pentium and Pentium Pro, double and long double values should be
aligned to an 8-byte boundary (see -malign-double) or suffer significant run
time performance penalties. On Pentium III, the Streaming SIMD Extension
(SSE) data type __m128 may not work properly if it is not 16-byte aligned.
To ensure proper alignment of this values on the stack, the stack boundary
must be as aligned as that required by any value stored on the stack. Further,
every function must be generated such that it keeps the stack aligned. Thus
calling a function compiled with a higher preferred stack boundary from a
function compiled with a lower preferred stack boundary most likely misaligns
the stack. It is recommended that libraries that use callbacks always use the
default setting.
This extra alignment does consume extra stack space, and generally increases
code size. Code that is sensitive to stack space usage, such as embedded systems
and operating system kernels, may want to reduce the preferred alignment to
-mpreferred-stack-boundary=2.
-mmmx
-msse
-msse2
-msse3
-mssse3
-msse4
-msse4a
-msse4.1
-msse4.2
-mavx
-mavx2
-mavx512f
-mavx512cd
-mavx512vl
-mavx512bw
-mavx512dq
-mavx512ifma
-mavx512vbmi
-msha
-maes
-mpclmul
-mclflushopt
-mclwb
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 525
-mfsgsbase
-mptwrite
-mrdrnd
-mf16c
-mfma
-mpconfig
-mwbnoinvd
-mfma4
-mprfchw
-mrdpid
-mrdseed
-msgx
-mxop
-mlwp
-m3dnow
-m3dnowa
-mpopcnt
-mabm
-madx
-mbmi
-mbmi2
-mlzcnt
-mfxsr
-mxsave
-mxsaveopt
-mxsavec
-mxsaves
-mrtm
-mhle
-mtbm
-mmwaitx
-mclzero
-mpku
-mavx512vbmi2
-mavx512bf16
-mavx512fp16
-mgfni
-mvaes
-mwaitpkg
-mvpclmulqdq
-mavx512bitalg
-mmovdiri
-mmovdir64b
-menqcmd
-muintr
-mtsxldtrk
-mavx512vpopcntdq
526 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mavx512vp2intersect
-mavx512vnni
-mavxvnni
-mcldemote
-mserialize
-mamx-tile
-mamx-int8
-mamx-bf16
-mhreset
-mkl
-mwidekl
-mavxifma
-mavxvnniint8
-mavxneconvert
-mcmpccxadd
-mamx-fp16
-mprefetchi
-mraoint
-mamx-complex
-mavxvnniint16
-msm3
-msha512
-msm4
-mapxf
-musermsr
-mavx10.1
-mavx10.1-256
-mavx10.1-512
-mavx10.2
-mavx10.2-256
-mavx10.2-512
-mamx-avx512
-mamx-tf32
-mamx-transpose
-mamx-fp8
-mmovrs
-mamx-movrs
These switches enable the use of instructions in the MMX, SSE, AVX512CD,
AVX512VL, AVX512BW, AVX512DQ, AVX512IFMA, AVX512VBMI, SHA,
AES, PCLMUL, CLFLUSHOPT, CLWB, FSGSBASE, PTWRITE, RDRND,
F16C, FMA, PCONFIG, WBNOINVD, FMA4, PREFETCHW, RDPID,
RDSEED, SGX, XOP, LWP, 3DNow!, enhanced 3DNow!, POPCNT, ABM,
ADX, BMI, BMI2, LZCNT, FXSR, XSAVE, XSAVEOPT, XSAVEC, XSAVES,
RTM, HLE, TBM, MWAITX, CLZERO, PKU, AVX512VBMI2, GFNI, VAES,
WAITPKG, VPCLMULQDQ, AVX512BITALG, MOVDIRI, MOVDIR64B,
AVX512BF16, ENQCMD, AVX512VPOPCNTDQ, AVX512VNNI, SERIAL-
IZE, UINTR, HRESET, AMXTILE, AMXINT8, AMXBF16, KL, WIDEKL,
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 527
-mdump-tune-features
This option instructs GCC to dump the names of the x86 performance
tuning features and default settings. The names can be used in
-mtune-ctrl=feature-list.
-mtune-ctrl=feature-list
This option is used to do fine grain control of x86 code generation features.
feature-list is a comma separated list of feature names. See also -mdump-tune-
features. When specified, the feature is turned on if it is not preceded with ‘^’,
otherwise, it is turned off. -mtune-ctrl=feature-list is intended to be used
by GCC developers. Using it may lead to code paths not covered by testing
and can potentially result in compiler ICEs or runtime errors.
-mno-default
This option instructs GCC to turn off all tunable features. See also -mtune-
ctrl=feature-list and -mdump-tune-features.
-mcld This option instructs GCC to emit a cld instruction in the prologue of functions
that use string instructions. String instructions depend on the DF flag to select
between autoincrement or autodecrement mode. While the ABI specifies the
DF flag to be cleared on function entry, some operating systems violate this
specification by not clearing the DF flag in their exception dispatchers. The
exception handler can be invoked with the DF flag set, which leads to wrong
direction mode when string instructions are used. This option can be enabled
by default on 32-bit x86 targets by configuring GCC with the --enable-cld
configure option. Generation of cld instructions can be suppressed with the
-mno-cld compiler option in this case.
528 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mvzeroupper
This option instructs GCC to emit a vzeroupper instruction before a transfer of
control flow out of the function to minimize the AVX to SSE transition penalty
as well as remove unnecessary zeroupper intrinsics.
-mprefer-avx128
This option instructs GCC to use 128-bit AVX instructions instead of 256-bit
AVX instructions in the auto-vectorizer.
-mprefer-vector-width=opt
This option instructs GCC to use opt-bit vector width in instructions instead
of default on the selected platform.
-mpartial-vector-fp-math
This option enables GCC to generate floating-point operations that might affect
the set of floating-point status flags on partial vectors, where vector elements
reside in the low part of the 128-bit SSE register. Unless -fno-trapping-
math is specified, the compiler guarantees correct behavior by sanitizing all
input operands to have zeroes in the unused upper part of the vector register.
Note that by using built-in functions or inline assembly with partial vector
arguments, NaNs, denormal or invalid values can leak into the upper part of
the vector, causing possible performance issues when -fno-trapping-math is
in effect. These issues can be mitigated by manually sanitizing the upper part
of the partial vector argument register or by using -mdaz-ftz to set denormals-
are-zero (DAZ) flag in the MXCSR register.
This option is enabled by default.
-mmove-max=bits
This option instructs GCC to set the maximum number of bits can be moved
from memory to memory efficiently to bits. The valid bits are 128, 256 and
512.
-mstore-max=bits
This option instructs GCC to set the maximum number of bits can be stored
to memory efficiently to bits. The valid bits are 128, 256 and 512.
‘none’ No extra limitations applied to GCC other than defined by the
selected platform.
‘128’ Prefer 128-bit vector width for instructions.
‘256’ Prefer 256-bit vector width for instructions.
‘512’ Prefer 512-bit vector width for instructions.
-mnoreturn-no-callee-saved-registers
This option optimizes functions with noreturn attribute or _Noreturn specifier
by not saving in the function prologue callee-saved registers which are used
in the function (except for the BP register). This option can interfere with
debugging of the caller of the noreturn function or any function further up in
the call stack, so it is not enabled by default.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 529
-mcx16 This option enables GCC to generate CMPXCHG16B instructions in 64-bit code
to implement compare-and-exchange operations on 16-byte aligned 128-bit ob-
jects. This is useful for atomic updates of data structures exceeding one machine
word in size. The compiler uses this instruction to implement Section 6.58
[ sync Builtins], page 784. However, for Section 6.59 [ atomic Builtins],
page 786, operating on 128-bit integers, a library call is always used.
-msahf This option enables generation of SAHF instructions in 64-bit code. Early Intel
Pentium 4 CPUs with Intel 64 support, prior to the introduction of Pentium
4 G1 step in December 2005, lacked the LAHF and SAHF instructions which are
supported by AMD64. These are load and store instructions, respectively, for
certain status flags. In 64-bit mode, the SAHF instruction is used to optimize
fmod, drem, and remainder built-in functions; see Section 6.64 [Other Builtins],
page 797, for details.
-mmovbe This option enables use of the movbe instruction to optimize byte swapping of
four and eight byte entities.
-mshstk The -mshstk option enables shadow stack built-in functions from x86 Control-
flow Enforcement Technology (CET).
-mcrc32 This option enables built-in functions __builtin_ia32_crc32qi, __builtin_
ia32_crc32hi, __builtin_ia32_crc32si and __builtin_ia32_crc32di to
generate the crc32 machine instruction.
-mmwait This option enables built-in functions __builtin_ia32_monitor, and
__builtin_ia32_mwait to generate the monitor and mwait machine
instructions.
-mrecip This option enables use of RCPSS and RSQRTSS instructions (and their vector-
ized variants RCPPS and RSQRTPS) with an additional Newton-Raphson step to
increase precision instead of DIVSS and SQRTSS (and their vectorized variants)
for single-precision floating-point arguments. These instructions are generated
only when -funsafe-math-optimizations is enabled together with -ffinite-
math-only and -fno-trapping-math. Note that while the throughput of the
sequence is higher than the throughput of the non-reciprocal instruction, the
precision of the sequence can be decreased by up to 2 ulp (i.e. the inverse of 1.0
equals 0.99999994).
Note that GCC implements 1.0f/sqrtf(x) in terms of RSQRTSS (or RSQRTPS)
already with -ffast-math (or the above option combination), and doesn’t need
-mrecip.
Also note that GCC emits the above sequence with additional Newton-Raphson
step for vectorized single-float division and vectorized sqrtf(x) already with
-ffast-math (or the above option combination), and doesn’t need -mrecip.
-mrecip=opt
This option controls which reciprocal estimate instructions may be used. opt
is a comma-separated list of options, which may be preceded by a ‘!’ to invert
the option:
‘all’ Enable all estimate instructions.
530 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-maccumulate-outgoing-args
If enabled, the maximum amount of space required for outgoing arguments
is computed in the function prologue. This is faster on most modern CPUs
because of reduced dependencies, improved scheduling and reduced stack usage
when the preferred stack boundary is not equal to 2. The drawback is a notable
increase in code size. This switch implies -mno-push-args.
-mthreads
Support thread-safe exception handling on MinGW. Programs that rely
on thread-safe exception handling must compile and link all code with the
-mthreads option. When compiling, -mthreads defines -D_MT; when linking,
it links in a special thread helper library -lmingwthrd which cleans up
per-thread exception-handling data.
-mms-bitfields
-mno-ms-bitfields
Enable/disable bit-field layout compatible with the native Microsoft Windows
compiler.
If packed is used on a structure, or if bit-fields are used, it may be that the
Microsoft ABI lays out the structure differently than the way GCC normally
does. Particularly when moving packed data between functions compiled with
GCC and the native Microsoft compiler (either via function call or as data in
a file), it may be necessary to access either format.
This option is enabled by default for Microsoft Windows targets. This behav-
ior can also be controlled locally by use of variable or type attributes. For
more information, see Section 6.36.15 [x86 Variable Attributes], page 691, and
Section 6.37.6 [x86 Type Attributes], page 706.
The Microsoft structure layout algorithm is fairly simple with the exception of
the bit-field packing. The padding and alignment of members of structures and
whether a bit-field can straddle a storage-unit boundary are determine by these
rules:
1. Structure members are stored sequentially in the order in which they are
declared: the first member has the lowest memory address and the last
member the highest.
2. Every data object has an alignment requirement. The alignment require-
ment for all data except structures, unions, and arrays is either the size of
the object or the current packing size (specified with either the aligned
attribute or the pack pragma), whichever is less. For structures, unions,
and arrays, the alignment requirement is the largest alignment requirement
of its members. Every object is allocated an offset so that:
offset % alignment_requirement == 0
3. Adjacent bit-fields are packed into the same 1-, 2-, or 4-byte allocation
unit if the integral types are the same size and if the next bit-field fits into
the current allocation unit without crossing the boundary imposed by the
common alignment requirements of the bit-fields.
MSVC interprets zero-length bit-fields in the following ways:
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 533
struct
{
char foo : 4;
short : 0;
double bar;
} t3;
For t2, bar is placed at offset 2, rather than offset 1. Accordingly, the size
of t2 is 4. For t3, the zero-length bit-field does not affect the alignment of
bar or, as a result, the size of the structure.
Taking this into account, it is important to note the following:
1. If a zero-length bit-field follows a normal bit-field, the type of the zero-
length bit-field may affect the alignment of the structure as whole. For
example, t2 has a size of 4 bytes, since the zero-length bit-field follows
a normal bit-field, and is of type short.
2. Even if a zero-length bit-field is not followed by a normal bit-field, it
may still affect the alignment of the structure:
struct
{
char foo : 6;
long : 0;
} t4;
Here, t4 takes up 4 bytes.
3. Zero-length bit-fields following non-bit-field members are ignored:
struct
{
char foo;
long : 0;
char bar;
534 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
} t5;
Here, t5 takes up 2 bytes.
-mno-align-stringops
Do not align the destination of inlined string operations. This switch reduces
code size and improves performance in case the destination is already aligned,
but GCC doesn’t know about it.
-minline-all-stringops
By default GCC inlines string operations only when the destination is known to
be aligned to least a 4-byte boundary. This enables more inlining and increases
code size, but may improve performance of code that depends on fast memcpy
and memset for short lengths. The option enables inline expansion of strlen
for all pointer alignments.
-minline-stringops-dynamically
For string operations of unknown size, use run-time checks with inline code for
small blocks and a library call for large blocks.
-mstringop-strategy=alg
Override the internal decision heuristic for the particular algorithm to use for
inlining string operations. The allowed values for alg are:
‘rep_byte’
‘rep_4byte’
‘rep_8byte’
Expand using i386 rep prefix of the specified size.
‘byte_loop’
‘loop’
‘unrolled_loop’
Expand into an inline loop.
‘libcall’ Always use a library call.
-mmemcpy-strategy=strategy
Override the internal decision heuristic to decide if __builtin_memcpy
should be inlined and what inline algorithm to use when the expected
size of the copy operation is known. strategy is a comma-separated list of
alg:max size:dest align triplets. alg is specified in -mstringop-strategy,
max size specifies the max byte size with which inline algorithm alg is allowed.
For the last triplet, the max size must be -1. The max size of the triplets in
the list must be specified in increasing order. The minimal byte size for alg is
0 for the first triplet and max_size + 1 of the preceding range.
-mmemset-strategy=strategy
The option is similar to -mmemcpy-strategy= except that it is to control __
builtin_memset expansion.
-momit-leaf-frame-pointer
Don’t keep the frame pointer in a register for leaf functions. This avoids the in-
structions to save, set up, and restore frame pointers and makes an extra register
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 535
-mskip-rax-setup
-mno-skip-rax-setup
When generating code for the x86-64 architecture with SSE extensions disabled,
-mskip-rax-setup can be used to skip setting up RAX register when there are
no variable arguments passed in vector registers.
Warning: Since RAX register is used to avoid unnecessarily saving vector reg-
isters on stack when passing variable arguments, the impacts of this option are
callees may waste some stack space, misbehave or jump to a random location.
GCC 4.4 or newer don’t have those issues, regardless the RAX register value.
-m8bit-idiv
-mno-8bit-idiv
On some processors, like Intel Atom, 8-bit unsigned integer divide is much faster
than 32-bit/64-bit integer divide. This option generates a run-time check. If
both dividend and divisor are within range of 0 to 255, 8-bit unsigned integer
divide is used instead of 32-bit/64-bit integer divide.
-mavx256-split-unaligned-load
-mavx256-split-unaligned-store
Split 32-byte AVX unaligned load and store.
-mstack-protector-guard=guard
-mstack-protector-guard-reg=reg
-mstack-protector-guard-offset=offset
-mstack-protector-guard-symbol=symbol
Generate stack protection code using canary at guard. Supported locations are
‘global’ for global canary or ‘tls’ for per-thread canary in the TLS block (the
default). This option has effect only when -fstack-protector or -fstack-
protector-all is specified.
With the latter choice the options -mstack-protector-guard-reg=reg
and -mstack-protector-guard-offset=offset furthermore specify which
segment register (%fs or %gs) to use as base register for reading the canary,
and from what offset from that base register. The default for those is as
specified in the relevant ABI.
-mstack-protector-guard-symbol=symbol overrides the offset with a symbol
reference to a canary in the TLS block.
-mgeneral-regs-only
Generate code that uses only the general-purpose registers. This prevents the
compiler from using floating-point, vector, mask and bound registers.
-mrelax-cmpxchg-loop
When emitting a compare-and-swap loop for Section 6.58 [ sync Builtins],
page 784, and Section 6.59 [ atomic Builtins], page 786, lacking a native in-
struction, optimize for the highly contended case by issuing an atomic load
before the CMPXCHG instruction, and using the PAUSE instruction to save CPU
power when restarting the loop.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 537
-mindirect-branch=choice
Convert indirect call and jump with choice. The default is ‘keep’, which keeps
indirect call and jump unmodified. ‘thunk’ converts indirect call and jump
to call and return thunk. ‘thunk-inline’ converts indirect call and jump to
inlined call and return thunk. ‘thunk-extern’ converts indirect call and jump
to external call and return thunk provided in a separate object file. You can
control this behavior for a specific function by using the function attribute
indirect_branch. See Section 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604.
Note that -mcmodel=large is incompatible with -mindirect-branch=thunk
and -mindirect-branch=thunk-extern since the thunk function may not be
reachable in the large code model.
Note that -mindirect-branch=thunk-extern is compatible with -fcf-
protection=branch since the external thunk can be made to enable
control-flow check.
-mfunction-return=choice
Convert function return with choice. The default is ‘keep’, which keeps func-
tion return unmodified. ‘thunk’ converts function return to call and return
thunk. ‘thunk-inline’ converts function return to inlined call and return
thunk. ‘thunk-extern’ converts function return to external call and return
thunk provided in a separate object file. You can control this behavior for a
specific function by using the function attribute function_return. See Sec-
tion 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604.
Note that -mindirect-return=thunk-extern is compatible with -fcf-
protection=branch since the external thunk can be made to enable
control-flow check.
Note that -mcmodel=large is incompatible with -mfunction-return=thunk
and -mfunction-return=thunk-extern since the thunk function may not be
reachable in the large code model.
-mindirect-branch-register
Force indirect call and jump via register.
-mharden-sls=choice
Generate code to mitigate against straight line speculation (SLS) with choice.
The default is ‘none’ which disables all SLS hardening. ‘return’ enables SLS
hardening for function returns. ‘indirect-jmp’ enables SLS hardening for in-
direct jumps. ‘all’ enables all SLS hardening.
-mindirect-branch-cs-prefix
Add CS prefix to call and jmp to indirect thunk with branch target in r8-r15
registers so that the call and jmp instruction length is 6 bytes to allow them
to be replaced with ‘lfence; call *%r8-r15’ or ‘lfence; jmp *%r8-r15’ at
run-time.
-mapx-inline-asm-use-gpr32
For inline asm support with APX, by default the EGPR feature was disabled to
prevent potential illegal instruction with EGPR occurs. To invoke egpr usage
538 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-mcmodel=large
Generate code for the large model. This model makes no assumptions about
addresses and sizes of sections.
-maddress-mode=long
Generate code for long address mode. This is only supported for 64-bit and
x32 environments. It is the default address mode for 64-bit environments.
-maddress-mode=short
Generate code for short address mode. This is only supported for 32-bit and x32
environments. It is the default address mode for 32-bit and x32 environments.
-mneeded
-mno-needed
Emit GNU PROPERTY X86 ISA 1 NEEDED GNU property for Linux target
to indicate the micro-architecture ISA level required to execute the binary.
-mno-direct-extern-access
Without -fpic nor -fPIC, always use the GOT pointer to access external sym-
bols. With -fpic or -fPIC, treat access to protected symbols as local symbols.
The default is -mdirect-extern-access.
Warning: shared libraries compiled with -mno-direct-extern-access and ex-
ecutable compiled with -mdirect-extern-access may not be binary compat-
ible if protected symbols are used in shared libraries and executable.
-munroll-only-small-loops
Controls conservative small loop unrolling. It is default enabled by O2, and
unrolls loop with less than 4 insns by 1 time. Explicit -f[no-]unroll-[all-]loops
would disable this flag to avoid any unintended unrolling behavior that user
does not want.
-mlam=choice
LAM(linear-address masking) allows special bits in the pointer to be used for
metadata. The default is ‘none’. With ‘u48’, pointer bits in positions 62:48 can
be used for metadata; With ‘u57’, pointer bits in positions 62:57 can be used
for metadata.
__MSVCRT_VERSION__ for specified CRT library, choose start file for CRT
library and link with CRT library. Recognized CRT library names for
proprocessor are: crtdll*, msvcrt10*, msvcrt20*, msvcrt40*, msvcr40*,
msvcrtd*, msvcrt-os*, msvcr70*, msvcr71*, msvcr80*, msvcr90*,
msvcr100*, msvcr110*, msvcr120* and ucrt*. If this options is not specified
then the default MinGW import library msvcrt is used for linking and no
other adjustment for preprocessor is done. MinGW import library msvcrt
is just a symlink to (or a copy of) another MinGW CRT import library
chosen during MinGW compilation. MinGW import library msvcrt-os is
for Windows system CRT DLL library msvcrt.dll and in most cases is the
default MinGW import library. Generally speaking, changing the CRT DLL
requires recompiling the entire MinGW CRT. This option is for experimental
and testing purposes only. This option is available for MinGW targets.
-mdll This option is available for Cygwin and MinGW targets. It specifies that a
DLL—a dynamic link library—is to be generated, enabling the selection of the
required runtime startup object and entry point.
-mnop-fun-dllimport
This option is available for Cygwin and MinGW targets. It specifies that the
dllimport attribute should be ignored.
-mthreads
This option is available for MinGW targets. It specifies that MinGW-specific
thread support is to be used.
-municode
This option is available for MinGW-w64 targets. It causes the UNICODE prepro-
cessor macro to be predefined, and chooses Unicode-capable runtime startup
code.
-mwin32 This option is available for Cygwin and MinGW targets. It specifies that the
typical Microsoft Windows predefined macros are to be set in the pre-processor,
but does not influence the choice of runtime library/startup code.
-mwindows
This option is available for Cygwin and MinGW targets. It specifies that a GUI
application is to be generated by instructing the linker to set the PE header
subsystem type appropriately.
-fno-set-stack-executable
This option is available for MinGW targets. It specifies that the executable flag
for the stack used by nested functions isn’t set. This is necessary for binaries
running in kernel mode of Microsoft Windows, as there the User32 API, which
is used to set executable privileges, isn’t available.
-fwritable-relocated-rdata
This option is available for MinGW and Cygwin targets. It specifies that
relocated-data in read-only section is put into the .data section. This is a
necessary for older runtimes not supporting modification of .rdata sections for
pseudo-relocation.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 541
-mpe-aligned-commons
This option is available for Cygwin and MinGW targets. It specifies that the
GNU extension to the PE file format that permits the correct alignment of
COMMON variables should be used when generating code. It is enabled by
default if GCC detects that the target assembler found during configuration
supports the feature.
See also under Section 3.20.53 [x86 Options], page 506, for standard options.
-mtext-section-literals
-mno-text-section-literals
These options control the treatment of literal pools. The default is -mno-text-
section-literals, which places literals in a separate section in the output
file. This allows the literal pool to be placed in a data RAM/ROM, and it also
allows the linker to combine literal pools from separate object files to remove
redundant literals and improve code size. With -mtext-section-literals,
the literals are interspersed in the text section in order to keep them as close
as possible to their references. This may be necessary for large assembly files.
Literals for each function are placed right before that function.
-mauto-litpools
-mno-auto-litpools
These options control the treatment of literal pools. The default is -mno-
auto-litpools, which places literals in a separate section in the output file
unless -mtext-section-literals is used. With -mauto-litpools the liter-
als are interspersed in the text section by the assembler. Compiler does not
produce explicit .literal directives and loads literals into registers with MOVI
instructions instead of L32R to let the assembler do relaxation and place lit-
erals as necessary. This option allows assembler to create several literal pools
per function and assemble very big functions, which may not be possible with
-mtext-section-literals.
-mtarget-align
-mno-target-align
When this option is enabled, GCC instructs the assembler to automatically align
instructions to reduce branch penalties at the expense of some code density. The
assembler attempts to widen density instructions to align branch targets and the
instructions following call instructions. If there are not enough preceding safe
density instructions to align a target, no widening is performed. The default
is -mtarget-align. These options do not affect the treatment of auto-aligned
instructions like LOOP, which the assembler always aligns, either by widening
density instructions or by inserting NOP instructions.
-mlongcalls
-mno-longcalls
When this option is enabled, GCC instructs the assembler to translate direct
calls to indirect calls unless it can determine that the target of a direct call is
in the range allowed by the call instruction. This translation typically occurs
for calls to functions in other source files. Specifically, the assembler translates
a direct CALL instruction into an L32R followed by a CALLX instruction. The
default is -mno-longcalls. This option should be used in programs where the
call target can potentially be out of range. This option is implemented in the
assembler, not the compiler, so the assembly code generated by GCC still shows
direct call instructions—look at the disassembled object code to see the actual
instructions. Note that the assembler uses an indirect call for every cross-file
call, not just those that really are out of range.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 543
-mabi=name
Generate code for the specified ABI. Permissible values are: ‘call0’,
‘windowed’. Default ABI is chosen by the Xtensa core configuration.
-mabi=call0
When this option is enabled function parameters are passed in registers a2
through a7, registers a12 through a15 are caller-saved, and register a15 may
be used as a frame pointer. When this version of the ABI is enabled the C
preprocessor symbol __XTENSA_CALL0_ABI__ is defined.
-mabi=windowed
When this option is enabled function parameters are passed in registers a10
through a15, and called function rotates register window by 8 registers on entry
so that its arguments are found in registers a2 through a7. Register a7 may
be used as a frame pointer. Register window is rotated 8 registers back upon
return. When this version of the ABI is enabled the C preprocessor symbol
__XTENSA_WINDOWED_ABI__ is defined.
-mextra-l32r-costs=n
Specify an extra cost of instruction RAM/ROM access for L32R instructions,
in clock cycles. This affects, when optimizing for speed, whether loading a
constant from literal pool using L32R or synthesizing the constant from a small
one with a couple of arithmetic instructions. The default value is 0.
-mstrict-align
-mno-strict-align
Avoid or allow generating memory accesses that may not be aligned on a natural
object boundary as described in the architecture specification. The default is
-mno-strict-align for cores that support both unaligned loads and stores in
hardware and -mstrict-align for all other cores.
%include <file>
Search for file and insert its text at the current point in the specs
file.
%include_noerr <file>
Just like ‘%include’, but do not generate an error message if the
include file cannot be found.
%rename old_name new_name
Rename the spec string old name to new name.
*[spec_name]:
This tells the compiler to create, override or delete the named spec string. All
lines after this directive up to the next directive or blank line are considered to
be the text for the spec string. If this results in an empty string then the spec
is deleted. (Or, if the spec did not exist, then nothing happens.) Otherwise, if
the spec does not currently exist a new spec is created. If the spec does exist
then its contents are overridden by the text of this directive, unless the first
character of that text is the ‘+’ character, in which case the text is appended
to the spec.
[suffix]:
Creates a new ‘[suffix] spec’ pair. All lines after this directive and up to the
next directive or blank line are considered to make up the spec string for the
indicated suffix. When the compiler encounters an input file with the named
suffix, it processes the spec string in order to work out how to compile that file.
For example:
.ZZ:
z-compile -input %i
This says that any input file whose name ends in ‘.ZZ’ should be passed to the
program ‘z-compile’, which should be invoked with the command-line switch
-input and with the result of performing the ‘%i’ substitution. (See below.)
As an alternative to providing a spec string, the text following a suffix directive
can be one of the following:
@language
This says that the suffix is an alias for a known language. This is
similar to using the -x command-line switch to GCC to specify a
language explicitly. For example:
.ZZ:
@c++
Says that .ZZ files are, in fact, C++ source files.
#name This causes an error messages saying:
name compiler not installed on this system.
GCC already has an extensive list of suffixes built into it. This directive adds
an entry to the end of the list of suffixes, but since the list is searched from
the end backwards, it is effectively possible to override earlier entries using this
technique.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 545
GCC has the following spec strings built into it. Spec files can override these strings or
create their own. Note that individual targets can also add their own spec strings to this
list.
asm Options to pass to the assembler
asm_final Options to pass to the assembler post-processor
cpp Options to pass to the C preprocessor
cc1 Options to pass to the C compiler
cc1plus Options to pass to the C++ compiler
endfile Object files to include at the end of the link
link Options to pass to the linker
lib Libraries to include on the command line to the linker
libgcc Decides which GCC support library to pass to the linker
linker Sets the name of the linker
startfile Object files to include at the start of the link
Here is a small example of a spec file:
%rename lib old_lib
*lib:
--start-group -lgcc -lc -leval1 --end-group %(old_lib)
This example renames the spec called ‘lib’ to ‘old_lib’ and then overrides the previous
definition of ‘lib’ with a new one. The new definition adds in some extra command-line
options before including the text of the old definition.
Spec strings are a list of command-line options to be passed to their corresponding pro-
gram. In addition, the spec strings can contain ‘%’-prefixed sequences to substitute variable
text or to conditionally insert text into the command line. Using these constructs it is
possible to generate quite complex command lines.
Here is a table of all defined ‘%’-sequences for spec strings. Note that spaces are not
generated automatically around the results of expanding these sequences. Therefore you
can concatenate them together or combine them with constant text in a single argument.
%% Substitute one ‘%’ into the program name or argument.
%" Substitute an empty argument.
%i Substitute the name of the input file being processed.
%b Substitute the basename for outputs related with the input file being processed.
This is often the substring up to (and not including) the last period and not
including the directory but, unless %w is active, it expands to the basename
for auxiliary outputs, which may be influenced by an explicit output name, and
by various other options that control how auxiliary outputs are named.
%B This is the same as ‘%b’, but include the file suffix (text after the last period).
Without %w, it expands to the basename for dump outputs.
%d Marks the argument containing or following the ‘%d’ as a temporary file name,
so that that file is deleted if GCC exits successfully. Unlike ‘%g’, this contributes
no text to the argument.
%gsuffix Substitute a file name that has suffix suffix and is chosen once per compilation,
and mark the argument in the same way as ‘%d’. To reduce exposure to denial-
of-service attacks, the file name is now chosen in a way that is hard to predict
546 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
even when previously chosen file names are known. For example, ‘%g.s ...
%g.o ... %g.s’ might turn into ‘ccUVUUAU.s ccXYAXZ12.o ccUVUUAU.s’. suffix
matches the regexp ‘[.A-Za-z]*’ or the special string ‘%O’, which is treated
exactly as if ‘%O’ had been preprocessed. Previously, ‘%g’ was simply substituted
with a file name chosen once per compilation, without regard to any appended
suffix (which was therefore treated just like ordinary text), making such attacks
more likely to succeed.
%usuffix Like ‘%g’, but generates a new temporary file name each time it appears instead
of once per compilation.
%Usuffix Substitutes the last file name generated with ‘%usuffix’, generating a new
one if there is no such last file name. In the absence of any ‘%usuffix’, this
is just like ‘%gsuffix’, except they don’t share the same suffix space, so ‘%g.s
... %U.s ... %g.s ... %U.s’ involves the generation of two distinct file names,
one for each ‘%g.s’ and another for each ‘%U.s’. Previously, ‘%U’ was simply
substituted with a file name chosen for the previous ‘%u’, without regard to any
appended suffix.
%jsuffix Substitutes the name of the HOST_BIT_BUCKET, if any, and if it is writable, and
if -save-temps is not used; otherwise, substitute the name of a temporary file,
just like ‘%u’. This temporary file is not meant for communication between
processes, but rather as a junk disposal mechanism.
%|suffix
%msuffix Like ‘%g’, except if -pipe is in effect. In that case ‘%|’ substitutes a single
dash and ‘%m’ substitutes nothing at all. These are the two most common
ways to instruct a program that it should read from standard input or write
to standard output. If you need something more elaborate you can use an
‘%{pipe:X}’ construct: see for example gcc/fortran/lang-specs.h.
%.SUFFIX Substitutes .SUFFIX for the suffixes of a matched switch’s args when it is
subsequently output with ‘%*’. SUFFIX is terminated by the next space or %.
%w Marks the argument containing or following the ‘%w’ as the designated output
file of this compilation. This puts the argument into the sequence of arguments
that ‘%o’ substitutes.
%V Indicates that this compilation produces no output file.
%o Substitutes the names of all the output files, with spaces automatically placed
around them. You should write spaces around the ‘%o’ as well or the results are
undefined. ‘%o’ is for use in the specs for running the linker. Input files whose
names have no recognized suffix are not compiled at all, but they are included
among the output files, so they are linked.
%O Substitutes the suffix for object files. Note that this is handled specially when
it immediately follows ‘%g, %u, or %U’, because of the need for those to form
complete file names. The handling is such that ‘%O’ is treated exactly as if it
had already been substituted, except that ‘%g, %u, and %U’ do not currently
support additional suffix characters following ‘%O’ as they do following, for
example, ‘.o’.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 547
%E Process the endfile spec. This is a spec string that specifies the last object
files that are passed to the linker.
%C Process the cpp spec. This is used to construct the arguments to be passed to
the C preprocessor.
%1 Process the cc1 spec. This is used to construct the options to be passed to the
actual C compiler (cc1).
%2 Process the cc1plus spec. This is used to construct the options to be passed
to the actual C++ compiler (cc1plus).
%* Substitute the variable part of a matched option. See below. Note that each
comma in the substituted string is replaced by a single space.
%<S Remove all occurrences of -S from the command line. Note—this command is
position dependent. ‘%’ commands in the spec string before this one see -S, ‘%’
commands in the spec string after this one do not.
%<S* Similar to ‘%<S’, but match all switches beginning with -S.
%>S Similar to ‘%<S’, but keep -S in the GCC command line.
%:function(args)
Call the named function function, passing it args. args is first processed as a
nested spec string, then split into an argument vector in the usual fashion. The
function returns a string which is processed as if it had appeared literally as
part of the current spec.
The following built-in spec functions are provided:
getenv The getenv spec function takes two arguments: an environment
variable name and a string. If the environment variable is not
defined, a fatal error is issued. Otherwise, the return value is the
value of the environment variable concatenated with the string. For
example, if TOPDIR is defined as /path/to/top, then:
%:getenv(TOPDIR /include)
expands to /path/to/top/include.
if-exists
The if-exists spec function takes one argument, an absolute
pathname to a file. If the file exists, if-exists returns the path-
name. Here is a small example of its usage:
*startfile:
crt0%O%s %:if-exists(crti%O%s) crtbegin%O%s
if-exists-else
The if-exists-else spec function is similar to the if-exists spec
function, except that it takes two arguments. The first argument is
an absolute pathname to a file. If the file exists, if-exists-else
returns the pathname. If it does not exist, it returns the second
argument. This way, if-exists-else can be used to select one
file or another, based on the existence of the first. Here is a small
example of its usage:
*startfile:
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 549
crt0%O%s %:if-exists(crti%O%s) \
%:if-exists-else(crtbeginT%O%s crtbegin%O%s)
if-exists-then-else
The if-exists-then-else spec function takes at least two argu-
ments and an optional third one. The first argument is an absolute
pathname to a file. If the file exists, the function returns the second
argument. If the file does not exist, the function returns the third
argument if there is one, or NULL otherwise. This can be used to
expand one text, or optionally another, based on the existence of a
file. Here is a small example of its usage:
-l%:if-exists-then-else(%:getenv(VSB_DIR rtnet.h) rtnet net)
replace-outfile
The replace-outfile spec function takes two arguments. It looks
for the first argument in the outfiles array and replaces it with the
second argument. Here is a small example of its usage:
%{fgnu-runtime:%:replace-outfile(-lobjc -lobjc-gnu)}
remove-outfile
The remove-outfile spec function takes one argument. It looks
for the first argument in the outfiles array and removes it. Here is
a small example its usage:
%:remove-outfile(-lm)
version-compare
The version-compare spec function takes four or five arguments
of the following form:
<comparison-op> <arg1> [<arg2>] <switch> <result>
It returns result if the comparison evaluates to true, and NULL
if it doesn’t. The supported comparison-op values are:
>= True if switch is a later (or same) version than arg1
!> Opposite of >=
< True if switch is an earlier version than arg1
!< Opposite of <
>< True if switch is arg1 or later, and earlier than arg2
<> True if switch is earlier than arg1, or is arg2 or later
If the switch is not present at all, the condition is false unless the
first character of the comparison-op is !.
%:version-compare(>= 10.3 mmacosx-version-min= -lmx)
The above example would add -lmx if -mmacosx-version-
min=10.3.9 was passed.
550 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
include The include spec function behaves much like %include, with the
advantage that it can be nested inside a spec and thus be condi-
tionalized. It takes one argument, the filename, and looks for it in
the startfile path. It always returns NULL.
%{static-libasan|static:%:include(libsanitizer.spec)%(link_libasan)}
pass-through-libs
The pass-through-libs spec function takes any number of ar-
guments. It finds any -l options and any non-options ending in
.a (which it assumes are the names of linker input library archive
files) and returns a result containing all the found arguments each
prepended by -plugin-opt=-pass-through= and joined by spaces.
This list is intended to be passed to the LTO linker plugin.
%:pass-through-libs(%G %L %G)
print-asm-header
The print-asm-header function takes no arguments and simply
prints a banner like:
Assembler options
=================
debug-level-gt
The debug-level-gt spec function takes one argument and returns
"" (the empty string) if debug_info_level is greater than the
specified number, and NULL otherwise.
%{%:debug-level-gt(0):%{gdwarf*:--gdwarf2}}
%{S} Substitutes the -S switch, if that switch is given to GCC. If that switch is
not specified, this substitutes nothing. Note that the leading dash is omitted
when specifying this option, and it is automatically inserted if the substitution
is performed. Thus the spec string ‘%{foo}’ matches the command-line option
-foo and outputs the command-line option -foo.
%W{S} Like %{S} but mark last argument supplied within as a file to be deleted on
failure.
%@{S} Like %{S} but puts the result into a FILE and substitutes @FILE if an @file
argument has been supplied.
%{S*} Substitutes all the switches specified to GCC whose names start with -S, but
which also take an argument. This is used for switches like -o, -D, -I, etc.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 551
GCC considers -o foo as being one switch whose name starts with ‘o’. %{o*}
substitutes this text, including the space. Thus two arguments are generated.
%{S*&T*} Like %{S*}, but preserve order of S and T options (the order of S and T in
the spec is not significant). There can be any number of ampersand-separated
variables; for each the wild card is optional. Useful for CPP as ‘%{D*&U*&A*}’.
%{S:X} Substitutes X, if the -S switch is given to GCC.
%{!S:X} Substitutes X, if the -S switch is not given to GCC.
%{S*:X} Substitutes X if one or more switches whose names start with -S are specified to
GCC. Normally X is substituted only once, no matter how many such switches
appeared. However, if %* appears somewhere in X, then X is substituted once for
each matching switch, with the %* replaced by the part of that switch matching
the *.
If %* appears as the last part of a spec sequence then a space is added after
the end of the last substitution. If there is more text in the sequence, however,
then a space is not generated. This allows the %* substitution to be used as
part of a larger string. For example, a spec string like this:
%{mcu=*:--script=%*/memory.ld}
when matching an option like -mcu=newchip produces:
--script=newchip/memory.ld
%{%:function(args):X}
Call function named function with args args. If the function returns non-NULL,
then X is substituted, if it returns NULL, it isn’t substituted.
%{S:X; T:Y; :D}
If S is given to GCC, substitutes X; else if T is given to GCC, substitutes Y;
else substitutes D. There can be as many clauses as you need. This may be
combined with ., ,, !, |, and * as needed.
552 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The switch matching text S in a ‘%{S}’, ‘%{S:X}’ or similar construct can use a backslash
to ignore the special meaning of the character following it, thus allowing literal matching
of a character that is otherwise specially treated. For example, ‘%{std=iso9899\:1999:X}’
substitutes X if the -std=iso9899:1999 option is given.
The conditional text X in a ‘%{S:X}’ or similar construct may contain other nested ‘%’
constructs or spaces, or even newlines. They are processed as usual, as described above.
Trailing white space in X is ignored. White space may also appear anywhere on the left side
of the colon in these constructs, except between . or * and the corresponding word.
The -O, -f, -m, and -W switches are handled specifically in these constructs. If another
value of -O or the negated form of a -f, -m, or -W switch is found later in the command
line, the earlier switch value is ignored, except with {S*} where S is just one letter, which
passes all matching options.
The character ‘|’ at the beginning of the predicate text is used to indicate that a command
should be piped to the following command, but only if -pipe is specified.
It is built into GCC which switches take arguments and which do not. (You might think
it would be useful to generalize this to allow each compiler’s spec to say which switches
take arguments. But this cannot be done in a consistent fashion. GCC cannot even decide
which input files have been specified without knowing which switches take arguments, and
it must know which input files to compile in order to tell which compilers to run).
GCC also knows implicitly that arguments starting in -l are to be treated as compiler
output files, and passed to the linker in their proper position among the other output files.
for ordinary libraries for the -l option (but directories specified with -L come
first).
LANG This variable is used to pass locale information to the compiler. One way in
which this information is used is to determine the character set to be used when
character literals, string literals and comments are parsed in C and C++. When
the compiler is configured to allow multibyte characters, the following values
for LANG are recognized:
‘C-JIS’ Recognize JIS characters.
‘C-SJIS’ Recognize SJIS characters.
‘C-EUCJP’ Recognize EUCJP characters.
If LANG is not defined, or if it has some other value, then the compiler uses
mblen and mbtowc as defined by the default locale to recognize and translate
multibyte characters.
GCC_EXTRA_DIAGNOSTIC_OUTPUT
If GCC_EXTRA_DIAGNOSTIC_OUTPUT is set to one of the following values,
then additional text will be emitted to stderr when fix-it hints are emitted.
-fdiagnostics-parseable-fixits and -fno-diagnostics-parseable-
fixits take precedence over this environment variable.
‘fixits-v1’
Emit parseable fix-it hints, equivalent to -fdiagnostics-
parseable-fixits. In particular, columns are expressed as a
count of bytes, starting at byte 1 for the initial column.
‘fixits-v2’
As fixits-v1, but columns are expressed as display columns, as
per -fdiagnostics-column-unit=display.
Some additional environment variables affect the behavior of the preprocessor.
CPATH
C_INCLUDE_PATH
CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH
OBJC_INCLUDE_PATH
Each variable’s value is a list of directories separated by a special character,
much like PATH, in which to look for header files. The special character, PATH_
SEPARATOR, is target-dependent and determined at GCC build time. For Mi-
crosoft Windows-based targets it is a semicolon, and for almost all other targets
it is a colon.
CPATH specifies a list of directories to be searched as if specified with -I, but
after any paths given with -I options on the command line. This environment
variable is used regardless of which language is being preprocessed.
The remaining environment variables apply only when preprocessing the par-
ticular language indicated. Each specifies a list of directories to be searched as
if specified with -isystem, but after any paths given with -isystem options on
the command line.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 555
In all these variables, an empty element instructs the compiler to search its
current working directory. Empty elements can appear at the beginning or end
of a path. For instance, if the value of CPATH is :/special/include, that has
the same effect as ‘-I. -I/special/include’.
DEPENDENCIES_OUTPUT
If this variable is set, its value specifies how to output dependencies for Make
based on the non-system header files processed by the compiler. System header
files are ignored in the dependency output.
The value of DEPENDENCIES_OUTPUT can be just a file name, in which case the
Make rules are written to that file, guessing the target name from the source
file name. Or the value can have the form ‘file target’, in which case the
rules are written to file file using target as the target name.
In other words, this environment variable is equivalent to combining the op-
tions -MM and -MF (see Section 3.14 [Preprocessor Options], page 284), with an
optional -MT switch too.
SUNPRO_DEPENDENCIES
This variable is the same as DEPENDENCIES_OUTPUT (see above), except that
system header files are not ignored, so it implies -M rather than -MM. However,
the dependence on the main input file is omitted. See Section 3.14 [Preprocessor
Options], page 284.
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
If this variable is set, its value specifies a UNIX timestamp to be used in re-
placement of the current date and time in the __DATE__ and __TIME__ macros,
so that the embedded timestamps become reproducible.
The value of SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH must be a UNIX timestamp, defined as the
number of seconds (excluding leap seconds) since 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 repre-
sented in ASCII; identical to the output of date +%s on GNU/Linux and other
systems that support the %s extension in the date command.
The value should be a known timestamp such as the last modification time of
the source or package and it should be set by the build process.
file in that directory. The name searched for is the name specified in the #include with
‘.gch’ appended. If the precompiled header file cannot be used, it is ignored.
For instance, if you have #include "all.h", and you have all.h.gch in the same direc-
tory as all.h, then the precompiled header file is used if possible, and the original header
is used otherwise.
Alternatively, you might decide to put the precompiled header file in a directory and use
-I to ensure that directory is searched before (or instead of) the directory containing the
original header. Then, if you want to check that the precompiled header file is always used,
you can put a file of the same name as the original header in this directory containing an
#error command.
This also works with -include. So yet another way to use precompiled headers, good
for projects not designed with precompiled header files in mind, is to simply take most
of the header files used by a project, include them from another header file, precompile
that header file, and -include the precompiled header. If the header files have guards
against multiple inclusion, they are skipped because they’ve already been included (in the
precompiled header).
If you need to precompile the same header file for different languages, targets, or compiler
options, you can instead make a directory named like all.h.gch, and put each precompiled
header in the directory, perhaps using -o. It doesn’t matter what you call the files in the
directory; every precompiled header in the directory is considered. The first precompiled
header encountered in the directory that is valid for this compilation is used; they’re searched
in no particular order.
There are many other possibilities, limited only by your imagination, good sense, and the
constraints of your build system.
A precompiled header file can be used only when these conditions apply:
• Only one precompiled header can be used in a particular compilation.
• A precompiled header cannot be used once the first C token is seen. You can have
preprocessor directives before a precompiled header; you cannot include a precompiled
header from inside another header.
• The precompiled header file must be produced for the same language as the current
compilation. You cannot use a C precompiled header for a C++ compilation.
• The precompiled header file must have been produced by the same compiler binary as
the current compilation is using.
• Any macros defined before the precompiled header is included must either be defined
in the same way as when the precompiled header was generated, or must not affect the
precompiled header, which usually means that they don’t appear in the precompiled
header at all.
The -D option is one way to define a macro before a precompiled header is included; us-
ing a #define can also do it. There are also some options that define macros implicitly,
like -O and -Wdeprecated; the same rule applies to macros defined this way.
• If debugging information is output when using the precompiled header, using -g or
similar, the same kind of debugging information must have been output when building
the precompiled header. However, a precompiled header built using -g can be used in
a compilation when no debugging information is being output.
Chapter 3: GCC Command Options 557
• The same -m options must generally be used when building and using the precompiled
header. See Section 3.20 [Submodel Options], page 329, for any cases where this rule
is relaxed.
• Each of the following options must be the same when building and using the precom-
piled header:
-fexceptions
• Some other command-line options starting with -f, -p, or -O must be defined in the
same way as when the precompiled header was generated. At present, it’s not clear
which options are safe to change and which are not; the safest choice is to use exactly
the same options when generating and using the precompiled header. The following
are known to be safe:
-fmessage-length= -fpreprocessed -fsched-interblock
-fsched-spec -fsched-spec-load -fsched-spec-load-dangerous
-fsched-verbose=number -fschedule-insns -fvisibility=
-pedantic-errors
• Address space layout randomization (ASLR) can lead to not binary identical PCH files.
If you rely on stable PCH file contents disable ASLR when generating PCH files.
For all of these except the last, the compiler automatically ignores the precompiled header
if the conditions aren’t met. If you find an option combination that doesn’t work and
doesn’t cause the precompiled header to be ignored, please consider filing a bug report, see
Chapter 15 [Bugs], page 1099.
If you do use differing options when generating and using the precompiled header, the
actual behavior is a mixture of the behavior for the options. For instance, if you use -g to
generate the precompiled header but not when using it, you may or may not get debugging
information for routines in the precompiled header.
and any standard library #includes in mycode.C will be skipped, because the import
brought in the whole library. This can be a simple way to use modules to speed up compi-
lation without any code changes.
The -fmodule-only option disables generation of the associated object file for compiling
a module interface. Only the CMI is generated. This option is implied when using the
-fmodule-header option.
The -flang-info-include-translate and -flang-info-include-translate-not op-
tions notes whether include translation occurs or not. With no argument, the first will
note all include translation. The second will note all non-translations of include files not
known to intentionally be textual. With an argument, queries about include translation of
a header files with that particular trailing pathname are noted. You may repeat this form
to cover several different header files. This option may be helpful in determining whether
include translation is happening—if it is working correctly, it behaves as if it isn’t there at
all.
The -flang-info-module-cmi option can be used to determine where the compiler is
reading a CMI from. Without the option, the compiler is silent when such a read is suc-
cessful. This option has an optional argument, which will restrict the notification to just
the set of named modules or header units specified.
The -Winvalid-imported-macros option causes all imported macros to be resolved at
the end of compilation. Without this, imported macros are only resolved when expanded
or (re)defined. This option detects conflicting import definitions for all macros.
For details of the -fmodule-mapper family of options, see Section 3.24.1 [C++ Module
Mapper], page 559.
limit may be exceeded with deep module dependency hierarchies. With large code bases
there may be more imports than the process limit of file descriptors. By default, the limit
is a few less than the per-process file descriptor hard limit, if that is determinable.2
GCC CMIs use ELF32 as an architecture-neutral encapsulation mechanism. You may
use readelf to inspect them, although section contents are largely undecipherable. There
is a section named .gnu.c++.README, which contains human-readable text. Other than the
first line, each line consists of tag: value tuples.
> readelf -p.gnu.c++.README gcm.cache/foo.gcm
2
Where applicable the soft limit is incremented as needed towards the hard limit.
3
The precise contents of this output may change.
563
4 C Implementation-Defined Behavior
A conforming implementation of ISO C is required to document its choice of behavior in
each of the areas that are designated “implementation defined”. The following lists all such
areas, along with the section numbers from the ISO/IEC 9899:1990, ISO/IEC 9899:1999
and ISO/IEC 9899:2011 standards. Some areas are only implementation-defined in one
version of the standard.
Some choices depend on the externally determined ABI for the platform (including stan-
dard character encodings) which GCC follows; these are listed as “determined by ABI”
below. See Chapter 9 [Binary Compatibility], page 1047, and https://gcc.gnu.org/
readings.html. Some choices are documented in the preprocessor manual. See Section
“Implementation-defined behavior” in The C Preprocessor. Some choices are made by
the library and operating system (or other environment when compiling for a freestanding
environment); refer to their documentation for details.
4.1 Translation
• How a diagnostic is identified (C90 3.7, C99 and C11 3.10, C90, C99 and C11 5.1.1.3).
Diagnostics consist of all the output sent to stderr by GCC.
• Whether each nonempty sequence of white-space characters other than new-line is
retained or replaced by one space character in translation phase 3 (C90, C99 and C11
5.1.1.2).
See Section “Implementation-defined behavior” in The C Preprocessor.
4.2 Environment
The behavior of most of these points are dependent on the implementation of the C library,
and are not defined by GCC itself.
• The mapping between physical source file multibyte characters and the source character
set in translation phase 1 (C90, C99 and C11 5.1.1.2).
See Section “Implementation-defined behavior” in The C Preprocessor.
4.3 Identifiers
• Which additional multibyte characters may appear in identifiers and their correspon-
dence to universal character names (C99 and C11 6.4.2).
See Section “Implementation-defined behavior” in The C Preprocessor.
• The number of significant initial characters in an identifier (C90 6.1.2, C90, C99 and
C11 5.2.4.1, C99 and C11 6.4.2).
For internal names, all characters are significant. For external names, the number of
significant characters are defined by the linker; for almost all targets, all characters are
significant.
• Whether case distinctions are significant in an identifier with external linkage (C90
6.1.2).
This is a property of the linker. C99 and C11 require that case distinctions are always
significant in identifiers with external linkage and systems without this property are
not supported by GCC.
564 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
4.4 Characters
• The number of bits in a byte (C90 3.4, C99 and C11 3.6).
Determined by ABI.
• The values of the members of the execution character set (C90, C99 and C11 5.2.1).
Determined by ABI.
• The unique value of the member of the execution character set produced for each of
the standard alphabetic escape sequences (C90, C99 and C11 5.2.2).
Determined by ABI.
• The value of a char object into which has been stored any character other than a
member of the basic execution character set (C90 6.1.2.5, C99 and C11 6.2.5).
Determined by ABI.
• Which of signed char or unsigned char has the same range, representation, and be-
havior as “plain” char (C90 6.1.2.5, C90 6.2.1.1, C99 and C11 6.2.5, C99 and C11
6.3.1.1).
Determined by ABI. The options -funsigned-char and -fsigned-char change the
default. See Section 3.4 [Options Controlling C Dialect], page 43.
• The mapping of members of the source character set (in character constants and string
literals) to members of the execution character set (C90 6.1.3.4, C99 and C11 6.4.4.4,
C90, C99 and C11 5.1.1.2).
Determined by ABI.
• The value of an integer character constant containing more than one character or
containing a character or escape sequence that does not map to a single-byte execution
character (C90 6.1.3.4, C99 and C11 6.4.4.4).
See Section “Implementation-defined behavior” in The C Preprocessor.
• The value of a wide character constant containing more than one multibyte character or
a single multibyte character that maps to multiple members of the extended execution
character set, or containing a multibyte character or escape sequence not represented
in the extended execution character set (C90 6.1.3.4, C99 and C11 6.4.4.4).
See Section “Implementation-defined behavior” in The C Preprocessor.
• The current locale used to convert a wide character constant consisting of a single
multibyte character that maps to a member of the extended execution character set
into a corresponding wide character code (C90 6.1.3.4, C99 and C11 6.4.4.4).
See Section “Implementation-defined behavior” in The C Preprocessor.
• Whether differently-prefixed wide string literal tokens can be concatenated and, if so,
the treatment of the resulting multibyte character sequence (C11 6.4.5).
Such tokens may not be concatenated.
• The current locale used to convert a wide string literal into corresponding wide char-
acter codes (C90 6.1.4, C99 and C11 6.4.5).
See Section “Implementation-defined behavior” in The C Preprocessor.
• The value of a string literal containing a multibyte character or escape sequence not
represented in the execution character set (C90 6.1.4, C99 and C11 6.4.5).
See Section “Implementation-defined behavior” in The C Preprocessor.
Chapter 4: C Implementation-Defined Behavior 565
• The encoding of any of wchar_t, char16_t, and char32_t where the corresponding
standard encoding macro (__STDC_ISO_10646__, __STDC_UTF_16__, or __STDC_UTF_
32__) is not defined (C11 6.10.8.2).
See Section “Implementation-defined behavior” in The C Preprocessor. char16_t and
char32_t literals are always encoded in UTF-16 and UTF-32 respectively.
4.5 Integers
• Any extended integer types that exist in the implementation (C99 and C11 6.2.5).
GCC does not support any extended integer types.
• Whether signed integer types are represented using sign and magnitude, two’s comple-
ment, or one’s complement, and whether the extraordinary value is a trap representa-
tion or an ordinary value (C99 and C11 6.2.6.2).
GCC supports only two’s complement integer types, and all bit patterns are ordinary
values.
• The rank of any extended integer type relative to another extended integer type with
the same precision (C99 and C11 6.3.1.1).
GCC does not support any extended integer types.
• The result of, or the signal raised by, converting an integer to a signed integer type
when the value cannot be represented in an object of that type (C90 6.2.1.2, C99 and
C11 6.3.1.3).
For conversion to a type of width N , the value is reduced modulo 2N to be within range
of the type; no signal is raised.
• The results of some bitwise operations on signed integers (C90 6.3, C99 and C11 6.5).
Bitwise operators act on the representation of the value including both the sign and
value bits, where the sign bit is considered immediately above the highest-value value
bit. Signed ‘>>’ acts on negative numbers by sign extension.
As an extension to the C language, GCC does not use the latitude given in C99 and C11
only to treat certain aspects of signed ‘<<’ as undefined. However, -fsanitize=shift
(and -fsanitize=undefined) will diagnose such cases. They are also diagnosed where
constant expressions are required.
• The sign of the remainder on integer division (C90 6.3.5).
GCC always follows the C99 and C11 requirement that the result of division is truncated
towards zero.
A cast from pointer to integer discards most-significant bits if the pointer representation
is larger than the integer type, sign-extends1 if the pointer representation is smaller
than the integer type, otherwise the bits are unchanged.
A cast from integer to pointer discards most-significant bits if the pointer representation
is smaller than the integer type, extends according to the signedness of the integer type
if the pointer representation is larger than the integer type, otherwise the bits are
unchanged.
When casting from pointer to integer and back again, the resulting pointer must ref-
erence the same object as the original pointer, otherwise the behavior is undefined.
That is, one may not use integer arithmetic to avoid the undefined behavior of pointer
arithmetic as proscribed in C99 and C11 6.5.6/8.
• The size of the result of subtracting two pointers to elements of the same array (C90
6.3.6, C99 and C11 6.5.6).
The value is as specified in the standard and the type is determined by the ABI.
4.8 Hints
• The extent to which suggestions made by using the register storage-class specifier
are effective (C90 6.5.1, C99 and C11 6.7.1).
The register specifier affects code generation only in these ways:
• When used as part of the register variable extension, see Section 6.50.5 [Explicit
Register Variables], page 772.
• When -O0 is in use, the compiler allocates distinct stack memory for all variables
that do not have the register storage-class specifier; if register is specified, the
variable may have a shorter lifespan than the code would indicate and may never
be placed in memory.
• On some rare x86 targets, setjmp doesn’t save the registers in all circumstances.
In those cases, GCC doesn’t allocate any variables in registers unless they are
marked register.
• The extent to which suggestions made by using the inline function specifier are effective
(C99 and C11 6.7.4).
GCC will not inline any functions if the -fno-inline option is used or if -O0 is used.
Otherwise, GCC may still be unable to inline a function for many reasons; the -Winline
option may be used to determine if a function has not been inlined and why not.
By default it is treated as signed int but this may be changed by the -funsigned-
bitfields option.
• Allowable bit-field types other than _Bool, signed int, and unsigned int (C99 and
C11 6.7.2.1).
Other integer types, such as long int, and enumerated types are permitted even in
strictly conforming mode.
• Whether atomic types are permitted for bit-fields (C11 6.7.2.1).
Atomic types are not permitted for bit-fields.
• Whether a bit-field can straddle a storage-unit boundary (C90 6.5.2.1, C99 and C11
6.7.2.1).
Determined by ABI.
• The order of allocation of bit-fields within a unit (C90 6.5.2.1, C99 and C11 6.7.2.1).
Determined by ABI.
• The alignment of non-bit-field members of structures (C90 6.5.2.1, C99 and C11
6.7.2.1).
Determined by ABI.
• The integer type compatible with each enumerated type (C90 6.5.2.2, C99 and C11
6.7.2.2).
Normally, the type is unsigned int if there are no negative values in the enumeration,
otherwise int. If -fshort-enums is specified, then if there are negative values it is the
first of signed char, short and int that can represent all the values, otherwise it is
the first of unsigned char, unsigned short and unsigned int that can represent all
the values.
On some targets, -fshort-enums is the default; this is determined by the ABI.
4.10 Qualifiers
• What constitutes an access to an object that has volatile-qualified type (C90 6.5.3, C99
and C11 6.7.3).
Such an object is normally accessed by pointers and used for accessing hardware. In
most expressions, it is intuitively obvious what is a read and what is a write. For
example
volatile int *dst = somevalue;
volatile int *src = someothervalue;
*dst = *src;
will cause a read of the volatile object pointed to by src and store the value into the
volatile object pointed to by dst. There is no guarantee that these reads and writes
are atomic, especially for objects larger than int.
However, if the volatile storage is not being modified, and the value of the volatile
storage is not used, then the situation is less obvious. For example
volatile int *src = somevalue;
*src;
According to the C standard, such an expression is an rvalue whose type is the unqual-
ified version of its original type, i.e. int. Whether GCC interprets this as a read of the
Chapter 4: C Implementation-Defined Behavior 569
volatile object being pointed to or only as a request to evaluate the expression for its
side effects depends on this type.
If it is a scalar type, or on most targets an aggregate type whose only member object
is of a scalar type, or a union type whose member objects are of scalar types, the
expression is interpreted by GCC as a read of the volatile object; in the other cases,
the expression is only evaluated for its side effects.
When an object of an aggregate type, with the same size and alignment as a scalar
type S, is the subject of a volatile access by an assignment expression or an atomic
function, the access to it is performed as if the object’s declared type were volatile
S.
4.11 Declarators
• The maximum number of declarators that may modify an arithmetic, structure or
union type (C90 6.5.4).
GCC is only limited by available memory.
4.12 Statements
• The maximum number of case values in a switch statement (C90 6.6.4.2).
GCC is only limited by available memory.
• Whether the ‘#’ operator inserts a ‘\’ character before the ‘\’ character that begins
a universal character name in a character constant or string literal (C99 and C11
6.10.3.2).
• The behavior on each recognized non-STDC #pragma directive (C90 6.8.6, C99 and C11
6.10.6).
See Section “Pragmas” in The C Preprocessor, for details of pragmas accepted by GCC
on all targets. See Section 6.67 [Pragmas Accepted by GCC], page 1003, for details of
target-specific pragmas.
• The definitions for __DATE__ and __TIME__ when respectively, the date and time of
translation are not available (C90 6.8.8, C99 6.10.8, C11 6.10.8.1).
4.15 Architecture
• The values or expressions assigned to the macros specified in the headers <float.h>,
<limits.h>, and <stdint.h> (C90, C99 and C11 5.2.4.2, C99 7.18.2, C99 7.18.3, C11
7.20.2, C11 7.20.3).
Determined by ABI.
• The result of attempting to indirectly access an object with automatic or thread storage
duration from a thread other than the one with which it is associated (C11 6.2.4).
Such accesses are supported, subject to the same requirements for synchronization for
concurrent accesses as for concurrent accesses to any object.
• The number, order, and encoding of bytes in any object (when not explicitly specified
in this International Standard) (C99 and C11 6.2.6.1).
Determined by ABI.
• Whether any extended alignments are supported and the contexts in which they are
supported (C11 6.2.8).
Extended alignments up to 228 (bytes) are supported for objects of automatic storage
duration. Alignments supported for objects of static and thread storage duration are
determined by the ABI.
• Valid alignment values other than those returned by an Alignof expression for funda-
mental types, if any (C11 6.2.8).
Valid alignments are powers of 2 up to and including 228 .
• The value of the result of the sizeof and _Alignof operators (C90 6.3.3.4, C99 and
C11 6.5.3.4).
Determined by ABI.
Chapter 4: C Implementation-Defined Behavior 571
({a;}).Foo ()
constructs a temporary A object to hold the result of the statement expression, and that is
used to invoke Foo. Therefore the this pointer observed by Foo is not the address of a.
In a statement expression, any temporaries created within a statement are destroyed at
that statement’s end. This makes statement expressions inside macros slightly different
from function calls. In the latter case temporaries introduced during argument evaluation
are destroyed at the end of the statement that includes the function call. In the statement
expression case they are destroyed during the statement expression. For instance,
#define macro(a) ({__typeof__(a) b = (a); b + 3; })
template<typename T> T function(T a) { T b = a; return b + 3; }
void foo ()
{
macro (X ());
function (X ());
}
has different places where temporaries are destroyed. For the macro case, the temporary
X is destroyed just after the initialization of b. In the function case that temporary is
destroyed when the function returns.
These considerations mean that it is probably a bad idea to use statement expressions of
this form in header files that are designed to work with C++. (Note that some versions of
the GNU C Library contained header files using statement expressions that lead to precisely
this bug.)
Jumping into a statement expression with goto or using a switch statement outside the
statement expression with a case or default label inside the statement expression is not
permitted. Jumping into a statement expression with a computed goto (see Section 6.3
[Labels as Values], page 578) has undefined behavior. Jumping out of a statement expres-
sion is permitted, but if the statement expression is part of a larger expression then it is
unspecified which other subexpressions of that expression have been evaluated except where
the language definition requires certain subexpressions to be evaluated before or after the
statement expression. A break or continue statement inside of a statement expression
used in while, do or for loop or switch statement condition or for statement init or in-
crement expressions jumps to an outer loop or switch statement if any (otherwise it is an
error), rather than to the loop or switch statement in whose condition or init or increment
expression it appears. In any case, as with a function call, the evaluation of a statement
expression is not interleaved with the evaluation of other parts of the containing expression.
For example,
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 577
})
Local label declarations also make the labels they declare visible to nested functions, if
there are any. See Section 6.4 [Nested Functions], page 579, for details.
Unlike a normal goto, in GNU C++ a computed goto will not call destructors for objects
that go out of scope.
The nested function can access all the variables of the containing function that are visible
at the point of its definition. This is called lexical scoping. For example, here we show a
nested function which uses an inherited variable named offset:
bar (int *array, int offset, int size)
{
int access (int *array, int index)
{ return array[index + offset]; }
int i;
/* . . . */
for (i = 0; i < size; i++)
/* . . . */ access (array, i) /* . . . */
}
Nested function definitions are permitted within functions in the places where variable
definitions are allowed; that is, in any block, mixed with the other declarations and state-
ments in the block.
It is possible to call the nested function from outside the scope of its name by storing its
address or passing the address to another function:
hack (int *array, int size)
{
void store (int index, int value)
{ array[index] = value; }
GCC implements taking the address of a nested function using a technique called tram-
polines. This technique was described in Lexical Closures for C++ (Thomas M. Breuel,
USENIX C++ Conference Proceedings, October 17-21, 1988).
A nested function can jump to a label inherited from a containing function, provided
the label is explicitly declared in the containing function (see Section 6.2 [Local Labels],
page 577). Such a jump returns instantly to the containing function, exiting the nested
function that did the goto and any intermediate functions as well. Here is an example:
bar (int *array, int offset, int size)
{
__label__ failure;
int access (int *array, int index)
{
if (index > size)
goto failure;
return array[index + offset];
}
int i;
/* . . . */
for (i = 0; i < size; i++)
/* . . . */ access (array, i) /* . . . */
/* . . . */
return 0;
A nested function always has no linkage. Declaring one with extern or static is erro-
neous. If you need to declare the nested function before its definition, use auto (which is
otherwise meaningless for function declarations).
bar (int *array, int offset, int size)
{
__label__ failure;
auto int access (int *, int);
/* . . . */
int access (int *array, int index)
{
if (index > size)
goto failure;
return array[index + offset];
}
/* . . . */
}
The built-in versions of these functions use GCC’s normal mechanisms to save and restore
registers using the stack on function entry and exit. The jump buffer argument buf holds
only the information needed to restore the stack frame, rather than the entire set of saved
register values.
An important caveat is that GCC arranges to save and restore only those registers known
to the specific architecture variant being compiled for. This can make __builtin_setjmp
and __builtin_longjmp more efficient than their library counterparts in some cases, but
it can also cause incorrect and mysterious behavior when mixing with code that uses the
full register set.
You should declare the jump buffer argument buf to the built-in functions as:
#include <stdint.h>
intptr_t buf[5];
if (__builtin_constant_p (oflag))
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 583
{
if ((oflag & O_CREAT) != 0 && __builtin_va_arg_pack_len () < 1)
{
warn_open_missing_mode ();
return __open_2 (path, oflag);
}
return open (path, oflag, __builtin_va_arg_pack ());
}
if (__builtin_va_arg_pack_len () < 1)
return __open_2 (path, oflag);
int. Such a constant always has a pure imaginary value, but you can form any complex
value you like by adding one to a real constant. This is a GNU extension; if you have
an ISO C99 conforming C library (such as the GNU C Library), and want to construct
complex constants of floating type, you should include <complex.h> and use the macros I
or _Complex_I instead.
The ISO C++14 library also defines the ‘i’ suffix, so C++14 code that includes the
‘<complex>’ header cannot use ‘i’ for the GNU extension. The ‘j’ suffix still has the
GNU meaning.
GCC can handle both implicit and explicit casts between the _Complex types and other
_Complex types as casting both the real and imaginary parts to the scalar type. GCC can
handle implicit and explicit casts from a scalar type to a _Complex type and where the
imaginary part will be considered zero. The C front-end can handle implicit and explicit
casts from a _Complex type to a scalar type where the imaginary part will be ignored. In
C++ code, this cast is considered illformed and G++ will error out.
GCC provides a built-in function __builtin_complex will can be used to construct a
complex value.
GCC has a few extensions which can be used to extract the real and the imaginary part
of the complex-valued expression. Note these expressions are lvalues if the exp is an lvalue.
These expressions operands have the type of a complex type which might get prompoted
to a complex type from a scalar type. E.g. __real__ (int)x is the same as casting to
_Complex int before __real__ is done.
Expression Description
__real__ exp Extract the real part of exp.
__imag__ exp Extract the imaginary part of exp.
For values of floating point, you should use the ISO C99 functions, declared in
<complex.h> and also provided as built-in functions by GCC.
Expression float double long double
__real__ exp crealf creal creall
__imag__ exp cimagf cimag cimagl
The operator ‘~’ performs complex conjugation when used on a value with a complex
type. This is a GNU extension; for values of floating type, you should use the ISO C99
functions conjf, conj and conjl, declared in <complex.h> and also provided as built-in
functions by GCC. Note unlike the __real__ and __imag__ operators, this operator will
not do an implicit cast to the complex type because the ‘~’ is already a normal operator.
GCC can allocate complex automatic variables in a noncontiguous fashion; it’s even
possible for the real part to be in a register while the imaginary part is on the stack (or
vice versa). Only the DWARF debug info format can represent this, so use of DWARF is
recommended. If you are using the stabs debug info format, GCC describes a noncontiguous
complex variable as if it were two separate variables of noncomplex type. If the variable’s
actual name is foo, the two fictitious variables are named foo$real and foo$imag. You
can examine and set these two fictitious variables with your debugger.
a real binary floating-point type, and the result has the corresponding complex type
with real and imaginary parts real and imag. Unlike ‘real + I * imag’, this works
even when infinities, NaNs and negative zeros are involved.
changes. Calling conventions for any target might also change. Not all targets support
fixed-point types.
The fixed-point types are short _Fract, _Fract, long _Fract, long long _Fract,
unsigned short _Fract, unsigned _Fract, unsigned long _Fract, unsigned long long
_Fract, _Sat short _Fract, _Sat _Fract, _Sat long _Fract, _Sat long long _Fract,
_Sat unsigned short _Fract, _Sat unsigned _Fract, _Sat unsigned long _Fract, _Sat
unsigned long long _Fract, short _Accum, _Accum, long _Accum, long long _Accum,
unsigned short _Accum, unsigned _Accum, unsigned long _Accum, unsigned long long
_Accum, _Sat short _Accum, _Sat _Accum, _Sat long _Accum, _Sat long long _Accum,
_Sat unsigned short _Accum, _Sat unsigned _Accum, _Sat unsigned long _Accum, _Sat
unsigned long long _Accum.
Fixed-point data values contain fractional and optional integral parts. The format of
fixed-point data varies and depends on the target machine.
Support for fixed-point types includes:
• prefix and postfix increment and decrement operators (++, --)
• unary arithmetic operators (+, -, !)
• binary arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /)
• binary shift operators (<<, >>)
• relational operators (<, <=, >=, >)
• equality operators (==, !=)
• assignment operators (+=, -=, *=, /=, <<=, >>=)
• conversions to and from integer, floating-point, or fixed-point types
Use a suffix in a fixed-point literal constant:
• ‘hr’ or ‘HR’ for short _Fract and _Sat short _Fract
• ‘r’ or ‘R’ for _Fract and _Sat _Fract
• ‘lr’ or ‘LR’ for long _Fract and _Sat long _Fract
• ‘llr’ or ‘LLR’ for long long _Fract and _Sat long long _Fract
• ‘uhr’ or ‘UHR’ for unsigned short _Fract and _Sat unsigned short _Fract
• ‘ur’ or ‘UR’ for unsigned _Fract and _Sat unsigned _Fract
• ‘ulr’ or ‘ULR’ for unsigned long _Fract and _Sat unsigned long _Fract
• ‘ullr’ or ‘ULLR’ for unsigned long long _Fract and _Sat unsigned long long
_Fract
• ‘hk’ or ‘HK’ for short _Accum and _Sat short _Accum
• ‘k’ or ‘K’ for _Accum and _Sat _Accum
• ‘lk’ or ‘LK’ for long _Accum and _Sat long _Accum
• ‘llk’ or ‘LLK’ for long long _Accum and _Sat long long _Accum
• ‘uhk’ or ‘UHK’ for unsigned short _Accum and _Sat unsigned short _Accum
• ‘uk’ or ‘UK’ for unsigned _Accum and _Sat unsigned _Accum
• ‘ulk’ or ‘ULK’ for unsigned long _Accum and _Sat unsigned long _Accum
• ‘ullk’ or ‘ULLK’ for unsigned long long _Accum and _Sat unsigned long long
_Accum
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 591
GCC support of fixed-point types as specified by the draft technical report is incomplete:
• Pragmas to control overflow and rounding behaviors are not implemented.
Fixed-point types are supported by the DWARF debug information format.
__memx This is a 24-bit address space that linearizes flash and RAM: If the high bit
of the address is set, data is read from RAM using the lower two bytes as
RAM address. If the high bit of the address is clear, data is read from flash
with RAMPZ set according to the high byte of the address. See Section 6.65.9
[__builtin_avr_flash_segment], page 831.
Objects in this address space are located in .progmemx.data.
Example
char my_read (const __flash char ** p)
{
/* p is a pointer to RAM that points to a pointer to flash.
The first indirection of p reads that flash pointer
from RAM and the second indirection reads a char from this
flash address. */
return **p;
}
int i = 1;
• Reading across the 64 KiB section boundary of the __flash or __flashN address spaces
is not supported. The only address spaces that support reading across the 64 KiB flash
segment boundaries are __memx and __flashx.
• If you use one of the __flashN address spaces you must arrange your linker script to
locate the .progmemN.data sections according to your needs. For an example, see the
avr-gcc wiki (https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/avr-gcc#Address_Spaces)
• Any data or pointers to the non-generic address spaces must be qualified as const,
i.e. as read-only data. This still applies if the data in one of these address spaces like
software version number or calibration lookup table are intended to be changed after
load time by, say, a boot loader. In this case the right qualification is const volatile
so that the compiler must not optimize away known values or insert them as immediates
into operands of instructions.
• The following code initializes a variable pfoo located in static storage with a 24-bit
address:
extern const __memx char foo;
const __memx void *pfoo = &foo;
• On the reduced Tiny devices like ATtiny40, no address spaces are supported. Just
use vanilla C / C++ code without overhead as outlined above. Attribute progmem is
supported but works differently, see Section 6.36.3 [AVR Variable Attributes], page 686.
segment base, these address spaces are not considered to be subspaces of the
generic (flat) address space. This means that explicit casts are required to con-
vert pointers between these address spaces and the generic address space. In
practice the application should cast to uintptr_t and apply the segment base
offset that it installed previously.
The preprocessor symbols __SEG_FS and __SEG_GS are defined when these ad-
dress spaces are supported.
struct f2 {
struct f1 f1; int data[3];
} f2 = { { 1 }, { 2, 3, 4 } };
The convenience of this extension is that f1 has the desired type, eliminating the need to
consistently refer to f2.f1.
This has symmetry with normal static arrays, in that an array of unknown size is also
written with [].
Of course, this extension only makes sense if the extra data comes at the end of a top-level
object, as otherwise we would be overwriting data at subsequent offsets. To avoid undue
596 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
complication and confusion with initialization of deeply nested arrays, we simply disallow
any non-empty initialization except when the structure is the top-level object. For example:
struct foo { int x; int y[]; };
struct bar { struct foo z; };
You can use the function alloca to get an effect much like variable-length arrays. The
function alloca is available in many other C implementations (but not in all). On the
other hand, variable-length arrays are more elegant.
There are other differences between these two methods. Space allocated with alloca
exists until the containing function returns. The space for a variable-length array is deal-
located as soon as the array name’s scope ends, unless you also use alloca in this scope.
You can also use variable-length arrays as arguments to functions:
struct entry
tester (int len, char data[len][len])
{
/* . . . */
}
The length of an array is computed once when the storage is allocated and is remembered
for the scope of the array in case you access it with sizeof.
If you want to pass the array first and the length afterward, you can use a forward
declaration in the parameter list—another GNU extension.
struct entry
tester (int len; char data[len][len], int len)
{
/* . . . */
}
The ‘int len’ before the semicolon is a parameter forward declaration, and it serves the
purpose of making the name len known when the declaration of data is parsed.
You can write any number of such parameter forward declarations in the parameter list.
They can be separated by commas or semicolons, but the last one must end with a semicolon,
which is followed by the “real” parameter declarations. Each forward declaration must
match a “real” declaration in parameter name and data type. ISO C99 does not support
parameter forward declarations.
Here ‘...’ is a variable argument. In the invocation of such a macro, it represents the
zero or more tokens until the closing parenthesis that ends the invocation, including any
commas. This set of tokens replaces the identifier __VA_ARGS__ in the macro body wherever
it appears. See the CPP manual for more information.
598 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
GCC has long supported variadic macros, and used a different syntax that allowed you
to give a name to the variable arguments just like any other argument. Here is an example:
#define debug(format, args...) fprintf (stderr, format, args)
This is in all ways equivalent to the ISO C example above, but arguably more readable and
descriptive.
GNU CPP has two further variadic macro extensions, and permits them to be used with
either of the above forms of macro definition.
In standard C, you are not allowed to leave the variable argument out entirely; but you
are allowed to pass an empty argument. For example, this invocation is invalid in ISO C,
because there is no comma after the string:
debug ("A message")
GNU CPP permits you to completely omit the variable arguments in this way. In the
above examples, the compiler would complain, though since the expansion of the macro still
has the extra comma after the format string.
To help solve this problem, CPP behaves specially for variable arguments used with the
token paste operator, ‘##’. If instead you write
#define debug(format, ...) fprintf (stderr, format, ## __VA_ARGS__)
and if the variable arguments are omitted or empty, the ‘##’ operator causes the preprocessor
to remove the comma before it. If you do provide some variable arguments in your macro
invocation, GNU CPP does not complain about the paste operation and instead places the
variable arguments after the comma. Just like any other pasted macro argument, these
arguments are not macro expanded.
As an optimization, G++ sometimes gives array compound literals longer lifetimes: when
the array either appears outside a function or has a const-qualified type. If foo and its
initializer had elements of type char *const rather than char *, or if foo were a global
variable, the array would have static storage duration. But it is probably safest just to
avoid the use of array compound literals in C++ code.
union foo f = { .d = 4 };
converts 4 to a double to store it in the union using the second element. By contrast,
casting 4 to type union foo stores it into the union as the integer i, since it is an integer.
See Section 6.33 [Cast to Union], page 603.
You can combine this technique of naming elements with ordinary C initialization of
successive elements. Each initializer element that does not have a designator applies to the
next consecutive element of the array or structure. For example,
int a[6] = { [1] = v1, v2, [4] = v4 };
is equivalent to
int a[6] = { 0, v1, v2, 0, v4, 0 };
Labeling the elements of an array initializer is especially useful when the indices are
characters or belong to an enum type. For example:
int whitespace[256]
= { [' '] = 1, ['\t'] = 1, ['\h'] = 1,
['\f'] = 1, ['\n'] = 1, ['\r'] = 1 };
You can also write a series of ‘.fieldname’ and ‘[index]’ designators before an ‘=’ to
specify a nested subobject to initialize; the list is taken relative to the subobject correspond-
ing to the closest surrounding brace pair. For example, with the ‘struct point’ declaration
above:
struct point ptarray[10] = { [2].y = yv2, [2].x = xv2, [0].x = xv0 };
If the same field is initialized multiple times, or overlapping fields of a union are initialized,
the value from the last initialization is used. When a field of a union is itself a structure,
the entire structure from the last field initialized is used. If any previous initializer has side
effect, it is unspecified whether the side effect happens or not. Currently, GCC discards the
side-effecting initializer expressions and issues a warning.
This has the same effect as the proper number of individual case labels, one for each integer
value from low to high, inclusive.
This feature is especially useful for ranges of ASCII character codes:
case 'A' ... 'Z':
Be careful: Write spaces around the ..., for otherwise it may be parsed wrong when you
use it with integer values. For example, write this:
case 1 ... 5:
both x and y can be cast to type union foo and the following assignments
z = (union foo) x;
z = (union foo) y;
However, (union foo) FLT_MAX; is not a valid cast because the union has no member of
type float.
Using the cast as the right-hand side of an assignment to a variable of union type is
equivalent to storing in a member of the union with the same type
union foo u;
/* . . . */
u = (union foo) x ≡ u.i = x
u = (union foo) y ≡ u.d = y
Each identifier is visible from where it is declared until the end of the enclosing block.
604 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
mode is the first argument to the strcpy function, or the first two arguments
to the fgets function.
__attribute__ ((access (write_only, 1), access (read_only, 2)))
char* strcpy (char*, const char*);
alloc_size (position)
alloc_size (position-1, position-2)
The alloc_size attribute may be applied to a function that returns a pointer
and takes at least one argument of an integer or enumerated type. It indicates
that the returned pointer points to memory whose size is given by the function
argument at position-1, or by the product of the arguments at position-1 and
position-2. Meaningful sizes are positive values less than PTRDIFF_MAX. GCC
uses this information to improve the results of __builtin_object_size.
The function parameter(s) denoting the allocated size are specified by one or
two integer arguments supplied to the attribute. The allocated size is either
the value of the single function argument specified or the product of the two
function arguments specified. Argument numbering starts at one for ordinary
functions, and at two for C++ non-static member functions.
For instance,
void* my_calloc (size_t, size_t) __attribute__ ((alloc_size (1, 2)));
void* my_realloc (void*, size_t) __attribute__ ((alloc_size (2)));
declares that my_calloc returns memory of the size given by the product of
parameter 1 and 2 and that my_realloc returns memory of the size given by
parameter 2.
608 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
always_inline
Generally, functions are not inlined unless optimization is specified. For func-
tions declared inline, this attribute inlines the function independent of any
restrictions that otherwise apply to inlining. Failure to inline such a function
is diagnosed as an error. Note that if such a function is called indirectly the
compiler may or may not inline it depending on optimization level and a failure
to inline an indirect call may or may not be diagnosed.
artificial
This attribute is useful for small inline wrappers that if possible should appear
during debugging as a unit. Depending on the debug info format it either means
marking the function as artificial or using the caller location for all instructions
within the inlined body.
assume_aligned (alignment)
assume_aligned (alignment, offset)
The assume_aligned attribute may be applied to a function that returns a
pointer. It indicates that the returned pointer is aligned on a boundary given
by alignment. If the attribute has two arguments, the second argument is mis-
alignment offset. Meaningful values of alignment are powers of 2 greater than
one. Meaningful values of offset are greater than zero and less than alignment.
For instance
void* my_alloc1 (size_t) __attribute__((assume_aligned (16)));
void* my_alloc2 (size_t) __attribute__((assume_aligned (32, 8)));
declares that my_alloc1 returns 16-byte aligned pointers and that my_alloc2
returns a pointer whose value modulo 32 is equal to 8.
cold The cold attribute on functions is used to inform the compiler that the function
is unlikely to be executed. The function is optimized for size rather than speed
and on many targets it is placed into a special subsection of the text section
so all cold functions appear close together, improving code locality of non-cold
parts of program. The paths leading to calls of cold functions within code are
marked as unlikely by the branch prediction mechanism. It is thus useful to
mark functions used to handle unlikely conditions, such as perror, as cold to
improve optimization of hot functions that do call marked functions in rare
occasions. In C++, the cold attribute can be applied to types with the effect
of being propagated to member functions. See Section 7.7 [C++ Attributes],
page 1023.
When profile feedback is available, via -fprofile-use, cold functions are au-
tomatically detected and this attribute is ignored.
const Calls to functions whose return value is not affected by changes to the observable
state of the program and that have no observable effects on such state other
than to return a value may lend themselves to optimizations such as common
subexpression elimination. Declaring such functions with the const attribute
allows GCC to avoid emitting some calls in repeated invocations of the function
with the same argument values.
For example,
int square (int) __attribute__ ((const));
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 609
tells GCC that subsequent calls to function square with the same argument
value can be replaced by the result of the first call regardless of the statements
in between.
The const attribute prohibits a function from reading objects that affect its
return value between successive invocations. However, functions declared with
the attribute can safely read objects that do not change their return value, such
as non-volatile constants.
Note that a function that has pointer arguments and examines the data pointed
to must not be declared const if the pointed-to data might change between
successive invocations of the function. In general, since a function cannot dis-
tinguish data that might change from data that cannot, const functions should
never take pointer or, in C++, reference arguments. Likewise, a function that
calls a non-const function usually must not be const itself.
constructor
destructor
constructor (priority)
destructor (priority)
The constructor attribute causes the function to be called automatically be-
fore execution enters main (). Similarly, the destructor attribute causes the
function to be called automatically after main () completes or exit () is called.
Functions with these attributes are useful for initializing data that is used im-
plicitly during the execution of the program.
copy
copy (function)
The copy attribute applies the set of attributes with which function has been
declared to the declaration of the function to which the attribute is applied. The
attribute is designed for libraries that define aliases or function resolvers that
are expected to specify the same set of attributes as their targets. The copy
attribute can be used with functions, variables, or types. However, the kind of
symbol to which the attribute is applied (either function or variable) must match
the kind of symbol to which the argument refers. The copy attribute copies
only syntactic and semantic attributes but not attributes that affect a symbol’s
linkage or visibility such as alias, visibility, or weak. The deprecated
and target_clones attribute are also not copied. See Section 6.37.1 [Common
Type Attributes], page 692. See Section 6.36.1 [Common Variable Attributes],
page 677.
For example, the StrongAlias macro below makes use of the alias and copy
attributes to define an alias named alloc for function allocate declared with
attributes alloc size, malloc, and nothrow. Thanks to the __typeof__ operator
the alias has the same type as the target function. As a result of the copy
attribute the alias also shares the same attributes as the target.
#define StrongAlias(TargetFunc, AliasDecl) \
extern __typeof__ (TargetFunc) AliasDecl \
__attribute__ ((alias (#TargetFunc), copy (TargetFunc)));
deprecated
deprecated (msg)
The deprecated attribute results in a warning if the function is used anywhere
in the source file. This is useful when identifying functions that are expected
to be removed in a future version of a program. The warning also includes the
location of the declaration of the deprecated function, to enable users to easily
find further information about why the function is deprecated, or what they
should do instead. Note that the warnings only occurs for uses:
int old_fn () __attribute__ ((deprecated));
int old_fn ();
int (*fn_ptr)() = old_fn;
results in a warning on line 3 but not line 2. The optional msg argument, which
must be a string, is printed in the warning if present.
The deprecated attribute can also be used for variables and types (see Sec-
tion 6.36 [Variable Attributes], page 676, see Section 6.37 [Type Attributes],
page 692.)
The message attached to the attribute is affected by the setting of the
-fmessage-length option.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 611
error ("message")
warning ("message")
If the error or warning attribute is used on a function declaration and a call to
such a function is not eliminated through dead code elimination or other opti-
mizations, an error or warning (respectively) that includes message is diagnosed.
This is useful for compile-time checking, especially together with __builtin_
constant_p and inline functions where checking the inline function arguments
is not possible through extern char [(condition) ? 1 : -1]; tricks.
While it is possible to leave the function undefined and thus invoke a link failure
(to define the function with a message in .gnu.warning* section), when using
these attributes the problem is diagnosed earlier and with exact location of
the call even in presence of inline functions or when not emitting debugging
information.
expected_throw
This attribute, attached to a function, tells the compiler the function is more
likely to raise or propagate an exception than to return, loop forever, or termi-
nate the program.
This hint is mostly ignored by the compiler. The only effect is when it’s applied
to noreturn functions and ‘-fharden-control-flow-redundancy’ is enabled,
and ‘-fhardcfr-check-noreturn-calls=not-always’ is not overridden.
externally_visible
This attribute, attached to a global variable or function, nullifies the effect
of the -fwhole-program command-line option, so the object remains visible
outside the current compilation unit.
If -fwhole-program is used together with -flto and gold is used as the linker
plugin, externally_visible attributes are automatically added to functions
(not variable yet due to a current gold issue) that are accessed outside of LTO
objects according to resolution file produced by gold. For other linkers that
cannot generate resolution file, explicit externally_visible attributes are still
necessary.
fd_arg
fd_arg (N)
The fd_arg attribute may be applied to a function that takes an open file
descriptor at referenced argument N.
It indicates that the passed filedescriptor must not have been closed. There-
fore, when the analyzer is enabled with -fanalyzer, the analyzer may emit a
-Wanalyzer-fd-use-after-close diagnostic if it detects a code path in which
a function with this attribute is called with a closed file descriptor.
The attribute also indicates that the file descriptor must have been checked
for validity before usage. Therefore, analyzer may emit -Wanalyzer-fd-use-
without-check diagnostic if it detects a code path in which a function with this
attribute is called with a file descriptor that has not been checked for validity.
612 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
fd_arg_read
fd_arg_read (N)
The fd_arg_read is identical to fd_arg, but with the additional requirement
that it might read from the file descriptor, and thus, the file descriptor must
not have been opened as write-only.
The analyzer may emit a -Wanalyzer-access-mode-mismatch diagnostic if it
detects a code path in which a function with this attribute is called on a file
descriptor opened with O_WRONLY.
fd_arg_write
fd_arg_write (N)
The fd_arg_write is identical to fd_arg_read except that the analyzer may
emit a -Wanalyzer-access-mode-mismatch diagnostic if it detects a code path
in which a function with this attribute is called on a file descriptor opened with
O_RDONLY.
flatten Generally, inlining into a function is limited. For a function marked with this
attribute, every call inside this function is inlined including the calls such in-
lining introduces to the function (but not recursive calls to the function itself),
if possible. Functions declared with attribute noinline and similar are not
inlined. Whether the function itself is considered for inlining depends on its
size and the current inlining parameters.
format (archetype, string-index, first-to-check)
The format attribute specifies that a function takes printf, scanf, strftime
or strfmon style arguments that should be type-checked against a format string.
For example, the declaration:
extern int
my_printf (void *my_object, const char *my_format, ...)
__attribute__ ((format (printf, 2, 3)));
causes the compiler to check the arguments in calls to my_printf for consistency
with the printf style format string argument my_format.
The parameter archetype determines how the format string is interpreted, and
should be printf, scanf, strftime, gnu_printf, gnu_scanf, gnu_strftime
or strfmon. (You can also use __printf__, __scanf__, __strftime__ or __
strfmon__.) On MinGW targets, ms_printf, ms_scanf, and ms_strftime are
also present. archetype values such as printf refer to the formats accepted by
the system’s C runtime library, while values prefixed with ‘gnu_’ always refer to
the formats accepted by the GNU C Library. On Microsoft Windows targets,
values prefixed with ‘ms_’ refer to the formats accepted by the msvcrt.dll
library. The parameter string-index specifies which argument is the format
string argument (starting from 1), while first-to-check is the number of the
first argument to check against the format string. For functions where the
arguments are not available to be checked (such as vprintf), specify the third
parameter as zero. In this case the compiler only checks the format string for
consistency. For strftime formats, the third parameter is required to be zero.
Since non-static C++ methods have an implicit this argument, the arguments
of such methods should be counted from two, not one, when giving values for
string-index and first-to-check.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 613
In the example above, the format string (my_format) is the second argument
of the function my_print, and the arguments to check start with the third
argument, so the correct parameters for the format attribute are 2 and 3.
The format attribute allows you to identify your own functions that take for-
mat strings as arguments, so that GCC can check the calls to these functions for
errors. The compiler always (unless -ffreestanding or -fno-builtin is used)
checks formats for the standard library functions printf, fprintf, sprintf,
scanf, fscanf, sscanf, strftime, vprintf, vfprintf and vsprintf whenever
such warnings are requested (using -Wformat), so there is no need to modify
the header file stdio.h. In C99 mode, the functions snprintf, vsnprintf,
vscanf, vfscanf and vsscanf are also checked. Except in strictly conform-
ing C standard modes, the X/Open function strfmon is also checked as are
printf_unlocked and fprintf_unlocked. See Section 3.4 [Options Control-
ling C Dialect], page 43.
For Objective-C dialects, NSString (or __NSString__) is recognized in the
same context. Declarations including these format attributes are parsed for
correct syntax, however the result of checking of such format strings is not yet
defined, and is not carried out by this version of the compiler.
The target may also provide additional types of format checks. See Section 6.66
[Format Checks Specific to Particular Target Machines], page 1003.
format_arg (string-index)
The format_arg attribute specifies that a function takes one or more format
strings for a printf, scanf, strftime or strfmon style function and modifies it
(for example, to translate it into another language), so the result can be passed
to a printf, scanf, strftime or strfmon style function (with the remaining
arguments to the format function the same as they would have been for the
unmodified string). Multiple format_arg attributes may be applied to the
same function, each designating a distinct parameter as a format string. For
example, the declaration:
extern char *
my_dgettext (char *my_domain, const char *my_format)
__attribute__ ((format_arg (2)));
The parameter string-index specifies which argument is the format string argu-
ment (starting from one). Since non-static C++ methods have an implicit this
argument, the arguments of such methods should be counted from two.
The format_arg attribute allows you to identify your own functions that modify
format strings, so that GCC can check the calls to printf, scanf, strftime or
strfmon type function whose operands are a call to one of your own function.
The compiler always treats gettext, dgettext, and dcgettext in this manner
except when strict ISO C support is requested by -ansi or an appropriate -std
option, or -ffreestanding or -fno-builtin is used. See Section 3.4 [Options
Controlling C Dialect], page 43.
For Objective-C dialects, the format-arg attribute may refer to an NSString
reference for compatibility with the format attribute above.
The target may also allow additional types in format-arg attributes. See
Section 6.66 [Format Checks Specific to Particular Target Machines], page 1003.
gnu_inline
This attribute should be used with a function that is also declared with the
inline keyword. It directs GCC to treat the function as if it were defined in
gnu90 mode even when compiling in C99 or gnu99 mode.
If the function is declared extern, then this definition of the function is used
only for inlining. In no case is the function compiled as a standalone function,
not even if you take its address explicitly. Such an address becomes an external
reference, as if you had only declared the function, and had not defined it. This
has almost the effect of a macro. The way to use this is to put a function
definition in a header file with this attribute, and put another copy of the
function, without extern, in a library file. The definition in the header file
causes most calls to the function to be inlined. If any uses of the function
remain, they refer to the single copy in the library. Note that the two definitions
of the functions need not be precisely the same, although if they do not have
the same effect your program may behave oddly.
In C, if the function is neither extern nor static, then the function is compiled
as a standalone function, as well as being inlined where possible.
This is how GCC traditionally handled functions declared inline. Since ISO
C99 specifies a different semantics for inline, this function attribute is provided
as a transition measure and as a useful feature in its own right. This attribute
is available in GCC 4.1.3 and later. It is available if either of the preproces-
sor macros __GNUC_GNU_INLINE__ or __GNUC_STDC_INLINE__ are defined. See
Section 6.47 [An Inline Function is As Fast As a Macro], page 715.
In C++, this attribute does not depend on extern in any way, but it still requires
the inline keyword to enable its special behavior.
hot The hot attribute on a function is used to inform the compiler that the function
is a hot spot of the compiled program. The function is optimized more aggres-
sively and on many targets it is placed into a special subsection of the text
section so all hot functions appear close together, improving locality. In C++,
the hot attribute can be applied to types with the effect of being propagated
to member functions. See Section 7.7 [C++ Attributes], page 1023.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 615
When profile feedback is available, via -fprofile-use, hot functions are auto-
matically detected and this attribute is ignored.
ifunc ("resolver")
The ifunc attribute is used to mark a function as an indirect function using the
STT GNU IFUNC symbol type extension to the ELF standard. This allows the
resolution of the symbol value to be determined dynamically at load time, and
an optimized version of the routine to be selected for the particular processor or
other system characteristics determined then. To use this attribute, first define
the implementation functions available, and a resolver function that returns a
pointer to the selected implementation function. The implementation functions’
declarations must match the API of the function being implemented. The
resolver should be declared to be a function taking no arguments and returning
a pointer to a function of the same type as the implementation. For example:
void *my_memcpy (void *dst, const void *src, size_t len)
{
...
return dst;
}
S::Func* S::resolver ()
{
int (S::*pimpl) (int)
= getenv ("DEBUG") ? &S::debug_impl : &S::optimized_impl;
Indirect functions cannot be weak. Binutils version 2.20.1 or higher and GNU
C Library version 2.11.1 are required to use this feature.
interrupt
interrupt_handler
Many GCC back ends support attributes to indicate that a function is an in-
terrupt handler, which tells the compiler to generate function entry and exit
sequences that differ from those from regular functions. The exact syntax and
behavior are target-specific; refer to the following subsections for details.
leaf Calls to external functions with this attribute must return to the current com-
pilation unit only by return or by exception handling. In particular, a leaf
function is not allowed to invoke callback functions passed to it from the cur-
rent compilation unit, directly call functions exported by the unit, or longjmp
into the unit. Leaf functions might still call functions from other compilation
units and thus they are not necessarily leaf in the sense that they contain no
function calls at all.
The attribute is intended for library functions to improve dataflow analysis.
The compiler takes the hint that any data not escaping the current compilation
unit cannot be used or modified by the leaf function. For example, the sin
function is a leaf function, but qsort is not.
Note that leaf functions might indirectly run a signal handler defined in the
current compilation unit that uses static variables. Similarly, when lazy symbol
resolution is in effect, leaf functions might invoke indirect functions whose re-
solver function or implementation function is defined in the current compilation
unit and uses static variables. There is no standard-compliant way to write such
a signal handler, resolver function, or implementation function, and the best
that you can do is to remove the leaf attribute or mark all such static variables
volatile. Lastly, for ELF-based systems that support symbol interposition,
care should be taken that functions defined in the current compilation unit do
not unexpectedly interpose other symbols based on the defined standards mode
and defined feature test macros; otherwise an inadvertent callback would be
added.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 617
The attribute has no effect on functions defined within the current compilation
unit. This is to allow easy merging of multiple compilation units into one, for
example, by using the link-time optimization. For this reason the attribute is
not allowed on types to annotate indirect calls.
malloc
malloc (deallocator)
malloc (deallocator, ptr-index)
Attribute malloc indicates that a function is malloc-like, i.e., that the pointer
P returned by the function cannot alias any other pointer valid when the func-
tion returns, and moreover no pointers to valid objects occur in any storage
addressed by P. In addition, GCC predicts that a function with the attribute
returns non-null in most cases.
Independently, the form of the attribute with one or two arguments associates
deallocator as a suitable deallocation function for pointers returned from the
malloc-like function. ptr-index denotes the positional argument to which when
the pointer is passed in calls to deallocator has the effect of deallocating it.
Using the attribute with no arguments is designed to improve optimization by
relying on the aliasing property it implies. Functions like malloc and calloc
have this property because they return a pointer to uninitialized or zeroed-
out, newly obtained storage. However, functions like realloc do not have this
property, as they may return pointers to storage containing pointers to existing
objects. Additionally, since all such functions are assumed to return null only
infrequently, callers can be optimized based on that assumption.
Associating a function with a deallocator helps detect calls to mismatched al-
location and deallocation functions and diagnose them under the control of
options such as -Wmismatched-dealloc. It also makes it possible to diag-
nose attempts to deallocate objects that were not allocated dynamically, by
-Wfree-nonheap-object. To indicate that an allocation function both satisi-
fies the nonaliasing property and has a deallocator associated with it, both the
plain form of the attribute and the one with the deallocator argument must be
used. The same function can be both an allocator and a deallocator. Since in-
lining one of the associated functions but not the other could result in apparent
mismatches, this form of attribute malloc is not accepted on inline functions.
For the same reason, using the attribute prevents both the allocation and deal-
location functions from being expanded inline.
For example, besides stating that the functions return pointers that do not
alias any others, the following declarations make fclose a suitable deallocator
for pointers returned from all functions except popen, and pclose as the only
suitable deallocator for pointers returned from popen. The deallocator functions
must be declared before they can be referenced in the attribute.
int fclose (FILE*);
int pclose (FILE*);
no_reorder
Do not reorder functions or variables marked no_reorder against each other or
top level assembler statements the executable. The actual order in the program
will depend on the linker command line. Static variables marked like this are
also not removed. This has a similar effect as the -fno-toplevel-reorder
option, but only applies to the marked symbols.
no_sanitize ("sanitize_option")
The no_sanitize attribute on functions is used to inform the compiler that it
should not do sanitization of any option mentioned in sanitize option. A list of
values acceptable by the -fsanitize option can be provided.
void __attribute__ ((no_sanitize ("alignment", "object-size")))
f () { /* Do something. */; }
void __attribute__ ((no_sanitize ("alignment,object-size")))
g () { /* Do something. */; }
no_sanitize_address
no_address_safety_analysis
The no_sanitize_address attribute on functions is used to inform the com-
piler that it should not instrument memory accesses in the function when
compiling with the -fsanitize=address option. The no_address_safety_
analysis is a deprecated alias of the no_sanitize_address attribute, new
code should use no_sanitize_address.
no_sanitize_thread
The no_sanitize_thread attribute on functions is used to inform the compiler
that it should not instrument memory accesses in the function when compiling
with the -fsanitize=thread option.
no_sanitize_undefined
The no_sanitize_undefined attribute on functions is used to inform the com-
piler that it should not check for undefined behavior in the function when com-
piling with the -fsanitize=undefined option.
no_sanitize_coverage
The no_sanitize_coverage attribute on functions is used to inform the
compiler that it should not do coverage-guided fuzzing code instrumentation
(-fsanitize-coverage).
no_split_stack
If -fsplit-stack is given, functions have a small prologue which decides
whether to split the stack. Functions with the no_split_stack attribute do
not have that prologue, and thus may run with only a small amount of stack
space available.
no_stack_limit
This attribute locally overrides the -fstack-limit-register and -fstack-
limit-symbol command-line options; it has the effect of disabling stack limit
checking in the function it applies to.
no_stack_protector
This attribute prevents stack protection code for the function.
620 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
noclone This function attribute prevents a function from being considered for cloning—a
mechanism that produces specialized copies of functions and which is (currently)
performed by interprocedural constant propagation.
noinline This function attribute prevents a function from being considered for inlining.
It also disables some other interprocedural optimizations; it’s preferable to use
the more comprehensive noipa attribute instead if that is your goal.
Even if a function is declared with the noinline attribute, there are optimiza-
tions other than inlining that can cause calls to be optimized away if it does
not have side effects, although the function call is live. To keep such calls from
being optimized away, put
asm ("");
(see Section 6.50.2 [Extended Asm], page 720) in the called function, to serve
as a special side effect.
noipa Disable interprocedural optimizations between the function with this attribute
and its callers, as if the body of the function is not available when optimizing
callers and the callers are unavailable when optimizing the body. This attribute
implies noinline, noclone and no_icf attributes. However, this attribute is
not equivalent to a combination of other attributes, because its purpose is to
suppress existing and future optimizations employing interprocedural analy-
sis, including those that do not have an attribute suitable for disabling them
individually.
nonnull
nonnull (arg-index, ...)
The nonnull attribute may be applied to a function that takes at least one
argument of a pointer type. It indicates that the referenced arguments must be
non-null pointers. For instance, the declaration:
extern void *
my_memcpy (void *dest, const void *src, size_t len)
__attribute__((nonnull (1, 2)));
informs the compiler that, in calls to my_memcpy, arguments dest and src must
be non-null.
The attribute has an effect both on functions calls and function definitions.
For function calls:
• If the compiler determines that a null pointer is passed in an argument
slot marked as non-null, and the -Wnonnull option is enabled, a warning
is issued. See Section 3.9 [Warning Options], page 95.
• The -fisolate-erroneous-paths-attribute option can be specified to
have GCC transform calls with null arguments to non-null functions into
traps. See Section 3.12 [Optimize Options], page 185.
• The compiler may also perform optimizations based on the knowledge that
certain function arguments cannot be null. These optimizations can be dis-
abled by the -fno-delete-null-pointer-checks option. See Section 3.12
[Optimize Options], page 185.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 621
nonnull_if_nonzero
nonnull_if_nonzero (arg-index, arg2-index)
The nonnull_if_nonzero attribute is a conditional version of the nonnull
attribute. It has two arguments, the first argument shall be argument index
of a pointer argument which must be in some cases non-null and the second
argument shall be argument index of an integral argument (other than boolean).
If the integral argument is zero, the pointer argument can be null, if it is non-
zero, the pointer argument must not be null.
extern void *
my_memcpy (void *dest, const void *src, size_t len)
__attribute__((nonnull (1, 2)));
extern void *
my_memcpy2 (void *dest, const void *src, size_t len)
__attribute__((nonnull_if_nonzero (1, 3),
nonnull_if_nonzero (2, 3)));
With these declarations, it is invalid to call my_memcpy (NULL, NULL, 0); or to
call my_memcpy2 (NULL, NULL, 4); but it is valid to call my_memcpy2 (NULL,
NULL, 0);. This attribute should be used on declarations which have e.g. an
exception for zero sizes, in which case null may be passed.
noplt The noplt attribute is the counterpart to option -fno-plt. Calls to functions
marked with this attribute in position-independent code do not use the PLT.
/* Externally defined function foo. */
int foo () __attribute__ ((noplt));
int
main (/* . . . */)
{
/* . . . */
foo ();
/* . . . */
}
The noplt attribute on function foo tells the compiler to assume that the
function foo is externally defined and that the call to foo must avoid the PLT
in position-independent code.
622 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
void
fatal (/* . . . */)
{
/* . . . */ /* Print error message. */ /* . . . */
exit (1);
}
The noreturn keyword tells the compiler to assume that fatal cannot return.
It can then optimize without regard to what would happen if fatal ever did
return. This makes slightly better code. More importantly, it helps avoid
spurious warnings of uninitialized variables.
The noreturn keyword does not affect the exceptional path when that applies:
a noreturn-marked function may still return to the caller by throwing an ex-
ception or calling longjmp.
In order to preserve backtraces, GCC will never turn calls to noreturn functions
into tail calls.
Do not assume that registers saved by the calling function are restored before
calling the noreturn function.
It does not make sense for a noreturn function to have a return type other
than void.
nothrow The nothrow attribute is used to inform the compiler that a function cannot
throw an exception. For example, most functions in the standard C library can
be guaranteed not to throw an exception with the notable exceptions of qsort
and bsearch that take function pointer arguments.
null_terminated_string_arg
null_terminated_string_arg (N)
The null_terminated_string_arg attribute may be applied to a function that
takes a char * or const char * at referenced argument N.
It indicates that the passed argument must be a C-style null-terminated string.
Specifically, the presence of the attribute implies that, if the pointer is non-null,
the function may scan through the referenced buffer looking for the first zero
byte.
In particular, when the analyzer is enabled (via -fanalyzer), if the pointer
is non-null, it will simulate scanning for the first zero byte in the referenced
buffer, and potentially emit -Wanalyzer-use-of-uninitialized-value or
-Wanalyzer-out-of-bounds on improperly terminated buffers.
For example, given the following:
char *example_1 (const char *p)
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 623
__attribute__((null_terminated_string_arg (1)));
the analyzer will check that any non-null pointers passed to the function are
validly terminated.
If the parameter must be non-null, it is appropriate to use both this attribute
and the attribute nonnull, such as in:
extern char *example_2 (const char *p)
__attribute__((null_terminated_string_arg (1),
nonnull (1)));
See the nonnull attribute for more information and caveats.
If the pointer argument is also referred to by an access attribute on the function
with access-mode either read_only or read_write and the latter attribute has
the optional size-index argument referring to a size argument, this expressses
the maximum size of the access. For example, given:
extern char *example_fn (const char *p, size_t n)
__attribute__((null_terminated_string_arg (1),
access (read_only, 1, 2),
nonnull (1)));
the analyzer will require the first parameter to be non-null, and either be validly
null-terminated, or validly readable up to the size specified by the second pa-
rameter.
optimize (level, ...)
optimize (string, ...)
The optimize attribute is used to specify that a function is to be compiled with
different optimization options than specified on the command line. The opti-
mize attribute arguments of a function behave as if appended to the command-
line.
Valid arguments are constant non-negative integers and strings. Each numeric
argument specifies an optimization level. Each string argument consists of
one or more comma-separated substrings. Each substring that begins with the
letter O refers to an optimization option such as -O0 or -Os. Other substrings
are taken as suffixes to the -f prefix jointly forming the name of an optimization
option. See Section 3.12 [Optimize Options], page 185.
‘#pragma GCC optimize’ can be used to set optimization options for more
than one function. See Section 6.67.15 [Function Specific Option Pragmas],
page 1010, for details about the pragma.
Providing multiple strings as arguments separated by commas to specify mul-
tiple options is equivalent to separating the option suffixes with a comma (‘,’)
within a single string. Spaces are not permitted within the strings.
Not every optimization option that starts with the -f prefix specified by the
attribute necessarily has an effect on the function. The optimize attribute
should be used for debugging purposes only. It is not suitable in production
code.
patchable_function_entry
In case the target’s text segment can be made writable at run time by any
means, padding the function entry with a number of NOPs can be used to
provide a universal tool for instrumentation.
624 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
pure
Calls to functions that have no observable effects on the state of the program
other than to return a value may lend themselves to optimizations such as
common subexpression elimination. Declaring such functions with the pure
attribute allows GCC to avoid emitting some calls in repeated invocations of
the function with the same argument values.
The pure attribute prohibits a function from modifying the state of the program
that is observable by means other than inspecting the function’s return value.
However, functions declared with the pure attribute can safely read any non-
volatile objects, and modify the value of objects in a way that does not affect
their return value or the observable state of the program.
For example,
int hash (char *) __attribute__ ((pure));
tells GCC that subsequent calls to the function hash with the same string can
be replaced by the result of the first call provided the state of the program
observable by hash, including the contents of the array itself, does not change
in between. Even though hash takes a non-const pointer argument it must
not modify the array it points to, or any other object whose value the rest
of the program may depend on. However, the caller may safely change the
contents of the array between successive calls to the function (doing so disables
the optimization). The restriction also applies to member objects referenced by
the this pointer in C++ non-static member functions.
Some common examples of pure functions are strlen or memcmp. Interest-
ing non-pure functions are functions with infinite loops or those depending on
volatile memory or other system resource, that may change between consecutive
calls (such as the standard C feof function in a multithreading environment).
The pure attribute imposes similar but looser restrictions on a function’s defini-
tion than the const attribute: pure allows the function to read any non-volatile
memory, even if it changes in between successive invocations of the function.
Declaring the same function with both the pure and the const attribute is
diagnosed. Because a pure function cannot have any observable side effects
it does not make sense for such a function to return void. Declaring such a
function is diagnosed.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 625
unsequenced
This attribute is a GNU counterpart of the C23 [[unsequenced]] attribute,
used to specify function pointers to effectless, idempotent, stateless and inde-
pendent functions according to the C23 definition.
Unlike the standard C23 attribute it can be also specified in attributes which
appertain to function declarations and applies to the their function type even
in that case.
Unsequenced functions without pointer or reference arguments are similar to
functions with the const attribute, except that const attribute also requires
finiteness. So, both functions with const and with unsequenced attributes can
be optimized by common subexpression elimination, but only functions with
const attribute can be optimized by dead code elimination if their result is
unused or is used only by dead code. Unsequenced functions without pointer
or reference arguments with void return type are diagnosed because they can’t
store any results and don’t have other observable side-effects either.
Unsequenced functions with pointer or reference arguments can inspect objects
through the passed pointers or references or references to pointers or can store
additional results through those pointers or references or references to pointers.
The unsequenced attribute imposes greater restrictions than the similar
reproducible attribute and fewer restrictions than the const attribute,
so during optimization const has precedence over unsequenced which has
precedence over reproducible.
reproducible
This attribute is a GNU counterpart of the C23 [[reproducible]] attribute,
used to specify function pointers to effectless and idempotent functions accord-
ing to the C23 definition.
Unlike the standard C23 attribute it can be also specified in attributes which
appertain to function declarations and applies to the their function type even
in that case.
Reproducible functions without pointer or reference arguments or which do
not modify objects referenced by those pointer/reference arguments are similar
to functions with the pure attribute, except that pure attribute also requires
finiteness. So, both functions with pure and with reproducible attributes
can be optimized by common subexpression elimination if the global state or
anything reachable through the pointer/reference arguments isn’t modified, but
only functions with pure attribute can be optimized by dead code elimination
if their result is unused or is used only by dead code. Reproducible functions
without pointer or reference arguments with void return type are diagnosed
because they can’t store any results and don’t have other observable side-effects
either.
Reproducible functions with pointer or reference arguments can store additional
results through those pointers or references or references to pointers.
retain For ELF targets that support the GNU or FreeBSD OSABIs, this attribute
will save the function from linker garbage collection. To support this behavior,
functions that have not been placed in specific sections (e.g. by the section
626 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The warnings for missing or incorrect sentinels are enabled with -Wformat.
simd
simd("mask")
This attribute enables creation of one or more function versions that can
process multiple arguments using SIMD instructions from a single invocation.
Specifying this attribute allows compiler to assume that such versions are
available at link time (provided in the same or another translation unit).
Generated versions are target-dependent and described in the corresponding
Vector ABI document. For x86 64 target this document can be found
here (https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/libmvec?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Ve
The optional argument mask may have the value notinbranch or inbranch,
and instructs the compiler to generate non-masked or masked clones corre-
spondingly. By default, all clones are generated.
If the attribute is specified and #pragma omp declare simd is present on a
declaration and the -fopenmp or -fopenmp-simd switch is specified, then the
attribute is ignored.
stack_protect
This attribute adds stack protection code to the function if flags -fstack-
protector, -fstack-protector-strong or -fstack-protector-explicit
are set.
symver ("name2@nodename")
On ELF targets this attribute creates a symbol version. The name2 part of
the parameter is the actual name of the symbol by which it will be externally
referenced. The nodename portion should be the name of a node specified in the
version script supplied to the linker when building a shared library. Versioned
symbol must be defined and must be exported with default visibility.
__attribute__ ((__symver__ ("foo@VERS_1"))) int
foo_v1 (void)
{
}
Will produce a .symver foo_v1, foo@VERS_1 directive in the assembler output.
One can also define multiple version for a given symbol (starting from binutils
2.35).
__attribute__ ((__symver__ ("foo@VERS_2"), __symver__ ("foo@VERS_3")))
int symver_foo_v1 (void)
{
}
This example creates a symbol name symver_foo_v1 which will be version
VERS_2 and VERS_3 of foo.
If you have an older release of binutils, then symbol alias needs to be used:
__attribute__ ((__symver__ ("foo@VERS_2")))
int foo_v1 (void)
{
return 0;
}
tainted_args
The tainted_args attribute is used to specify that a function is called in a way
that requires sanitization of its arguments, such as a system call in an operating
system kernel. Such a function can be considered part of the “attack surface” of
the program. The attribute can be used both on function declarations, and on
field declarations containing function pointers. In the latter case, any function
used as an initializer of such a callback field will be treated as being called with
tainted arguments.
The analyzer will pay particular attention to such functions when
-fanalyzer is supplied, potentially issuing warnings guarded by
-Wanalyzer-tainted-allocation-size, -Wanalyzer-tainted-array-
index, -Wanalyzer-tainted-divisor, -Wanalyzer-tainted-offset, and
-Wanalyzer-tainted-size.
The options supported are specific to each target; refer to Section 6.35.32 [x86
Function Attributes], page 663, Section 6.35.23 [PowerPC Function Attributes],
page 655, Section 6.35.5 [ARM Function Attributes], page 639, Section 6.35.2
[AArch64 Function Attributes], page 634, and Section 6.35.27 [S/390 Function
Attributes], page 660, for details.
target_clones (options)
The target_clones attribute is used to specify that a function be cloned into
multiple versions compiled with different target options than specified on the
command line. The supported options and restrictions are the same as for
target attribute.
For instance, on an x86, you could compile a function with target_
clones("sse4.1,avx"). GCC creates two function clones, one compiled with
-msse4.1 and another with -mavx.
On a PowerPC, you can compile a function with target_
clones("cpu=power9,default"). GCC will create two function
clones, one compiled with -mcpu=power9 and another with the default options.
GCC must be configured to use GLIBC 2.23 or newer in order to use the
target_clones attribute.
It also creates a resolver function (see the ifunc attribute above) that dynam-
ically selects a clone suitable for current architecture. The resolver is created
only if there is a usage of a function with target_clones attribute.
Note that any subsequent call of a function without target_clone from a
target_clone caller will not lead to copying (target clone) of the called func-
tion. If you want to enforce such behaviour, we recommend declaring the calling
function with the flatten attribute?
unavailable
unavailable (msg)
The unavailable attribute results in an error if the function is used anywhere
in the source file. This is useful when identifying functions that have been
removed from a particular variation of an interface. Other than emitting an
error rather than a warning, the unavailable attribute behaves in the same
manner as deprecated.
The unavailable attribute can also be used for variables and types (see Sec-
tion 6.36 [Variable Attributes], page 676, see Section 6.37 [Type Attributes],
page 692.)
unused This attribute, attached to a function, means that the function is meant to be
possibly unused. GCC does not produce a warning for this function.
used This attribute, attached to a function, means that code must be emitted for the
function even if it appears that the function is not referenced. This is useful,
for example, when the function is referenced only in inline assembly.
When applied to a member function of a C++ class template, the attribute also
means that the function is instantiated if the class itself is instantiated.
630 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
visibility ("visibility_type")
This attribute affects the linkage of the declaration to which it is attached. It
can be applied to variables (see Section 6.36.1 [Common Variable Attributes],
page 677) and types (see Section 6.37.1 [Common Type Attributes], page 692)
as well as functions.
There are four supported visibility type values: default, hidden, protected or
internal visibility.
void __attribute__ ((visibility ("protected")))
f () { /* Do something. */; }
int i __attribute__ ((visibility ("hidden")));
The possible values of visibility type correspond to the visibility settings in the
ELF gABI.
default Default visibility is the normal case for the object file format. This
value is available for the visibility attribute to override other options
that may change the assumed visibility of entities.
On ELF, default visibility means that the declaration is visible to
other modules and, in shared libraries, means that the declared
entity may be overridden.
On Darwin, default visibility means that the declaration is visible
to other modules.
Default visibility corresponds to “external linkage” in the language.
hidden Hidden visibility indicates that the entity declared has a new form
of linkage, which we call “hidden linkage”. Two declarations of an
object with hidden linkage refer to the same object if they are in
the same shared object.
internal Internal visibility is like hidden visibility, but with additional pro-
cessor specific semantics. Unless otherwise specified by the psABI,
GCC defines internal visibility to mean that a function is never
called from another module. Compare this with hidden functions
which, while they cannot be referenced directly by other modules,
can be referenced indirectly via function pointers. By indicating
that a function cannot be called from outside the module, GCC
may for instance omit the load of a PIC register since it is known
that the calling function loaded the correct value.
protected
Protected visibility is like default visibility except that it indicates
that references within the defining module bind to the definition in
that module. That is, the declared entity cannot be overridden by
another module.
All visibilities are supported on many, but not all, ELF targets (supported
when the assembler supports the ‘.visibility’ pseudo-op). Default visibility
is supported everywhere. Hidden visibility is supported on Darwin targets.
The visibility attribute should be applied only to declarations that would other-
wise have external linkage. The attribute should be applied consistently, so that
the same entity should not be declared with different settings of the attribute.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 631
In C++, the visibility attribute applies to types as well as functions and objects,
because in C++ types have linkage. A class must not have greater visibility than
its non-static data member types and bases, and class members default to the
visibility of their class. Also, a declaration without explicit visibility is limited
to the visibility of its type.
In C++, you can mark member functions and static member variables of a class
with the visibility attribute. This is useful if you know a particular method or
static member variable should only be used from one shared object; then you
can mark it hidden while the rest of the class has default visibility. Care must
be taken to avoid breaking the One Definition Rule; for example, it is usually
not useful to mark an inline method as hidden without marking the whole class
as hidden.
A C++ namespace declaration can also have the visibility attribute.
namespace nspace1 __attribute__ ((visibility ("protected")))
{ /* Do something. */; }
This attribute applies only to the particular namespace body, not to other
definitions of the same namespace; it is equivalent to using ‘#pragma GCC
visibility’ before and after the namespace definition (see Section 6.67.13
[Visibility Pragmas], page 1009).
In C++, if a template argument has limited visibility, this restriction is implicitly
propagated to the template instantiation. Otherwise, template instantiations
and specializations default to the visibility of their template.
If both the template and enclosing class have explicit visibility, the visibility
from the template is used.
warn_unused_result
The warn_unused_result attribute causes a warning to be emitted if a caller of
the function with this attribute does not use its return value. This is useful for
functions where not checking the result is either a security problem or always
a bug, such as realloc.
int fn () __attribute__ ((warn_unused_result));
int foo ()
{
if (fn () < 0) return -1;
fn ();
return 0;
}
results in warning on line 5.
weak The weak attribute causes a declaration of an external symbol to be emitted as
a weak symbol rather than a global. This is primarily useful in defining library
functions that can be overridden in user code, though it can also be used with
non-function declarations. The overriding symbol must have the same type as
the weak symbol. In addition, if it designates a variable it must also have the
same size and alignment as the weak symbol. Weak symbols are supported for
ELF targets, and also for a.out targets when using the GNU assembler and
linker.
632 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
weakref
weakref ("target")
The weakref attribute marks a declaration as a weak reference. Without ar-
guments, it should be accompanied by an alias attribute naming the target
symbol. Alternatively, target may be given as an argument to weakref itself,
naming the target definition of the alias. The target must have the same type
as the declaration. In addition, if it designates a variable it must also have the
same size and alignment as the declaration. In either form of the declaration
weakref implicitly marks the declared symbol as weak. Without a target given
as an argument to weakref or to alias, weakref is equivalent to weak (in that
case the declaration may be extern).
/* Given the declaration: */
extern int y (void);
/* the following... */
static int x (void) __attribute__ ((weakref ("y")));
/* is equivalent to... */
static int x (void) __attribute__ ((weakref, alias ("y")));
• ‘used’ only zeros call-used registers that are used in the function. A “used”
register is one whose content has been set or referenced in the function.
• ‘all’ zeros all call-used registers.
• ‘leafy’ behaves like ‘used’ in a leaf function, and like ‘all’ in a nonleaf
function. This makes for leaner zeroing in leaf functions, where the set
of used registers is known, and that may be enough for some purposes of
register zeroing.
In addition to these three basic choices, it is possible to modify ‘used’, ‘all’,
and ‘leafy’ as follows:
• Adding ‘-gpr’ restricts the zeroing to general-purpose registers.
• Adding ‘-arg’ restricts the zeroing to registers that can sometimes be used
to pass function arguments. This includes all argument registers defined by
the platform’s calling conversion, regardless of whether the function uses
those registers for function arguments or not.
The modifiers can be used individually or together. If they are used together,
they must appear in the order above.
The full list of choices is therefore:
skip doesn’t zero any call-used register.
used only zeros call-used registers that are used in the function.
used-gpr only zeros call-used general purpose registers that are used in the
function.
used-arg only zeros call-used registers that are used in the function and pass
arguments.
used-gpr-arg
only zeros call-used general purpose registers that are used in the
function and pass arguments.
all zeros all call-used registers.
all-gpr zeros all call-used general purpose registers.
all-arg zeros all call-used registers that pass arguments.
all-gpr-arg
zeros all call-used general purpose registers that pass arguments.
leafy Same as ‘used’ in a leaf function, and same as ‘all’ in a nonleaf
function.
leafy-gpr
Same as ‘used-gpr’ in a leaf function, and same as ‘all-gpr’ in a
nonleaf function.
leafy-arg
Same as ‘used-arg’ in a leaf function, and same as ‘all-arg’ in a
nonleaf function.
634 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
leafy-gpr-arg
Same as ‘used-gpr-arg’ in a leaf function, and same as
‘all-gpr-arg’ in a nonleaf function.
Of this list, ‘used-arg’, ‘used-gpr-arg’, ‘all-arg’, ‘all-gpr-arg’,
‘leafy-arg’, and ‘leafy-gpr-arg’ are mainly used for ROP mitigation.
The default for the attribute is controlled by -fzero-call-used-regs.
tune= Specifies the core for which to tune the performance of this function. The
behavior and permissible arguments are the same as for the -mtune= command-
line option.
cpu= Specifies the core for which to tune the performance of this function and also
whose architectural features to use. The behavior and valid arguments are the
same as for the -mcpu= command-line option.
sign-return-address
Select the function scope on which return address signing will be applied. The
behavior and permissible arguments are the same as for the command-line op-
tion -msign-return-address=. The default value is none. This attribute is
deprecated. The branch-protection attribute should be used instead.
branch-protection
Select the function scope on which branch protection will be applied. The be-
havior and permissible arguments are the same as for the command-line option
-mbranch-protection=. The default value is none.
outline-atomics
Enable or disable calls to out-of-line helpers to implement atomic operations.
This corresponds to the behavior of the command-line options -moutline-
atomics and -mno-outline-atomics.
indirect_return
The indirect_return attribute can be applied to a function type to indicate
that the function may return via an indirect branch instead of via a normal
return instruction. For example, this can be true of functions that imple-
ment manual context switching between user space threads, such as the POSIX
swapcontext function. This attribute adds a BTI J instruction when BTI is
enabled e.g. via -mbranch-protection.
The above target attributes can be specified as follows:
__attribute__((target("attr-string")))
int
f (int a)
{
return a + 5;
}
where attr-string is one of the attribute strings specified above.
Additionally, the architectural extension string may be specified on its own. This can
be used to turn on and off particular architectural extensions without having to specify a
particular architecture version or core. Example:
__attribute__((target("+crc+nocrypto")))
int
foo (int a)
{
return a + 5;
}
In this example target("+crc+nocrypto") enables the crc extension and disables the
crypto extension for the function foo without modifying an existing -march= or -mcpu
option.
636 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Multiple target function attributes can be specified by separating them with a comma.
For example:
__attribute__((target("arch=armv8-a+crc+crypto,tune=cortex-a53")))
int
foo (int a)
{
return a + 5;
}
is valid and compiles function foo for ARMv8-A with crc and crypto extensions and
tunes it for cortex-a53.
dispatch_ptr
Set enable_sgpr_dispatch_ptr flag. Always on (required to lo-
cate the launch dimensions).
queue_ptr
Set enable_sgpr_queue_ptr flag. Always on (required to convert
address spaces).
kernarg_segment_ptr
Set enable_sgpr_kernarg_segment_ptr flag. Always on (required
to locate the kernel arguments, "kernargs").
dispatch_id
Set enable_sgpr_dispatch_id flag.
flat_scratch_init
Set enable_sgpr_flat_scratch_init flag.
private_segment_size
Set enable_sgpr_private_segment_size flag.
grid_workgroup_count_X
Set enable_sgpr_grid_workgroup_count_x flag. Always on (re-
quired to use OpenACC/OpenMP).
grid_workgroup_count_Y
Set enable_sgpr_grid_workgroup_count_y flag.
grid_workgroup_count_Z
Set enable_sgpr_grid_workgroup_count_z flag.
workgroup_id_X
Set enable_sgpr_workgroup_id_x flag.
workgroup_id_Y
Set enable_sgpr_workgroup_id_y flag.
workgroup_id_Z
Set enable_sgpr_workgroup_id_z flag.
workgroup_info
Set enable_sgpr_workgroup_info flag.
private_segment_wave_offset
Set enable_sgpr_private_segment_wave_byte_offset flag. Al-
ways on (required to locate the stack).
work_item_id_X
Set enable_vgpr_workitem_id parameter. Always on (can’t be
disabled).
work_item_id_Y
Set enable_vgpr_workitem_id parameter. Always on (required to
enable vectorization.)
638 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
work_item_id_Z
Set enable_vgpr_workitem_id parameter. Always on (required to
use OpenACC/OpenMP).
Only basic asm statements can safely be included in naked functions (see Sec-
tion 6.50.1 [Basic Asm], page 718). While using extended asm or a mixture of
basic asm and C code may appear to work, they cannot be depended upon to
work reliably and are not supported.
When compiling using the AAPCS ABI (or a variant of it) then valid values for
the argument are "aapcs" and "aapcs-vfp". In order to use a variant other
than "aapcs" then the compiler must be permitted to use the appropriate co-
processor registers (i.e., the VFP registers must be available in order to use
"aapcs-vfp"). For example,
/* Argument passed in r0, and result returned in r0+r1. */
double f2d (float) __attribute__((pcs("aapcs")));
Variadic functions always use the "aapcs" calling convention and the compiler
rejects attempts to specify an alternative.
target (options)
As discussed in Section 6.35.1 [Common Function Attributes], page 604, this
attribute allows specification of target-specific compilation options.
On ARM, the following options are allowed:
‘fpu=’ Specifies the fpu for which to tune the performance of this function.
The behavior and permissible arguments are the same as for the
-mfpu= command-line option.
ISR_N (PCINT0_vect_num)
static void my_pcint0_handler (void)
{
// Code
}
• Code that uses inline assembler to jump to a different function which ex-
pects (parts of) the prologue code as outlined above to be present.
To disable __gcc_isr generation for the whole compilation unit, there is option
-mno-gas-isr-prologues, see Section 3.20.6 [AVR Options], page 369.
OS_main
OS_task On AVR, functions with the OS_main or OS_task attribute do not save/restore
any call-saved register in their prologue/epilogue.
The OS_main attribute can be used when there is guarantee that interrupts are
disabled at the time when the function is entered. This saves resources when
the stack pointer has to be changed to set up a frame for local variables.
The OS_task attribute can be used when there is no guarantee that interrupts
are disabled at that time when the function is entered like for, e.g. task functions
in a multi-threading operating system. In that case, changing the stack pointer
register is guarded by save/clear/restore of the global interrupt enable flag.
The differences to the naked function attribute are:
• naked functions do not have a return instruction whereas OS_main and
OS_task functions have a RET or RETI return instruction.
• naked functions do not set up a frame for local variables or a frame pointer
whereas OS_main and OS_task do this as needed.
shortcall attribute indicates that the function is always close enough for the
shorter calling sequence to be used. These attributes override the -mlongcall
switch.
nesting Use this attribute together with interrupt_handler, exception_handler or
nmi_handler to indicate that the function entry code should enable nested
interrupts or exceptions.
nmi_handler
Use this attribute on the Blackfin to indicate that the specified function is an
NMI handler. The compiler generates function entry and exit sequences suitable
for use in an NMI handler when this attribute is present.
saveall Use this attribute to indicate that all registers except the stack pointer should
be saved in the prologue regardless of whether they are used or not.
naked This attribute allows the compiler to construct the requisite function declara-
tion, while allowing the body of the function to be assembly code. The specified
function will not have prologue/epilogue sequences generated by the compiler.
Only basic asm statements can safely be included in naked functions (see Sec-
tion 6.50.1 [Basic Asm], page 718). While using extended asm or a mixture of
basic asm and C code may appear to work, they cannot be depended upon to
work reliably and are not supported.
disinterrupt
This attribute causes the compiler to emit instructions to disable interrupts for
the duration of the given function.
forwarder_section
This attribute modifies the behavior of an interrupt handler. The interrupt
handler may be in external memory which cannot be reached by a branch
instruction, so generate a local memory trampoline to transfer control. The
single parameter identifies the section where the trampoline is placed.
interrupt
Use this attribute to indicate that the specified function is an interrupt handler.
The compiler generates function entry and exit sequences suitable for use in an
interrupt handler when this attribute is present. It may also generate a special
section with code to initialize the interrupt vector table.
On Epiphany targets one or more optional parameters can be added like this:
void __attribute__ ((interrupt ("dma0, dma1"))) universal_dma_handler ();
Permissible values for these parameters are: reset, software_exception,
page_miss, timer0, timer1, message, dma0, dma1, wand and swi. Multiple
parameters indicate that multiple entries in the interrupt vector table should
be initialized for this function, i.e. for each parameter name, a jump to the
function is emitted in the section ivt entry name. The parameter(s) may be
omitted entirely, in which case no interrupt vector table entry is provided.
Note that interrupts are enabled inside the function unless the disinterrupt
attribute is also specified.
The following examples are all valid uses of these attributes on Epiphany tar-
gets:
void __attribute__ ((interrupt)) universal_handler ();
void __attribute__ ((interrupt ("dma1"))) dma1_handler ();
void __attribute__ ((interrupt ("dma0, dma1")))
universal_dma_handler ();
void __attribute__ ((interrupt ("timer0"), disinterrupt))
fast_timer_handler ();
void __attribute__ ((interrupt ("dma0, dma1"),
forwarder_section ("tramp")))
external_dma_handler ();
long_call
short_call
These attributes specify how a particular function is called. These attributes
override the -mlong-calls (see Section 3.20.2 [Adapteva Epiphany Options],
page 339) command-line switch and #pragma long_calls settings.
function_vector
Use this attribute on the H8/300, H8/300H, and H8S to indicate that the spec-
ified function should be called through the function vector. Calling a function
through the function vector reduces code size; however, the function vector
has a limited size (maximum 128 entries on the H8/300 and 64 entries on the
H8/300H and H8S) and shares space with the interrupt vector.
interrupt_handler
Use this attribute on the H8/300, H8/300H, and H8S to indicate that the
specified function is an interrupt handler. The compiler generates function
entry and exit sequences suitable for use in an interrupt handler when this
attribute is present.
saveall Use this attribute on the H8/300, H8/300H, and H8S to indicate that all reg-
isters except the stack pointer should be saved in the prologue regardless of
whether they are used or not.
bytes for each call generated to the subroutine. The argument to the attribute is
the vector number entry from the special page vector table which contains the 16
low-order bits of the subroutine’s entry address. Each vector table has special
page number (18 to 255) that is used in jsrs instructions. Jump addresses
of the routines are generated by adding 0x0F0000 (in case of M16C targets)
or 0xFF0000 (in case of M32C targets), to the 2-byte addresses set in the
vector table. Therefore you need to ensure that all the special page vector
routines should get mapped within the address range 0x0F0000 to 0x0FFFFF
(for M16C) and 0xFF0000 to 0xFFFFFF (for M32C).
In the following example 2 bytes are saved for each call to function foo.
void foo (void) __attribute__((function_vector(0x18)));
void foo (void)
{
}
be reachable with the bl instruction (the compiler generates the much slower
seth/add3/jl instruction sequence).
interrupt mode, and interrupt_handler for interrupts that do not use low-
latency handlers. In both cases, GCC emits appropriate prologue code and
generates a return from the handler using rtid instead of rtsd.
dllexport
On Microsoft Windows targets and Symbian OS targets the dllexport at-
tribute causes the compiler to provide a global pointer to a pointer in a DLL,
so that it can be referenced with the dllimport attribute. On Microsoft Win-
dows targets, the pointer name is formed by combining _imp__ and the function
or variable name.
You can use __declspec(dllexport) as a synonym for __attribute__
((dllexport)) for compatibility with other compilers.
On systems that support the visibility attribute, this attribute also implies
“default” visibility. It is an error to explicitly specify any other visibility.
GCC’s default behavior is to emit all inline functions with the dllexport at-
tribute. Since this can cause object file-size bloat, you can use -fno-keep-
inline-dllexport, which tells GCC to ignore the attribute for inlined func-
tions unless the -fkeep-inline-functions flag is used instead.
The attribute is ignored for undefined symbols.
When applied to C++ classes, the attribute marks defined non-inlined member
functions and static data members as exports. Static consts initialized in-class
are not marked unless they are also defined out-of-class.
For Microsoft Windows targets there are alternative methods for including the
symbol in the DLL’s export table such as using a .def file with an EXPORTS
section or, with GNU ld, using the --export-all linker flag.
dllimport
On Microsoft Windows and Symbian OS targets, the dllimport attribute
causes the compiler to reference a function or variable via a global pointer
to a pointer that is set up by the DLL exporting the symbol. The attribute
implies extern. On Microsoft Windows targets, the pointer name is formed by
combining _imp__ and the function or variable name.
You can use __declspec(dllimport) as a synonym for __attribute__
((dllimport)) for compatibility with other compilers.
On systems that support the visibility attribute, this attribute also implies
“default” visibility. It is an error to explicitly specify any other visibility.
Currently, the attribute is ignored for inlined functions. If the attribute is ap-
plied to a symbol definition, an error is reported. If a symbol previously declared
dllimport is later defined, the attribute is ignored in subsequent references,
and a warning is emitted. The attribute is also overridden by a subsequent
declaration as dllexport.
650 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
When applied to C++ classes, the attribute marks non-inlined member functions
and static data members as imports. However, the attribute is ignored for
virtual methods to allow creation of vtables using thunks.
On the SH Symbian OS target the dllimport attribute also has another affect—
it can cause the vtable and run-time type information for a class to be exported.
This happens when the class has a dllimported constructor or a non-inline, non-
pure virtual function and, for either of those two conditions, the class also has
an inline constructor or destructor and has a key function that is defined in the
current translation unit.
For Microsoft Windows targets the use of the dllimport attribute on func-
tions is not necessary, but provides a small performance benefit by eliminating
a thunk in the DLL. The use of the dllimport attribute on imported vari-
ables can be avoided by passing the --enable-auto-import switch to the GNU
linker. As with functions, using the attribute for a variable eliminates a thunk
in the DLL.
One drawback to using this attribute is that a pointer to a variable marked
as dllimport cannot be used as a constant address. However, a pointer to a
function with the dllimport attribute can be used as a constant initializer;
in this case, the address of a stub function in the import lib is referenced.
On Microsoft Windows targets, the attribute can be disabled for functions by
setting the -mnop-fun-dllimport flag.
interrupt
Use this attribute to indicate that the specified function is an interrupt
handler. The compiler generates function entry and exit sequences suitable
for use in an interrupt handler when this attribute is present. An optional
argument is supported for the interrupt attribute which allows the interrupt
mode to be described. By default GCC assumes the external interrupt
controller (EIC) mode is in use, this can be explicitly set using eic. When
interrupts are non-masked then the requested Interrupt Priority Level
(IPL) is copied to the current IPL which has the effect of only enabling
higher priority interrupts. To use vectored interrupt mode use the argument
vector=[sw0|sw1|hw0|hw1|hw2|hw3|hw4|hw5], this will change the behavior
of the non-masked interrupt support and GCC will arrange to mask all
interrupts from sw0 up to and including the specified interrupt vector.
You can use the following attributes to modify the behavior of an interrupt
handler:
use_shadow_register_set
Assume that the handler uses a shadow register set, instead of the
main general-purpose registers. An optional argument intstack is
supported to indicate that the shadow register set contains a valid
stack pointer.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 651
keep_interrupts_masked
Keep interrupts masked for the whole function. Without this at-
tribute, GCC tries to reenable interrupts for as much of the function
as it can.
use_debug_exception_return
Return using the deret instruction. Interrupt handlers that don’t
have this attribute return using eret instead.
You can use any combination of these attributes, as shown below:
void __attribute__ ((interrupt)) v0 ();
void __attribute__ ((interrupt, use_shadow_register_set)) v1 ();
void __attribute__ ((interrupt, keep_interrupts_masked)) v2 ();
void __attribute__ ((interrupt, use_debug_exception_return)) v3 ();
void __attribute__ ((interrupt, use_shadow_register_set,
keep_interrupts_masked)) v4 ();
void __attribute__ ((interrupt, use_shadow_register_set,
use_debug_exception_return)) v5 ();
void __attribute__ ((interrupt, keep_interrupts_masked,
use_debug_exception_return)) v6 ();
void __attribute__ ((interrupt, use_shadow_register_set,
keep_interrupts_masked,
use_debug_exception_return)) v7 ();
void __attribute__ ((interrupt("eic"))) v8 ();
void __attribute__ ((interrupt("vector=hw3"))) v9 ();
long_call
short_call
near
far These attributes specify how a particular function is called on MIPS. The
attributes override the -mlong-calls (see Section 3.20.28 [MIPS Options],
page 427) command-line switch. The long_call and far attributes are syn-
onyms, and cause the compiler to always call the function by first loading
its address into a register, and then using the contents of that register. The
short_call and near attributes are synonyms, and have the opposite effect;
they specify that non-PIC calls should be made using the more efficient jal
instruction.
mips16
nomips16
On MIPS targets, you can use the mips16 and nomips16 function attributes
to locally select or turn off MIPS16 code generation. A function with the
mips16 attribute is emitted as MIPS16 code, while MIPS16 code generation is
disabled for functions with the nomips16 attribute. These attributes override
the -mips16 and -mno-mips16 options on the command line (see Section 3.20.28
[MIPS Options], page 427).
When compiling files containing mixed MIPS16 and non-MIPS16 code, the pre-
processor symbol __mips16 reflects the setting on the command line, not that
within individual functions. Mixed MIPS16 and non-MIPS16 code may inter-
act badly with some GCC extensions such as __builtin_apply (see Section 6.6
[Constructing Calls], page 581).
652 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
micromips, MIPS
nomicromips, MIPS
On MIPS targets, you can use the micromips and nomicromips function at-
tributes to locally select or turn off microMIPS code generation. A function
with the micromips attribute is emitted as microMIPS code, while microMIPS
code generation is disabled for functions with the nomicromips attribute. These
attributes override the -mmicromips and -mno-micromips options on the com-
mand line (see Section 3.20.28 [MIPS Options], page 427).
When compiling files containing mixed microMIPS and non-microMIPS code,
the preprocessor symbol __mips_micromips reflects the setting on the com-
mand line, not that within individual functions. Mixed microMIPS and non-
microMIPS code may interact badly with some GCC extensions such as __
builtin_apply (see Section 6.6 [Constructing Calls], page 581).
nocompression
On MIPS targets, you can use the nocompression function attribute to locally
turn off MIPS16 and microMIPS code generation. This attribute overrides the
-mips16 and -mmicromips options on the command line (see Section 3.20.28
[MIPS Options], page 427).
use_hazard_barrier_return
This function attribute instructs the compiler to generate a hazard barrier re-
turn that clears all execution and instruction hazards while returning, instead
of generating a normal return instruction.
code_readable
For MIPS targets that support PC-relative addressing modes, this attribute
can be used to control how an object is addressed. The attribute takes a single
optional argument:
‘no’ The function should not read the instruction stream as data.
‘yes’ The function can read the instruction stream as data.
‘pcrel’ The function can read the instruction stream in a pc-relative mode.
If there is no argument supplied, the default of "yes" applies.
You can provide an argument to the interrupt attribute which specifies a name
or number. If the argument is a number it indicates the slot in the interrupt
vector table (0 - 31) to which this handler should be assigned. If the argument
is a name it is treated as a symbolic name for the vector slot. These names
should match up with appropriate entries in the linker script. By default the
names watchdog for vector 26, nmi for vector 30 and reset for vector 31 are
recognized.
naked This attribute allows the compiler to construct the requisite function declara-
tion, while allowing the body of the function to be assembly code. The specified
function will not have prologue/epilogue sequences generated by the compiler.
Only basic asm statements can safely be included in naked functions (see Sec-
tion 6.50.1 [Basic Asm], page 718). While using extended asm or a mixture of
basic asm and C code may appear to work, they cannot be depended upon to
work reliably and are not supported.
reentrant
Reentrant functions disable interrupts upon entry and enable them upon exit.
Reentrant functions cannot also have the naked or critical attributes. They
can have the interrupt attribute.
wakeup This attribute only applies to interrupt functions. It is silently ignored if ap-
plied to a non-interrupt function. A wakeup interrupt function will rouse the
processor from any low-power state that it might be in when the function exits.
lower
upper
either On the MSP430 target these attributes can be used to specify whether the
function or variable should be placed into low memory, high memory, or the
placement should be left to the linker to decide. The attributes are only signif-
icant if compiling for the MSP430X architecture in the large memory model.
The attributes work in conjunction with a linker script that has been augmented
to specify where to place sections with a .lower and a .upper prefix. So,
for example, as well as placing the .data section, the script also specifies the
placement of a .lower.data and a .upper.data section. The intention is that
lower sections are placed into a small but easier to access memory region and
the upper sections are placed into a larger, but slower to access, region.
The either attribute is special. It tells the linker to place the object into the
corresponding lower section if there is room for it. If there is insufficient room
then the object is placed into the corresponding upper section instead. Note
that the placement algorithm is not very sophisticated. It does not attempt to
find an optimal packing of the lower sections. It just makes one pass over the
objects and does the best that it can. Using the -ffunction-sections and
-fdata-sections command-line options can help the packing, however, since
they produce smaller, easier to pack regions.
exception
Use this attribute on the NDS32 target to indicate that the specified function
is an exception handler. The compiler will generate corresponding sections for
use in an exception handler.
interrupt
On NDS32 target, this attribute indicates that the specified function is an
interrupt handler. The compiler generates corresponding sections for use in an
interrupt handler. You can use the following attributes to modify the behavior:
nested This interrupt service routine is interruptible.
not_nested
This interrupt service routine is not interruptible.
nested_ready
This interrupt service routine is interruptible after PSW.GIE (global
interrupt enable) is set. This allows interrupt service routine to
finish some short critical code before enabling interrupts.
save_all The system will help save all registers into stack before entering
interrupt handler.
partial_save
The system will help save caller registers into stack before entering
interrupt handler.
naked This attribute allows the compiler to construct the requisite function declara-
tion, while allowing the body of the function to be assembly code. The specified
function will not have prologue/epilogue sequences generated by the compiler.
Only basic asm statements can safely be included in naked functions (see Sec-
tion 6.50.1 [Basic Asm], page 718). While using extended asm or a mixture of
basic asm and C code may appear to work, they cannot be depended upon to
work reliably and are not supported.
reset Use this attribute on the NDS32 target to indicate that the specified function
is a reset handler. The compiler will generate corresponding sections for use in
a reset handler. You can use the following attributes to provide extra exception
handling:
nmi Provide a user-defined function to handle NMI exception.
warm Provide a user-defined function to handle warm reset exception.
longcall
shortcall
The longcall attribute indicates that the function might be far away from
the call site and require a different (more expensive) calling sequence. The
shortcall attribute indicates that the function is always close enough for
the shorter calling sequence to be used. These attributes override both the
-mlongcall switch and the #pragma longcall setting.
See Section 3.20.41 [RS/6000 and PowerPC Options], page 465, for more infor-
mation on whether long calls are necessary.
target (options)
As discussed in Section 6.35.1 [Common Function Attributes], page 604, this
attribute allows specification of target-specific compilation options.
On the PowerPC, the following options are allowed:
‘altivec’
‘no-altivec’
Generate code that uses (does not use) AltiVec instructions.
In 32-bit code, you cannot enable AltiVec instructions unless
-mabi=altivec is used on the command line.
‘cmpb’
‘no-cmpb’ Generate code that uses (does not use) the compare bytes instruc-
tion implemented on the POWER6 processor and other processors
that support the PowerPC V2.05 architecture.
‘dlmzb’
‘no-dlmzb’
Generate code that uses (does not use) the string-search ‘dlmzb’
instruction on the IBM 405, 440, 464 and 476 processors. This
instruction is generated by default when targeting those processors.
‘fprnd’
‘no-fprnd’
Generate code that uses (does not use) the FP round to integer
instructions implemented on the POWER5+ processor and other
processors that support the PowerPC V2.03 architecture.
‘hard-dfp’
‘no-hard-dfp’
Generate code that uses (does not use) the decimal floating-point
instructions implemented on some POWER processors.
‘isel’
‘no-isel’ Generate code that uses (does not use) ISEL instruction.
656 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘mfcrf’
‘no-mfcrf’
Generate code that uses (does not use) the move from condition
register field instruction implemented on the POWER4 processor
and other processors that support the PowerPC V2.01 architecture.
‘mulhw’
‘no-mulhw’
Generate code that uses (does not use) the half-word multiply and
multiply-accumulate instructions on the IBM 405, 440, 464 and
476 processors. These instructions are generated by default when
targeting those processors.
‘multiple’
‘no-multiple’
Generate code that uses (does not use) the load multiple word
instructions and the store multiple word instructions.
‘update’
‘no-update’
Generate code that uses (does not use) the load or store instruc-
tions that update the base register to the address of the calculated
memory location.
‘popcntb’
‘no-popcntb’
Generate code that uses (does not use) the popcount and double-
precision FP reciprocal estimate instruction implemented on the
POWER5 processor and other processors that support the Pow-
erPC V2.02 architecture.
‘popcntd’
‘no-popcntd’
Generate code that uses (does not use) the popcount instruction
implemented on the POWER7 processor and other processors that
support the PowerPC V2.06 architecture.
‘powerpc-gfxopt’
‘no-powerpc-gfxopt’
Generate code that uses (does not use) the optional PowerPC archi-
tecture instructions in the Graphics group, including floating-point
select.
‘powerpc-gpopt’
‘no-powerpc-gpopt’
Generate code that uses (does not use) the optional PowerPC ar-
chitecture instructions in the General Purpose group, including
floating-point square root.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 657
‘recip-precision’
‘no-recip-precision’
Assume (do not assume) that the reciprocal estimate instructions
provide higher-precision estimates than is mandated by the Pow-
erPC ABI.
‘string’
‘no-string’
Generate code that uses (does not use) the load string instructions
and the store string word instructions to save multiple registers and
do small block moves.
‘vsx’
‘no-vsx’ Generate code that uses (does not use) vector/scalar (VSX) in-
structions, and also enable the use of built-in functions that allow
more direct access to the VSX instruction set. In 32-bit code, you
cannot enable VSX or AltiVec instructions unless -mabi=altivec
is used on the command line.
‘friz’
‘no-friz’ Generate (do not generate) the friz instruction when the
-funsafe-math-optimizations option is used to optimize
rounding a floating-point value to 64-bit integer and back to
floating point. The friz instruction does not return the same
value if the floating-point number is too large to fit in an integer.
‘avoid-indexed-addresses’
‘no-avoid-indexed-addresses’
Generate code that tries to avoid (not avoid) the use of indexed
load or store instructions.
‘paired’
‘no-paired’
Generate code that uses (does not use) the generation of PAIRED
simd instructions.
‘longcall’
‘no-longcall’
Generate code that assumes (does not assume) that all calls are far
away so that a longer more expensive calling sequence is required.
‘cpu=CPU’ Specify the architecture to generate code for when compiling the
function. If you select the target("cpu=power7") attribute when
generating 32-bit code, VSX and AltiVec instructions are not gen-
erated unless you use the -mabi=altivec option on the command
line.
‘tune=TUNE’
Specify the architecture to tune for when compiling the function.
If you do not specify the target("tune=TUNE") attribute and you
do specify the target("cpu=CPU") attribute, compilation tunes for
658 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
the CPU architecture, and not the default tuning specified on the
command line.
On the PowerPC, the inliner does not inline a function that has different target
options than the caller, unless the callee has a subset of the target options of
the caller.
On RX and RL78 targets, you may specify one or more vector numbers as argu-
ments to the attribute, as well as naming an alternate table name. Parameters
are handled sequentially, so one handler can be assigned to multiple entries in
multiple tables. One may also pass the magic string "$default" which causes
the function to be used for any unfilled slots in the current table.
This example shows a simple assignment of a function to one vector in the
default table (note that preprocessor macros may be used for chip-specific sym-
bolic vector names):
void __attribute__ ((interrupt (5))) txd1_handler ();
This example assigns a function to two slots in the default table (using prepro-
cessor macros defined elsewhere) and makes it the default for the dct table:
void __attribute__ ((interrupt (RXD1_VECT,RXD2_VECT,"dct","$default")))
txd1_handler ();
naked This attribute allows the compiler to construct the requisite function declara-
tion, while allowing the body of the function to be assembly code. The specified
function will not have prologue/epilogue sequences generated by the compiler.
Only basic asm statements can safely be included in naked functions (see Sec-
tion 6.50.1 [Basic Asm], page 718). While using extended asm or a mixture of
basic asm and C code may appear to work, they cannot be depended upon to
work reliably and are not supported.
vector This RX attribute is similar to the interrupt attribute, including its parame-
ters, but does not make the function an interrupt-handler type function (i.e. it
retains the normal C function calling ABI). See the interrupt attribute for a
description of its arguments.
‘stack-guard=’
‘stack-size=’
‘branch-cost=’
‘warn-framesize=’
‘backchain’
‘no-backchain’
‘hard-dfp’
‘no-hard-dfp’
‘hard-float’
‘soft-float’
‘htm’
‘no-htm’
‘vx’
‘no-vx’
‘packed-stack’
‘no-packed-stack’
‘small-exec’
‘no-small-exec’
‘mvcle’
‘no-mvcle’
‘warn-dynamicstack’
‘no-warn-dynamicstack’
The options work exactly like the S/390 specific command line options (without
the prefix -m) except that they do not change any feature macros. For example,
target("no-vx")
does not undefine the __VEC__ macro.
function_vector
On SH2A targets, this attribute declares a function to be called using the TBR
relative addressing mode. The argument to this attribute is the entry number of
the same function in a vector table containing all the TBR relative addressable
functions. For correct operation the TBR must be setup accordingly to point to
the start of the vector table before any functions with this attribute are invoked.
Usually a good place to do the initialization is the startup routine. The TBR
relative vector table can have at max 256 function entries. The jumps to these
functions are generated using a SH2A specific, non delayed branch instruction
JSR/N @(disp8,TBR). You must use GAS and GLD from GNU binutils version
2.7 or later for this attribute to work correctly.
In an application, for a function being called once, this attribute saves at least 8
bytes of code; and if other successive calls are being made to the same function,
it saves 2 bytes of code per each of these calls.
662 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
interrupt_handler
Use this attribute to indicate that the specified function is an interrupt handler.
The compiler generates function entry and exit sequences suitable for use in an
interrupt handler when this attribute is present.
nosave_low_regs
Use this attribute on SH targets to indicate that an interrupt_handler func-
tion should not save and restore registers R0..R7. This can be used on SH3*
and SH4* targets that have a second R0..R7 register bank for non-reentrant
interrupt handlers.
renesas On SH targets this attribute specifies that the function or struct follows the
Renesas ABI.
resbank On the SH2A target, this attribute enables the high-speed register saving and
restoration using a register bank for interrupt_handler routines. Saving to
the bank is performed automatically after the CPU accepts an interrupt that
uses a register bank.
The nineteen 32-bit registers comprising general register R0 to R14, control
register GBR, and system registers MACH, MACL, and PR and the vector
table address offset are saved into a register bank. Register banks are stacked
in first-in last-out (FILO) sequence. Restoration from the bank is executed by
issuing a RESBANK instruction.
sp_switch
Use this attribute on the SH to indicate an interrupt_handler function should
switch to an alternate stack. It expects a string argument that names a global
variable holding the address of the alternate stack.
void *alt_stack;
void f () __attribute__ ((interrupt_handler,
sp_switch ("alt_stack")));
trap_exit
Use this attribute on the SH for an interrupt_handler to return using trapa
instead of rte. This attribute expects an integer argument specifying the trap
number to be used.
trapa_handler
On SH targets this function attribute is similar to interrupt_handler but it
does not save and restore all registers.
interrupt
interrupt_handler
Use these attributes to indicate that the specified function is an interrupt han-
dler. The compiler generates function entry and exit sequences suitable for use
in an interrupt handler when either attribute is present.
together with the rest of the arguments, specify number equal to zero. If callee
is responsible for popping the hidden pointer, specify number equal to one.
The default x86-32 ABI assumes that the callee pops the stack for hidden
pointer. However, on x86-32 Microsoft Windows targets, the compiler assumes
that the caller pops the stack for hidden pointer.
ms_hook_prologue
On 32-bit and 64-bit x86 targets, you can use this function attribute to make
GCC generate the “hot-patching” function prologue used in Win32 API func-
tions in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 and newer.
naked This attribute allows the compiler to construct the requisite function declara-
tion, while allowing the body of the function to be assembly code. The specified
function will not have prologue/epilogue sequences generated by the compiler.
Only basic asm statements can safely be included in naked functions (see Sec-
tion 6.50.1 [Basic Asm], page 718). While using extended asm or a mixture of
basic asm and C code may appear to work, they cannot be depended upon to
work reliably and are not supported.
regparm (number)
On x86-32 targets, the regparm attribute causes the compiler to pass arguments
number one to number if they are of integral type in registers EAX, EDX,
and ECX instead of on the stack. Functions that take a variable number of
arguments continue to be passed all of their arguments on the stack.
Beware that on some ELF systems this attribute is unsuitable for global func-
tions in shared libraries with lazy binding (which is the default). Lazy binding
sends the first call via resolving code in the loader, which might assume EAX,
EDX and ECX can be clobbered, as per the standard calling conventions. So-
laris 8 is affected by this. Systems with the GNU C Library version 2.1 or
higher and FreeBSD are believed to be safe since the loaders there save EAX,
EDX and ECX. (Lazy binding can be disabled with the linker or the loader if
desired, to avoid the problem.)
sseregparm
On x86-32 targets with SSE support, the sseregparm attribute causes the com-
piler to pass up to 3 floating-point arguments in SSE registers instead of on the
stack. Functions that take a variable number of arguments continue to pass all
of their floating-point arguments on the stack.
force_align_arg_pointer
On x86 targets, the force_align_arg_pointer attribute may be applied to
individual function definitions, generating an alternate prologue and epilogue
that realigns the run-time stack if necessary. This supports mixing legacy codes
that run with a 4-byte aligned stack with modern codes that keep a 16-byte
stack for SSE compatibility.
stdcall On x86-32 targets, the stdcall attribute causes the compiler to assume that
the called function pops off the stack space used to pass arguments, unless it
takes a variable number of arguments.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 665
no_callee_saved_registers
Use this attribute to indicate that the specified function has no callee-saved
registers. That is, all registers can be used as scratch registers. For example,
this attribute can be used for a function called from the interrupt handler
assembly stub which will preserve all registers and return from interrupt.
no_caller_saved_registers
Use this attribute to indicate that the specified function has no caller-saved
registers. That is, all registers are callee-saved. For example, this attribute
can be used for a function called from an interrupt handler. The compiler
generates proper function entry and exit sequences to save and restore any
modified registers, except for the EFLAGS register. Since GCC doesn’t preserve
SSE, MMX nor x87 states, the GCC option -mgeneral-regs-only should be
used to compile functions with no_caller_saved_registers attribute.
interrupt
Use this attribute to indicate that the specified function is an interrupt han-
dler or an exception handler (depending on parameters passed to the function,
explained further). The compiler generates function entry and exit sequences
suitable for use in an interrupt handler when this attribute is present. The IRET
instruction, instead of the RET instruction, is used to return from interrupt han-
dlers. All registers, except for the EFLAGS register which is restored by the
IRET instruction, are preserved by the compiler. Since GCC doesn’t preserve
SSE, MMX nor x87 states, the GCC option -mgeneral-regs-only should be
used to compile interrupt and exception handlers.
Any interruptible-without-stack-switch code must be compiled with -mno-red-
zone since interrupt handlers can and will, because of the hardware design,
touch the red zone.
An interrupt handler must be declared with a mandatory pointer argument:
struct interrupt_frame;
__attribute__ ((interrupt))
void
f (struct interrupt_frame *frame)
{
}
and you must define struct interrupt_frame as described in the processor’s
manual.
Exception handlers differ from interrupt handlers because the system pushes an
error code on the stack. An exception handler declaration is similar to that for
an interrupt handler, but with a different mandatory function signature. The
compiler arranges to pop the error code off the stack before the IRET instruction.
#ifdef __x86_64__
typedef unsigned long long int uword_t;
#else
typedef unsigned int uword_t;
#endif
struct interrupt_frame;
666 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
__attribute__ ((interrupt))
void
f (struct interrupt_frame *frame, uword_t error_code)
{
...
}
Exception handlers should only be used for exceptions that push an error code;
you should use an interrupt handler in other cases. The system will crash if the
wrong kind of handler is used.
target (options)
As discussed in Section 6.35.1 [Common Function Attributes], page 604, this
attribute allows specification of target-specific compilation options.
On the x86, the following options are allowed:
‘3dnow’
‘no-3dnow’
Enable/disable the generation of the 3DNow! instructions.
‘3dnowa’
‘no-3dnowa’
Enable/disable the generation of the enhanced 3DNow! instruc-
tions.
‘abm’
‘no-abm’ Enable/disable the generation of the advanced bit instructions.
‘adx’
‘no-adx’ Enable/disable the generation of the ADX instructions.
‘aes’
‘no-aes’ Enable/disable the generation of the AES instructions.
‘avx’
‘no-avx’ Enable/disable the generation of the AVX instructions.
‘avx2’
‘no-avx2’ Enable/disable the generation of the AVX2 instructions.
‘avx512bitalg’
‘no-avx512bitalg’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX512BITALG instructions.
‘avx512bw’
‘no-avx512bw’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX512BW instructions.
‘avx512cd’
‘no-avx512cd’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX512CD instructions.
‘avx512dq’
‘no-avx512dq’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX512DQ instructions.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 667
‘avx512er’
‘no-avx512er’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX512ER instructions.
‘avx512f’
‘no-avx512f’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX512F instructions.
‘avx512ifma’
‘no-avx512ifma’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX512IFMA instructions.
‘avx512vbmi’
‘no-avx512vbmi’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX512VBMI instructions.
‘avx512vbmi2’
‘no-avx512vbmi2’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX512VBMI2 instructions.
‘avx512vl’
‘no-avx512vl’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX512VL instructions.
‘avx512vnni’
‘no-avx512vnni’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX512VNNI instructions.
‘avx512vpopcntdq’
‘no-avx512vpopcntdq’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX512VPOPCNTDQ in-
structions.
‘bmi’
‘no-bmi’ Enable/disable the generation of the BMI instructions.
‘bmi2’
‘no-bmi2’ Enable/disable the generation of the BMI2 instructions.
‘cldemote’
‘no-cldemote’
Enable/disable the generation of the CLDEMOTE instructions.
‘clflushopt’
‘no-clflushopt’
Enable/disable the generation of the CLFLUSHOPT instructions.
‘clwb’
‘no-clwb’ Enable/disable the generation of the CLWB instructions.
‘clzero’
‘no-clzero’
Enable/disable the generation of the CLZERO instructions.
668 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘crc32’
‘no-crc32’
Enable/disable the generation of the CRC32 instructions.
‘cx16’
‘no-cx16’ Enable/disable the generation of the CMPXCHG16B instructions.
‘default’ See Section 7.8 [Function Multiversioning], page 1025, where it is
used to specify the default function version.
‘f16c’
‘no-f16c’ Enable/disable the generation of the F16C instructions.
‘fma’
‘no-fma’ Enable/disable the generation of the FMA instructions.
‘fma4’
‘no-fma4’ Enable/disable the generation of the FMA4 instructions.
‘fsgsbase’
‘no-fsgsbase’
Enable/disable the generation of the FSGSBASE instructions.
‘fxsr’
‘no-fxsr’ Enable/disable the generation of the FXSR instructions.
‘gfni’
‘no-gfni’ Enable/disable the generation of the GFNI instructions.
‘hle’
‘no-hle’ Enable/disable the generation of the HLE instruction prefixes.
‘lwp’
‘no-lwp’ Enable/disable the generation of the LWP instructions.
‘lzcnt’
‘no-lzcnt’
Enable/disable the generation of the LZCNT instructions.
‘mmx’
‘no-mmx’ Enable/disable the generation of the MMX instructions.
‘movbe’
‘no-movbe’
Enable/disable the generation of the MOVBE instructions.
‘movdir64b’
‘no-movdir64b’
Enable/disable the generation of the MOVDIR64B instructions.
‘movdiri’
‘no-movdiri’
Enable/disable the generation of the MOVDIRI instructions.
‘mwait’
‘no-mwait’
Enable/disable the generation of the MWAIT and MONITOR in-
structions.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 669
‘mwaitx’
‘no-mwaitx’
Enable/disable the generation of the MWAITX instructions.
‘pclmul’
‘no-pclmul’
Enable/disable the generation of the PCLMUL instructions.
‘pconfig’
‘no-pconfig’
Enable/disable the generation of the PCONFIG instructions.
‘pku’
‘no-pku’ Enable/disable the generation of the PKU instructions.
‘popcnt’
‘no-popcnt’
Enable/disable the generation of the POPCNT instruction.
‘prfchw’
‘no-prfchw’
Enable/disable the generation of the PREFETCHW instruction.
‘ptwrite’
‘no-ptwrite’
Enable/disable the generation of the PTWRITE instructions.
‘rdpid’
‘no-rdpid’
Enable/disable the generation of the RDPID instructions.
‘rdrnd’
‘no-rdrnd’
Enable/disable the generation of the RDRND instructions.
‘rdseed’
‘no-rdseed’
Enable/disable the generation of the RDSEED instructions.
‘rtm’
‘no-rtm’ Enable/disable the generation of the RTM instructions.
‘sahf’
‘no-sahf’ Enable/disable the generation of the SAHF instructions.
‘sgx’
‘no-sgx’ Enable/disable the generation of the SGX instructions.
‘sha’
‘no-sha’ Enable/disable the generation of the SHA instructions.
‘shstk’
‘no-shstk’
Enable/disable the shadow stack built-in functions from CET.
670 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘sse’
‘no-sse’ Enable/disable the generation of the SSE instructions.
‘sse2’
‘no-sse2’ Enable/disable the generation of the SSE2 instructions.
‘sse3’
‘no-sse3’ Enable/disable the generation of the SSE3 instructions.
‘sse4’
‘no-sse4’ Enable/disable the generation of the SSE4 instructions (both
SSE4.1 and SSE4.2).
‘sse4.1’
‘no-sse4.1’
Enable/disable the generation of the SSE4.1 instructions.
‘sse4.2’
‘no-sse4.2’
Enable/disable the generation of the SSE4.2 instructions.
‘sse4a’
‘no-sse4a’
Enable/disable the generation of the SSE4A instructions.
‘ssse3’
‘no-ssse3’
Enable/disable the generation of the SSSE3 instructions.
‘tbm’
‘no-tbm’ Enable/disable the generation of the TBM instructions.
‘vaes’
‘no-vaes’ Enable/disable the generation of the VAES instructions.
‘vpclmulqdq’
‘no-vpclmulqdq’
Enable/disable the generation of the VPCLMULQDQ instructions.
‘waitpkg’
‘no-waitpkg’
Enable/disable the generation of the WAITPKG instructions.
‘wbnoinvd’
‘no-wbnoinvd’
Enable/disable the generation of the WBNOINVD instructions.
‘xop’
‘no-xop’ Enable/disable the generation of the XOP instructions.
‘xsave’
‘no-xsave’
Enable/disable the generation of the XSAVE instructions.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 671
‘xsavec’
‘no-xsavec’
Enable/disable the generation of the XSAVEC instructions.
‘xsaveopt’
‘no-xsaveopt’
Enable/disable the generation of the XSAVEOPT instructions.
‘xsaves’
‘no-xsaves’
Enable/disable the generation of the XSAVES instructions.
‘amx-tile’
‘no-amx-tile’
Enable/disable the generation of the AMX-TILE instructions.
‘amx-int8’
‘no-amx-int8’
Enable/disable the generation of the AMX-INT8 instructions.
‘amx-bf16’
‘no-amx-bf16’
Enable/disable the generation of the AMX-BF16 instructions.
‘uintr’
‘no-uintr’
Enable/disable the generation of the UINTR instructions.
‘hreset’
‘no-hreset’
Enable/disable the generation of the HRESET instruction.
‘kl’
‘no-kl’ Enable/disable the generation of the KEYLOCKER instructions.
‘widekl’
‘no-widekl’
Enable/disable the generation of the WIDEKL instructions.
‘avxvnni’
‘no-avxvnni’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVXVNNI instructions.
‘avxifma’
‘no-avxifma’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVXIFMA instructions.
‘avxvnniint8’
‘no-avxvnniint8’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVXVNNIINT8 instructions.
‘avxneconvert’
‘no-avxneconvert’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVXNECONVERT instruc-
tions.
672 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘cmpccxadd’
‘no-cmpccxadd’
Enable/disable the generation of the CMPccXADD instructions.
‘amx-fp16’
‘no-amx-fp16’
Enable/disable the generation of the AMX-FP16 instructions.
‘prefetchi’
‘no-prefetchi’
Enable/disable the generation of the PREFETCHI instructions.
‘raoint’
‘no-raoint’
Enable/disable the generation of the RAOINT instructions.
‘amx-complex’
‘no-amx-complex’
Enable/disable the generation of the AMX-COMPLEX instruc-
tions.
‘avxvnniint16’
‘no-avxvnniint16’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVXVNNIINT16 instructions.
‘sm3’
‘no-sm3’ Enable/disable the generation of the SM3 instructions.
‘sha512’
‘no-sha512’
Enable/disable the generation of the SHA512 instructions.
‘sm4’
‘no-sm4’ Enable/disable the generation of the SM4 instructions.
‘usermsr’
‘no-usermsr’
Enable/disable the generation of the USER MSR instructions.
‘apxf’
‘no-apxf’ Enable/disable the generation of the APX features, including
EGPR, PUSH2POP2, NDD and PPX.
‘avx10.1’
‘no-avx10.1’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX10.1 instructions.
‘avx10.1-256’
‘no-avx10.1-256’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX10.1 instructions.
‘avx10.1-512’
‘no-avx10.1-512’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX10.1 512 bit instructions.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 673
‘avx10.2’
‘no-avx10.2’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX10.2 instructions.
‘avx10.2-256’
‘no-avx10.2-256’
Enable/disbale the generation of the AVX10.2 instructions.
‘avx10.2-512’
‘no-avx10.2-512’
Enable/disable the generation of the AVX10.2 512 bit instructions.
‘amx-avx512’
‘no-amx-avx512’
Enable/disable the generation of the AMX-AVX512 instructions.
‘amx-tf32’
‘no-amx-tf32’
Enable/disable the generation of the AMX-TF32 instructions.
‘amx-transpose’
‘no-amx-transpose’
Enable/disable the generation of the AMX-TRANSPOSE instruc-
tions.
‘amx-fp8’
‘no-amx-fp8’
Enable/disable the generation of the AMX-FP8 instructions.
‘movrs’
‘no-movrs’
Enable/disable the generation of the MOVRS instructions.
‘amx-movrs’
‘no-amx-movrs’
Enable/disable the generation of the AMX-MOVRS instructions.
‘cld’
‘no-cld’ Enable/disable the generation of the CLD before string moves.
‘fancy-math-387’
‘no-fancy-math-387’
Enable/disable the generation of the sin, cos, and sqrt instruc-
tions on the 387 floating-point unit.
‘ieee-fp’
‘no-ieee-fp’
Enable/disable the generation of floating point that depends on
IEEE arithmetic.
‘inline-all-stringops’
‘no-inline-all-stringops’
Enable/disable inlining of string operations.
674 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
‘inline-stringops-dynamically’
‘no-inline-stringops-dynamically’
Enable/disable the generation of the inline code to do small string
operations and calling the library routines for large operations.
‘align-stringops’
‘no-align-stringops’
Do/do not align destination of inlined string operations.
‘recip’
‘no-recip’
Enable/disable the generation of RCPSS, RCPPS, RSQRTSS and
RSQRTPS instructions followed an additional Newton-Raphson
step instead of doing a floating-point division.
‘general-regs-only’
Generate code which uses only the general registers.
‘arch=ARCH’
Specify the architecture to generate code for in compiling the func-
tion.
‘tune=TUNE’
Specify the architecture to tune for in compiling the function.
‘fpmath=FPMATH’
Specify which floating-point unit to use. You must
specify the target("fpmath=sse,387") option as
target("fpmath=sse+387") because the comma would
separate different options.
‘prefer-vector-width=OPT’
On x86 targets, the prefer-vector-width attribute informs the
compiler to use OPT-bit vector width in instructions instead of the
default on the selected platform.
Valid OPT values are:
‘none’ No extra limitations applied to GCC other than defined
by the selected platform.
‘128’ Prefer 128-bit vector width for instructions.
‘256’ Prefer 256-bit vector width for instructions.
‘512’ Prefer 512-bit vector width for instructions.
indirect_branch("choice")
On x86 targets, the indirect_branch attribute causes the compiler to con-
vert indirect call and jump with choice. ‘keep’ keeps indirect call and jump
unmodified. ‘thunk’ converts indirect call and jump to call and return thunk.
‘thunk-inline’ converts indirect call and jump to inlined call and return thunk.
‘thunk-extern’ converts indirect call and jump to external call and return
thunk provided in a separate object file.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 675
function_return("choice")
On x86 targets, the function_return attribute causes the compiler to convert
function return with choice. ‘keep’ keeps function return unmodified. ‘thunk’
converts function return to call and return thunk. ‘thunk-inline’ converts
function return to inlined call and return thunk. ‘thunk-extern’ converts func-
tion return to external call and return thunk provided in a separate object file.
nocf_check
The nocf_check attribute on a function is used to inform the compiler that
the function’s prologue should not be instrumented when compiled with the
-fcf-protection=branch option. The compiler assumes that the function’s
address is a valid target for a control-flow transfer.
The nocf_check attribute on a type of pointer to function is used to inform
the compiler that a call through the pointer should not be instrumented when
compiled with the -fcf-protection=branch option. The compiler assumes
that the function’s address from the pointer is a valid target for a control-flow
transfer. A direct function call through a function name is assumed to be a safe
call thus direct calls are not instrumented by the compiler.
The nocf_check attribute is applied to an object’s type. In case of assignment
of a function address or a function pointer to another pointer, the attribute is
not carried over from the right-hand object’s type; the type of left-hand object
stays unchanged. The compiler checks for nocf_check attribute mismatch and
reports a warning in case of mismatch.
{
int foo (void) __attribute__(nocf_check);
void (*foo1)(void) __attribute__(nocf_check);
void (*foo2)(void);
return 0;
}
676 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
cf_check
The cf_check attribute on a function is used to inform the compiler
that ENDBR instruction should be placed at the function entry when
-fcf-protection=branch is enabled.
indirect_return
The indirect_return attribute can be applied to a function, as well as variable
or type of function pointer to inform the compiler that the function may return
via indirect branch.
fentry_name("name")
On x86 targets, the fentry_name attribute sets the function to call on function
entry when function instrumentation is enabled with -pg -mfentry. When
name is nop then a 5 byte nop sequence is generated.
fentry_section("name")
On x86 targets, the fentry_section attribute sets the name of the section
to record function entry instrumentation calls in when enabled with -pg -
mrecord-mcount
nodirect_extern_access
This attribute, attached to a global variable or function, is the counterpart to
option -mno-direct-extern-access.
page 604), labels (see Section 6.38 [Label Attributes], page 707), enumerators (see Sec-
tion 6.39 [Enumerator Attributes], page 707), statements (see Section 6.40 [Statement At-
tributes], page 708), and for types (see Section 6.37 [Type Attributes], page 692). Other
front ends might define more attributes (see Chapter 7 [Extensions to the C++ Language],
page 1017).
GCC provides two different ways to specify attributes: the traditional GNU syntax using
‘__attribute__ ((...))’ annotations, and the newer standard C and C++ syntax using
‘[[...]]’ with the ‘gnu::’ prefix on attribute names. Note that the exact rules for place-
ment of attributes in your source code are different depending on which syntax you use.
See Section 6.41 [Attribute Syntax], page 709, for details.
As in the preceding examples, you can explicitly specify the alignment (in bytes)
that you wish the compiler to use for a given variable or structure field. Al-
ternatively, you can leave out the alignment factor and just ask the compiler
to align a variable or field to the default alignment for the target architecture
you are compiling for. The default alignment is sufficient for all scalar types,
but may not be enough for all vector types on a target that supports vector
operations. The default alignment is fixed for a particular target ABI.
GCC also provides a target specific macro __BIGGEST_ALIGNMENT__, which is
the largest alignment ever used for any data type on the target machine you
are compiling for. For example, you could write:
short array[3] __attribute__ ((aligned (__BIGGEST_ALIGNMENT__)));
The compiler automatically sets the alignment for the declared variable or field
to __BIGGEST_ALIGNMENT__. Doing this can often make copy operations more
efficient, because the compiler can use whatever instructions copy the biggest
chunks of memory when performing copies to or from the variables or fields that
you have aligned this way. Note that the value of __BIGGEST_ALIGNMENT__ may
change depending on command-line options.
When used on a struct, or struct member, the aligned attribute can only in-
crease the alignment; in order to decrease it, the packed attribute must be
specified as well. When used as part of a typedef, the aligned attribute can
both increase and decrease alignment, and specifying the packed attribute gen-
erates a warning.
Note that the effectiveness of aligned attributes for static variables may be
limited by inherent limitations in the system linker and/or object file format.
On some systems, the linker is only able to arrange for variables to be aligned up
to a certain maximum alignment. (For some linkers, the maximum supported
alignment may be very very small.) If your linker is only able to align variables
up to a maximum of 8-byte alignment, then specifying aligned(16) in an _
_attribute__ still only provides you with 8-byte alignment. See your linker
documentation for further information.
Stack variables are not affected by linker restrictions; GCC can properly align
them on any target.
The aligned attribute can also be used for functions (see Section 6.35.1 [Com-
mon Function Attributes], page 604.)
counted_by (count)
The counted_by attribute may be attached to the C99 flexible array member
of a structure. It indicates that the number of the elements of the array is given
by the field "count" in the same structure as the flexible array member.
This attribute is available only in C for now. In C++ this attribute is ignored.
GCC may use this information to improve detection of object size information
for such structures and provide better results in compile-time diagnostics and
runtime features like the array bound sanitizer and the __builtin_dynamic_
object_size.
For instance, the following code:
struct P {
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 679
size_t count;
char other;
char array[] __attribute__ ((counted_by (count)));
} *p;
specifies that the array is a flexible array member whose number of elements
is given by the field count in the same structure.
The field that represents the number of the elements should have an integer
type. Otherwise, the compiler reports an error and ignores the attribute.
When the field that represents the number of the elements is assigned a negative
integer value, the compiler treats the value as zero.
An explicit counted_by annotation defines a relationship between two objects,
p->array and p->count, and there are the following requirementthat on the
relationship between this pair:
• p->count must be initialized before the first reference to p->array;
• p->array has at least p->count number of elements available all the time.
This relationship must hold even after any of these related objects are
updated during the program.
It’s the user’s responsibility to make sure the above requirements to be kept
all the time. Otherwise the compiler reports warnings, at the same time, the
results of the array bound sanitizer and the __builtin_dynamic_object_size
is undefined.
One important feature of the attribute is, a reference to the flexible array mem-
ber field uses the latest value assigned to the field that represents the number
of the elements before that reference. For example,
p->count = val1;
p->array[20] = 0; // ref1 to p->array
p->count = val2;
p->array[30] = 0; // ref2 to p->array
in the above, ref1 uses val1 as the number of the elements in p->array, and
ref2 uses val2 as the number of elements in p->array.
alloc_size (position)
alloc_size (position-1, position-2)
The alloc_size variable attribute may be applied to the declaration of a
pointer to a function that returns a pointer and takes at least one argument
of an integer type. It indicates that the returned pointer points to an object
whose size is given by the function argument at position, or by the product
of the arguments at position-1 and position-2. Meaningful sizes are positive
values less than PTRDIFF_MAX. Other sizes are diagnosed when detected. GCC
uses this information to improve the results of __builtin_object_size.
For instance, the following declarations
typedef __attribute__ ((alloc_size (1, 2))) void*
(*calloc_ptr) (size_t, size_t);
typedef __attribute__ ((alloc_size (1))) void*
(*malloc_ptr) (size_t);
specify that calloc_ptr is a pointer of a function that, like the standard C
function calloc, returns an object whose size is given by the product of argu-
680 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
ments 1 and 2, and similarly, that malloc_ptr, like the standard C function
malloc, returns an object whose size is given by argument 1 to the function.
cleanup (cleanup_function)
The cleanup attribute runs a function when the variable goes out of scope.
This attribute can only be applied to auto function scope variables; it may not
be applied to parameters or variables with static storage duration. The function
must take one parameter, a pointer to a type compatible with the variable. The
return value of the function (if any) is ignored.
When multiple variables in the same scope have cleanup attributes, at exit
from the scope their associated cleanup functions are run in reverse order of
definition (last defined, first cleanup).
If -fexceptions is enabled, then cleanup function is run during the stack un-
winding that happens during the processing of the exception. Note that the
cleanup attribute does not allow the exception to be caught, only to perform
an action. It is undefined what happens if cleanup function does not return
normally.
common
nocommon The common attribute requests GCC to place a variable in “common” storage.
The nocommon attribute requests the opposite—to allocate space for it directly.
These attributes override the default chosen by the -fno-common and -fcommon
flags respectively.
copy
copy (variable)
The copy attribute applies the set of attributes with which variable has been
declared to the declaration of the variable to which the attribute is applied. The
attribute is designed for libraries that define aliases that are expected to specify
the same set of attributes as the aliased symbols. The copy attribute can be
used with variables, functions or types. However, the kind of symbol to which
the attribute is applied (either varible or function) must match the kind of
symbol to which the argument refers. The copy attribute copies only syntactic
and semantic attributes but not attributes that affect a symbol’s linkage or
visibility such as alias, visibility, or weak. The deprecated attribute is
also not copied. See Section 6.35.1 [Common Function Attributes], page 604.
See Section 6.37.1 [Common Type Attributes], page 692.
deprecated
deprecated (msg)
The deprecated attribute results in a warning if the variable is used anywhere
in the source file. This is useful when identifying variables that are expected
to be removed in a future version of a program. The warning also includes the
location of the declaration of the deprecated variable, to enable users to easily
find further information about why the variable is deprecated, or what they
should do instead. Note that the warning only occurs for uses:
extern int old_var __attribute__ ((deprecated));
extern int old_var;
int new_fn () { return old_var; }
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 681
results in a warning on line 3 but not line 2. The optional msg argument, which
must be a string, is printed in the warning if present.
The deprecated attribute can also be used for functions and types (see Sec-
tion 6.35.1 [Common Function Attributes], page 604, see Section 6.37.1 [Com-
mon Type Attributes], page 692).
The message attached to the attribute is affected by the setting of the
-fmessage-length option.
mode (mode)
This attribute specifies the data type for the declaration—whichever type corre-
sponds to the mode mode. This in effect lets you request an integer or floating-
point type according to its width.
See Section “Machine Modes” in GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) Internals, for
a list of the possible keywords for mode. You may also specify a mode of byte
or __byte__ to indicate the mode corresponding to a one-byte integer, word or
__word__ for the mode of a one-word integer, and pointer or __pointer__ for
the mode used to represent pointers.
no_icf This variable attribute prevents a variable from being merged with another
equivalent variable.
noinit Any data with the noinit attribute will not be initialized by the C runtime
startup code, or the program loader. Not initializing data in this way can reduce
program startup times.
This attribute is specific to ELF targets and relies on the linker script to place
sections with the .noinit prefix in the right location.
nonstring
The nonstring variable attribute specifies that an object or member declara-
tion with type array of char, signed char, or unsigned char, or pointer to
such a type is intended to store character arrays that do not necessarily contain
a terminating NUL. This is useful in detecting uses of such arrays or pointers
with functions that expect NUL-terminated strings, and to avoid warnings when
such an array or pointer is used as an argument to a bounded string manipula-
tion function such as strncpy. For example, without the attribute, GCC will
issue a warning for the strncpy call below because it may truncate the copy
without appending the terminating NUL character. Using the attribute makes
it possible to suppress the warning. However, when the array is declared with
the attribute the call to strlen is diagnosed because when the array doesn’t
contain a NUL-terminated string the call is undefined. To copy, compare, of
search non-string character arrays use the memcpy, memcmp, memchr, and other
functions that operate on arrays of bytes. In addition, calling strnlen and
strndup with such arrays is safe provided a suitable bound is specified, and not
diagnosed.
struct Data
{
char name [32] __attribute__ ((nonstring));
};
682 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
section ("section-name")
Normally, the compiler places the objects it generates in sections like data and
bss. Sometimes, however, you need additional sections, or you need certain
particular variables to appear in special sections, for example to map to special
hardware. The section attribute specifies that a variable (or function) lives
in a particular section. For example, this small program uses several specific
section names:
struct duart a __attribute__ ((section ("DUART_A"))) = { 0 };
struct duart b __attribute__ ((section ("DUART_B"))) = { 0 };
char stack[10000] __attribute__ ((section ("STACK"))) = { 0 };
int init_data __attribute__ ((section ("INITDATA")));
main()
{
/* Initialize stack pointer */
init_sp (stack + sizeof (stack));
‘[1]’. When level is 2, the trailing array is treated as a flexible array member
when it is declared as either ‘[]’, or ‘[0]’.
This attribute can be used with or without the -fstrict-flex-arrays
command-line option. When both the attribute and the option are present at
the same time, the level of the strictness for the specific trailing array field is
determined by the attribute.
The strict_flex_array attribute interacts with the -Wstrict-flex-arrays
option. See Section 3.9 [Warning Options], page 95, for more information.
tls_model ("tls_model")
The tls_model attribute sets thread-local storage model (see Section 6.69
[Thread-Local], page 1012) of a particular __thread variable, overriding -ftls-
model= command-line switch on a per-variable basis. The tls model argument
should be one of global-dynamic, local-dynamic, initial-exec or local-
exec.
Not all targets support this attribute.
unavailable
unavailable (msg)
The unavailable attribute indicates that the variable so marked is not avail-
able, if it is used anywhere in the source file. It behaves in the same manner
as the deprecated attribute except that the compiler will emit an error rather
than a warning.
It is expected that items marked as deprecated will eventually be withdrawn
from interfaces, and then become unavailable. This attribute allows for marking
them appropriately.
The unavailable attribute can also be used for functions and types (see Sec-
tion 6.35.1 [Common Function Attributes], page 604, see Section 6.37.1 [Com-
mon Type Attributes], page 692).
unused This attribute, attached to a variable or structure field, means that the variable
or field is meant to be possibly unused. GCC does not produce a warning for
this variable or field.
used This attribute, attached to a variable with static storage, means that the vari-
able must be emitted even if it appears that the variable is not referenced.
When applied to a static data member of a C++ class template, the attribute
also means that the member is instantiated if the class itself is instantiated.
retain For ELF targets that support the GNU or FreeBSD OSABIs, this attribute
will save the variable from linker garbage collection. To support this behavior,
variables that have not been placed in specific sections (e.g. by the section
attribute, or the -fdata-sections option), will be placed in new, unique sec-
tions.
This additional functionality requires Binutils version 2.36 or later.
uninitialized
This attribute, attached to a variable with automatic storage, means that the
variable should not be automatically initialized by the compiler when the option
-ftrivial-auto-var-init presents.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 685
int i2;
unsigned long long x __attribute__ ((warn_if_not_aligned (16)));
};
This warning can be disabled by -Wno-if-not-aligned. The warn_if_not_
aligned attribute can also be used for types (see Section 6.37.1 [Common Type
Attributes], page 692.)
weak The weak attribute is described in Section 6.35.1 [Common Function
Attributes], page 604.
io_low
io_low (addr)
This is like the io attribute, but additionally it informs the compiler that the
object lies in the lower half of the I/O area, allowing the use of cbi, sbi, sbic
and sbis instructions.
address (addr)
Variables with the address attribute can be used to address memory-mapped
peripherals that may lie outside the I/O address range. Just like with the io
and io_low attributes, no memory is allocated.
volatile int porta __attribute__((address (0x600)));
This attribute can also be used to define symbols in C/C++ code which otherwise
would require assembly, a linker description file or command-line options like
-Wl,--defsym,a_symbol=value. For example,
int a_symbol __attribute__((weak, address (1234)));
will be compiled to
.weak a_symbol
688 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
a_symbol = 1234
absdata Variables in static storage and with the absdata attribute can be accessed by
the LDS and STS instructions which take absolute addresses.
• This attribute is only supported for the reduced AVR Tiny core like AT-
tiny40.
• You must make sure that respective data is located in the address range
0x40. . . 0xbf accessible by LDS and STS. One way to achieve this as an
appropriate linker description file.
• If the location does not fit the address range of LDS and STS, there is
currently (Binutils 2.26) just an unspecific warning like
module.cc:(.text+0x1c): warning: internal error: out
of range error
See also the -mabsdata Section 3.20.6 [AVR Options], page 369.
l1_data
l1_data_A
l1_data_B
Use these attributes on the Blackfin to place the variable into L1 Data SRAM.
Variables with l1_data attribute are put into the specific section named
.l1.data. Those with l1_data_A attribute are put into the specific section
named .l1.data.A. Those with l1_data_B attribute are put into the specific
section named .l1.data.B.
l2 Use this attribute on the Blackfin to place the variable into L2 SRAM. Variables
with l2 attribute are put into the specific section named .l2.data.
eightbit_data
Use this attribute on the H8/300, H8/300H, and H8S to indicate that the
specified variable should be placed into the eight-bit data section. The compiler
generates more efficient code for certain operations on data in the eight-bit data
area. Note the eight-bit data area is limited to 256 bytes of data.
You must use GAS and GLD from GNU binutils version 2.7 or later for this
attribute to work correctly.
tiny_data
Use this attribute on the H8/300H and H8S to indicate that the specified vari-
able should be placed into the tiny data section. The compiler generates more
efficient code for loads and stores on data in the tiny data section. Note the
tiny data area is limited to slightly under 32KB of data.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 689
Although the primary usage of this attribute is for POD types, the attribute can
also be applied to global C++ objects that are initialized by a constructor. In
this case, the static initialization and destruction code for the object is emitted
in each translation defining the object, but the calls to the constructor and
destructor are protected by a link-once guard variable.
The selectany attribute is only available on Microsoft Windows targets.
You can use __declspec (selectany) as a synonym for __attribute__
((selectany)) for compatibility with other compilers.
shared On Microsoft Windows, in addition to putting variable definitions in a named
section, the section can also be shared among all running copies of an executable
or DLL. For example, this small program defines shared data by putting it in
a named section shared and marking the section shareable:
int foo __attribute__((section ("shared"), shared)) = 0;
int
main()
{
/* Read and write foo. All running
copies see the same value. */
return 0;
}
You may only use the shared attribute along with section attribute with a
fully-initialized global definition because of the way linkers work. See section
attribute for more information.
The shared attribute is only available on Microsoft Windows.
one thread block refer to the same instance of the variable. The runtime does
not initialize variables in this memory space.
If a variable has the below100 attribute (BELOW100 is allowed also), GCC places
the variable in the first 0x100 bytes of memory and use special opcodes to access
it. Such variables are placed in either the .bss_below100 section or the .data_
below100 section.
means that you can effectively adjust the alignment of a struct or union type
by attaching an aligned attribute to any one of the members of such a type,
but the notation illustrated in the example above is a more obvious, intuitive,
and readable way to request the compiler to adjust the alignment of an entire
struct or union type.
As in the preceding example, you can explicitly specify the alignment (in bytes)
that you wish the compiler to use for a given struct or union type. Alterna-
tively, you can leave out the alignment factor and just ask the compiler to
align a type to the maximum useful alignment for the target machine you are
compiling for. For example, you could write:
struct __attribute__ ((aligned)) S { short f[3]; };
Whenever you leave out the alignment factor in an aligned attribute specifica-
tion, the compiler automatically sets the alignment for the type to the largest
alignment that is ever used for any data type on the target machine you are
compiling for. Doing this can often make copy operations more efficient, be-
cause the compiler can use whatever instructions copy the biggest chunks of
memory when performing copies to or from the variables that have types that
you have aligned this way.
In the example above, if the size of each short is 2 bytes, then the size of the
entire struct S type is 6 bytes. The smallest power of two that is greater than
or equal to that is 8, so the compiler sets the alignment for the entire struct
S type to 8 bytes.
Note that although you can ask the compiler to select a time-efficient alignment
for a given type and then declare only individual stand-alone objects of that
type, the compiler’s ability to select a time-efficient alignment is primarily useful
only when you plan to create arrays of variables having the relevant (efficiently
aligned) type. If you declare or use arrays of variables of an efficiently-aligned
type, then it is likely that your program also does pointer arithmetic (or sub-
scripting, which amounts to the same thing) on pointers to the relevant type,
and the code that the compiler generates for these pointer arithmetic operations
is often more efficient for efficiently-aligned types than for other types.
Note that the effectiveness of aligned attributes may be limited by inherent
limitations in your linker. On many systems, the linker is only able to arrange
for variables to be aligned up to a certain maximum alignment. (For some
linkers, the maximum supported alignment may be very very small.) If your
linker is only able to align variables up to a maximum of 8-byte alignment, then
specifying aligned (16) in an __attribute__ still only provides you with 8-
byte alignment. See your linker documentation for further information.
When used on a struct, or struct member, the aligned attribute can only in-
crease the alignment; in order to decrease it, the packed attribute must be
specified as well. When used as part of a typedef, the aligned attribute can
both increase and decrease alignment, and specifying the packed attribute gen-
erates a warning.
694 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
alloc_size (position)
alloc_size (position-1, position-2)
The alloc_size type attribute may be applied to the definition of a type
of a function that returns a pointer and takes at least one argument of an
integer type. It indicates that the returned pointer points to an object whose
size is given by the function argument at position-1, or by the product of the
arguments at position-1 and position-2. Meaningful sizes are positive values
less than PTRDIFF_MAX. Other sizes are disagnosed when detected. GCC uses
this information to improve the results of __builtin_object_size.
For instance, the following declarations
typedef __attribute__ ((alloc_size (1, 2))) void*
calloc_type (size_t, size_t);
typedef __attribute__ ((alloc_size (1))) void*
malloc_type (size_t);
specify that calloc_type is a type of a function that, like the standard C func-
tion calloc, returns an object whose size is given by the product of arguments
1 and 2, and that malloc_type, like the standard C function malloc, returns
an object whose size is given by argument 1 to the function.
copy
copy (expression)
The copy attribute applies the set of attributes with which the type of the ex-
pression has been declared to the declaration of the type to which the attribute
is applied. The attribute is designed for libraries that define aliases that are
expected to specify the same set of attributes as the aliased symbols. The copy
attribute can be used with types, variables, or functions. However, the kind of
symbol to which the attribute is applied (either varible or function) must match
the kind of symbol to which the argument refers. The copy attribute copies
only syntactic and semantic attributes but not attributes that affect a symbol’s
linkage or visibility such as alias, visibility, or weak. The deprecated at-
tribute is also not copied. See Section 6.35.1 [Common Function Attributes],
page 604. See Section 6.36.1 [Common Variable Attributes], page 677.
For example, suppose struct A below is defined in some third party library
header to have the alignment requirement N and to force a warning whenever
a variable of the type is not so aligned due to attribute packed. Specifying
the copy attribute on the definition on the unrelated struct B has the effect of
copying all relevant attributes from the type referenced by the pointer expres-
sion to struct B.
struct __attribute__ ((aligned (N), warn_if_not_aligned (N)))
A { /* . . . */ };
struct __attribute__ ((copy ( (struct A *)0)) B { /* . . . */ };
deprecated
deprecated (msg)
The deprecated attribute results in a warning if the type is used anywhere in
the source file. This is useful when identifying types that are expected to be
removed in a future version of a program. If possible, the warning also includes
the location of the declaration of the deprecated type, to enable users to easily
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 695
find further information about why the type is deprecated, or what they should
do instead. Note that the warnings only occur for uses and then only if the type
is being applied to an identifier that itself is not being declared as deprecated.
typedef int T1 __attribute__ ((deprecated));
T1 x;
typedef T1 T2;
T2 y;
typedef T1 T3 __attribute__ ((deprecated));
T3 z __attribute__ ((deprecated));
results in a warning on line 2 and 3 but not lines 4, 5, or 6. No warning is issued
for line 4 because T2 is not explicitly deprecated. Line 5 has no warning because
T3 is explicitly deprecated. Similarly for line 6. The optional msg argument,
which must be a string, is printed in the warning if present. Control characters
in the string will be replaced with escape sequences, and if the -fmessage-
length option is set to 0 (its default value) then any newline characters will be
ignored.
The deprecated attribute can also be used for functions and variables (see Sec-
tion 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604, see Section 6.36 [Variable Attributes],
page 676.)
The message attached to the attribute is affected by the setting of the
-fmessage-length option.
designated_init
This attribute may only be applied to structure types. It indicates that any ini-
tialization of an object of this type must use designated initializers rather than
positional initializers. The intent of this attribute is to allow the programmer
to indicate that a structure’s layout may change, and that therefore relying on
positional initialization will result in future breakage.
GCC emits warnings based on this attribute by default; use -Wno-designated-
init to suppress them.
flag_enum
This attribute may be applied to an enumerated type to indicate that its enu-
merators are used in bitwise operations, so e.g. -Wswitch should not warn
about a case that corresponds to a bitwise combination of enumerators.
hardbool
hardbool (false_value)
hardbool (false_value, true_value)
This attribute may only be applied to integral types in C, to introduce hardened
boolean types. It turns the integral type into a boolean-like type with the same
size and precision, that uses the specified values as representations for false
and true. Underneath, it is actually an enumerated type, but its observable
behavior is like that of _Bool, except for the strict internal representations,
verified by runtime checks.
If true value is omitted, the bitwise negation of false value is used. If false value
is omitted, zero is used. The named representation values must be different
when converted to the original integral type. Narrower bitfields are rejected if
the representations become indistinguishable.
696 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Values of such types automatically decay to _Bool, at which point, the selected
representation values are mapped to the corresponding _Bool values. When the
represented value is not determined, at compile time, to be either false value
or true value, runtime verification calls __builtin_trap if it is neither. This
is what makes them hardened boolean types.
When converting scalar types to such hardened boolean types, implicitly or
explicitly, behavior corresponds to a conversion to _Bool, followed by a mapping
from false and true to false value and true value, respectively.
typedef char __attribute__ ((__hardbool__ (0x5a))) hbool;
hbool first = 0; /* False, stored as (char)0x5a. */
hbool second = !first; /* True, stored as ~(char)0x5a. */
int
main (void)
{
int a = 0x12345678;
short_a *b = (short_a *) &a;
b[1] = 0;
if (a == 0x12345678)
abort();
exit(0);
}
If you replaced short_a with short in the variable declaration, the above pro-
gram would abort when compiled with -fstrict-aliasing, which is on by
default at -O2 or above.
mode (mode)
This attribute specifies the data type for the declaration—whichever type corre-
sponds to the mode mode. This in effect lets you request an integer or floating-
point type according to its width.
See Section “Machine Modes” in GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) Internals, for
a list of the possible keywords for mode. You may also specify a mode of byte
or __byte__ to indicate the mode corresponding to a one-byte integer, word or
__word__ for the mode of a one-word integer, and pointer or __pointer__ for
the mode used to represent pointers.
objc_root_class (Objective-C and Objective-C++ only)
This attribute marks a class as being a root class, and thus allows the compiler
to elide any warnings about a missing superclass and to make additional checks
for mandatory methods as needed.
packed This attribute, attached to a struct, union, or C++ class type definition,
specifies that each of its members (other than zero-width bit-fields) is placed
to minimize the memory required. This is equivalent to specifying the packed
attribute on each of the members.
When attached to an enum definition, the packed attribute indicates that the
smallest integral type should be used. Specifying the -fshort-enums flag on
the command line is equivalent to specifying the packed attribute on all enum
definitions.
In the following example struct my_packed_struct’s members are packed
closely together, but the internal layout of its s member is not packed—to
do that, struct my_unpacked_struct needs to be packed too.
struct my_unpacked_struct
{
char c;
int i;
};
int i;
struct my_unpacked_struct s;
};
You may only specify the packed attribute on the definition of an enum, struct,
union, or class, not on a typedef that does not also define the enumerated
type, structure, union, or class.
scalar_storage_order ("endianness")
When attached to a union or a struct, this attribute sets the storage order,
aka endianness, of the scalar fields of the type, as well as the array fields whose
component is scalar. The supported endiannesses are big-endian and little-
endian. The attribute has no effects on fields which are themselves a union, a
struct or an array whose component is a union or a struct, and it is possible
for these fields to have a different scalar storage order than the enclosing type.
Note that neither pointer nor vector fields are considered scalar fields in this
context, so the attribute has no effects on these fields.
This attribute is supported only for targets that use a uniform default scalar
storage order (fortunately, most of them), i.e. targets that store the scalars
either all in big-endian or all in little-endian.
Additional restrictions are enforced for types with the reverse scalar storage
order with regard to the scalar storage order of the target:
• Taking the address of a scalar field of a union or a struct with reverse
scalar storage order is not permitted and yields an error.
• Taking the address of an array field, whose component is scalar, of a union
or a struct with reverse scalar storage order is permitted but yields a
warning, unless -Wno-scalar-storage-order is specified.
• Taking the address of a union or a struct with reverse scalar storage order
is permitted.
These restrictions exist because the storage order attribute is lost when the
address of a scalar or the address of an array with scalar component is taken,
so storing indirectly through this address generally does not work. The second
case is nevertheless allowed to be able to perform a block copy from or to the
array.
Moreover, the use of type punning or aliasing to toggle the storage order is
not supported; that is to say, if a given scalar object can be accessed through
distinct types that assign a different storage order to it, then the behavior is
undefined.
strub This attribute defines stack-scrubbing properties of functions and variables, so
that functions that access sensitive data can have their stack frames zeroed-out
upon returning or propagating exceptions. This may be enabled explicitly, by
selecting certain strub modes for specific functions, or implicitly, by means of
strub variables.
Being a type attribute, it attaches to types, even when specified in function
and variable declarations. When applied to function types, it takes an optional
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 699
calls mode is also viable and, being more efficient, ends up selected as an
optimization.
/* zapme is implicitly strub-enabled because of strub variables.
Optimization may change its strub mode, but not the requirements. */
static int
zapme (int i)
{
/* A local strub variable enables strub. */
int __attribute__ ((strub)) lvar;
/* Reading strub data through a pointer-to-strub enables strub. */
lvar = * (ptr_to_strub_int_type) &i;
/* Writing to a global strub variable does not enable strub. */
var = lvar;
/* Reading from a global strub variable enables strub. */
return var;
}
A strub context is the body (as opposed to the interface) of a function that has
strub enabled, be it explicitly, by at-calls or internal mode, or implicitly,
due to strub variables or command-line options.
A function of a type associated with the disabled strub mode
(strub("disabled") will not have its own stack space scrubbed. Such
functions cannot be called from within strub contexts.
In order to enable a function to be called from within strub contexts without
having its stack space scrubbed, associate it with the callable strub mode
(strub("callable")).
When a function is not assigned a strub mode, explicitly or implicitly, the
mode defaults to callable, except when compiling with -fstrub=strict, that
causes strub mode to default to disabled.
extern int __attribute__ ((strub ("callable"))) bac (void);
extern int __attribute__ ((strub ("disabled"))) bad (void);
/* Implicitly disabled with -fstrub=strict, otherwise callable. */
extern int bah (void);
(but not at-calls!), but adding internal to a pointer type will not cause the
pointed-to function to perform stack scrubbing.
void __attribute__ ((strub))
bap (void)
{
/* Assign a callable function to pointer-to-disabled.
Flagged as not quite compatible with -Wpedantic. */
int __attribute__ ((strub ("disabled"))) (*d_p) (void) = bac;
/* Not allowed: calls disabled type in a strub context. */
d_p ();
transparent_union
This attribute, attached to a union type definition, indicates that any function
parameter having that union type causes calls to that function to be treated in
a special way.
First, the argument corresponding to a transparent union type can be of any
type in the union; no cast is required. Also, if the union contains a pointer type,
the corresponding argument can be a null pointer constant or a void pointer
expression; and if the union contains a void pointer type, the corresponding
argument can be any pointer expression. If the union member type is a pointer,
qualifiers like const on the referenced type must be respected, just as with
normal pointer conversions.
Second, the argument is passed to the function using the calling conventions of
the first member of the transparent union, not the calling conventions of the
union itself. All members of the union must have the same machine represen-
tation; this is necessary for this argument passing to work properly.
Transparent unions are designed for library functions that have multiple inter-
faces for compatibility reasons. For example, suppose the wait function must
accept either a value of type int * to comply with POSIX, or a value of type
union wait * to comply with the 4.1BSD interface. If wait’s parameter were
void *, wait would accept both kinds of arguments, but it would also accept
any other pointer type and this would make argument type checking less useful.
Instead, <sys/wait.h> might define the interface as follows:
typedef union __attribute__ ((__transparent_union__))
{
int *__ip;
union wait *__up;
} wait_status_ptr_t;
unavailable
unavailable (msg)
The unavailable attribute behaves in the same manner as the deprecated
one, but emits an error rather than a warning. It is used to indicate that a
(perhaps previously deprecated) type is no longer usable.
The unavailable attribute can also be used for functions and variables (see Sec-
tion 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604, see Section 6.36 [Variable Attributes],
page 676.)
unused When attached to a type (including a union or a struct), this attribute means
that variables of that type are meant to appear possibly unused. GCC does not
produce a warning for any variables of that type, even if the variable appears to
do nothing. This is often the case with lock or thread classes, which are usually
defined and then not referenced, but contain constructors and destructors that
have nontrivial bookkeeping functions.
vector_size (bytes)
This attribute specifies the vector size for the type, measured in bytes. The
type to which it applies is known as the base type. The bytes argument must
be a positive power-of-two multiple of the base type size. For example, the
following declarations:
typedef __attribute__ ((vector_size (32))) int int_vec32_t ;
typedef __attribute__ ((vector_size (32))) int* int_vec32_ptr_t;
typedef __attribute__ ((vector_size (32))) int int_vec32_arr3_t[3];
define int_vec32_t to be a 32-byte vector type composed of int sized units.
With int having a size of 4 bytes, the type defines a vector of eight units,
four bytes each. The mode of variables of type int_vec32_t is V8SI. int_
vec32_ptr_t is then defined to be a pointer to such a vector type, and int_
vec32_arr3_t to be an array of three such vectors. See Section 6.56 [Vector
Extensions], page 779, for details of manipulating objects of vector types.
This attribute is only applicable to integral and floating scalar types. In function
declarations the attribute applies to the function return type.
For example, the following:
__attribute__ ((vector_size (16))) float get_flt_vec16 (void);
declares get_flt_vec16 to be a function returning a 16-byte vector with the
base type float.
visibility
In C++, attribute visibility (see Section 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604)
can also be applied to class, struct, union and enum types. Unlike other type
attributes, the attribute must appear between the initial keyword and the name
of the type; it cannot appear after the body of the type.
Note that the type visibility is applied to vague linkage entities associated with
the class (vtable, typeinfo node, etc.). In particular, if a class is thrown as
an exception in one shared object and caught in another, the class must have
default visibility. Otherwise the two shared objects are unable to use the same
typeinfo node and exception handling will break.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 705
warn_if_not_aligned (alignment)
This attribute specifies a threshold for the structure field, measured in bytes.
If the structure field is aligned below the threshold, a warning will be issued.
For example, the declaration:
typedef unsigned long long __u64
__attribute__((aligned (4), warn_if_not_aligned (8)));
struct foo
{
int i1;
int i2;
__u64 x;
};
causes the compiler to issue an warning on struct foo, like ‘warning:
alignment 4 of 'struct foo' is less than 8’. It is used to define struct
foo in such a way that struct foo has the same layout and the structure field
x has the same alignment when __u64 is aligned at either 4 or 8 bytes. Align
struct foo to 8 bytes:
struct __attribute__ ((aligned (8))) foo
{
int i1;
int i2;
__u64 x;
};
silences the warning. The compiler also issues a warning, like ‘warning: 'x'
offset 12 in 'struct foo' isn't aligned to 8’, when the structure field has
the misaligned offset:
struct __attribute__ ((aligned (8))) foo
{
int i1;
int i2;
int i3;
__u64 x;
};
This warning can be disabled by -Wno-if-not-aligned.
To specify multiple attributes, separate them by commas within the double parentheses:
for example, ‘__attribute__ ((aligned (16), packed))’.
public:
__declspec(dllimport) C();
virtual void f();
}
__declspec(dllexport)
C::C() {}
In this code, C::C is exported from the current DLL, but the virtual table for C is not
exported. (You can use __attribute__ instead of __declspec if you prefer, but most
Symbian OS code uses __declspec.)
/* This branch (the fall-through from the asm) is less commonly used */
ErrorHandling:
__attribute__((cold, unused)); /* Semi-colon is required here */
printf("error\n");
return 0;
NoError:
printf("no error\n");
return 1;
unused This feature is intended for program-generated code that may contain unused
labels, but which is compiled with -Wall. It is not normally appropriate to use
in it human-written code, though it could be useful in cases where the code
that jumps to the label is contained within an #ifdef conditional.
hot The hot attribute on a label is used to inform the compiler that the path
following the label is more likely than paths that are not so annotated. This
attribute is used in cases where __builtin_expect cannot be used, for instance
with computed goto or asm goto.
cold The cold attribute on labels is used to inform the compiler that the path
following the label is unlikely to be executed. This attribute is used in cases
where __builtin_expect cannot be used, for instance with computed goto or
asm goto.
};
int
fn (void)
{
return oldval;
}
deprecated
The deprecated attribute results in a warning if the enumerator is used any-
where in the source file. This is useful when identifying enumerators that are
expected to be removed in a future version of a program. The warning also
includes the location of the declaration of the deprecated enumerator, to enable
users to easily find further information about why the enumerator is deprecated,
or what they should do instead. Note that the warnings only occurs for uses.
unavailable
The unavailable attribute results in an error if the enumerator is used any-
where in the source file. In other respects it behaves in the same manner as the
deprecated attribute.
assume The assume attribute with a null statement serves as portable assumption. It
should have a single argument, a conditional expression, which is not evaluated.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 709
If the argument would evaluate to true at the point where it appears, it has no
effect, otherwise there is undefined behavior. This is a GNU variant of the ISO
C++23 standard assume attribute, but it can be used in any version of both C
and C++.
int
foo (int x, int y)
{
__attribute__((assume(x == 42)));
__attribute__((assume(++y == 43)));
return x + y;
}
y is not actually incremented and the compiler can but does not have to optimize
it to just return 42 + 42;.
musttail
The gnu::musttail or clang::musttail attribute can be applied to a return
statement with a return-value expression that is a function call. It asserts that
the call must be a tail call that does not allocate extra stack space, so it is safe
to use tail recursion to implement long running loops.
[[gnu::musttail]] return foo();
If the compiler cannot generate a musttail tail call it will report an error.
On some targets tail calls may never be supported. Tail calls cannot reference
locals in memory, which may affect builds without optimization when passing
small structures, or passing or returning large structures. Enabling -O1 or -O2
can improve the success of tail calls.
There are some problems with the semantics of attributes in C++. For example, there
are no manglings for attributes, although they may affect code generation, so problems
may arise when attributed types are used in conjunction with templates or overloading.
Similarly, typeid does not distinguish between types with different attributes. Support for
attributes in C++ may be restricted in future to attributes on declarations only, but not on
nested declarators.
See Section 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604, for details of the semantics of attributes
applying to functions. See Section 6.36 [Variable Attributes], page 676, for details of the
semantics of attributes applying to variables. See Section 6.37 [Type Attributes], page 692,
for details of the semantics of attributes applying to structure, union and enumerated types.
See Section 6.38 [Label Attributes], page 707, for details of the semantics of attributes
applying to labels. See Section 6.39 [Enumerator Attributes], page 707, for details of the
semantics of attributes applying to enumerators. See Section 6.40 [Statement Attributes],
page 708, for details of the semantics of attributes applying to statements.
An attribute specifier is of the form __attribute__ ((attribute-list)). An attribute
list is a possibly empty comma-separated sequence of attributes, where each attribute is
one of the following:
• Empty. Empty attributes are ignored.
• An attribute name (which may be an identifier such as unused, or a reserved word such
as const).
• An attribute name followed by a parenthesized list of parameters for the attribute.
These parameters take one of the following forms:
• An identifier. For example, mode attributes use this form.
• An identifier followed by a comma and a non-empty comma-separated list of ex-
pressions. For example, format attributes use this form.
• A possibly empty comma-separated list of expressions. For example, format_arg
attributes use this form with the list being a single integer constant expression,
and alias attributes use this form with the list being a single string constant.
An attribute specifier list is a sequence of one or more attribute specifiers, not separated
by any other tokens.
You may optionally specify attribute names with ‘__’ preceding and following the name.
This allows you to use them in header files without being concerned about a possible macro
of the same name. For example, you may use the attribute name __noreturn__ instead of
noreturn.
Label Attributes
In GNU C, an attribute specifier list may appear after the colon following a label, other than
a case or default label. GNU C++ only permits attributes on labels if the attribute specifier
is immediately followed by a semicolon (i.e., the label applies to an empty statement). If
the semicolon is missing, C++ label attributes are ambiguous, as it is permissible for a
declaration, which could begin with an attribute list, to be labelled in C++. Declarations
cannot be labelled in C90 or C99, so the ambiguity does not arise there.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 711
Enumerator Attributes
In GNU C, an attribute specifier list may appear as part of an enumerator. The attribute
goes after the enumeration constant, before ‘=’, if present. The optional attribute in the
enumerator appertains to the enumeration constant. It is not possible to place the attribute
after the constant expression, if present.
Statement Attributes
In GNU C, an attribute specifier list may appear as part of a null statement. The attribute
goes before the semicolon. Some attributes in new style syntax are also supported on
non-null statements.
Type Attributes
An attribute specifier list may appear as part of a struct, union or enum specifier. It may
go either immediately after the struct, union or enum keyword, or after the closing brace.
The former syntax is preferred. Where attribute specifiers follow the closing brace, they
are considered to relate to the structure, union or enumerated type defined, not to any
enclosing declaration the type specifier appears in, and the type defined is not complete
until after the attribute specifiers.
An attribute specifier list may appear immediately before a declarator (other than the
first) in a comma-separated list of declarators in a declaration of more than one identifier
using a single list of specifiers and qualifiers. Such attribute specifiers apply only to the
identifier before whose declarator they appear. For example, in
__attribute__((noreturn)) void d0 (void),
__attribute__((format(printf, 1, 2))) d1 (const char *, ...),
d2 (void);
the noreturn attribute applies to all the functions declared; the format attribute only
applies to d1.
An attribute specifier list may appear immediately before the comma, ‘=’, or semicolon
terminating the declaration of an identifier other than a function definition. Such attribute
specifiers apply to the declared object or function. Where an assembler name for an object
or function is specified (see Section 6.50.4 [Asm Labels], page 772), the attribute must follow
the asm specification.
An attribute specifier list may, in future, be permitted to appear after the declarator in
a function definition (before any old-style parameter declarations or the function body).
Attribute specifiers may be mixed with type qualifiers appearing inside the [] of a pa-
rameter array declarator, in the C99 construct by which such qualifiers are applied to the
pointer to which the array is implicitly converted. Such attribute specifiers apply to the
pointer, not to the array, but at present this is not implemented and they are ignored.
An attribute specifier list may appear at the start of a nested declarator. At present,
there are some limitations in this usage: the attributes correctly apply to the declarator,
but for most individual attributes the semantics this implies are not implemented. When
attribute specifiers follow the * of a pointer declarator, they may be mixed with any type
qualifiers present. The following describes the formal semantics of this syntax. It makes
the most sense if you are familiar with the formal specification of declarators in the ISO C
standard.
Consider (as in C99 subclause 6.7.5 paragraph 4) a declaration T D1, where T contains
declaration specifiers that specify a type Type (such as int) and D1 is a declarator that
contains an identifier ident. The type specified for ident for derived declarators whose type
does not include an attribute specifier is as in the ISO C standard.
If D1 has the form ( attribute-specifier-list D ), and the declaration T D specifies
the type “derived-declarator-type-list Type” for ident, then T D1 specifies the type “derived-
declarator-type-list attribute-specifier-list Type” for ident.
If D1 has the form * type-qualifier-and-attribute-specifier-list D, and the dec-
laration T D specifies the type “derived-declarator-type-list Type” for ident, then T D1 spec-
ifies the type “derived-declarator-type-list type-qualifier-and-attribute-specifier-list pointer
to Type” for ident.
For example,
void (__attribute__((noreturn)) ****f) (void);
specifies the type “pointer to pointer to pointer to pointer to non-returning function return-
ing void”. As another example,
char *__attribute__((aligned(8))) *f;
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 713
specifies the type “pointer to 8-byte-aligned pointer to char”. Note again that this does not
work with most attributes; for example, the usage of ‘aligned’ and ‘noreturn’ attributes
given above is not yet supported.
For compatibility with existing code written for compiler versions that did not implement
attributes on nested declarators, some laxity is allowed in the placing of attributes. If an
attribute that only applies to types is applied to a declaration, it is treated as applying to
the type of that declaration. If an attribute that only applies to declarations is applied to
the type of a declaration, it is treated as applying to that declaration; and, for compatibility
with code placing the attributes immediately before the identifier declared, such an attribute
applied to a function return type is treated as applying to the function type, and such an
attribute applied to an array element type is treated as applying to the array type. If an
attribute that only applies to function types is applied to a pointer-to-function type, it is
treated as applying to the pointer target type; if such an attribute is applied to a function
return type that is not a pointer-to-function type, it is treated as applying to the function
type.
int
isroot (uid_t x)
{
return x == 0;
}
GNU C++ does not support old-style function definitions, so this extension is irrelevant.
You can override this with -fno-default-inline; see Section 3.5 [Options Controlling C++
Dialect], page 51.
GCC does not inline any functions when not optimizing unless you specify the
‘always_inline’ attribute for the function, like this:
/* Prototype. */
inline void foo (const char) __attribute__((always_inline));
The remainder of this section is specific to GNU C90 inlining.
When an inline function is not static, then the compiler must assume that there may be
calls from other source files; since a global symbol can be defined only once in any program,
the function must not be defined in the other source files, so the calls therein cannot be
integrated. Therefore, a non-static inline function is always compiled on its own in the
usual fashion.
If you specify both inline and extern in the function definition, then the definition is
used only for inlining. In no case is the function compiled on its own, not even if you refer
to its address explicitly. Such an address becomes an external reference, as if you had only
declared the function, and had not defined it.
This combination of inline and extern has almost the effect of a macro. The way to use
it is to put a function definition in a header file with these keywords, and put another copy
of the definition (lacking inline and extern) in a library file. The definition in the header
file causes most calls to the function to be inlined. If any uses of the function remain, they
refer to the single copy in the library.
/* Equivalent to:
void fatal () __attribute__ ((noreturn)); */
typedef void voidfn ();
volatile voidfn fatal;
/* Equivalent to:
extern int square (int) __attribute__ ((const)); */
typedef int intfn (int);
extern const intfn square;
In general, using function attributes instead is preferred, since the attributes make both
the intent of the code and its reliance on a GNU extension explicit. Additionally, using
const and volatile in this way is specific to GNU C and does not work in GNU C++.
to refrain from optimizations concerning accesses to volatile objects, but leaves it imple-
mentation defined as to what constitutes a volatile access. The minimum requirement is
that at a sequence point all previous accesses to volatile objects have stabilized and no
subsequent accesses have occurred. Thus an implementation is free to reorder and combine
volatile accesses that occur between sequence points, but cannot do so for accesses across a
sequence point. The use of volatile does not allow you to violate the restriction on updating
objects multiple times between two sequence points.
Accesses to non-volatile objects are not ordered with respect to volatile accesses. You
cannot use a volatile object as a memory barrier to order a sequence of writes to non-volatile
memory. For instance:
int *ptr = something;
volatile int vobj;
*ptr = something;
vobj = 1;
Unless *ptr and vobj can be aliased, it is not guaranteed that the write to *ptr occurs by
the time the update of vobj happens. If you need this guarantee, you must use a stronger
memory barrier such as:
int *ptr = something;
volatile int vobj;
*ptr = something;
asm volatile ("" : : : "memory");
vobj = 1;
A scalar volatile object is read when it is accessed in a void context:
volatile int *src = somevalue;
*src;
Such expressions are rvalues, and GCC implements this as a read of the volatile object
being pointed to.
Assignments are also expressions and have an rvalue. However when assigning to a scalar
volatile, the volatile object is not reread, regardless of whether the assignment expression’s
rvalue is used or not. If the assignment’s rvalue is used, the value is that assigned to the
volatile object. For instance, there is no read of vobj in all the following cases:
int obj;
volatile int vobj;
vobj = something;
obj = vobj = something;
obj ? vobj = onething : vobj = anotherthing;
obj = (something, vobj = anotherthing);
If you need to read the volatile object after an assignment has occurred, you must use a
separate expression with an intervening sequence point.
As bit-fields are not individually addressable, volatile bit-fields may be implicitly read
when written to, or when adjacent bit-fields are accessed. Bit-field operations may be
optimized such that adjacent bit-fields are only partially accessed, if they straddle a storage
unit boundary. For these reasons it is unwise to use volatile bit-fields to access hardware.
Section 6.50.1 [Basic Asm], page 718), while an extended asm statement (see Section 6.50.2
[Extended Asm], page 720) includes one or more operands. The extended form is preferred
for mixing C and assembly language within a function and can be used at top level as well
with certain restrictions.
You can also use the asm keyword to override the assembler name for a C symbol, or to
place a C variable in a specific register.
Qualifiers
volatile The optional volatile qualifier has no effect. All basic asm blocks are implicitly
volatile. Basic asm statements outside of functions may not use any qualifiers.
inline If you use the inline qualifier, then for inlining purposes the size of the asm
statement is taken as the smallest size possible (see Section 6.50.6 [Size of an
asm], page 775).
Parameters
AssemblerInstructions
This is a literal string that specifies the assembler code. The string can contain
any instructions recognized by the assembler, including directives. GCC does
not parse the assembler instructions themselves and does not know what they
mean or even whether they are valid assembler input.
You may place multiple assembler instructions together in a single asm string,
separated by the characters normally used in assembly code for the system. A
combination that works in most places is a newline to break the line, plus a
tab character (written as ‘\n\t’). Some assemblers allow semicolons as a line
separator. However, note that some assembler dialects use semicolons to start
a comment.
With gnu++11 or later the string can also be a compile time constant expression inside
parens. The constant expression can return a string or a container with data and size
members, following similar rules as C++26 static_assert message. Any string is converted
to the character set of the source code. When this feature is available the __GXX_CONSTEXPR_
ASM__ cpp symbol is defined.
#include <string>
constexpr std::string_view genfoo() { return "foo"; }
void function()
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 719
{
asm((genfoo()));
}
Remarks
Using extended asm (see Section 6.50.2 [Extended Asm], page 720) typically produces
smaller, safer, and more efficient code, and in most cases it is a better solution than ba-
sic asm. However, functions declared with the naked attribute require only basic asm (see
Section 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604).
Extended asm statements may be used both inside a C function or at file scope (“top-
level”), where you can use this technique to emit assembler directives, define assembly
language macros that can be invoked elsewhere in the file, or write entire functions in as-
sembly language. Extended asm statements outside of functions may not use any qualifiers,
may not specify clobbers, may not use %, + or & modifiers in constraints and can only use
constraints which don’t allow using any register.
Safely accessing C data and calling functions from basic asm is more complex than it may
appear. To access C data, it is better to use extended asm.
Do not expect a sequence of asm statements to remain perfectly consecutive after compila-
tion. If certain instructions need to remain consecutive in the output, put them in a single
multi-instruction asm statement. Note that GCC’s optimizers can move asm statements
relative to other code, including across jumps.
asm statements may not perform jumps into other asm statements. GCC does not know
about these jumps, and therefore cannot take account of them when deciding how to opti-
mize. Jumps from asm to C labels are only supported in extended asm.
Under certain circumstances, GCC may duplicate (or remove duplicates of) your assem-
bly code when optimizing. This can lead to unexpected duplicate symbol errors during
compilation if your assembly code defines symbols or labels.
Warning: The C standards do not specify semantics for asm, making it a potential source
of incompatibilities between compilers. These incompatibilities may not produce compiler
warnings/errors.
GCC does not parse basic asm’s AssemblerInstructions, which means there is no way to
communicate to the compiler what is happening inside them. GCC has no visibility of
symbols in the asm and may discard them as unreferenced. It also does not know about
side effects of the assembler code, such as modifications to memory or registers. Unlike
some compilers, GCC assumes that no changes to general purpose registers occur. This
assumption may change in a future release.
To avoid complications from future changes to the semantics and the compatibility issues
between compilers, consider replacing basic asm with extended asm. See How to convert from
basic asm to extended asm (https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/ConvertBasicAsmToExtended)
for information about how to perform this conversion.
The compiler copies the assembler instructions in a basic asm verbatim to the assembly
language output file, without processing dialects or any of the ‘%’ operators that are available
with extended asm. This results in minor differences between basic asm strings and extended
asm templates. For example, to refer to registers you might use ‘%eax’ in basic asm and
‘%%eax’ in extended asm.
720 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
On targets such as x86 that support multiple assembler dialects, all basic asm blocks
use the assembler dialect specified by the -masm command-line option (see Section 3.20.53
[x86 Options], page 506). Basic asm provides no mechanism to provide different assembler
strings for different dialects.
For basic asm with non-empty assembler string GCC assumes the assembler block does
not change any general purpose registers, but it may read or write any globally accessible
variable.
Here is an example of basic asm for i386:
/* Note that this code will not compile with -masm=intel */
#define DebugBreak() asm("int $3")
Qualifiers
volatile The typical use of extended asm statements is to manipulate input values to
produce output values. However, your asm statements may also produce side
effects. If so, you may need to use the volatile qualifier to disable certain
optimizations. See [Volatile], page 722.
inline If you use the inline qualifier, then for inlining purposes the size of the asm
statement is taken as the smallest size possible (see Section 6.50.6 [Size of an
asm], page 775).
goto This qualifier informs the compiler that the asm statement may perform a jump
to one of the labels listed in the GotoLabels. See [GotoLabels], page 734.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 721
Parameters
AssemblerTemplate
This is a literal string that is the template for the assembler code. It is a
combination of fixed text and tokens that refer to the input, output, and goto
parameters. See [AssemblerTemplate], page 724. With gnu++11 or later it can
also be a constant expression inside parens (see [asm constexprs], page 719).
OutputOperands
A comma-separated list of the C variables modified by the instructions in
the AssemblerTemplate. An empty list is permitted. See [OutputOperands],
page 725. With gnu++11 or later the strings can also be constant expressions
inside parens (see [asm constexprs], page 719)
InputOperands
A comma-separated list of C expressions read by the instructions in the
AssemblerTemplate. An empty list is permitted. See [InputOperands],
page 729. With gnu++11 or later the strings can also be constant expressions
inside parens (see [asm constexprs], page 719)
Clobbers A comma-separated list of registers or other values changed by the
AssemblerTemplate, beyond those listed as outputs. An empty list is
permitted. See [Clobbers and Scratch Registers], page 731. With gnu++11
or later the strings can also be constant expressions inside parens (see [asm
constexprs], page 719)
GotoLabels
When you are using the goto form of asm, this section contains the list of all
C labels to which the code in the AssemblerTemplate may jump. See [GotoLa-
bels], page 734.
asm statements may not perform jumps into other asm statements, only to the
listed GotoLabels. GCC’s optimizers do not know about other jumps; therefore
they cannot take account of them when deciding how to optimize.
The total number of input + output + goto operands is limited to 30.
Remarks
The asm statement allows you to include assembly instructions directly within C code.
This may help you to maximize performance in time-sensitive code or to access assembly
instructions that are not readily available to C programs.
Note that extended asm statements must be inside a function. Only basic asm may be
outside functions (see Section 6.50.1 [Basic Asm], page 718). Functions declared with the
naked attribute also require basic asm (see Section 6.35 [Function Attributes], page 604).
While the uses of asm are many and varied, it may help to think of an asm statement as
a series of low-level instructions that convert input parameters to output parameters. So a
simple (if not particularly useful) example for i386 using asm might look like this:
int src = 1;
int dst;
722 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
printf("%d\n", dst);
This code copies src to dst and add 1 to dst.
6.50.2.1 Volatile
GCC’s optimizers sometimes discard asm statements if they determine there is no need for
the output variables. Also, the optimizers may move code out of loops if they believe that
the code will always return the same result (i.e. none of its input values change between
calls). Using the volatile qualifier disables these optimizations. asm statements that have
no output operands and asm goto statements, are implicitly volatile.
This i386 code demonstrates a case that does not use (or require) the volatile quali-
fier. If it is performing assertion checking, this code uses asm to perform the validation.
Otherwise, dwRes is unreferenced by any code. As a result, the optimizers can discard the
asm statement, which in turn removes the need for the entire DoCheck routine. By omitting
the volatile qualifier when it isn’t needed you allow the optimizers to produce the most
efficient code possible.
void DoCheck(uint32_t dwSomeValue)
{
uint32_t dwRes;
: "cc");
// Do other work...
Under certain circumstances, GCC may duplicate (or remove duplicates of) your assembly
code when optimizing. This can lead to unexpected duplicate symbol errors during com-
pilation if your asm code defines symbols or labels. Using ‘%=’ (see [AssemblerTemplate],
page 724) may help resolve this problem.
‘%=’ Outputs a number that is unique to each instance of the asm statement in the
entire compilation. This option is useful when creating local labels and referring
to them multiple times in a single template that generates multiple assembler
instructions.
‘%{’
‘%|’
‘%}’ Outputs ‘{’, ‘|’, and ‘}’ characters (respectively) into the assembler code. When
unescaped, these characters have special meaning to indicate multiple assembler
dialects, as described below.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 725
return old;
Operands are separated by commas. Each operand has this format:
[ [asmSymbolicName] ] constraint (cvariablename)
726 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
asmSymbolicName
Specifies a symbolic name for the operand. Reference the name in the assembler
template by enclosing it in square brackets (i.e. ‘%[Value]’). The scope of the
name is the asm statement that contains the definition. Any valid C variable
name is acceptable, including names already defined in the surrounding code.
No two operands within the same asm statement can use the same symbolic
name.
When not using an asmSymbolicName, use the (zero-based) position of the
operand in the list of operands in the assembler template. For example if there
are three output operands, use ‘%0’ in the template to refer to the first, ‘%1’ for
the second, and ‘%2’ for the third.
constraint A string constant specifying constraints on the placement of the operand; See
Section 6.50.3 [Constraints], page 742, for details.
Output constraints must begin with either ‘=’ (a variable overwriting an exist-
ing value) or ‘+’ (when reading and writing). When using ‘=’, do not assume
the location contains the existing value on entry to the asm, except when the
operand is tied to an input; see [Input Operands], page 729.
After the prefix, there must be one or more additional constraints (see Sec-
tion 6.50.3 [Constraints], page 742) that describe where the value resides. Com-
mon constraints include ‘r’ for register and ‘m’ for memory. When you list more
than one possible location (for example, "=rm"), the compiler chooses the most
efficient one based on the current context. If you list as many alternates as the
asm statement allows, you permit the optimizers to produce the best possible
code. If you must use a specific register, but your Machine Constraints do not
provide sufficient control to select the specific register you want, local register
variables may provide a solution (see Section 6.50.5.2 [Local Register Variables],
page 774).
cvariablename
Specifies a C lvalue expression to hold the output, typically a variable name.
The enclosing parentheses are a required part of the syntax.
When the compiler selects the registers to use to represent the output operands, it does
not use any of the clobbered registers (see [Clobbers and Scratch Registers], page 731).
Output operand expressions must be lvalues. The compiler cannot check whether the
operands have data types that are reasonable for the instruction being executed. For output
expressions that are not directly addressable (for example a bit-field), the constraint must
allow a register. In that case, GCC uses the register as the output of the asm, and then
stores that register into the output.
Operands using the ‘+’ constraint modifier count as two operands (that is, both as input
and output) towards the total maximum of 30 operands per asm statement.
Use the ‘&’ constraint modifier (see Section 6.50.3.3 [Modifiers], page 745) on all output
operands that must not overlap an input. Otherwise, GCC may allocate the output operand
in the same register as an unrelated input operand, on the assumption that the assembler
code consumes its inputs before producing outputs. This assumption may be false if the
assembler code actually consists of more than one instruction.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 727
The same problem can occur if one output parameter (a) allows a register constraint
and another output parameter (b) allows a memory constraint. The code generated by
GCC to access the memory address in b can contain registers which might be shared by a,
and GCC considers those registers to be inputs to the asm. As above, GCC assumes that
such input registers are consumed before any outputs are written. This assumption may
result in incorrect behavior if the asm statement writes to a before using b. Combining the
‘&’ modifier with the register constraint on a ensures that modifying a does not affect the
address referenced by b. Otherwise, the location of b is undefined if a is modified before
using b.
asm supports operand modifiers on operands (for example ‘%k2’ instead of simply ‘%2’).
[GenericOperandmodifiers], page 736, lists the modifiers that are available on all targets.
Other modifiers are hardware dependent. For example, the list of supported modifiers for
x86 is found at [x86Operandmodifiers], page 737.
If the C code that follows the asm makes no use of any of the output operands, use
volatile for the asm statement to prevent the optimizers from discarding the asm statement
as unneeded (see [Volatile], page 722).
This code makes no use of the optional asmSymbolicName. Therefore it references the
first output operand as %0 (were there a second, it would be %1, etc). The number of the
first input operand is one greater than that of the last output operand. In this i386 example,
that makes Mask referenced as %1:
uint32_t Mask = 1234;
uint32_t Index;
uint32_t d;
uint32_t *e = &c;
common work-around is to tie the changing input variable to an output variable that never
gets used. Note, however, that if the code that follows the asm statement makes no use
of any of the output operands, the GCC optimizers may discard the asm statement as
unneeded (see [Volatile], page 722).
asm supports operand modifiers on operands (for example ‘%k2’ instead of simply ‘%2’).
[GenericOperandmodifiers], page 736, lists the modifiers that are available on all targets.
Other modifiers are hardware dependent. For example, the list of supported modifiers for
x86 is found at [x86Operandmodifiers], page 737.
In this example using the fictitious combine instruction, the constraint "0" for input
operand 1 says that it must occupy the same location as output operand 0. Only input
operands may use numbers in constraints, and they must each refer to an output operand.
Only a number (or the symbolic assembler name) in the constraint can guarantee that one
operand is in the same place as another. The mere fact that foo is the value of both operands
is not enough to guarantee that they are in the same place in the generated assembler code.
asm ("combine %2, %0"
: "=r" (foo)
: "0" (foo), "g" (bar));
Here is an example using symbolic names.
asm ("cmoveq %1, %2, %[result]"
: [result] "=r"(result)
: "r" (test), "r" (new), "[result]" (old));
semantics. This behavior is deprecated and listing the stack pointer may become an error
in future versions of GCC.
Here is a realistic example for the VAX showing the use of clobbered registers:
asm volatile ("movc3 %0, %1, %2"
: /* No outputs. */
: "g" (from), "g" (to), "g" (count)
: "r0", "r1", "r2", "r3", "r4", "r5", "memory");
Also, there are three special clobber arguments:
"cc" The "cc" clobber indicates that the assembler code modifies the flags register.
On some machines, GCC represents the condition codes as a specific hardware
register; "cc" serves to name this register. On other machines, condition code
handling is different, and specifying "cc" has no effect. But it is valid no matter
what the target.
"memory" The "memory" clobber tells the compiler that the assembly code performs mem-
ory reads or writes to items other than those listed in the input and output
operands (for example, accessing the memory pointed to by one of the input
parameters). To ensure memory contains correct values, GCC may need to
flush specific register values to memory before executing the asm. Further, the
compiler does not assume that any values read from memory before an asm re-
main unchanged after that asm; it reloads them as needed. Using the "memory"
clobber effectively forms a read/write memory barrier for the compiler.
Note that this clobber does not prevent the processor from doing speculative
reads past the asm statement. To prevent that, you need processor-specific
fence instructions.
"redzone"
The "redzone" clobber tells the compiler that the assembly code may write to
the stack red zone, area below the stack pointer which on some architectures
in some calling conventions is guaranteed not to be changed by signal handlers,
interrupts or exceptions and so the compiler can store there temporaries in leaf
functions. On targets which have no concept of the stack red zone, the clobber
is ignored. It should be used e.g. in case the assembly code uses call instructions
or pushes something to the stack without taking the red zone into account by
subtracting red zone size from the stack pointer first and restoring it afterwards.
Flushing registers to memory has performance implications and may be an issue for time-
sensitive code. You can provide better information to GCC to avoid this, as shown in the
following examples. At a minimum, aliasing rules allow GCC to know what memory doesn’t
need to be flushed.
Here is a fictitious sum of squares instruction, that takes two pointers to floating point
values in memory and produces a floating point register output. Notice that x, and y both
appear twice in the asm parameters, once to specify memory accessed, and once to specify
a base register used by the asm. You won’t normally be wasting a register by doing this as
GCC can use the same register for both purposes. However, it would be foolish to use both
%1 and %3 for x in this asm and expect them to be the same. In fact, %3 may well not be a
register. It might be a symbolic memory reference to the object pointed to by x.
asm ("sumsq %0, %1, %2"
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 733
: "+f" (result)
: "r" (x), "r" (y), "m" (*x), "m" (*y));
Here is a fictitious *z++ = *x++ * *y++ instruction. Notice that the x, y and z pointer
registers must be specified as input/output because the asm modifies them.
asm ("vecmul %0, %1, %2"
: "+r" (z), "+r" (x), "+r" (y), "=m" (*z)
: "m" (*x), "m" (*y));
An x86 example where the string memory argument is of unknown length.
asm("repne scasb"
: "=c" (count), "+D" (p)
: "m" (*(const char (*)[]) p), "0" (-1), "a" (0));
If you know the above will only be reading a ten byte array then you could instead use
a memory input like: "m" (*(const char (*)[10]) p).
Here is an example of a PowerPC vector scale implemented in assembly, complete with
vector and condition code clobbers, and some initialized offset registers that are unchanged
by the asm.
void
dscal (size_t n, double *x, double alpha)
{
asm ("/* lots of asm here */"
: "+m" (*(double (*)[n]) x), "+&r" (n), "+b" (x)
: "d" (alpha), "b" (32), "b" (48), "b" (64),
"b" (80), "b" (96), "b" (112)
: "cr0",
"vs32","vs33","vs34","vs35","vs36","vs37","vs38","vs39",
"vs40","vs41","vs42","vs43","vs44","vs45","vs46","vs47");
}
Rather than allocating fixed registers via clobbers to provide scratch registers for an asm
statement, an alternative is to define a variable and make it an early-clobber output as with
a2 and a3 in the example below. This gives the compiler register allocator more freedom.
You can also define a variable and make it an output tied to an input as with a0 and a1,
tied respectively to ap and lda. Of course, with tied outputs your asm can’t use the input
value after modifying the output register since they are one and the same register. What’s
more, if you omit the early-clobber on the output, it is possible that GCC might allocate
the same register to another of the inputs if GCC could prove they had the same value on
entry to the asm. This is why a1 has an early-clobber. Its tied input, lda might conceivably
be known to have the value 16 and without an early-clobber share the same register as %11.
On the other hand, ap can’t be the same as any of the other inputs, so an early-clobber
on a0 is not needed. It is also not desirable in this case. An early-clobber on a0 would
cause GCC to allocate a separate register for the "m" (*(const double (*)[]) ap) input.
Note that tying an input to an output is the way to set up an initialized temporary register
modified by an asm statement. An input not tied to an output is assumed by GCC to be
unchanged, for example "b" (16) below sets up %11 to 16, and GCC might use that register
in following code if the value 16 happened to be needed. You can even use a normal asm
output for a scratch if all inputs that might share the same register are consumed before
the scratch is used. The VSX registers clobbered by the asm statement could have used this
technique except for GCC’s limit on the number of asm parameters.
static void
dgemv_kernel_4x4 (long n, const double *ap, long lda,
734 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
__asm__
(
/* lots of asm here */
"#n=%1 ap=%8=%12 lda=%13 x=%7=%10 y=%0=%2 alpha=%9 o16=%11\n"
"#a0=%3 a1=%4 a2=%5 a3=%6"
:
"+m" (*(double (*)[n]) y),
"+&r" (n), // 1
"+b" (y), // 2
"=b" (a0), // 3
"=&b" (a1), // 4
"=&b" (a2), // 5
"=&b" (a3) // 6
:
"m" (*(const double (*)[n]) x),
"m" (*(const double (*)[]) ap),
"d" (alpha), // 9
"r" (x), // 10
"b" (16), // 11
"3" (ap), // 12
"4" (lda) // 13
:
"cr0",
"vs32","vs33","vs34","vs35","vs36","vs37",
"vs40","vs41","vs42","vs43","vs44","vs45","vs46","vs47"
);
}
Output operand with constraint modifier ‘+’ is counted as two operands because it is con-
sidered as one output and one input operand. For example, if the asm has three inputs,
one output operand with constraint modifier ‘+’ and one output operand with constraint
modifier ‘=’ and references two labels, refer to the first label as ‘%l6’ and the second as
‘%l7’).
Alternately, you can reference labels using the actual C label name enclosed in brackets.
For example, to reference a label named carry, you can use ‘%l[carry]’. The label must
still be listed in the GotoLabels section when using this approach. It is better to use the
named references for labels as in this case you can avoid counting input and output operands
and special treatment of output operands with constraint modifier ‘+’.
Here is an example of asm goto for i386:
asm goto (
"btl %1, %0\n\t"
"jc %l2"
: /* No outputs. */
: "r" (p1), "r" (p2)
: "cc"
: carry);
return 0;
carry:
return 1;
The following example shows an asm goto that uses a memory clobber.
int frob(int x)
{
int y;
asm goto ("frob %%r5, %1; jc %l[error]; mov (%2), %%r5"
: /* No outputs. */
: "r"(x), "r"(&y)
: "r5", "memory"
: error);
return y;
error:
return -1;
}
The following example shows an asm goto that uses an output.
int foo(int count)
{
asm goto ("dec %0; jb %l[stop]"
: "+r" (count)
:
:
: stop);
return count;
736 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
stop:
return 0;
}
The following artificial example shows an asm goto that sets up an output only on one
path inside the asm goto. Usage of constraint modifier ‘=’ instead of ‘+’ would be wrong as
factor is used on all paths from the asm goto.
int foo(int inp)
{
int factor = 0;
asm goto ("cmp %1, 10; jb %l[lab]; mov 2, %0"
: "+r" (factor)
: "r" (inp)
:
: lab);
lab:
return inp * factor; /* return 2 * inp or 0 if inp < 10 */
}
top:
This asm takes two inputs, which are popped by the fyl2xp1 opcode, and replaces them
with one output. The st(1) clobber is necessary for the compiler to know that fyl2xp1
pops both inputs.
asm ("fyl2xp1" : "=t" (result) : "0" (x), "u" (y) : "st(1)");
test-asm.c:
#include <lsxintrin.h>
return c;
}
whitespace
Whitespace characters are ignored and can be inserted at any position except
the first. This enables each alternative for different operands to be visually
aligned in the machine description even if they have different number of con-
straints and modifiers.
‘m’ A memory operand is allowed, with any kind of address that the machine sup-
ports in general. Note that the letter used for the general memory constraint
can be re-defined by a back end using the TARGET_MEM_CONSTRAINT macro.
‘o’ A memory operand is allowed, but only if the address is offsettable. This
means that adding a small integer (actually, the width in bytes of the operand,
as determined by its machine mode) may be added to the address and the result
is also a valid memory address.
For example, an address which is constant is offsettable; so is an address that
is the sum of a register and a constant (as long as a slightly larger constant
is also within the range of address-offsets supported by the machine); but an
autoincrement or autodecrement address is not offsettable. More complicated
indirect/indexed addresses may or may not be offsettable depending on the
other addressing modes that the machine supports.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 743
‘g’ Any register, memory or immediate integer operand is allowed, except for reg-
isters that are not general registers.
‘p’ An operand that is a valid memory address is allowed. This is for “load address”
and “push address” instructions.
‘p’ in the constraint must be accompanied by address_operand as the predicate
in the match_operand. This predicate interprets the mode specified in the
match_operand as the mode of the memory reference for which the address
would be valid.
‘:’ This constraint, allowed only in input operands, says the inline asm pattern
defines specific function or variable symbol. The constraint shouldn’t be mixed
with other constraints on the same operand and the operand should be address
of a function or non-automatic variable. Best used with the ‘cc’ modifier when
printing the operand, so that even in position independent code it prints as a
label.
void foo (void);
asm (".globl %cc0; %cc0: ret" : : ":" (foo));
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 745
other-letters
Other letters can be defined in machine-dependent fashion to stand for par-
ticular classes of registers or other arbitrary operand types. ‘d’, ‘a’ and ‘f’
are defined on the 68000/68020 to stand for data, address and floating point
registers.
the table heading for each architecture is the definitive reference for the meanings of that
architecture’s constraints.
AArch64 family—config/aarch64/constraints.md
k The stack pointer register (SP)
w Floating point register, Advanced SIMD vector register or SVE
vector register
x Like w, but restricted to registers 0 to 15 inclusive.
y Like w, but restricted to registers 0 to 7 inclusive.
Upl One of the low eight SVE predicate registers (P0 to P7)
Upa Any of the SVE predicate registers (P0 to P15)
I Integer constant that is valid as an immediate operand in an ADD
instruction
J Integer constant that is valid as an immediate operand in a SUB
instruction (once negated)
K Integer constant that can be used with a 32-bit logical instruction
L Integer constant that can be used with a 64-bit logical instruction
M Integer constant that is valid as an immediate operand in a 32-
bit MOV pseudo instruction. The MOV may be assembled to one of
several different machine instructions depending on the value
N Integer constant that is valid as an immediate operand in a 64-bit
MOV pseudo instruction
S An absolute symbolic address or a label reference
Y Floating point constant zero
Z Integer constant zero
Ush The high part (bits 12 and upwards) of the pc-relative address of a
symbol within 4GB of the instruction
Q A memory address which uses a single base register with no offset
Ump A memory address suitable for a load/store pair instruction in SI,
DI, SF and DF modes
AMD GCN —config/gcn/constraints.md
I Immediate integer in the range −16 to 64
J Immediate 16-bit signed integer
Kf Immediate constant −1
L Immediate 15-bit unsigned integer
A Immediate constant that can be inlined in an instruction encod-
ing: integer −16..64, or float 0.0, +/−0.5, +/−1.0, +/−2.0, +/−4.0,
1.0/(2.0*PI)
748 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
ARC —config/arc/constraints.md
q Registers usable in ARCompact 16-bit instructions: r0-r3, r12-
r15. This constraint can only match when the -mq option is in
effect.
e Registers usable as base-regs of memory addresses in ARCompact
16-bit memory instructions: r0-r3, r12-r15, sp. This constraint
can only match when the -mq option is in effect.
D ARC FPX (dpfp) 64-bit registers. D0, D1.
I A signed 12-bit integer constant.
Cal constant for arithmetic/logical operations. This might be any con-
stant that can be put into a long immediate by the assmbler or
linker without involving a PIC relocation.
K A 3-bit unsigned integer constant.
L A 6-bit unsigned integer constant.
CnL One’s complement of a 6-bit unsigned integer constant.
CmL Two’s complement of a 6-bit unsigned integer constant.
M A 5-bit unsigned integer constant.
O A 7-bit unsigned integer constant.
P A 8-bit unsigned integer constant.
H Any const double value.
ARM family—config/arm/constraints.md
h In Thumb state, the core registers r8-r15.
k The stack pointer register.
l In Thumb State the core registers r0-r7. In ARM state this is an
alias for the r constraint.
t VFP floating-point registers s0-s31. Used for 32 bit values.
w VFP floating-point registers d0-d31 and the appropriate subset d0-
d15 based on command line options. Used for 64 bit values only.
Not valid for Thumb1.
y The iWMMX co-processor registers.
z The iWMMX GR registers.
G The floating-point constant 0.0
I Integer that is valid as an immediate operand in a data processing
instruction. That is, an integer in the range 0 to 255 rotated by a
multiple of 2
J Integer in the range −4095 to 4095
750 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
PRU—config/pru/constraints.md
I An unsigned 8-bit integer constant.
J An unsigned 16-bit integer constant.
L An unsigned 5-bit integer constant (for shift counts).
T A text segment (program memory) constant label.
Z Integer constant zero.
RL78—config/rl78/constraints.md
Int3 An integer constant in the range 1 . . . 7.
Int8 An integer constant in the range 0 . . . 255.
J An integer constant in the range −255 . . . 0
K The integer constant 1.
L The integer constant -1.
M The integer constant 0.
N The integer constant 2.
O The integer constant -2.
P An integer constant in the range 1 . . . 15.
Qbi The built-in compare types–eq, ne, gtu, ltu, geu, and leu.
Qsc The synthetic compare types–gt, lt, ge, and le.
Wab A memory reference with an absolute address.
Wbc A memory reference using BC as a base register, with an optional
offset.
Wca A memory reference using AX, BC, DE, or HL for the address, for
calls.
Wcv A memory reference using any 16-bit register pair for the address,
for calls.
Wd2 A memory reference using DE as a base register, with an optional
offset.
Wde A memory reference using DE as a base register, without any offset.
Wfr Any memory reference to an address in the far address space.
Wh1 A memory reference using HL as a base register, with an optional
one-byte offset.
Whb A memory reference using HL as a base register, with B or C as the
index register.
Whl A memory reference using HL as a base register, without any offset.
Ws1 A memory reference using SP as a base register, with an optional
one-byte offset.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 765
SPARC—config/sparc/sparc.h
f Floating-point register on the SPARC-V8 architecture and lower
floating-point register on the SPARC-V9 architecture.
e Floating-point register. It is equivalent to ‘f’ on the SPARC-V8
architecture and contains both lower and upper floating-point reg-
isters on the SPARC-V9 architecture.
c Floating-point condition code register.
d Lower floating-point register. It is only valid on the SPARC-V9
architecture when the Visual Instruction Set is available.
b Floating-point register. It is only valid on the SPARC-V9 architec-
ture when the Visual Instruction Set is available.
h 64-bit global or out register for the SPARC-V8+ architecture.
C The constant all-ones, for floating-point.
A Signed 5-bit constant
D A vector constant
I Signed 13-bit constant
J Zero
K 32-bit constant with the low 12 bits clear (a constant that can be
loaded with the sethi instruction)
L A constant in the range supported by movcc instructions (11-bit
signed immediate)
M A constant in the range supported by movrcc instructions (10-bit
signed immediate)
N Same as ‘K’, except that it verifies that bits that are not in the
lower 32-bit range are all zero. Must be used instead of ‘K’ for
modes wider than SImode
O The constant 4096
G Floating-point zero
H Signed 13-bit constant, sign-extended to 32 or 64 bits
P The constant -1
768 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Visium—config/visium/constraints.md
b EAM register mdb
c EAM register mdc
f Floating point register
l General register, but not r29, r30 and r31
t Register r1
u Register r2
v Register r3
G Floating-point constant 0.0
J Integer constant in the range 0 .. 65535 (16-bit immediate)
K Integer constant in the range 1 .. 31 (5-bit immediate)
L Integer constant in the range −65535 .. −1 (16-bit negative imme-
diate)
M Integer constant −1
O Integer constant 0
P Integer constant 32
x86 family—config/i386/constraints.md
R Legacy register—the eight integer registers available on all i386
processors (a, b, c, d, si, di, bp, sp).
q Any register accessible as rl. In 32-bit mode, a, b, c, and d; in
64-bit mode, any integer register.
Q Any register accessible as rh: a, b, c, and d.
a The a register.
b The b register.
c The c register.
d The d register.
S The si register.
D The di register.
A The a and d registers. This class is used for instructions that re-
turn double word results in the ax:dx register pair. Single word
values will be allocated either in ax or dx. For example on i386 the
following implements rdtsc:
unsigned long long rdtsc (void)
{
unsigned long long tick;
__asm__ __volatile__("rdtsc":"=A"(tick));
return tick;
770 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
}
This is not correct on x86-64 as it would allocate tick in either ax
or dx. You have to use the following variant instead:
unsigned long long rdtsc (void)
{
unsigned int tickl, tickh;
__asm__ __volatile__("rdtsc":"=a"(tickl),"=d"(tickh));
return ((unsigned long long)tickh << 32)|tickl;
}
Registers are a scarce resource on most systems and allowing the compiler to manage
their usage usually results in the best code. However, under special circumstances it can
make sense to reserve some globally. For example this may be useful in programs such as
programming language interpreters that have a couple of global variables that are accessed
very often.
After defining a global register variable, for the current compilation unit:
• If the register is a call-saved register, call ABI is affected: the register will not be
restored in function epilogue sequences after the variable has been assigned. Therefore,
functions cannot safely return to callers that assume standard ABI.
• Conversely, if the register is a call-clobbered register, making calls to functions that
use standard ABI may lose contents of the variable. Such calls may be created by
the compiler even if none are evident in the original program, for example when libgcc
functions are used to make up for unavailable instructions.
• Accesses to the variable may be optimized as usual and the register remains available
for allocation and use in any computations, provided that observable values of the
variable are not affected.
• If the variable is referenced in inline assembly, the type of access must be provided to
the compiler via constraints (see Section 6.50.3 [Constraints], page 742). Accesses from
basic asms are not supported.
Note that these points only apply to code that is compiled with the definition. The
behavior of code that is merely linked in (for example code from libraries) is not affected.
If you want to recompile source files that do not actually use your global register variable
so they do not use the specified register for any other purpose, you need not actually add
the global register declaration to their source code. It suffices to specify the compiler option
-ffixed-reg (see Section 3.18 [Code Gen Options], page 301) to reserve the register.
the system library routines may temporarily use the register for other things. Furthermore,
since the register is not reserved exclusively for the variable, accessing it from handlers of
asynchronous signals may observe unrelated temporary values residing in the register.
On most machines, longjmp restores to each global register variable the value it had at
the time of the setjmp. On some machines, however, longjmp does not change the value
of global register variables. To be portable, the function that called setjmp should make
other arrangements to save the values of the global register variables, and to restore them
in a longjmp. This way, the same thing happens regardless of what longjmp does.
Here r12 is the name of the register that should be used. Note that this is the same syntax
used for defining global register variables, but for a local variable the declaration appears
within a function. The register keyword is required, and cannot be combined with static.
The register name must be a valid register name for the target platform.
Do not use type qualifiers such as const and volatile, as the outcome may be contrary
to expectations. In particular, when the const qualifier is used, the compiler may substi-
tute the variable with its initializer in asm statements, which may cause the corresponding
operand to appear in a different register.
As with global register variables, it is recommended that you choose a register that is
normally saved and restored by function calls on your machine, so that calls to library
routines will not clobber it.
The only supported use for this feature is to specify registers for input and output
operands when calling Extended asm (see Section 6.50.2 [Extended Asm], page 720). This
may be necessary if the constraints for a particular machine don’t provide sufficient control
to select the desired register. To force an operand into a register, create a local variable
and specify the register name after the variable’s declaration. Then use the local variable
for the asm operand and specify any constraint letter that matches the register:
register int *p1 asm ("r0") = ...;
register int *p2 asm ("r1") = ...;
register int *result asm ("r0");
asm ("sysint" : "=r" (result) : "0" (p1), "r" (p2));
Warning: In the above example, be aware that a register (for example r0) can be call-
clobbered by subsequent code, including function calls and library calls for arithmetic op-
erators on other variables (for example the initialization of p2). In this case, use temporary
variables for expressions between the register assignments:
int t1 = ...;
register int *p1 asm ("r0") = ...;
register int *p2 asm ("r1") = t1;
register int *result asm ("r0");
asm ("sysint" : "=r" (result) : "0" (p1), "r" (p2));
Defining a register variable does not reserve the register. Other than when invoking the
Extended asm, the contents of the specified register are not guaranteed. For this reason, the
following uses are explicitly not supported. If they appear to work, it is only happenstance,
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 775
and may stop working as intended due to (seemingly) unrelated changes in surrounding
code, or even minor changes in the optimization of a future version of gcc:
• Passing parameters to or from Basic asm
• Passing parameters to or from Extended asm without using input or output operands.
• Passing parameters to or from routines written in assembler (or other languages) using
non-standard calling conventions.
Some developers use Local Register Variables in an attempt to improve gcc’s allocation of
registers, especially in large functions. In this case the register name is essentially a hint to
the register allocator. While in some instances this can generate better code, improvements
are subject to the whims of the allocator/optimizers. Since there are no guarantees that
your improvements won’t be lost, this usage of Local Register Variables is discouraged.
On the MIPS platform, there is related use for local register variables with slightly differ-
ent characteristics (see Section “Defining coprocessor specifics for MIPS targets” in GNU
Compiler Collection (GCC) Internals).
Other C compilers won’t accept these alternative keywords; if you want to compile with
another compiler, you can define the alternate keywords as macros to replace them with
the customary keywords. It looks like this:
#ifndef __GNUC__
#define __asm__ asm
#endif
-pedantic and other options cause warnings for many GNU C extensions. You can
suppress such warnings using the keyword __extension__. Specifically:
• Writing __extension__ before an expression prevents warnings about extensions
within that expression.
• In C, writing:
[[__extension__ ...]]
suppresses warnings about using ‘[[]]’ attributes in C versions that predate C23.
__extension__ has no effect aside from this.
class a {
public:
void sub (int i)
{
printf ("__FUNCTION__ = %s\n", __FUNCTION__);
printf ("__PRETTY_FUNCTION__ = %s\n", __PRETTY_FUNCTION__);
}
};
int
main (void)
{
a ax;
ax.sub (0);
return 0;
}
gives this output:
__FUNCTION__ = sub
__PRETTY_FUNCTION__ = void a::sub(int)
These identifiers are variables, not preprocessor macros, and may not be used to initialize
char arrays or be concatenated with string literals.
Even if the stack pointer is biased, the result is not. The register save area on
SPARC is regarded as modifiable by calls, rather than as allocated for use by the
caller function, since it is never in use while the caller function itself is running.
Red zones that only leaf functions could use are also regarded as modifiable by calls,
rather than as allocated for use by the caller. This is only theoretical, since leaf
functions do not issue calls, but a constant offset makes this built-in function more
predictable.
The int type specifies the base type (which can be a typedef), while the attribute specifies
the vector size for the variable, measured in bytes. For example, the declaration above
causes the compiler to set the mode for the v4si type to be 16 bytes wide and divided
into int sized units. For a 32-bit int this means a vector of 4 units of 4 bytes, and the
corresponding mode of foo is V4SI.
The vector_size attribute is only applicable to integral and floating scalars, although
arrays, pointers, and function return values are allowed in conjunction with this construct.
Only sizes that are positive power-of-two multiples of the base type size are currently al-
lowed.
All the basic integer types can be used as base types, both as signed and as unsigned:
char, short, int, long, long long. In addition, float and double can be used to build
floating-point vector types.
Specifying a combination that is not valid for the current architecture causes GCC to
synthesize the instructions using a narrower mode. For example, if you specify a variable of
type V4SI and your architecture does not allow for this specific SIMD type, GCC produces
code that uses 4 SIs.
The types defined in this manner can be used with a subset of normal C operations.
Currently, GCC allows using the following operators on these types: +, -, *, /, unary
minus, ^, |, &, ~, %.
The operations behave like C++ valarrays. Addition is defined as the addition of the
corresponding elements of the operands. For example, in the code below, each of the 4
elements in a is added to the corresponding 4 elements in b and the resulting vector is
stored in c.
typedef int v4si __attribute__ ((vector_size (16)));
v4si a, b, c;
c = a + b;
Subtraction, multiplication, division, and the logical operations operate in a similar man-
ner. Likewise, the result of using the unary minus or complement operators on a vector type
is a vector whose elements are the negative or complemented values of the corresponding
elements in the operand.
It is possible to use shifting operators <<, >> on integer-type vectors. The operation is
defined as following: {a0, a1, ..., an} >> {b0, b1, ..., bn} == {a0 >> b0, a1 >> b1,
..., an >> bn}. Unlike OpenCL, values of b are not implicitly taken modulo bit width of
the base type B, and the behavior is undefined if any bi is greater than or equal to B.
In contrast to scalar operations in C and C++, operands of integer vector operations do
not undergo integer promotions.
Operands of binary vector operations must have the same number of elements.
For convenience, it is allowed to use a binary vector operation where one operand is a
scalar. In that case the compiler transforms the scalar operand into a vector where each
element is the scalar from the operation. The transformation happens only if the scalar
could be safely converted to the vector-element type. Consider the following code.
typedef int v4si __attribute__ ((vector_size (16)));
v4si a, b, c;
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 781
long l;
a = b + 1; /* a = b + {1,1,1,1}; */
a = 2 * b; /* a = {2,2,2,2} * b; */
v4si a = {1,2,3,4};
v4si b = {3,2,1,4};
v4si c;
v4si a = {1,2,3,4};
782 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
v4si b = {5,6,7,8};
v4si mask1 = {0,1,1,3};
v4si mask2 = {0,4,2,5};
v4si res;
v8si a = {1,-2,3,-4,5,-6,7,-8};
v4si b = __builtin_shufflevector (a, a, 0, 2, 4, 6); /* b is {1,3,5,7} */
v4si c = {-2,-4,-6,-8};
v8si d = __builtin_shufflevector (c, b, 4, 0, 5, 1, 6, 2, 7, 3); /* d is a */
Vector conversion is available using the __builtin_convertvector (vec, vectype)
function. vec must be an expression with integral or floating vector type and vectype an
integral or floating vector type with the same number of elements. The result has vectype
type and value of a C cast of every element of vec to the element type of vectype.
Consider the following example,
typedef int v4si __attribute__ ((vector_size (16)));
typedef float v4sf __attribute__ ((vector_size (16)));
typedef double v4df __attribute__ ((vector_size (32)));
typedef unsigned long long v4di __attribute__ ((vector_size (32)));
v4si a = {1,-2,3,-4};
v4sf b = {1.5f,-2.5f,3.f,7.f};
v4di c = {1ULL,5ULL,0ULL,10ULL};
v4sf d = __builtin_convertvector (a, v4sf); /* d is {1.f,-2.f,3.f,-4.f} */
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 783
/* Equivalent of:
v4sf d = { (float)a[0], (float)a[1], (float)a[2], (float)a[3] }; */
v4df e = __builtin_convertvector (a, v4df); /* e is {1.,-2.,3.,-4.} */
v4df f = __builtin_convertvector (b, v4df); /* f is {1.5,-2.5,3.,7.} */
v4si g = __builtin_convertvector (f, v4si); /* g is {1,-2,3,7} */
v4si h = __builtin_convertvector (c, v4si); /* h is {1,5,0,10} */
Sometimes it is desirable to write code using a mix of generic vector operations (for clarity)
and machine-specific vector intrinsics (to access vector instructions that are not exposed
via generic built-ins). On x86, intrinsic functions for integer vectors typically use the same
vector type __m128i irrespective of how they interpret the vector, making it necessary to
cast their arguments and return values from/to other vector types. In C, you can make use
of a union type:
#include <immintrin.h>
typedef union {
__m128i mm;
u8x16 u8;
u32x4 u32;
} v128;
for variables that can be used with both built-in operators and x86 intrinsics:
v128 x, y = { 0 };
memcpy (&x, ptr, sizeof x);
y.u8 += 0x80;
x.mm = _mm_adds_epu8 (x.mm, y.mm);
x.u32 &= 0xffffff;
offsetof_member_designator:
identifier
| offsetof_member_designator "." identifier
| offsetof_member_designator "[" expr "]"
is a suitable definition of the offsetof macro. In C++, type may be dependent. In either
case, member may consist of a single identifier, or a sequence of member accesses and array
references.
784 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The object pointed to by the first argument must be of integer or pointer type. It
must not be a boolean type.
Note: GCC 4.4 and later implement __sync_fetch_and_nand as *ptr = ~(tmp &
value) instead of *ptr = ~tmp & value.
by which the only valid value to store is the immediate constant 1. The exact value
actually stored in *ptr is implementation defined.
This built-in function is not a full barrier, but rather an acquire barrier. This means
that references after the operation cannot move to (or be speculated to) before the
operation, but previous memory stores may not be globally visible yet, and previous
memory loads may not yet be satisfied.
__ATOMIC_RELAXED
Implies no inter-thread ordering constraints.
__ATOMIC_CONSUME
This is currently implemented using the stronger __ATOMIC_ACQUIRE memory
order because of a deficiency in C++11’s semantics for memory_order_consume.
__ATOMIC_ACQUIRE
Creates an inter-thread happens-before constraint from the release (or stronger)
semantic store to this acquire load. Can prevent hoisting of code to before the
operation.
__ATOMIC_RELEASE
Creates an inter-thread happens-before constraint to acquire (or stronger) se-
mantic loads that read from this release store. Can prevent sinking of code to
after the operation.
__ATOMIC_ACQ_REL
Combines the effects of both __ATOMIC_ACQUIRE and __ATOMIC_RELEASE.
__ATOMIC_SEQ_CST
Enforces total ordering with all other __ATOMIC_SEQ_CST operations.
Note that in the C++11 memory model, fences (e.g., ‘__atomic_thread_fence’) take ef-
fect in combination with other atomic operations on specific memory locations (e.g., atomic
loads); operations on specific memory locations do not necessarily affect other operations
in the same way.
Target architectures are encouraged to provide their own patterns for each of the atomic
built-in functions. If no target is provided, the original non-memory model set of ‘__sync’
atomic built-in functions are used, along with any required synchronization fences surround-
ing it in order to achieve the proper behavior. Execution in this case is subject to the same
restrictions as those built-in functions.
If there is no pattern or mechanism to provide a lock-free instruction sequence, a call is
made to an external routine with the same parameters to be resolved at run time.
When implementing patterns for these built-in functions, the memory order parameter
can be ignored as long as the pattern implements the most restrictive __ATOMIC_SEQ_CST
memory order. Any of the other memory orders execute correctly with this memory order
but they may not execute as efficiently as they could with a more appropriate implementa-
tion of the relaxed requirements.
Note that the C++11 standard allows for the memory order parameter to be determined
at run time rather than at compile time. These built-in functions map any run-time value
to __ATOMIC_SEQ_CST rather than invoke a runtime library call or inline a switch statement.
This is standard compliant, safe, and the simplest approach for now.
The memory order parameter is a signed int, but only the lower 16 bits are reserved for
the memory order. The remainder of the signed int is reserved for target use and should be
0. Use of the predefined atomic values ensures proper usage.
type __atomic_load_n (type *ptr, int memorder) [Built-in Function]
This built-in function implements an atomic load operation. It returns the contents
of *ptr.
788 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The first built-in function allows arbitrary integral types for operands and the result
type must be pointer to some integral type other than enumerated or boolean type,
the rest of the built-in functions have explicit integer types.
The compiler will attempt to use hardware instructions to implement these built-in
functions where possible, like conditional jump on overflow after addition, conditional
jump on carry etc.
#define INT_ADD_OVERFLOW_P(a, b) \
__builtin_add_overflow_p (a, b, (__typeof__ ((a) + (b))) 0)
enum {
A = INT_MAX, B = 3,
C = INT_ADD_OVERFLOW_P (A, B) ? 0 : A + B,
D = __builtin_add_overflow_p (1, SCHAR_MAX, (signed char) 0)
};
The compiler will attempt to use hardware instructions to implement these built-in
functions where possible, like conditional jump on overflow after addition, conditional
jump on carry etc.
return the result of the subtractions. Note, while all the first 3 arguments can have
arbitrary values, better code will be emitted if one of them (preferrably the third one)
has only values 0 or 1 (i.e. carry-in).
int lockvar;
its arguments for side effects. If there are any side effects in them, it returns (size_t)
-1 for type 0 or 1 and (size_t) 0 for type 2 or 3. If there are multiple objects ptr
can point to and all of them are known at compile time, the returned number is the
maximum of remaining byte counts in those objects if type & 2 is 0 and minimum if
nonzero. If it is not possible to determine which objects ptr points to at compile time,
__builtin_object_size should return (size_t) -1 for type 0 or 1 and (size_t) 0
for type 2 or 3.
type is an integer constant from 0 to 3. If the least significant bit is clear, objects are
whole variables, if it is set, a closest surrounding subobject is considered the object a
pointer points to. The second bit determines if maximum or minimum of remaining
bytes is computed.
struct V { char buf1[10]; int b; char buf2[10]; } var;
char *p = &var.buf1[1], *q = &var.b;
char *volatile p;
char buf[10];
/* It is unknown what object p points to, so this is optimized
into plain memcpy - no checking is possible. */
memcpy (p, "abcde", n);
/* Destination is known and length too. It is known at compile
time there will be no overflow. */
memcpy (&buf[5], "abcde", 5);
/* Destination is known, but the length is not known at compile time.
This will result in __memcpy_chk call that can check for overflow
at run time. */
memcpy (&buf[5], "abcde", n);
/* Destination is known and it is known at compile time there will
be overflow. There will be a warning and __memcpy_chk call that
will abort the program at run time. */
memcpy (&buf[6], "abcde", 5);
Such built-in functions are provided for memcpy, mempcpy, memmove, memset, strcpy,
stpcpy, strncpy, strcat and strncat.
purposes calls to pairs of these functions can be omitted if access to the allocation is op-
timized out, or could be replaced with implementation provided buffer on the stack, or
multiple allocation calls can be merged into a single allocation. In C++ such optimizations
are normally allowed just for calls to such replaceable global operators from new and delete
expressions.
void foo () {
int *a = new int;
delete a; // This pair of allocation/deallocation operators can be omitted
// or replaced with int _temp; int *a = &_temp; etc.
void *b = ::operator new (32);
::operator delete (b); // This one cannnot.
void *c = __builtin_operator_new (32);
__builtin_operator_delete (c); // This one can.
}
cacos, cargf, cargl, carg, casinf, casinhf, casinhl, casinh, casinl, casin, catanf,
catanhf, catanhl, catanh, catanl, catan, cbrtf, cbrtl, cbrt, ccosf, ccoshf, ccoshl,
ccosh, ccosl, ccos, cexpf, cexpl, cexp, cimagf, cimagl, cimag, clogf, clogl, clog,
conjf, conjl, conj, copysignf, copysignl, copysign, cpowf, cpowl, cpow, cprojf,
cprojl, cproj, crealf, creall, creal, csinf, csinhf, csinhl, csinh, csinl, csin,
csqrtf, csqrtl, csqrt, ctanf, ctanhf, ctanhl, ctanh, ctanl, ctan, erfcf, erfcl,
erfc, erff, erfl, erf, exp2f, exp2l, exp2, expm1f, expm1l, expm1, fdimf, fdiml, fdim,
fmaf, fmal, fmaxf, fmaxl, fmax, fma, fminf, fminl, fmin, hypotf, hypotl, hypot,
ilogbf, ilogbl, ilogb, imaxabs, isblank, iswblank, lgammaf, lgammal, lgamma, llabs,
llrintf, llrintl, llrint, llroundf, llroundl, llround, log1pf, log1pl, log1p,
log2f, log2l, log2, logbf, logbl, logb, lrintf, lrintl, lrint, lroundf, lroundl,
lround, nearbyintf, nearbyintl, nearbyint, nextafterf, nextafterl, nextafter,
nexttowardf, nexttowardl, nexttoward, remainderf, remainderl, remainder, remquof,
remquol, remquo, rintf, rintl, rint, roundf, roundl, round, scalblnf, scalblnl,
scalbln, scalbnf, scalbnl, scalbn, snprintf, tgammaf, tgammal, tgamma, truncf,
truncl, trunc, vfscanf, vscanf, vsnprintf and vsscanf are handled as built-in
functions except in strict ISO C90 mode (-ansi or -std=c90).
There are also built-in versions of the ISO C99 functions acosf, acosl, asinf, asinl,
atan2f, atan2l, atanf, atanl, ceilf, ceill, cosf, coshf, coshl, cosl, expf, expl,
fabsf, fabsl, floorf, floorl, fmodf, fmodl, frexpf, frexpl, ldexpf, ldexpl, log10f,
log10l, logf, logl, modfl, modff, powf, powl, sinf, sinhf, sinhl, sinl, sqrtf, sqrtl,
tanf, tanhf, tanhl and tanl that are recognized in any mode since ISO C90 reserves these
names for the purpose to which ISO C99 puts them. All these functions have corresponding
versions prefixed with __builtin_.
There are also built-in functions __builtin_fabsfn, __builtin_fabsfnx, __builtin_
copysignfn and __builtin_copysignfnx, corresponding to the TS 18661-3 functions
fabsfn, fabsfnx, copysignfn and copysignfnx, for supported types _Floatn and
_Floatnx.
There are also GNU extension functions clog10, clog10f and clog10l which names
are reserved by ISO C99 for future use. All these functions have versions prefixed with
__builtin_.
The ISO C94 functions iswalnum, iswalpha, iswcntrl, iswdigit, iswgraph, iswlower,
iswprint, iswpunct, iswspace, iswupper, iswxdigit, towlower and towupper are han-
dled as built-in functions except in strict ISO C90 mode (-ansi or -std=c90).
The ISO C90 functions abort, abs, acos, asin, atan2, atan, calloc, ceil, cosh, cos,
exit, exp, fabs, floor, fmod, fprintf, fputs, free, frexp, fscanf, isalnum, isalpha,
iscntrl, isdigit, isgraph, islower, isprint, ispunct, isspace, isupper, isxdigit,
tolower, toupper, labs, ldexp, log10, log, malloc, memchr, memcmp, memcpy, memset,
modf, pow, printf, putchar, puts, realloc, scanf, sinh, sin, snprintf, sprintf, sqrt,
sscanf, strcat, strchr, strcmp, strcpy, strcspn, strlen, strncat, strncmp, strncpy,
strpbrk, strrchr, strspn, strstr, tanh, tan, vfprintf, vprintf and vsprintf are
all recognized as built-in functions unless -fno-builtin is specified (or -fno-builtin-
function is specified for an individual function). All of these functions have corresponding
versions prefixed with __builtin_.
GCC provides built-in versions of the ISO C99 floating-point comparison macros that
avoid raising exceptions for unordered operands. They have the same names as the stan-
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 799
not exceed the stack size limit. The alignment argument must be a constant integer
expression that evaluates to a power of 2 greater than or equal to CHAR_BIT and less
than some unspecified maximum. Invocations with other values are rejected with an
error indicating the valid bounds. The function returns a pointer to the first byte of
the allocated object. The lifetime of the allocated object ends at the end of the block
in which the function was called. The allocated storage is released no later than just
before the calling function returns to its caller, but may be released at the end of the
block in which the function was called.
For example, in the following function the call to g is unsafe because when overalign
is non-zero, the space allocated by __builtin_alloca_with_align may have been
released at the end of the if statement in which it was called.
void f (unsigned n, bool overalign)
{
void *p;
if (overalign)
p = __builtin_alloca_with_align (n, 64 /* bits */);
else
p = __builtin_alloc (n);
leading and trailing underscores—are recognized. See Section 6.41 [Attribute Syntax],
page 709, for details. When no attribute arguments are specified for an attribute
that expects one or more arguments the function returns true if type-or-expression
has been declared with the attribute regardless of the attribute argument values.
Arguments provided for an attribute that expects some are validated and matched
up to the provided number. The function returns true if all provided arguments
match. For example, the first call to the function below evaluates to true because x
is declared with the aligned attribute but the second call evaluates to false because
x is declared aligned (8) and not aligned (4).
__attribute__ ((aligned (8))) int x;
_Static_assert (__builtin_has_attribute (x, aligned), "aligned");
_Static_assert (!__builtin_has_attribute (x, aligned (4)), "aligned (4)");
Due to a limitation the __builtin_has_attribute function returns false for the
mode attribute even if the type or variable referenced by the type-or-expression argu-
ment was declared with one. The function is also not supported with labels, and in
C with enumerators.
Note that unlike the __has_attribute preprocessor operator which is suitable for
use in #if preprocessing directives __builtin_has_attribute is an intrinsic function
that is not recognized in such contexts.
type __builtin_speculation_safe_value (type val, [Built-in Function]
type failval)
This built-in function can be used to help mitigate against unsafe speculative execu-
tion. type may be any integral type or any pointer type.
1. If the CPU is not speculatively executing the code, then val is returned.
2. If the CPU is executing speculatively then either:
• The function may cause execution to pause until it is known that the code
is no-longer being executed speculatively (in which case val can be returned,
as above); or
• The function may use target-dependent speculation tracking state to cause
failval to be returned when it is known that speculative execution has incor-
rectly predicted a conditional branch operation.
The second argument, failval, is optional and defaults to zero if omitted.
GCC defines the preprocessor macro __HAVE_BUILTIN_SPECULATION_SAFE_VALUE for
targets that have been updated to support this builtin.
The built-in function can be used where a variable appears to be used in a safe way,
but the CPU, due to speculative execution may temporarily ignore the bounds checks.
Consider, for example, the following function:
int array[500];
int f (unsigned untrusted_index)
{
if (untrusted_index < 500)
return array[untrusted_index];
return 0;
}
If the function is called repeatedly with untrusted_index less than the limit of 500,
then a branch predictor will learn that the block of code that returns a value stored
802 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Note: This construct is only available for C. Furthermore, the unused expression
(exp1 or exp2 depending on the value of const exp) may still generate syntax errors.
This may change in future revisions.
804 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
the expression is not a constant, but merely that GCC cannot prove it is a constant
within the constraints of the active set of optimization options.
You typically use this function in an embedded application where memory is a critical
resource. If you have some complex calculation, you may want it to be folded if it
involves constants, but need to call a function if it does not. For example:
#define Scale_Value(X) \
(__builtin_constant_p (X) \
? ((X) * SCALE + OFFSET) : Scale (X))
You may use this built-in function in either a macro or an inline function. However, if
you use it in an inlined function and pass an argument of the function as the argument
to the built-in, GCC never returns 1 when you call the inline function with a string
constant or compound literal (see Section 6.30 [Compound Literals], page 600) and
does not return 1 when you pass a constant numeric value to the inline function unless
you specify the -O option.
You may also use __builtin_constant_p in initializers for static data. For instance,
you can write
static const int table[] = {
__builtin_constant_p (EXPRESSION) ? (EXPRESSION) : -1,
/* . . . */
};
This is an acceptable initializer even if EXPRESSION is not a constant expression,
including the case where __builtin_constant_p returns 1 because EXPRESSION
can be folded to a constant but EXPRESSION contains operands that are not other-
wise permitted in a static initializer (for example, 0 && foo ()). GCC must be more
conservative about evaluating the built-in in this case, because it has no opportunity
to perform optimization.
struct foo2 {
int other;
struct bar2 array[];
} *q;
the following call to the built-in
__builtin_counted_by_ref (p->array)
returns:
&p->counter with type int *.
However, the following call to the built-in
__builtin_counted_by_ref (q->array)
returns a null pointer to void.
{
return v;
}
else
{
asm("jmp error_handler");
__builtin_unreachable ();
}
}
Because the asm statement unconditionally transfers control out of the function, con-
trol never reaches the end of the function body. The __builtin_unreachable is in
fact unreachable and communicates this fact to the compiler.
Another use for __builtin_unreachable is following a call a function that never
returns but that is not declared __attribute__((noreturn)), as in this example:
void function_that_never_returns (void);
int g (int c)
{
if (c)
{
return 1;
}
else
{
function_that_never_returns ();
__builtin_unreachable ();
}
}
means that the compiler can assume x, set to arg, is at least 16-byte aligned, while:
void *x = __builtin_assume_aligned (arg, 32, 8);
means that the compiler can assume for x, set to arg, that (char *) x - 8 is 32-byte
aligned.
int __builtin_LINE () [Built-in Function]
This function is the equivalent of the preprocessor __LINE__ macro and returns a
constant integer expression that evaluates to the line number of the invocation of the
built-in. When used as a C++ default argument for a function F, it returns the line
number of the call to F.
const char * __builtin_FUNCTION () [Built-in Function]
This function is the equivalent of the __FUNCTION__ symbol and returns an address
constant pointing to the name of the function from which the built-in was invoked,
or the empty string if the invocation is not at function scope. When used as a C++
default argument for a function F, it returns the name of F’s caller or the empty
string if the call was not made at function scope.
const char * __builtin_FILE () [Built-in Function]
This function is the equivalent of the preprocessor __FILE__ macro and returns an
address constant pointing to the file name containing the invocation of the built-in,
or the empty string if the invocation is not at function scope. When used as a C++
default argument for a function F, it returns the file name of the call to F or the
empty string if the call was not made at function scope.
For example, in the following, each call to function foo will print a line similar to
"file.c:123: foo: message" with the name of the file and the line number of the
printf call, the name of the function foo, followed by the word message.
const char*
function (const char *func = __builtin_FUNCTION ())
{
return func;
}
which you know addresses of data in memory that is likely to be accessed soon. If
the target supports them, data prefetch instructions are generated. If the prefetch is
done early enough before the access then the data will be in the cache by the time it
is accessed.
The value of addr is the address of the memory to prefetch. There are two optional
arguments, rw and locality. The value of rw is a compile-time constant zero, one or
two; one means that the prefetch is preparing for a write to the memory address, two
means that the prefetch is preparing for a shared read (expected to be read by at least
one other processor before it is written if written at all) and zero, the default, means
that the prefetch is preparing for a read. The value locality must be a compile-time
constant integer between zero and three. A value of zero means that the data has no
temporal locality, so it need not be left in the cache after the access. A value of three
means that the data has a high degree of temporal locality and should be left in all
levels of cache possible. Values of one and two mean, respectively, a low or moderate
degree of temporal locality. The default is three.
for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
a[i] = a[i] + b[i];
__builtin_prefetch (&a[i+j], 1, 1);
__builtin_prefetch (&b[i+j], 0, 1);
/* . . . */
}
Data prefetch does not generate faults if addr is invalid, but the address expression
itself must be valid. For example, a prefetch of p->next does not fault if p->next is
not a valid address, but evaluation faults if p is not a valid address.
If the target does not support data prefetch, the address expression is evaluated if it
includes side effects but no other code is generated and GCC does not issue a warning.
are never returned in certain languages. Alternatively, the argument of the built-in
function can be a typename, such as the typeof specifier.
int a[2];
__builtin_classify_type (a) == __builtin_classify_type (int[5]);
__builtin_classify_type (a) == __builtin_classify_type (void*);
__builtin_classify_type (typeof (a)) == __builtin_classify_type (int[5]);
The first comparison will never be true, as a is implicitly converted to pointer. The
last two comparisons will be true as they classify pointers in the second case and
arrays in the last case.
The instructions generated by the following builtins are not considered as candidates for
scheduling. They are not moved around by the compiler during scheduling, and thus can
be expected to appear where they are put in the C code:
__builtin_arc_brk()
__builtin_arc_core_read()
__builtin_arc_core_write()
824 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
__builtin_arc_flag()
__builtin_arc_lr()
__builtin_arc_sleep()
__builtin_arc_sr()
__builtin_arc_swi()
The following built-in functions are available for the ARCv2 family of processors.
int __builtin_arc_clri ();
void __builtin_arc_kflag (unsigned);
void __builtin_arc_seti (int);
The following built-in functions are available for the ARCv2 family and uses -mnorm.
int __builtin_arc_ffs (int);
int __builtin_arc_fls (int);
The following built-in functions are available on systems that uses -mmpy-option=8 or
higher.
long long __builtin_arc_qmach (__v4hi, __v4hi);
long long __builtin_arc_qmachu (__v4hi, __v4hi);
long long __builtin_arc_qmpyh (__v4hi, __v4hi);
long long __builtin_arc_qmpyhu (__v4hi, __v4hi);
long long __builtin_arc_dmacwh (__v2si, __v2hi);
long long __builtin_arc_dmacwhu (__v2si, __v2hi);
_v2si __builtin_arc_vaddsub (__v2si, __v2si);
_v2si __builtin_arc_vsubadd (__v2si, __v2si);
_v4hi __builtin_arc_vaddsub4h (__v4hi, __v4hi);
_v4hi __builtin_arc_vsubadd4h (__v4hi, __v4hi);
. The built-in intrinsics for the Advanced SIMD extension are available when NEON is
enabled.
Currently, ARM and AArch64 back ends do not support ACLE 2.0 fully. Both back ends
support CRC32 intrinsics and the ARM back end supports the Coprocessor intrinsics, all
from arm_acle.h. The ARM back end’s 16-bit floating-point Advanced SIMD intrinsics
currently comply to ACLE v1.1. AArch64’s back end does not have support for 16-bit
floating point Advanced SIMD intrinsics yet.
See Section 3.20.5 [ARM Options], page 352, and Section 3.20.1 [AArch64 Options],
page 329, for more information on the availability of extensions.
There are many more AVR-specific built-in functions that are used to implement the
ISO/IEC TR 18037 “Embedded C” fixed-point functions of section 7.18a.6. You don’t need
to use these built-ins directly. Instead, use the declarations as supplied by the stdfix.h
header with GNU-C99:
#include <stdfix.h>
};
int
read_y (struct S *arg)
{
unsigned long long val;
unsigned int offset
= __builtin_preserve_field_info (arg->y, FIELD_BYTE_OFFSET);
unsigned int size
= __builtin_preserve_field_info (arg->y, FIELD_BYTE_SIZE);
return val;
}
iacc arguments are similar to acc arguments but specify the number of an IACC register.
See see Section 6.65.12.5 [Other Built-in Functions], page 839, for more details.
i13[12] == 1'b0
case i13[11:10] of :
2'b00: __lsx_vrepli_b (imm_n512_511)
2'b01: __lsx_vrepli_h (imm_n512_511)
2'b10: __lsx_vrepli_w (imm_n512_511)
2'b11: __lsx_vrepli_d (imm_n512_511)
extern __m128i a;
void
test (void)
{
if (__lsx_bz_v (a))
printf ("1\n");
else
printf ("2\n");
}
Note: For directives where the intent operand is also the source operand (modifying only
part of the bitfield of the intent register), the first parameter in the builtin call function is
used as the intent operand.
eg:
#include <lsxintrin.h>
void
test (void)
{
844 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
i13[12] == 1'b0
case i13[11:10] of :
2'b00: __lasx_xvrepli_b (imm_n512_511)
2'b01: __lasx_xvrepli_h (imm_n512_511)
2'b10: __lasx_xvrepli_w (imm_n512_511)
2'b11: __lasx_xvrepli_d (imm_n512_511)
extern __m256i a;
void
test (void)
{
if (__lasx_xbz_v (a))
printf ("1\n");
else
printf ("2\n");
}
Note: For directives where the intent operand is also the source operand (modifying only
part of the bitfield of the intent register), the first parameter in the builtin call function is
used as the intent operand.
eg:
#include <lasxintrin.h>
extern __m256i dst;
int src;
void
test (void)
{
858 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
These instrisic functions are available by including lasxintrin.h and using -mfrecipe
and -mlasx.
__m256d __lasx_xvfrecipe_d (__m256d);
__m256 __lasx_xvfrecipe_s (__m256);
__m256d __lasx_xvfrsqrte_d (__m256d);
__m256 __lasx_xvfrsqrte_s (__m256);
GCC supports MIPS DSP operations using both the generic vector extensions (see Sec-
tion 6.56 [Vector Extensions], page 779) and a collection of MIPS-specific built-in functions.
Both kinds of support are enabled by the -mdsp command-line option.
Revision 2 of the ASE was introduced in the second half of 2006. This revision adds extra
instructions to the original ASE, but is otherwise backwards-compatible with it. You can
select revision 2 using the command-line option -mdspr2; this option implies -mdsp.
The SCOUNT and POS bits of the DSP control register are global. The WRDSP,
EXTPDP, EXTPDPV and MTHLIP instructions modify the SCOUNT and POS bits. Dur-
ing optimization, the compiler does not delete these instructions and it does not delete calls
to functions containing these instructions.
At present, GCC only provides support for operations on 32-bit vectors. The vector type
associated with 8-bit integer data is usually called v4i8, the vector type associated with
Q7 is usually called v4q7, the vector type associated with 16-bit integer data is usually
called v2i16, and the vector type associated with Q15 is usually called v2q15. They can
be defined in C as follows:
typedef signed char v4i8 __attribute__ ((vector_size(4)));
typedef signed char v4q7 __attribute__ ((vector_size(4)));
typedef short v2i16 __attribute__ ((vector_size(4)));
typedef short v2q15 __attribute__ ((vector_size(4)));
v4i8, v4q7, v2i16 and v2q15 values are initialized in the same way as aggregates. For
example:
v4i8 a = {1, 2, 3, 4};
v4i8 b;
b = (v4i8) {5, 6, 7, 8};
It is easier to describe the DSP built-in functions if we first define the following types:
typedef int q31;
typedef int i32;
typedef unsigned int ui32;
typedef long long a64;
q31 and i32 are actually the same as int, but we use q31 to indicate a Q31 fractional
value and i32 to indicate a 32-bit integer value. Similarly, a64 is the same as long long,
but we use a64 to indicate values that are placed in one of the four DSP accumulators
($ac0, $ac1, $ac2 or $ac3).
Also, some built-in functions prefer or require immediate numbers as parameters, because
the corresponding DSP instructions accept both immediate numbers and register operands,
or accept immediate numbers only. The immediate parameters are listed as follows.
imm0_3: 0 to 3.
imm0_7: 0 to 7.
imm0_15: 0 to 15.
imm0_31: 0 to 31.
imm0_63: 0 to 63.
imm0_255: 0 to 255.
imm_n32_31: -32 to 31.
imm_n512_511: -512 to 511.
The following built-in functions map directly to a particular MIPS DSP instruction.
Please refer to the architecture specification for details on what each instruction does.
v2q15 __builtin_mips_addq_ph (v2q15, v2q15);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_addq_s_ph (v2q15, v2q15);
q31 __builtin_mips_addq_s_w (q31, q31);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_addu_qb (v4i8, v4i8);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_addu_s_qb (v4i8, v4i8);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_subq_ph (v2q15, v2q15);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_subq_s_ph (v2q15, v2q15);
q31 __builtin_mips_subq_s_w (q31, q31);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_subu_qb (v4i8, v4i8);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_subu_s_qb (v4i8, v4i8);
i32 __builtin_mips_addsc (i32, i32);
i32 __builtin_mips_addwc (i32, i32);
i32 __builtin_mips_modsub (i32, i32);
i32 __builtin_mips_raddu_w_qb (v4i8);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_absq_s_ph (v2q15);
q31 __builtin_mips_absq_s_w (q31);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_precrq_qb_ph (v2q15, v2q15);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_precrq_ph_w (q31, q31);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_precrq_rs_ph_w (q31, q31);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_precrqu_s_qb_ph (v2q15, v2q15);
q31 __builtin_mips_preceq_w_phl (v2q15);
q31 __builtin_mips_preceq_w_phr (v2q15);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_precequ_ph_qbl (v4i8);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_precequ_ph_qbr (v4i8);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_precequ_ph_qbla (v4i8);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_precequ_ph_qbra (v4i8);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_preceu_ph_qbl (v4i8);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_preceu_ph_qbr (v4i8);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_preceu_ph_qbla (v4i8);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_preceu_ph_qbra (v4i8);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_shll_qb (v4i8, imm0_7);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_shll_qb (v4i8, i32);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_shll_ph (v2q15, imm0_15);
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 873
The following built-in functions map directly to a particular MIPS DSP REV 2 instruc-
tion. Please refer to the architecture specification for details on what each instruction does.
v4q7 __builtin_mips_absq_s_qb (v4q7);
v2i16 __builtin_mips_addu_ph (v2i16, v2i16);
v2i16 __builtin_mips_addu_s_ph (v2i16, v2i16);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_adduh_qb (v4i8, v4i8);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_adduh_r_qb (v4i8, v4i8);
i32 __builtin_mips_append (i32, i32, imm0_31);
i32 __builtin_mips_balign (i32, i32, imm0_3);
i32 __builtin_mips_cmpgdu_eq_qb (v4i8, v4i8);
i32 __builtin_mips_cmpgdu_lt_qb (v4i8, v4i8);
i32 __builtin_mips_cmpgdu_le_qb (v4i8, v4i8);
a64 __builtin_mips_dpa_w_ph (a64, v2i16, v2i16);
a64 __builtin_mips_dps_w_ph (a64, v2i16, v2i16);
v2i16 __builtin_mips_mul_ph (v2i16, v2i16);
v2i16 __builtin_mips_mul_s_ph (v2i16, v2i16);
q31 __builtin_mips_mulq_rs_w (q31, q31);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_mulq_s_ph (v2q15, v2q15);
q31 __builtin_mips_mulq_s_w (q31, q31);
a64 __builtin_mips_mulsa_w_ph (a64, v2i16, v2i16);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_precr_qb_ph (v2i16, v2i16);
v2i16 __builtin_mips_precr_sra_ph_w (i32, i32, imm0_31);
v2i16 __builtin_mips_precr_sra_r_ph_w (i32, i32, imm0_31);
i32 __builtin_mips_prepend (i32, i32, imm0_31);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_shra_qb (v4i8, imm0_7);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_shra_r_qb (v4i8, imm0_7);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_shra_qb (v4i8, i32);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_shra_r_qb (v4i8, i32);
v2i16 __builtin_mips_shrl_ph (v2i16, imm0_15);
v2i16 __builtin_mips_shrl_ph (v2i16, i32);
v2i16 __builtin_mips_subu_ph (v2i16, v2i16);
v2i16 __builtin_mips_subu_s_ph (v2i16, v2i16);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_subuh_qb (v4i8, v4i8);
v4i8 __builtin_mips_subuh_r_qb (v4i8, v4i8);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_addqh_ph (v2q15, v2q15);
v2q15 __builtin_mips_addqh_r_ph (v2q15, v2q15);
q31 __builtin_mips_addqh_w (q31, q31);
q31 __builtin_mips_addqh_r_w (q31, q31);
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 875
expand to the same machine instruction yet have different argument types. Refer to the
architecture documentation for a description of the functionality of each instruction.
int16x4_t packsswh (int32x2_t s, int32x2_t t);
int8x8_t packsshb (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
uint8x8_t packushb (uint16x4_t s, uint16x4_t t);
uint32x2_t paddw_u (uint32x2_t s, uint32x2_t t);
uint16x4_t paddh_u (uint16x4_t s, uint16x4_t t);
uint8x8_t paddb_u (uint8x8_t s, uint8x8_t t);
int32x2_t paddw_s (int32x2_t s, int32x2_t t);
int16x4_t paddh_s (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
int8x8_t paddb_s (int8x8_t s, int8x8_t t);
uint64_t paddd_u (uint64_t s, uint64_t t);
int64_t paddd_s (int64_t s, int64_t t);
int16x4_t paddsh (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
int8x8_t paddsb (int8x8_t s, int8x8_t t);
uint16x4_t paddush (uint16x4_t s, uint16x4_t t);
uint8x8_t paddusb (uint8x8_t s, uint8x8_t t);
uint64_t pandn_ud (uint64_t s, uint64_t t);
uint32x2_t pandn_uw (uint32x2_t s, uint32x2_t t);
uint16x4_t pandn_uh (uint16x4_t s, uint16x4_t t);
uint8x8_t pandn_ub (uint8x8_t s, uint8x8_t t);
int64_t pandn_sd (int64_t s, int64_t t);
int32x2_t pandn_sw (int32x2_t s, int32x2_t t);
int16x4_t pandn_sh (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
int8x8_t pandn_sb (int8x8_t s, int8x8_t t);
uint16x4_t pavgh (uint16x4_t s, uint16x4_t t);
uint8x8_t pavgb (uint8x8_t s, uint8x8_t t);
uint32x2_t pcmpeqw_u (uint32x2_t s, uint32x2_t t);
uint16x4_t pcmpeqh_u (uint16x4_t s, uint16x4_t t);
uint8x8_t pcmpeqb_u (uint8x8_t s, uint8x8_t t);
int32x2_t pcmpeqw_s (int32x2_t s, int32x2_t t);
int16x4_t pcmpeqh_s (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
int8x8_t pcmpeqb_s (int8x8_t s, int8x8_t t);
uint32x2_t pcmpgtw_u (uint32x2_t s, uint32x2_t t);
uint16x4_t pcmpgth_u (uint16x4_t s, uint16x4_t t);
uint8x8_t pcmpgtb_u (uint8x8_t s, uint8x8_t t);
int32x2_t pcmpgtw_s (int32x2_t s, int32x2_t t);
int16x4_t pcmpgth_s (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
int8x8_t pcmpgtb_s (int8x8_t s, int8x8_t t);
uint16x4_t pextrh_u (uint16x4_t s, int field);
int16x4_t pextrh_s (int16x4_t s, int field);
uint16x4_t pinsrh_0_u (uint16x4_t s, uint16x4_t t);
uint16x4_t pinsrh_1_u (uint16x4_t s, uint16x4_t t);
uint16x4_t pinsrh_2_u (uint16x4_t s, uint16x4_t t);
uint16x4_t pinsrh_3_u (uint16x4_t s, uint16x4_t t);
int16x4_t pinsrh_0_s (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
int16x4_t pinsrh_1_s (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
int16x4_t pinsrh_2_s (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
int16x4_t pinsrh_3_s (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
int32x2_t pmaddhw (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
int16x4_t pmaxsh (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
uint8x8_t pmaxub (uint8x8_t s, uint8x8_t t);
int16x4_t pminsh (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
uint8x8_t pminub (uint8x8_t s, uint8x8_t t);
uint8x8_t pmovmskb_u (uint8x8_t s);
int8x8_t pmovmskb_s (int8x8_t s);
uint16x4_t pmulhuh (uint16x4_t s, uint16x4_t t);
int16x4_t pmulhh (int16x4_t s, int16x4_t t);
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 877
-(a * b - c) nmsub.ps
x?a:b movn.ps/movz.ps
Note that the multiply-accumulate instructions can be disabled using the command-line
option -mno-fused-madd.
The following multi-instruction functions are also available. In each case, cond can be
any of the 16 floating-point conditions: f, un, eq, ueq, olt, ult, ole, ule, sf, ngle, seq,
ngl, lt, nge, le or ngt.
int __builtin_mips_cabs_cond_s (float a, float b)
int __builtin_mips_cabs_cond_d (double a, double b)
Absolute comparison of two scalar values (cabs.cond.fmt, bc1t/bc1f).
These functions compare a and b using cabs.cond.s or cabs.cond.d and re-
turn the result as a boolean value. For example:
float a, b;
if (__builtin_mips_cabs_eq_s (a, b))
true ();
else
false ();
Instructions and corresponding built-ins may have additional restrictions and/or in-
put/output values manipulated:
• imm0_1, an integer literal in range 0 to 1;
• imm0_3, an integer literal in range 0 to 3;
• imm0_7, an integer literal in range 0 to 7;
• imm0_15, an integer literal in range 0 to 15;
• imm0_31, an integer literal in range 0 to 31;
• imm0_63, an integer literal in range 0 to 63;
• imm0_255, an integer literal in range 0 to 255;
• imm_n16_15, an integer literal in range -16 to 15;
• imm_n512_511, an integer literal in range -512 to 511;
• imm_n1024_1022, an integer literal in range -512 to 511 left shifted by 1 bit, i.e., -1024,
-1022, . . . , 1020, 1022;
• imm_n2048_2044, an integer literal in range -512 to 511 left shifted by 2 bits, i.e., -2048,
-2044, . . . , 2040, 2044;
• imm_n4096_4088, an integer literal in range -512 to 511 left shifted by 3 bits, i.e., -4096,
-4088, . . . , 4080, 4088;
• imm1_4, an integer literal in range 1 to 4;
• i32, i64, u32, u64, f32, f64, defined as follows:
{
typedef int i32;
#if __LONG_MAX__ == __LONG_LONG_MAX__
typedef long i64;
#else
typedef long long i64;
#endif
‘arch_2_06’
CPU supports ISA 2.06 (eg, POWER7)
‘arch_2_07’
CPU supports ISA 2.07 (eg, POWER8)
‘arch_3_00’
CPU supports ISA 3.0 (eg, POWER9)
‘arch_3_1’
CPU supports ISA 3.1 (eg, POWER10)
‘archpmu’ CPU supports the set of compatible performance monitoring events.
‘booke’ CPU supports the Embedded ISA category.
‘cellbe’ CPU has a CELL broadband engine.
‘darn’ CPU supports the darn (deliver a random number) instruction.
‘dfp’ CPU has a decimal floating point unit.
‘dscr’ CPU supports the data stream control register.
‘ebb’ CPU supports event base branching.
‘efpdouble’
CPU has a SPE double precision floating point unit.
‘efpsingle’
CPU has a SPE single precision floating point unit.
‘fpu’ CPU has a floating point unit.
‘htm’ CPU has hardware transaction memory instructions.
‘htm-nosc’
Kernel aborts hardware transactions when a syscall is made.
‘htm-no-suspend’
CPU supports hardware transaction memory but does not support the
tsuspend. instruction.
‘ic_snoop’
CPU supports icache snooping capabilities.
‘ieee128’ CPU supports 128-bit IEEE binary floating point instructions.
‘isel’ CPU supports the integer select instruction.
‘mma’ CPU supports the matrix-multiply assist instructions.
‘mmu’ CPU has a memory management unit.
‘notb’ CPU does not have a timebase (eg, 601 and 403gx).
‘pa6t’ CPU supports the PA Semi 6T CORE ISA.
‘power4’ CPU supports ISA 2.00 (eg, POWER4)
‘power5’ CPU supports ISA 2.02 (eg, POWER5)
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 899
The following built-in functions are also available on all PowerPC processors:
uint64_t __builtin_ppc_get_timebase ();
unsigned long __builtin_ppc_mftb ();
double __builtin_unpack_ibm128 (__ibm128, int);
__ibm128 __builtin_pack_ibm128 (double, double);
double __builtin_mffs (void);
void __builtin_mtfsf (const int, double);
void __builtin_mtfsb0 (const int);
void __builtin_mtfsb1 (const int);
double __builtin_set_fpscr_rn (int);
The __builtin_ppc_get_timebase and __builtin_ppc_mftb functions generate
instructions to read the Time Base Register. The __builtin_ppc_get_timebase function
may generate multiple instructions and always returns the 64 bits of the Time Base
Register. The __builtin_ppc_mftb function always generates one instruction and returns
the Time Base Register value as an unsigned long, throwing away the most significant
word on 32-bit environments. The __builtin_mffs return the value of the FPSCR
register. Note, ISA 3.0 supports the __builtin_mffsl() which permits software to read
900 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
the control and non-sticky status bits in the FSPCR without the higher latency associated
with accessing the sticky status bits. The __builtin_mtfsf takes a constant 8-bit integer
field mask and a double precision floating point argument and generates the mtfsf
(extended mnemonic) instruction to write new values to selected fields of the FPSCR.
The __builtin_mtfsb0 and __builtin_mtfsb1 take the bit to change as an argument.
The valid bit range is between 0 and 31. The builtins map to the mtfsb0 and mtfsb1
instructions which take the argument and add 32. Hence these instructions only modify
the FPSCR[32:63] bits by changing the specified bit to a zero or one respectively.
The __builtin_set_fpscr_rn built-in allows changing both of the floating point round-
ing mode bits and returning the various FPSCR fields before the RN field is updated. The
built-in returns a double consisting of the initial value of the FPSCR fields DRN, VE, OE,
UE, ZE, XE, NI, and RN bit positions with all other bits set to zero. The built-in argument
is a 2-bit value for the new RN field value. The argument can either be an const int or
stored in a variable. Earlier versions of __builtin_set_fpscr_rn returned void. A __SET_
FPSCR_RN_RETURNS_FPSCR__ macro has been added. If defined, then the __builtin_set_
fpscr_rn built-in returns the FPSCR fields. If not defined, the __builtin_set_fpscr_rn
does not return a value. If the -msoft-float option is used, the __builtin_set_fpscr_rn
built-in will not return a value.
The following additional built-in functions are also available for the PowerPC family of
processors, starting with ISA 3.0 or later:
The following additional built-in functions are also available for the PowerPC family of
processors, starting with ISA 3.0 or later:
int __builtin_byte_in_set (unsigned char u, unsigned long long set);
int __builtin_byte_in_range (unsigned char u, unsigned int range);
int __builtin_byte_in_either_range (unsigned char u, unsigned int ranges);
double __builtin_mffsl(void);
vector signed char vec_vaddsbs (vector bool char, vector signed char);
912 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
vector signed char vec_vaddsbs (vector signed char, vector bool char);
vector signed char vec_vaddsbs (vector signed char, vector signed char);
vector signed short vec_vaddshs (vector bool short, vector signed short);
vector signed short vec_vaddshs (vector signed short, vector bool short);
vector signed short vec_vaddshs (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector signed int vec_vaddsws (vector bool int, vector signed int);
vector signed int vec_vaddsws (vector signed int, vector bool int);
vector signed int vec_vaddsws (vector signed int, vector signed int);
vector signed char vec_vaddubm (vector bool char, vector signed char);
vector signed char vec_vaddubm (vector signed char, vector bool char);
vector signed char vec_vaddubm (vector signed char, vector signed char);
vector unsigned char vec_vaddubm (vector bool char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned char vec_vaddubm (vector unsigned char, vector bool char);
vector unsigned char vec_vaddubm (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned char vec_vaddubs (vector bool char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned char vec_vaddubs (vector unsigned char, vector bool char);
vector unsigned char vec_vaddubs (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector signed short vec_vadduhm (vector bool short, vector signed short);
vector signed short vec_vadduhm (vector signed short, vector bool short);
vector signed short vec_vadduhm (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector unsigned short vec_vadduhm (vector bool short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned short vec_vadduhm (vector unsigned short, vector bool short);
vector unsigned short vec_vadduhm (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned short vec_vadduhs (vector bool short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned short vec_vadduhs (vector unsigned short, vector bool short);
vector unsigned short vec_vadduhs (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector signed int vec_vadduwm (vector bool int, vector signed int);
vector signed int vec_vadduwm (vector signed int, vector bool int);
vector signed int vec_vadduwm (vector signed int, vector signed int);
vector unsigned int vec_vadduwm (vector bool int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vadduwm (vector unsigned int, vector bool int);
vector unsigned int vec_vadduwm (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vadduws (vector bool int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vadduws (vector unsigned int, vector bool int);
vector unsigned int vec_vadduws (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector signed char vec_vavgsb (vector signed char, vector signed char);
vector signed short vec_vavgsh (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector signed int vec_vavgsw (vector signed int, vector signed int);
vector unsigned char vec_vavgub (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned short vec_vavguh (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned int vec_vavguw (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector bool char vec_vcmpequb (vector signed char, vector signed char);
vector bool char vec_vcmpequb (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector bool short vec_vcmpequh (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector bool short vec_vcmpequh (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector bool int vec_vcmpequw (vector signed int, vector signed int);
vector bool int vec_vcmpequw (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector bool char vec_vcmpgtsb (vector signed char, vector signed char);
vector bool short vec_vcmpgtsh (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector bool int vec_vcmpgtsw (vector signed int, vector signed int);
vector bool char vec_vcmpgtub (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector bool short vec_vcmpgtuh (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector bool int vec_vcmpgtuw (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector signed char vec_vmaxsb (vector bool char, vector signed char);
vector signed char vec_vmaxsb (vector signed char, vector bool char);
vector signed char vec_vmaxsb (vector signed char, vector signed char);
vector signed short vec_vmaxsh (vector bool short, vector signed short);
vector signed short vec_vmaxsh (vector signed short, vector bool short);
vector signed short vec_vmaxsh (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector signed int vec_vmaxsw (vector bool int, vector signed int);
vector signed int vec_vmaxsw (vector signed int, vector bool int);
vector signed int vec_vmaxsw (vector signed int, vector signed int);
vector unsigned char vec_vmaxub (vector bool char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned char vec_vmaxub (vector unsigned char, vector bool char);
vector unsigned char vec_vmaxub (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned short vec_vmaxuh (vector bool short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned short vec_vmaxuh (vector unsigned short, vector bool short);
vector unsigned short vec_vmaxuh (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned int vec_vmaxuw (vector bool int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vmaxuw (vector unsigned int, vector bool int);
vector unsigned int vec_vmaxuw (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector signed char vec_vminsb (vector bool char, vector signed char);
vector signed char vec_vminsb (vector signed char, vector bool char);
vector signed char vec_vminsb (vector signed char, vector signed char);
914 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
vector signed short vec_vminsh (vector bool short, vector signed short);
vector signed short vec_vminsh (vector signed short, vector bool short);
vector signed short vec_vminsh (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector signed int vec_vminsw (vector bool int, vector signed int);
vector signed int vec_vminsw (vector signed int, vector bool int);
vector signed int vec_vminsw (vector signed int, vector signed int);
vector unsigned char vec_vminub (vector bool char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned char vec_vminub (vector unsigned char, vector bool char);
vector unsigned char vec_vminub (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned short vec_vminuh (vector bool short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned short vec_vminuh (vector unsigned short, vector bool short);
vector unsigned short vec_vminuh (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned int vec_vminuw (vector bool int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vminuw (vector unsigned int, vector bool int);
vector unsigned int vec_vminuw (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector bool char vec_vmrghb (vector bool char, vector bool char);
vector signed char vec_vmrghb (vector signed char, vector signed char);
vector unsigned char vec_vmrghb (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector bool short vec_vmrghh (vector bool short, vector bool short);
vector signed short vec_vmrghh (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector unsigned short vec_vmrghh (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector pixel vec_vmrghh (vector pixel, vector pixel);
vector bool char vec_vmrglb (vector bool char, vector bool char);
vector signed char vec_vmrglb (vector signed char, vector signed char);
vector unsigned char vec_vmrglb (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector bool short vec_vmrglh (vector bool short, vector bool short);
vector signed short vec_vmrglh (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector unsigned short vec_vmrglh (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector pixel vec_vmrglh (vector pixel, vector pixel);
vector signed int vec_vmsummbm (vector signed char, vector unsigned char,
vector signed int);
vector signed int vec_vmsumshm (vector signed short, vector signed short,
vector signed int);
vector signed int vec_vmsumshs (vector signed short, vector signed short,
vector signed int);
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 915
vector unsigned int vec_vmsumubm (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char,
vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vmsumuhm (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short,
vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vmsumuhs (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short,
vector unsigned int);
vector signed short vec_vmulesb (vector signed char, vector signed char);
vector signed int vec_vmulesh (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector unsigned short vec_vmuleub (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned int vec_vmuleuh (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector signed short vec_vmulosb (vector signed char, vector signed char);
vector signed int vec_vmulosh (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector unsigned short vec_vmuloub (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned int vec_vmulouh (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector signed char vec_vpkshss (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector unsigned char vec_vpkshus (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector signed short vec_vpkswss (vector signed int, vector signed int);
vector unsigned short vec_vpkswus (vector signed int, vector signed int);
vector bool char vec_vpkuhum (vector bool short, vector bool short);
vector signed char vec_vpkuhum (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector unsigned char vec_vpkuhum (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned char vec_vpkuhus (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector bool short vec_vpkuwum (vector bool int, vector bool int);
vector signed short vec_vpkuwum (vector signed int, vector signed int);
vector unsigned short vec_vpkuwum (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned short vec_vpkuwus (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector signed char vec_vrlb (vector signed char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned char vec_vrlb (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector signed short vec_vrlh (vector signed short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned short vec_vrlh (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector signed int vec_vrlw (vector signed int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vrlw (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector signed char vec_vslb (vector signed char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned char vec_vslb (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector signed short vec_vslh (vector signed short, vector unsigned short);
916 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
vector unsigned short vec_vslh (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector signed int vec_vslw (vector signed int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vslw (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector signed char vec_vsrab (vector signed char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned char vec_vsrab (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector signed short vec_vsrah (vector signed short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned short vec_vsrah (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector signed int vec_vsraw (vector signed int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vsraw (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector signed char vec_vsrb (vector signed char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned char vec_vsrb (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector signed short vec_vsrh (vector signed short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned short vec_vsrh (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector signed int vec_vsrw (vector signed int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vsrw (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector signed char vec_vsubsbs (vector bool char, vector signed char);
vector signed char vec_vsubsbs (vector signed char, vector bool char);
vector signed char vec_vsubsbs (vector signed char, vector signed char);
vector signed short vec_vsubshs (vector bool short, vector signed short);
vector signed short vec_vsubshs (vector signed short, vector bool short);
vector signed short vec_vsubshs (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector signed int vec_vsubsws (vector bool int, vector signed int);
vector signed int vec_vsubsws (vector signed int, vector bool int);
vector signed int vec_vsubsws (vector signed int, vector signed int);
vector signed char vec_vsububm (vector bool char, vector signed char);
vector signed char vec_vsububm (vector signed char, vector bool char);
vector signed char vec_vsububm (vector signed char, vector signed char);
vector unsigned char vec_vsububm (vector bool char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned char vec_vsububm (vector unsigned char, vector bool char);
vector unsigned char vec_vsububm (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 917
vector unsigned char vec_vsububs (vector bool char, vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned char vec_vsububs (vector unsigned char, vector bool char);
vector unsigned char vec_vsububs (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector signed short vec_vsubuhm (vector bool short, vector signed short);
vector signed short vec_vsubuhm (vector signed short, vector bool short);
vector signed short vec_vsubuhm (vector signed short, vector signed short);
vector unsigned short vec_vsubuhm (vector bool short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned short vec_vsubuhm (vector unsigned short, vector bool short);
vector unsigned short vec_vsubuhm (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned short vec_vsubuhs (vector bool short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned short vec_vsubuhs (vector unsigned short, vector bool short);
vector unsigned short vec_vsubuhs (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector signed int vec_vsubuwm (vector bool int, vector signed int);
vector signed int vec_vsubuwm (vector signed int, vector bool int);
vector signed int vec_vsubuwm (vector signed int, vector signed int);
vector unsigned int vec_vsubuwm (vector bool int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vsubuwm (vector unsigned int, vector bool int);
vector unsigned int vec_vsubuwm (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vsubuws (vector bool int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec_vsubuws (vector unsigned int, vector bool int);
vector unsigned int vec_vsubuws (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector signed int vec_vsum4sbs (vector signed char, vector signed int);
vector signed int vec_vsum4shs (vector signed short, vector signed int);
vector unsigned int vec_vsum4ubs (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned int);
void vec_vsx_st (vector signed short, int, vector signed short *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector signed short, int, short *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector unsigned short, int, vector unsigned short *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector unsigned short, int, unsigned short *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector bool short, int, vector bool short *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector bool short, int, unsigned short *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector pixel, int, vector pixel *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector pixel, int, unsigned short *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector pixel, int, short *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector bool short, int, short *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector signed char, int, vector signed char *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector signed char, int, signed char *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector unsigned char, int, vector unsigned char *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector unsigned char, int, unsigned char *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector bool char, int, vector bool char *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector bool char, int, unsigned char *);
void vec_vsx_st (vector bool char, int, signed char *);
vector long long vec_vmaxsd (vector long long, vector long long);
vector long long vec_vminsd (vector long long, vector long long);
vector unsigned long long vec_vminud (vector long long, vector long long);
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 921
vector long long vec_vrld (vector long long, vector unsigned long long);
vector unsigned long long vec_vrld (vector unsigned long long,
vector unsigned long long);
vector long long vec_vsld (vector long long, vector unsigned long long);
vector long long vec_vsld (vector unsigned long long,
vector unsigned long long);
vector long long vec_vsrad (vector long long, vector unsigned long long);
vector unsigned long long vec_vsrad (vector unsigned long long,
vector unsigned long long);
vector long long vec_vsrd (vector long long, vector unsigned long long);
vector unsigned long long char vec_vsrd (vector unsigned long long,
vector unsigned long long);
vector long long vec_vsubudm (vector long long, vector long long);
vector long long vec_vsubudm (vector bool long long, vector long long);
vector long long vec_vsubudm (vector long long, vector bool long long);
vector unsigned long long vec_vsubudm (vector unsigned long long,
vector unsigned long long);
vector unsigned long long vec_vsubudm (vector bool long long,
vector unsigned long long);
vector unsigned long long vec_vsubudm (vector unsigned long long,
vector bool long long);
922 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
turn the significand and the biased exponent value respectively of their source arguments.
When supplied with a 64-bit source argument, the result returned by scalar_extract_
sig has the 0x0010000000000000 bit set if the function’s source argument is in normalized
form. Otherwise, this bit is set to 0. When supplied with a 128-bit source argument, the
0x00010000000000000000000000000000 bit of the result is treated similarly. Note that the
sign of the significand is not represented in the result returned from the scalar_extract_
sig function. Use the scalar_test_neg function to test the sign of its double argument.
The scalar_insert_exp functions require a 64-bit environment supporting ISA 3.0 or
later. When supplied with a 64-bit first argument, the scalar_insert_exp built-in function
returns a double-precision floating point value that is constructed by assembling the values
of its significand and exponent arguments. The sign of the result is copied from the most
significant bit of the significand argument. The significand and exponent components of
the result are composed of the least significant 11 bits of the exponent argument and the
least significant 52 bits of the significand argument respectively.
When supplied with a 128-bit first argument, the scalar_insert_exp built-in function
returns a quad-precision IEEE floating point value if the two arguments were scalar. If the
two arguments are vectors, the return value is a vector IEEE floating point value. The sign
bit of the result is copied from the most significant bit of the significand argument. The
significand and exponent components of the result are composed of the least significant 15
bits of the exponent argument (element 0 on big-endian and element 1 on little-endian)
and the least significant 112 bits of the significand argument respectively. Note, the
significand is the scalar argument or in the case of vector arguments, significand is
element 0 for big-endian and element 1 for little-endian.
The scalar_extract_exp_to_vec, and scalar_extract_sig_to_vec are similar to
scalar_extract_exp, scalar_extract_sig except they return a vector result of type
unsigned long long and unsigned int128 respectively.
The scalar_cmp_exp_gt, scalar_cmp_exp_lt, scalar_cmp_exp_eq, and scalar_cmp_
exp_unordered built-in functions return a non-zero value if arg1 is greater than, less than,
equal to, or not comparable to arg2 respectively. The arguments are not comparable if one
or the other equals NaN (not a number).
The scalar_test_data_class built-in function returns 1 if any of the condition tests
enabled by the value of the condition variable are true, and 0 otherwise. The condition
argument must be a compile-time constant integer with value not exceeding 127. The
condition argument is encoded as a bitmask with each bit enabling the testing of a different
condition, as characterized by the following:
0x40 Test for NaN
0x20 Test for +Infinity
0x10 Test for -Infinity
0x08 Test for +Zero
0x04 Test for -Zero
0x02 Test for +Denormal
0x01 Test for -Denormal
The scalar_test_neg built-in function returns 1 if its source argument holds a negative
value, 0 otherwise.
The following built-in functions are also available for the PowerPC family of processors,
starting with ISA 3.0 or later (-mcpu=power9). These string functions are described sepa-
rately in order to group the descriptions closer to the function prototypes.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 925
signed char vec_xlx (unsigned int index, vector signed char data);
unsigned char vec_xlx (unsigned int index, vector unsigned char data);
signed short vec_xlx (unsigned int index, vector signed short data);
unsigned short vec_xlx (unsigned int index, vector unsigned short data);
signed int vec_xlx (unsigned int index, vector signed int data);
unsigned int vec_xlx (unsigned int index, vector unsigned int data);
float vec_xlx (unsigned int index, vector float data);
signed char vec_xrx (unsigned int index, vector signed char data);
unsigned char vec_xrx (unsigned int index, vector unsigned char data);
signed short vec_xrx (unsigned int index, vector signed short data);
unsigned short vec_xrx (unsigned int index, vector unsigned short data);
signed int vec_xrx (unsigned int index, vector signed int data);
unsigned int vec_xrx (unsigned int index, vector unsigned int data);
float vec_xrx (unsigned int index, vector float data);
The vec_all_nez, vec_any_eqz, and vec_cmpnez perform pairwise comparisons between
the elements at the same positions within their two vector arguments. The vec_all_nez
function returns a non-zero value if and only if all pairwise comparisons are not equal and
no element of either vector argument contains a zero. The vec_any_eqz function returns
a non-zero value if and only if at least one pairwise comparison is equal or if at least one
element of either vector argument contains a zero. The vec_cmpnez function returns a
vector of the same type as its two arguments, within which each element consists of all ones
to denote that either the corresponding elements of the incoming arguments are not equal
or that at least one of the corresponding elements contains zero. Otherwise, the element of
the returned vector contains all zeros.
The vec_xlx and vec_xrx functions extract the single element selected by the index
argument from the vector represented by the data argument. The index argument always
specifies a byte offset, regardless of the size of the vector element. With vec_xlx, index is
the offset of the first byte of the element to be extracted. With vec_xrx, index represents
the last byte of the element to be extracted, measured from the right end of the vector. In
other words, the last byte of the element to be extracted is found at position (15 - index).
There is no requirement that index be a multiple of the vector element size. However, if
the size of the vector element added to index is greater than 15, the content of the returned
value is undefined.
The following functions are also available if the ISA 3.0 instruction set additions
(-mcpu=power9) are available.
Only functions excluded from the PVIPR are listed here.
926 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The following built-in functions are available for the PowerPC family of processors, start-
ing with ISA 3.0 or later (-mcpu=power9).
Only functions excluded from the PVIPR are listed here.
__vector unsigned char
vec_absdb (__vector unsigned char arg1, __vector unsigned char arg2);
__vector unsigned short
vec_absdh (__vector unsigned short arg1, __vector unsigned short arg2);
__vector unsigned int
vec_absdw (__vector unsigned int arg1, __vector unsigned int arg2);
The vec_absd, vec_absdb, vec_absdh, and vec_absdw built-in functions each computes
the absolute differences of the pairs of vector elements supplied in its two vector arguments,
placing the absolute differences into the corresponding elements of the vector result.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 927
The following built-in functions are available for the PowerPC family of processors, start-
ing with ISA 3.0 or later (-mcpu=power9):
vector unsigned int vec_vrlnm (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned long long vec_vrlnm (vector unsigned long long,
vector unsigned long long);
The result of vec_vrlnm is obtained by rotating each element of the first argument vector
left and ANDing it with a mask. The second argument vector contains the mask beginning
in bits 11:15, the mask end in bits 19:23, and the shift count in bits 27:31, of each element.
If the cryptographic instructions are enabled (-mcrypto or -mcpu=power8), the following
builtins are enabled.
Only functions excluded from the PVIPR are listed here.
vector unsigned long long __builtin_crypto_vsbox (vector unsigned long long);
int, int);
Clear the left-most (16 - n) bytes of vector argument a, as if implemented by the vclrlb
instruction on a big-endian target and by the vclrrb instruction on a little-endian target.
A value of n that is greater than 16 is treated as if it equaled 16.
vector signed char
vec clrr (vector signed char a, unsigned int n);
vector unsigned char
vec clrr (vector unsigned char a, unsigned int n);
Clear the right-most (16 - n) bytes of vector argument a, as if implemented by the
vclrrb instruction on a big-endian target and by the vclrlb instruction on a little-endian
target. A value of n that is greater than 16 is treated as if it equaled 16.
vector unsigned long long int
vec gnb (vector unsigned int128, const unsigned char);
Perform a 128-bit vector gather operation, as if implemented by the vgnb instruction.
The second argument must be a literal integer value between 2 and 7 inclusive.
Vector Extract
vector unsigned long long int
vec extractl (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char, unsigned int);
vector unsigned long long int
vec extractl (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short, unsigned int);
vector unsigned long long int
vec extractl (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int, unsigned int);
vector unsigned long long int
vec extractl (vector unsigned long long, vector unsigned long long, unsigned int);
Extract an element from two concatenated vectors starting at the given byte index in
natural-endian order, and place it zero-extended in doubleword 1 of the result according
to natural element order. If the byte index is out of range for the data type, the intrinsic
will be rejected. For little-endian, this output will match the placement by the hardware
instruction, i.e., dword[0] in RTL notation. For big-endian, an additional instruction is
needed to move it from the "left" doubleword to the "right" one. For little-endian, semantics
matching the vextdubvrx, vextduhvrx, vextduwvrx instruction will be generated, while
for big-endian, semantics matching the vextdubvlx, vextduhvlx, vextduwvlx instructions
will be generated. Note that some fairly anomalous results can be generated if the byte
index is not aligned on an element boundary for the element being extracted. This is a
limitation of the bi-endian vector programming model is consistent with the limitation on
vec_perm.
vector unsigned long long int
vec extracth (vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char, unsigned int);
vector unsigned long long int
vec extracth (vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short,
unsigned int);
vector unsigned long long int
vec extracth (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int, unsigned int);
vector unsigned long long int
vec extracth (vector unsigned long long, vector unsigned long long,
unsigned int);
Extract an element from two concatenated vectors starting at the given byte index. The
index is based on big endian order for a little endian system. Similarly, the index is based
on little endian order for a big endian system. The extraced elements are zero-extended and
put in doubleword 1 according to natural element order. If the byte index is out of range
for the data type, the intrinsic will be rejected. For little-endian, this output will match the
930 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
unsigned int);
vector unsigned int
vec inserth (vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int, unsigned int);
Let src be the first argument, when the first argument is a scalar, or the rightmost
element of the first argument, when the first argument is a vector. Insert src into the
second argument at the position identified by the third argument, using opposite element
order in the second argument, and leaving the rest of the second argument unchanged. If
the byte index is greater than 14 for halfwords, 12 for words, or 8 for doublewords, the
intrinsic will be rejected. Note that the underlying hardware instruction uses the same
register for the second argument and the result. For little-endian, the code generation will
be semantically equivalent to vins[bhwd]lx, while for big-endian it will be semantically
equivalent to vins[bhwd]rx. Note that some fairly anomalous results can be generated if
the byte index is not aligned on an element boundary for the sort of element being inserted.
Convert a single precision floating-point value to double-precision and splat the result to
a vector of double-precision floats.
vector signed int vec splati ins (vector signed int,
const unsigned int, const signed int);
vector unsigned int vec splati ins (vector unsigned int,
const unsigned int, const unsigned int);
vector float vec splati ins (vector float, const unsigned int,
const float);
Argument 2 must be either 0 or 1. Splat the value of argument 3 into the word identified
by argument 2 of each doubleword of argument 1 and return the result. The other words
of argument 1 are unchanged.
Vector Blend Variable
vector signed char vec blendv (vector signed char, vector signed char,
vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned char vec blendv (vector unsigned char,
vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char);
vector signed short vec blendv (vector signed short,
vector signed short, vector unsigned short);
vector unsigned short vec blendv (vector unsigned short,
vector unsigned short, vector unsigned short);
vector signed int vec blendv (vector signed int, vector signed int,
vector unsigned int);
vector unsigned int vec blendv (vector unsigned int,
vector unsigned int, vector unsigned int);
vector signed long long vec blendv (vector signed long long,
vector signed long long, vector unsigned long long);
vector unsigned long long vec blendv (vector unsigned long long,
vector unsigned long long, vector unsigned long long);
vector float vec blendv (vector float, vector float,
vector unsigned int);
vector double vec blendv (vector double, vector double,
vector unsigned long long);
Blend the first and second argument vectors according to the sign bits of the corresponding
elements of the third argument vector. This is similar to the vsel and xxsel instructions
but for bigger elements.
Vector Permute Extended
vector signed char vec permx (vector signed char, vector signed char,
vector unsigned char, const int);
vector unsigned char vec permx (vector unsigned char,
vector unsigned char, vector unsigned char, const int);
vector signed short vec permx (vector signed short,
vector signed short, vector unsigned char, const int);
vector unsigned short vec permx (vector unsigned short,
vector unsigned short, vector unsigned char, const int);
vector signed int vec permx (vector signed int, vector signed int,
vector unsigned char, const int);
vector unsigned int vec permx (vector unsigned int,
vector unsigned int, vector unsigned char, const int);
vector signed long long vec permx (vector signed long long,
vector signed long long, vector unsigned char, const int);
vector unsigned long long vec permx (vector unsigned long long,
vector unsigned long long, vector unsigned char, const int);
vector float (vector float, vector float, vector unsigned char,
const int);
934 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
is placed into the doubleword element i of the vector returned. If an attempt is made
to perform any of the divisions 0x8000 0000 0000 0000 ÷ -1 or <anything> ÷ 0 then the
quotient is undefined.
vector signed int
vec dive (vector signed int a, vector signed int b);
vector unsigned int
vec dive (vector unsigned int a, vector unsigned int b);
For each integer value i from 0 to 3, do the following. The integer in word element i of
a is shifted left by 32 bits, then divided by the integer in word element i of b. The unique
integer quotient is placed into the word element i of the vector returned. If the quotient
cannot be represented in 32 bits, or if an attempt is made to perform any of the divisions
<anything> ÷ 0 then the quotient is undefined.
vector signed long long
vec dive (vector signed long long a, vector signed long long b);
vector unsigned long long
vec dive (vector unsigned long long a, vector unsigned long long b);
For each integer value i from 0 to 1, do the following. The integer in doubleword element
i of a is shifted left by 64 bits, then divided by the integer in doubleword element i of b.
The unique integer quotient is placed into the doubleword element i of the vector returned.
If the quotient cannot be represented in 64 bits, or if an attempt is made to perform
<anything> ÷ 0 then the quotient is undefined.
vector signed int
vec mod (vector signed int a, vector signed int b);
vector unsigned int
vec mod (vector unsigned int a, vector unsigned int b);
For each integer value i from 0 to 3, do the following. The integer in word element i of
a is divided by the integer in word element i of b. The unique integer remainder is placed
into the word element i of the vector returned. If an attempt is made to perform any of
the divisions 0x8000 0000 ÷ -1 or <anything> ÷ 0 then the remainder is undefined.
vector signed long long
vec mod (vector signed long long a, vector signed long long b);
vector unsigned long long
vec mod (vector unsigned long long a, vector unsigned long long b);
For each integer value i from 0 to 1, do the following. The integer in doubleword element
i of a is divided by the integer in doubleword element i of b. The unique integer remainder
is placed into the doubleword element i of the vector returned. If an attempt is made to
perform <anything> ÷ 0 then the remainder is undefined.
Generate PCV from specified Mask size, as if implemented by the xxgenpcvbm,
xxgenpcvhm, xxgenpcvwm instructions, where immediate value is either 0, 1, 2 or 3.
vector unsigned int128 vec rl (vector unsigned int128 A,
vector unsigned __int128 B);
vector signed int128 vec rl (vector signed int128 A,
vector unsigned __int128 B);
Result value: Each element of R is obtained by rotating the corresponding element of A
left by the number of bits specified by the corresponding element of B.
vector unsigned int128 vec rlmi (vector unsigned int128,
vector unsigned __int128,
vector unsigned __int128);
vector signed int128 vec rlmi (vector signed int128,
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 937
The following instances are extension of the existing overloaded built-ins vec_sld, vec_
sldw, vec_slo, vec_sro, vec_srl that are documented in the PVIPR.
vector signed int128 vec sld (vector signed int128,
vector signed __int128, const unsigned int);
vector unsigned int128 vec sld (vector unsigned int128,
vector unsigned __int128, const unsigned int);
vector signed int128 vec sldw (vector signed int128,
vector signed __int128, const unsigned int);
vector unsigned int128 vec sldw (vector unsigned int,
vector unsigned __int128, const unsigned int);
vector signed int128 vec slo (vector signed int128,
vector signed char);
vector signed int128 vec slo (vector signed int128,
vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned int128 vec slo (vector unsigned int128,
vector signed char);
vector unsigned int128 vec slo (vector unsigned int128,
vector unsigned char);
vector signed int128 vec sro (vector signed int128,
vector signed char);
vector signed int128 vec sro (vector signed int128,
vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned int128 vec sro (vector unsigned int128,
vector signed char);
vector unsigned int128 vec sro (vector unsigned int128,
vector unsigned char);
vector signed int128 vec srl (vector signed int128,
vector unsigned char);
vector unsigned int128 vec srl (vector unsigned int128,
vector unsigned char);
which does not take any input arguments. Refer to the ISA manual for a description of
each instruction’s operands.
unsigned int __builtin_tbegin (unsigned int);
unsigned int __builtin_tend (unsigned int);
Example usage of these low level built-in functions may look like:
#include <htmintrin.h>
while (1)
{
if (__builtin_tbegin (0))
{
/* Transaction State Initiated. */
if (is_locked (lock))
__builtin_tabort (0);
... transaction code...
__builtin_tend (0);
break;
}
else
{
/* Transaction State Failed. Use locks if the transaction
failure is "persistent" or we've tried too many times. */
if (num_retries-- <= 0
|| _TEXASRU_FAILURE_PERSISTENT (__builtin_get_texasru ()))
{
acquire_lock (lock);
... non transactional fallback path...
release_lock (lock);
break;
}
}
}
One final built-in function has been added that returns the value of the 2-bit Transaction
State field of the Machine Status Register (MSR) as stored in CR0.
unsigned long __builtin_ttest (void)
This built-in can be used to determine the current transaction state using the following
code example:
#include <htmintrin.h>
if (tx_state == _HTM_TRANSACTIONAL)
{
/* Code to use in transactional state. */
}
else if (tx_state == _HTM_NONTRANSACTIONAL)
{
/* Code to use in non-transactional state. */
}
else if (tx_state == _HTM_SUSPENDED)
{
/* Code to use in transaction suspended state. */
}
between PowerPC and S/390, allowing users to write one HTM source implementation that
can be compiled and executed on either system.
Using these common set of HTM inline functions, we can create a more portable version
of the HTM example in the previous section that will work on either PowerPC or S/390:
#include <htmxlintrin.h>
while (1)
{
if (__TM_begin (TM_buff) == _HTM_TBEGIN_STARTED)
{
/* Transaction State Initiated. */
if (is_locked (lock))
__TM_abort ();
... transaction code...
__TM_end ();
break;
}
else
{
/* Transaction State Failed. Use locks if the transaction
failure is "persistent" or we've tried too many times. */
if (num_retries-- <= 0
|| __TM_is_failure_persistent (TM_buff))
{
acquire_lock (lock);
... non transactional fallback path...
release_lock (lock);
break;
}
}
}
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 943
#include <amo.h>
Macros for the possible return codes of tbegin are defined in the htmintrin.h header file:
_HTM_TBEGIN_STARTED [Macro]
tbegin has been executed as part of normal processing. The transaction body is
supposed to be executed.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 969
_HTM_TBEGIN_INDETERMINATE [Macro]
The transaction was aborted due to an indeterminate condition which might be per-
sistent.
_HTM_TBEGIN_TRANSIENT [Macro]
The transaction aborted due to a transient failure. The transaction should be re-
executed in that case.
_HTM_TBEGIN_PERSISTENT [Macro]
The transaction aborted due to a persistent failure. Re-execution under same circum-
stances will not be productive.
_HTM_FIRST_USER_ABORT_CODE [Macro]
The _HTM_FIRST_USER_ABORT_CODE defined in htmintrin.h specifies the first abort
code which can be used for __builtin_tabort. Values below this threshold are
reserved for machine use.
The following built-in functions are always available and can be used to check the target
platform type.
‘goldmont’
Intel Atom Goldmont CPU.
‘goldmont-plus’
Intel Atom Goldmont Plus CPU.
‘tremont’ Intel Atom Tremont CPU.
‘sierraforest’
Intel Atom Sierra Forest CPU.
‘grandridge’
Intel Atom Grand Ridge CPU.
‘clearwaterforest’
Intel Atom Clearwater Forest CPU.
‘lujiazui’
ZHAOXIN lujiazui CPU.
‘yongfeng’
ZHAOXIN yongfeng CPU.
‘shijidadao’
ZHAOXIN shijidadao CPU.
‘amdfam10h’
AMD Family 10h CPU.
‘barcelona’
AMD Family 10h Barcelona CPU.
‘shanghai’
AMD Family 10h Shanghai CPU.
‘istanbul’
AMD Family 10h Istanbul CPU.
‘btver1’ AMD Family 14h CPU.
‘amdfam15h’
AMD Family 15h CPU.
‘bdver1’ AMD Family 15h Bulldozer version 1.
‘bdver2’ AMD Family 15h Bulldozer version 2.
‘bdver3’ AMD Family 15h Bulldozer version 3.
‘bdver4’ AMD Family 15h Bulldozer version 4.
‘btver2’ AMD Family 16h CPU.
‘amdfam17h’
AMD Family 17h CPU.
‘znver1’ AMD Family 17h Zen version 1.
‘znver2’ AMD Family 17h Zen version 2.
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 979
‘amdfam19h’
AMD Family 19h CPU.
‘znver3’ AMD Family 19h Zen version 3.
‘znver4’ AMD Family 19h Zen version 4.
‘znver5’ AMD Family 1ah Zen version 5.
Here is an example:
if (__builtin_cpu_is ("corei7"))
{
do_corei7 (); // Core i7 specific implementation.
}
else
{
do_generic (); // Generic implementation.
}
‘avx512vl’
AVX512VL instructions.
‘avx512bw’
AVX512BW instructions.
‘avx512dq’
AVX512DQ instructions.
‘avx512cd’
AVX512CD instructions.
‘avx512vbmi’
AVX512VBMI instructions.
‘avx512ifma’
AVX512IFMA instructions.
‘avx512vpopcntdq’
AVX512VPOPCNTDQ instructions.
‘avx512vbmi2’
AVX512VBMI2 instructions.
‘gfni’ GFNI instructions.
‘vpclmulqdq’
VPCLMULQDQ instructions.
‘avx512vnni’
AVX512VNNI instructions.
‘avx512bitalg’
AVX512BITALG instructions.
‘x86-64’ Baseline x86-64 microarchitecture level (as defined in x86-64 psABI).
‘x86-64-v2’
x86-64-v2 microarchitecture level.
‘x86-64-v3’
x86-64-v3 microarchitecture level.
‘x86-64-v4’
x86-64-v4 microarchitecture level.
Here is an example:
if (__builtin_cpu_supports ("popcnt"))
{
asm("popcnt %1,%0" : "=r"(count) : "rm"(n) : "cc");
}
else
{
count = generic_countbits (n); //generic implementation.
}
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 981
The following built-in functions are made available by -mmmx. All of them generate the
machine instruction that is part of the name.
v8qi __builtin_ia32_paddb (v8qi, v8qi);
v4hi __builtin_ia32_paddw (v4hi, v4hi);
v2si __builtin_ia32_paddd (v2si, v2si);
v8qi __builtin_ia32_psubb (v8qi, v8qi);
v4hi __builtin_ia32_psubw (v4hi, v4hi);
v2si __builtin_ia32_psubd (v2si, v2si);
v8qi __builtin_ia32_paddsb (v8qi, v8qi);
v4hi __builtin_ia32_paddsw (v4hi, v4hi);
v8qi __builtin_ia32_psubsb (v8qi, v8qi);
v4hi __builtin_ia32_psubsw (v4hi, v4hi);
v8qi __builtin_ia32_paddusb (v8qi, v8qi);
v4hi __builtin_ia32_paddusw (v4hi, v4hi);
v8qi __builtin_ia32_psubusb (v8qi, v8qi);
v4hi __builtin_ia32_psubusw (v4hi, v4hi);
v4hi __builtin_ia32_pmullw (v4hi, v4hi);
v4hi __builtin_ia32_pmulhw (v4hi, v4hi);
di __builtin_ia32_pand (di, di);
di __builtin_ia32_pandn (di,di);
di __builtin_ia32_por (di, di);
di __builtin_ia32_pxor (di, di);
v8qi __builtin_ia32_pcmpeqb (v8qi, v8qi);
v4hi __builtin_ia32_pcmpeqw (v4hi, v4hi);
v2si __builtin_ia32_pcmpeqd (v2si, v2si);
v8qi __builtin_ia32_pcmpgtb (v8qi, v8qi);
v4hi __builtin_ia32_pcmpgtw (v4hi, v4hi);
v2si __builtin_ia32_pcmpgtd (v2si, v2si);
v8qi __builtin_ia32_punpckhbw (v8qi, v8qi);
v4hi __builtin_ia32_punpckhwd (v4hi, v4hi);
v2si __builtin_ia32_punpckhdq (v2si, v2si);
v8qi __builtin_ia32_punpcklbw (v8qi, v8qi);
v4hi __builtin_ia32_punpcklwd (v4hi, v4hi);
v2si __builtin_ia32_punpckldq (v2si, v2si);
v8qi __builtin_ia32_packsswb (v4hi, v4hi);
v4hi __builtin_ia32_packssdw (v2si, v2si);
v8qi __builtin_ia32_packuswb (v4hi, v4hi);
The following built-in functions are available when -msse is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
int __builtin_ia32_comieq (v4sf, v4sf);
int __builtin_ia32_comineq (v4sf, v4sf);
int __builtin_ia32_comilt (v4sf, v4sf);
int __builtin_ia32_comile (v4sf, v4sf);
int __builtin_ia32_comigt (v4sf, v4sf);
int __builtin_ia32_comige (v4sf, v4sf);
int __builtin_ia32_ucomieq (v4sf, v4sf);
int __builtin_ia32_ucomineq (v4sf, v4sf);
int __builtin_ia32_ucomilt (v4sf, v4sf);
int __builtin_ia32_ucomile (v4sf, v4sf);
int __builtin_ia32_ucomigt (v4sf, v4sf);
int __builtin_ia32_ucomige (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_addps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_subps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_mulps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_divps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_addss (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_subss (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_mulss (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_divss (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpeqps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpltps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpleps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpgtps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpgeps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpunordps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpneqps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpnltps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpnleps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpngtps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpngeps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpordps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpeqss (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpltss (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpless (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpunordss (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpneqss (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpnltss (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpnless (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_cmpordss (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_maxps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_maxss (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_minps (v4sf, v4sf);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_minss (v4sf, v4sf);
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 983
The following built-in functions are available when -msse2 is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
int __builtin_ia32_comisdeq (v2df, v2df);
int __builtin_ia32_comisdlt (v2df, v2df);
int __builtin_ia32_comisdle (v2df, v2df);
int __builtin_ia32_comisdgt (v2df, v2df);
int __builtin_ia32_comisdge (v2df, v2df);
int __builtin_ia32_comisdneq (v2df, v2df);
984 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The following built-in functions are changed to generate new SSE4.1 instructions when
-msse4.1 is used.
The following built-in functions are available when -msse4.2 is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
v16qi __builtin_ia32_pcmpestrm128 (v16qi, int, v16qi, int, const int);
int __builtin_ia32_pcmpestri128 (v16qi, int, v16qi, int, const int);
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 989
The following built-in functions are changed to generate new SSE4.2 instructions when
-msse4.2 is used.
The following built-in functions are available when -mavx is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
v4df __builtin_ia32_addpd256 (v4df,v4df);
v8sf __builtin_ia32_addps256 (v8sf,v8sf);
v4df __builtin_ia32_addsubpd256 (v4df,v4df);
v8sf __builtin_ia32_addsubps256 (v8sf,v8sf);
v4df __builtin_ia32_andnpd256 (v4df,v4df);
v8sf __builtin_ia32_andnps256 (v8sf,v8sf);
v4df __builtin_ia32_andpd256 (v4df,v4df);
990 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The following built-in functions are available when -mavx2 is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
v32qi __builtin_ia32_mpsadbw256 (v32qi,v32qi,int);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_pabsb256 (v32qi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_pabsw256 (v16hi);
v8si __builtin_ia32_pabsd256 (v8si);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_packssdw256 (v8si,v8si);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_packsswb256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_packusdw256 (v8si,v8si);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_packuswb256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_paddb256 (v32qi,v32qi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_paddw256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v8si __builtin_ia32_paddd256 (v8si,v8si);
v4di __builtin_ia32_paddq256 (v4di,v4di);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_paddsb256 (v32qi,v32qi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_paddsw256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_paddusb256 (v32qi,v32qi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_paddusw256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v4di __builtin_ia32_palignr256 (v4di,v4di,int);
v4di __builtin_ia32_andsi256 (v4di,v4di);
v4di __builtin_ia32_andnotsi256 (v4di,v4di);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_pavgb256 (v32qi,v32qi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_pavgw256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_pblendvb256 (v32qi,v32qi,v32qi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_pblendw256 (v16hi,v16hi,int);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_pcmpeqb256 (v32qi,v32qi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_pcmpeqw256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v8si __builtin_ia32_pcmpeqd256 (c8si,v8si);
v4di __builtin_ia32_pcmpeqq256 (v4di,v4di);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_pcmpgtb256 (v32qi,v32qi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_pcmpgtw256 (16hi,v16hi);
v8si __builtin_ia32_pcmpgtd256 (v8si,v8si);
v4di __builtin_ia32_pcmpgtq256 (v4di,v4di);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_phaddw256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v8si __builtin_ia32_phaddd256 (v8si,v8si);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_phaddsw256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_phsubw256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v8si __builtin_ia32_phsubd256 (v8si,v8si);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_phsubsw256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_pmaddubsw256 (v32qi,v32qi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_pmaddwd256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_pmaxsb256 (v32qi,v32qi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_pmaxsw256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v8si __builtin_ia32_pmaxsd256 (v8si,v8si);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_pmaxub256 (v32qi,v32qi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_pmaxuw256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v8si __builtin_ia32_pmaxud256 (v8si,v8si);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_pminsb256 (v32qi,v32qi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_pminsw256 (v16hi,v16hi);
v8si __builtin_ia32_pminsd256 (v8si,v8si);
v32qi __builtin_ia32_pminub256 (v32qi,v32qi);
v16hi __builtin_ia32_pminuw256 (v16hi,v16hi);
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 993
The following built-in function is available when -mfsgsbase is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
unsigned int __builtin_ia32_rdfsbase32 (void);
unsigned long long __builtin_ia32_rdfsbase64 (void);
unsigned int __builtin_ia32_rdgsbase32 (void);
unsigned long long __builtin_ia32_rdgsbase64 (void);
void _writefsbase_u32 (unsigned int);
void _writefsbase_u64 (unsigned long long);
void _writegsbase_u32 (unsigned int);
void _writegsbase_u64 (unsigned long long);
The following built-in function is available when -mrdrnd is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
unsigned int __builtin_ia32_rdrand16_step (unsigned short *);
unsigned int __builtin_ia32_rdrand32_step (unsigned int *);
unsigned int __builtin_ia32_rdrand64_step (unsigned long long *);
The following built-in function is available when -mptwrite is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
void __builtin_ia32_ptwrite32 (unsigned);
void __builtin_ia32_ptwrite64 (unsigned long long);
The following built-in functions are available when -msse4a is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
void __builtin_ia32_movntsd (double *, v2df);
void __builtin_ia32_movntss (float *, v4sf);
v2di __builtin_ia32_extrq (v2di, v16qi);
v2di __builtin_ia32_extrqi (v2di, const unsigned int, const unsigned int);
v2di __builtin_ia32_insertq (v2di, v2di);
v2di __builtin_ia32_insertqi (v2di, v2di, const unsigned int, const unsigned int);
The following built-in functions are available when -mxop is used.
v2df __builtin_ia32_vfrczpd (v2df);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_vfrczps (v4sf);
v2df __builtin_ia32_vfrczsd (v2df);
v4sf __builtin_ia32_vfrczss (v4sf);
v4df __builtin_ia32_vfrczpd256 (v4df);
996 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The following built-in functions are available when -mbmi2 is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
unsigned int _bzhi_u32 (unsigned int, unsigned int);
unsigned int _pdep_u32 (unsigned int, unsigned int);
unsigned int _pext_u32 (unsigned int, unsigned int);
unsigned long long _bzhi_u64 (unsigned long long, unsigned long long);
unsigned long long _pdep_u64 (unsigned long long, unsigned long long);
unsigned long long _pext_u64 (unsigned long long, unsigned long long);
The following built-in functions are available when -mlzcnt is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
unsigned short __builtin_ia32_lzcnt_u16(unsigned short);
unsigned int __builtin_ia32_lzcnt_u32(unsigned int);
unsigned long long __builtin_ia32_lzcnt_u64 (unsigned long long);
The following built-in functions are available when -mfxsr is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
void __builtin_ia32_fxsave (void *);
void __builtin_ia32_fxrstor (void *);
void __builtin_ia32_fxsave64 (void *);
void __builtin_ia32_fxrstor64 (void *);
The following built-in functions are available when -mxsave is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
void __builtin_ia32_xsave (void *, long long);
void __builtin_ia32_xrstor (void *, long long);
void __builtin_ia32_xsave64 (void *, long long);
void __builtin_ia32_xrstor64 (void *, long long);
The following built-in functions are available when -mxsaveopt is used. All of them
generate the machine instruction that is part of the name.
void __builtin_ia32_xsaveopt (void *, long long);
void __builtin_ia32_xsaveopt64 (void *, long long);
The following built-in functions are available when -mtbm is used. Both of them generate
the immediate form of the bextr machine instruction.
unsigned int __builtin_ia32_bextri_u32 (unsigned int,
const unsigned int);
unsigned long long __builtin_ia32_bextri_u64 (unsigned long long,
const unsigned long long);
The following built-in functions are available when -m3dnow is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
void __builtin_ia32_femms (void);
v8qi __builtin_ia32_pavgusb (v8qi, v8qi);
v2si __builtin_ia32_pf2id (v2sf);
v2sf __builtin_ia32_pfacc (v2sf, v2sf);
v2sf __builtin_ia32_pfadd (v2sf, v2sf);
v2si __builtin_ia32_pfcmpeq (v2sf, v2sf);
v2si __builtin_ia32_pfcmpge (v2sf, v2sf);
v2si __builtin_ia32_pfcmpgt (v2sf, v2sf);
v2sf __builtin_ia32_pfmax (v2sf, v2sf);
v2sf __builtin_ia32_pfmin (v2sf, v2sf);
v2sf __builtin_ia32_pfmul (v2sf, v2sf);
v2sf __builtin_ia32_pfrcp (v2sf);
v2sf __builtin_ia32_pfrcpit1 (v2sf, v2sf);
v2sf __builtin_ia32_pfrcpit2 (v2sf, v2sf);
v2sf __builtin_ia32_pfrsqrt (v2sf);
1000 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The following built-in functions are available when -m3dnowa is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
v2si __builtin_ia32_pf2iw (v2sf);
v2sf __builtin_ia32_pfnacc (v2sf, v2sf);
v2sf __builtin_ia32_pfpnacc (v2sf, v2sf);
v2sf __builtin_ia32_pi2fw (v2si);
v2sf __builtin_ia32_pswapdsf (v2sf);
v2si __builtin_ia32_pswapdsi (v2si);
The following built-in functions are available when -mrtm is used They are used for
restricted transactional memory. These are the internal low level functions. Normally the
functions in Section 6.65.39 [x86 transactional memory intrinsics], page 1001, should be
used instead.
int __builtin_ia32_xbegin ();
void __builtin_ia32_xend ();
void __builtin_ia32_xabort (status);
int __builtin_ia32_xtest ();
The following built-in functions are available when -mmwaitx is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
void __builtin_ia32_monitorx (void *, unsigned int, unsigned int);
void __builtin_ia32_mwaitx (unsigned int, unsigned int, unsigned int);
The following built-in functions are available when -mclzero is used. All of them generate
the machine instruction that is part of the name.
void __builtin_i32_clzero (void *);
The following built-in functions are available when -mpku is used. They generate reads
and writes to PKRU.
void __builtin_ia32_wrpkru (unsigned int);
unsigned int __builtin_ia32_rdpkru ();
The following built-in functions are available when -mshstk option is used. They support
shadow stack machine instructions from Intel Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET).
Each built-in function generates the machine instruction that is part of the function’s name.
These are the internal low-level functions. Normally the functions in Section 6.65.40 [x86
control-flow protection intrinsics], page 1002, should be used instead.
unsigned int __builtin_ia32_rdsspd (void);
unsigned long long __builtin_ia32_rdsspq (void);
void __builtin_ia32_incsspd (unsigned int);
void __builtin_ia32_incsspq (unsigned long long);
void __builtin_ia32_saveprevssp(void);
void __builtin_ia32_rstorssp(void *);
void __builtin_ia32_wrssd(unsigned int, void *);
void __builtin_ia32_wrssq(unsigned long long, void *);
void __builtin_ia32_wrussd(unsigned int, void *);
void __builtin_ia32_wrussq(unsigned long long, void *);
void __builtin_ia32_setssbsy(void);
void __builtin_ia32_clrssbsy(void *);
Chapter 6: Extensions to the C Language Family 1001
Here is an example showing handling for _XABORT_RETRY and a fallback path for other
failures:
#include <immintrin.h>
} \
} \
while (0)
This code runs unconditionally on all 64-bit processors. For 32-bit processors the code runs
on those that support multi-byte NOP instructions.
longcall (0)
Do not apply the longcall attribute to subsequent function declarations.
Note that these pragmas override any command-line options. GCC keeps track
of the location of each pragma, and issues diagnostics according to the state
as of that point in the source file. Thus, pragmas occurring after a line do not
affect diagnostics caused by that line.
#pragma GCC diagnostic push
#pragma GCC diagnostic pop
Causes GCC to remember the state of the diagnostics as of each push, and
restore to that point at each pop. If a pop has no matching push, the command-
line options are restored.
#pragma GCC diagnostic error "-Wuninitialized"
foo(a); /* error is given for this one */
#pragma GCC diagnostic push
#pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wuninitialized"
foo(b); /* no diagnostic for this one */
#pragma GCC diagnostic pop
foo(c); /* error is given for this one */
#pragma GCC diagnostic pop
foo(d); /* depends on command-line options */
GCC also offers a simple mechanism for printing messages during compilation.
Newlines can be included in the string by using the ‘\n’ escape sequence. They
will be displayed as newlines even if the -fmessage-length option is set to
zero.
The error is only generated if the pragma is present in the code after pre-
processing has been completed. It does not matter however if the code contain-
ing the pragma is unreachable:
#if 0
#pragma GCC error "this error is not seen"
#endif
void foo (void)
{
return;
#pragma GCC error "this error is seen"
}
int x [X];
In this example, the definition of X as 1 is saved by #pragma push_macro and restored by
#pragma pop_macro.
struct {
int a;
struct {
int a;
};
} foo;
it is ambiguous which a is being referred to with ‘foo.a’. The compiler gives errors for such
constructs.
Unless -fms-extensions is used, the unnamed field must be a structure or union defini-
tion without a tag (for example, ‘struct { int a; };’). If -fms-extensions is used, the
field may also be a definition with a tag such as ‘struct foo { int a; };’, a reference to
a previously defined structure or union such as ‘struct foo;’, or a reference to a typedef
name for a previously defined structure or union type.
The option -fplan9-extensions enables -fms-extensions as well as two other exten-
sions. First, a pointer to a structure is automatically converted to a pointer to an anonymous
field for assignments and function calls. For example:
struct s1 { int a; };
struct s2 { struct s1; };
extern void f1 (struct s1 *);
void f2 (struct s2 *p) { f1 (p); }
In the call to f1 inside f2, the pointer p is converted into a pointer to the anonymous field.
Second, when the type of an anonymous field is a typedef for a struct or union, code
may refer to the field using the name of the typedef.
typedef struct { int a; } s1;
struct s2 { s1; };
s1 f1 (struct s2 *p) { return p->s1; }
These usages are only permitted when they are not ambiguous.
A local variable or class data member declared both static and __thread
gives the variable or member thread storage duration.
• [basic.stc.static]
Change paragraph 1
All objects that have neither thread storage duration, dynamic storage
duration nor are local [. . . ].
• [dcl.stc]
Add __thread to the list in paragraph 1.
Change paragraph 1
With the exception of __thread, at most one storage-class-specifier shall
appear in a given decl-specifier-seq. The __thread specifier may be used
alone, or immediately following the extern or static specifiers. [. . . ]
Add after paragraph 5
The __thread specifier can be applied only to the names of objects and to
anonymous unions.
• [class.mem]
Add after paragraph 6
Non-static members shall not be __thread.
6.71 OpenMP
OpenMP (Open Multi-Processing) is an application programming interface (API) that sup-
ports multi-platform shared memory multiprocessing programming in C/C++ and Fortran
on many architectures, including Unix and Microsoft Windows platforms. It consists of a set
of compiler directives, library routines, and environment variables that influence run-time
behavior.
GCC implements all of the OpenMP Application Program Interface v4.5 (https://
openmp.org/specifications/), and many features from later versions of the OpenMP
specification. See Section “OpenMP Implementation Status” in GNU Offloading and Multi
Processing Runtime Library, for more details about currently supported OpenMP features.
To enable the processing of OpenMP directives ‘#pragma omp’, ‘[[omp::directive(...)]]’,
‘[[omp::decl(...)]]’, and ‘[[omp::sequence(...)]]’ in C and C++, GCC needs to be
1016 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
invoked with the -fopenmp option. This option also arranges for automatic linking of the
OpenMP runtime library. See GNU Offloading and Multi Processing Runtime Library.
See Section 3.7 [OpenMP and OpenACC Options], page 82, for additional options useful
with -fopenmp.
6.72 OpenACC
OpenACC is an application programming interface (API) that supports offloading of code
to accelerator devices. It consists of a set of compiler directives, library routines, and
environment variables that influence run-time behavior.
GCC strives to be compatible with the OpenACC Application Programming Interface
v2.6 (https://www.openacc.org/).
To enable the processing of OpenACC directives ‘#pragma acc’ in C and C++, GCC needs
to be invoked with the -fopenacc option. This option also arranges for automatic linking of
the OpenACC runtime library. See GNU Offloading and Multi Processing Runtime Library.
See Section 3.7 [OpenMP and OpenACC Options], page 82, for additional options useful
with -fopenacc.
1017
{
/* . . . */
}
In the body of fn, rptr points to an unaliased integer and rref refers to a (different) unaliased
integer.
You may also specify whether a member function’s this pointer is unaliased by using
__restrict__ as a member function qualifier.
void T::fn () __restrict__
{
/* . . . */
}
Within the body of T::fn, this has the effective definition T *__restrict__ const this.
Notice that the interpretation of a __restrict__ member function qualifier is different to
that of const or volatile qualifier, in that it is applied to the pointer rather than the
object. This is consistent with other compilers that implement restricted pointers.
As with all outermost parameter qualifiers, __restrict__ is ignored in function definition
matching. This means you only need to specify __restrict__ in a function definition,
rather than in a function prototype as well.
type_info objects
C++ requires information about types to be written out in order to implement
‘dynamic_cast’, ‘typeid’ and exception handling. For polymorphic classes
(classes with virtual functions), the ‘type_info’ object is written out along
with the vtable so that ‘dynamic_cast’ can determine the dynamic type of a
class object at run time. For all other types, we write out the ‘type_info’
object when it is used: when applying ‘typeid’ to an expression, throwing an
object, or referring to a type in a catch clause or exception specification.
Template Instantiations
Most everything in this section also applies to template instantiations, but there
are other options as well. See Section 7.5 [Where’s the Template?], page 1020.
When used with GNU ld version 2.8 or later on an ELF system such as GNU/Linux or
Solaris 2, or on Microsoft Windows, duplicate copies of these constructs will be discarded
at link time. This is known as COMDAT support.
On targets that don’t support COMDAT, but do support weak symbols, GCC uses them.
This way one copy overrides all the others, but the unused copies still take up space in the
executable.
For targets that do not support either COMDAT or weak symbols, most entities with
vague linkage are emitted as local symbols to avoid duplicate definition errors from the
linker. This does not happen for local statics in inlines, however, as having multiple copies
almost certainly breaks things.
See Section 7.4 [Declarations and Definitions in One Header], page 1019, for another way
to control placement of these constructs.
The second form of this directive is useful for the case where you have multiple
headers with the same name in different directories. If you use this form, you
must specify the same string to ‘#pragma implementation’.
#pragma implementation
#pragma implementation "objects.h"
Use this pragma in a main input file, when you want full output from included
header files to be generated (and made globally visible). The included header
file, in turn, should use ‘#pragma interface’. Backup copies of inline member
functions, debugging information, and the internal tables used to implement
virtual functions are all generated in implementation files.
If you use ‘#pragma implementation’ with no argument, it applies to an
include file with the same basename1 as your source file. For example, in
allclass.cc, giving just ‘#pragma implementation’ by itself is equivalent to
‘#pragma implementation "allclass.h"’.
Use the string argument if you want a single implementation file to include code
from multiple header files. (You must also use ‘#include’ to include the header
file; ‘#pragma implementation’ only specifies how to use the file—it doesn’t
actually include it.)
There is no way to split up the contents of a single header file into multiple
implementation files.
‘#pragma implementation’ and ‘#pragma interface’ also have an effect on function in-
lining.
If you define a class in a header file marked with ‘#pragma interface’, the effect on
an inline function defined in that class is similar to an explicit extern declaration—the
compiler emits no code at all to define an independent version of the function. Its definition
is used only for inlining with its callers.
Conversely, when you include the same header file in a main source file that declares it
as ‘#pragma implementation’, the compiler emits code for the function itself; this defines
a version of the function that can be found via pointers (or by callers compiled without
inlining). If all calls to the function can be inlined, you can avoid emitting the function by
compiling with -fno-implement-inlines. If any calls are not inlined, you will get linker
errors.
stances in each translation unit that uses them, and the linker collapses them
together. The advantage of this model is that the linker only has to consider
the object files themselves; there is no external complexity to worry about. The
disadvantage is that compilation time is increased because the template code
is being compiled repeatedly. Code written for this model tends to include
definitions of all templates in the header file, since they must be seen to be
instantiated.
Cfront model
The AT&T C++ translator, Cfront, solved the template instantiation problem
by creating the notion of a template repository, an automatically maintained
place where template instances are stored. A more modern version of the repos-
itory works as follows: As individual object files are built, the compiler places
any template definitions and instantiations encountered in the repository. At
link time, the link wrapper adds in the objects in the repository and compiles
any needed instances that were not previously emitted. The advantages of this
model are more optimal compilation speed and the ability to use the system
linker; to implement the Borland model a compiler vendor also needs to replace
the linker. The disadvantages are vastly increased complexity, and thus poten-
tial for error; for some code this can be just as transparent, but in practice
it can been very difficult to build multiple programs in one directory and one
program in multiple directories. Code written for this model tends to separate
definitions of non-inline member templates into a separate file, which should be
compiled separately.
G++ implements the Borland model on targets where the linker supports it, including ELF
targets (such as GNU/Linux), macOS and Microsoft Windows. Otherwise G++ implements
neither automatic model.
You have the following options for dealing with template instantiations:
1. Do nothing. Code written for the Borland model works fine, but each translation
unit contains instances of each of the templates it uses. The duplicate instances will
be discarded by the linker, but in a large program, this can lead to an unacceptable
amount of code duplication in object files or shared libraries.
Duplicate instances of a template can be avoided by defining an explicit instantiation
in one object file, and preventing the compiler from doing implicit instantiations in
any other object files by using an explicit instantiation declaration, using the extern
template syntax:
extern template int max (int, int);
This syntax is defined in the C++ 2011 standard, but has been supported by G++ and
other compilers since well before 2011.
Explicit instantiations can be used for the largest or most frequently duplicated in-
stances, without having to know exactly which other instances are used in the rest
of the program. You can scatter the explicit instantiations throughout your program,
perhaps putting them in the translation units where the instances are used or the
translation units that define the templates themselves; you can put all of the explicit
instantiations you need into one big file; or you can create small files like
#include "Foo.h"
1022 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
#include "Foo.cc"
fptr p = (fptr)(a.*fp);
For PMF constants (i.e. expressions of the form ‘&Klasse::Member’), no object is needed
to obtain the address of the function. They can be converted to function pointers directly:
fptr p1 = (fptr)(&A::foo);
You must specify -Wno-pmf-conversions to use this extension.
In the following example, A would normally be created before B, but the init_
priority attribute reverses that order:
Some_Class A __attribute__ ((init_priority (2000)));
Some_Class B __attribute__ ((init_priority (543)));
Note that the particular values of priority do not matter; only their relative
ordering.
no_dangling
This attribute can be applied on a class type, function, or member func-
tion. Dangling references to classes marked with this attribute will have the
-Wdangling-reference diagnostic suppressed; so will references returned from
the gnu::no_dangling-marked functions. For example:
class [[gnu::no_dangling]] S { ... };
Or:
class A {
int *p;
[[gnu::no_dangling]] int &foo() { return *p; }
};
warn_unused
For C++ types with non-trivial constructors and/or destructors it is impossible
for the compiler to determine whether a variable of this type is truly unused if
it is not referenced. This type attribute informs the compiler that variables of
this type should be warned about if they appear to be unused, just like variables
of fundamental types.
This attribute is appropriate for types which just represent a value, such as
std::string; it is not appropriate for types which control a resource, such as
std::lock_guard.
This attribute is also accepted in C, but it is unnecessary because C does not
have constructors or destructors.
cold
Chapter 7: Extensions to the C++ Language 1025
In addition to functions and labels, GNU C++ allows the cold attribute to be
used on C++ classes, structs, or unions. Applying the cold attribute on a type
has the effect of treating every member function of the type, including implicit
special member functions, as cold. If a member function is marked with the hot
function attribute, the hot attribute takes precedence and the cold attribute
is not propagated.
For the effects of the cold attribute on functions, see Section 6.35.1 [Common
Function Attributes], page 604.
hot
In addition to functions and labels, GNU C++ allows the hot attribute to be
used on C++ classes, structs, or unions. Applying the hot attribute on a type
has the effect of treating every member function of the type, including implicit
special member functions, as hot. If a member function is marked with the cold
function attribute, the cold attribute takes precedence and the hot attribute
is not propagated.
For the effects of the hot attribute on functions, see Section 6.35.1 [Common
Function Attributes], page 604.
int main ()
{
int (*p)() = &foo;
assert ((*p) () == foo ());
return 0;
}
In the above example, four versions of function foo are created. The first version of foo
with the target attribute "default" is the default version. This version gets executed when
no other target specific version qualifies for execution on a particular platform. A new ver-
sion of foo is created by using the same function signature but with a different target string.
Function foo is called or a pointer to it is taken just like a regular function. GCC takes care of
doing the dispatching to call the right version at runtime. Refer to the GCC wiki on Func-
tion Multiversioning (https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/FunctionMultiVersioning) for more
details.
The header files contain detailed documentation for each function in the GNU Objective-
C runtime API.
@implementation FileStream
+ (void)initialize
{
Stdin = [[FileStream new] initWithFd:0];
Stdout = [[FileStream new] initWithFd:1];
Stderr = [[FileStream new] initWithFd:2];
}
In this example, the initialization of Stdin, Stdout and Stderr in +initialize occurs
too late. The programmer can send a message to one of these objects before the variables
are actually initialized, thus sending messages to the nil object. The +initialize method
which actually initializes the global variables is not invoked until the first message is sent
to the class object. The solution would require these variables to be initialized just before
entering main.
Chapter 8: GNU Objective-C Features 1033
The correct solution of the above problem is to use the +load method instead of
+initialize:
@implementation FileStream
+ (void)load
{
Stdin = [[FileStream new] initWithFd:0];
Stdout = [[FileStream new] initWithFd:1];
Stderr = [[FileStream new] initWithFd:2];
}
The +load is a method that is not overridden by categories. If a class and a category of
it both implement +load, both methods are invoked. This allows some additional initial-
izations to be performed in a category.
This mechanism is not intended to be a replacement for +initialize. You should be
aware of its limitations when you decide to use it instead of +initialize.
+initialize will be called first. To avoid possible problems try to implement only one of
these methods.
The +load method is also invoked when a bundle is dynamically loaded into your running
program. This happens automatically without any intervening operation from you. When
you write bundles and you need to write +load you can safely create and send messages to
objects whose classes already exist in the running program. The same restrictions as above
apply to classes defined in bundle.
previous encoding contained only the size of the bit-field. Using only this information it is
not possible to reliably compute the size occupied by the bit-field. This is very important
in the presence of the Boehm’s garbage collector because the objects are allocated using
the typed memory facility available in this collector. The typed memory allocation requires
information about where the pointers are located inside the object.
The position in the bit-field is the position, counting in bits, of the bit closest to the
beginning of the structure.
The non-atomic types are encoded as follows:
pointers ‘^’ followed by the pointed type.
arrays ‘[’ followed by the number of elements in the array followed by the
type of the elements followed by ‘]’
structures ‘{’ followed by the name of the structure (or ‘?’ if the structure is
unnamed), the ‘=’ sign, the type of the members and by ‘}’
unions ‘(’ followed by the name of the structure (or ‘?’ if the union is un-
named), the ‘=’ sign, the type of the members followed by ‘)’
vectors ‘![’ followed by the vector size (the number of bytes composing the
vector) followed by a comma, followed by the alignment (in bytes) of
the vector, followed by the type of the elements followed by ‘]’
Here are some types and their encodings, as they are generated by the compiler on an
i386 machine:
struct { {?=i[3f]b128i3b131i2c}
int i;
float f[3];
int a:3;
int b:2;
char c;
}
In addition to the types the compiler also encodes the type specifiers. The table below
describes the encoding of the current Objective-C type specifiers:
Specifier Encoding
const r
in n
inout N
out o
bycopy O
byref R
oneway V
1036 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The type specifiers are encoded just before the type. Unlike types however, the type
specifiers are only encoded when they appear in method argument types.
Note how const interacts with pointers:
const int* is a pointer to a const int, and so is encoded as ^ri. int* const, instead,
is a const pointer to an int, and so is encoded as r^i.
Finally, there is a complication when encoding const char * versus char * const. Be-
cause char * is encoded as * and not as ^c, there is no way to express the fact that r applies
to the pointer or to the pointee.
Hence, it is assumed as a convention that r* means const char * (since it is what is
most often meant), and there is no way to encode char *const. char *const would simply
be encoded as *, and the const is lost.
In addition to that, the NeXT runtime uses a different encoding for bitfields. It encodes
them as b followed by the size, without a bit offset or the underlying field type.
8.3.2 @encode
GNU Objective-C supports the @encode syntax that allows you to create a type encoding
from a C/Objective-C type. For example, @encode(int) is compiled by the compiler into
"i".
@encode does not support type qualifiers other than const. For example, @encode(const
char*) is valid and is compiled into "r*", while @encode(bycopy char *) is invalid and
will cause a compilation error.
Chapter 8: GNU Objective-C Features 1037
collector; this can be useful in certain situations, especially when you want to keep track
of the allocated objects, yet allow them to be collected. This kind of pointers can only be
members of objects, you cannot declare a global pointer as a weak reference. Every type
which is a pointer type can be declared a weak pointer, including id, Class and SEL.
Here is an example of how to use this feature. Suppose you want to implement a class
whose instances hold a weak pointer reference; the following class does this:
- initWithPointer:(const void*)p;
- (const void*)weakPointer;
@end
@implementation WeakPointer
+ (void)initialize
{
if (self == objc_lookUpClass ("WeakPointer"))
class_ivar_set_gcinvisible (self, "weakPointer", YES);
}
- initWithPointer:(const void*)p
{
weakPointer = p;
return self;
}
- (const void*)weakPointer
{
return weakPointer;
}
@end
Weak pointers are supported through a new type character specifier represented by the
‘!’ character. The class_ivar_set_gcinvisible() function adds or removes this specifier
to the string type description of the instance variable named as argument.
@interface MyConstantStringClass
{
Class isa;
char *c_string;
unsigned int len;
}
@end
NXConstantString inherits from Object; user class libraries may choose to inherit the
customized constant string class from a different class than Object. There is no requirement
in the methods the constant string class has to implement, but the final ivar layout of the
class must be the compatible with the given structure.
When the compiler creates the statically allocated constant string object, the c_string
field will be filled by the compiler with the string; the length field will be filled by the
compiler with the string length; the isa pointer will be filled with NULL by the compiler,
and it will later be fixed up automatically at runtime by the GNU Objective-C runtime
library to point to the class which was set by the -fconstant-string-class option when
the object file is loaded (if you wonder how it works behind the scenes, the name of the
class to use, and the list of static objects to fixup, are stored by the compiler in the object
file in a place where the GNU runtime library will find them at runtime).
As a result, when a file is compiled with the -fconstant-string-class option, all the
constant string objects will be instances of the class specified as argument to this option. It
is possible to have multiple compilation units referring to different constant string classes,
neither the compiler nor the linker impose any restrictions in doing this.
8.6 compatibility_alias
The keyword @compatibility_alias allows you to define a class name as equivalent to
another class name. For example:
@compatibility_alias WOApplication GSWApplication;
tells the compiler that each time it encounters WOApplication as a class name, it
should replace it with GSWApplication (that is, WOApplication is just an alias for
GSWApplication).
There are some constraints on how this can be used—
• WOApplication (the alias) must not be an existing class;
• GSWApplication (the real class) must be an existing class.
8.7 Exceptions
GNU Objective-C provides exception support built into the language, as in the following
example:
@try {
...
@throw expr;
...
1040 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
}
@catch (AnObjCClass *exc) {
...
@throw expr;
...
@throw;
...
}
@catch (AnotherClass *exc) {
...
}
@catch (id allOthers) {
...
}
@finally {
...
@throw expr;
...
}
8.8 Synchronization
GNU Objective-C provides support for synchronized blocks:
@synchronized (ObjCClass *guard) {
...
}
Upon entering the @synchronized block, a thread of execution shall first check whether
a lock has been placed on the corresponding guard object by another thread. If it has, the
current thread shall wait until the other thread relinquishes its lock. Once guard becomes
available, the current thread will place its own lock on it, execute the code contained in the
@synchronized block, and finally relinquish the lock (thereby making guard available to
other threads).
Unlike Java, Objective-C does not allow for entire methods to be marked @synchronized.
Note that throwing exceptions out of @synchronized blocks is allowed, and will cause the
guarding object to be unlocked properly.
Because of the interactions between synchronization and exception handling, you can only
use @synchronized when compiling with exceptions enabled, that is with the command line
option -fobjc-exceptions.
{
id object;
for (object in array)
{
/* Do something with 'object' */
}
}
but can save some typing.
Note that the option -std=c99 is not required to allow this syntax in Objective-C.
To configure the hook, you set the global variable __objc_msg_forward2 to a func-
tion with the same argument and return types of objc_msg_lookup(). When objc_msg_
lookup() cannot find a method implementation, it invokes the hook function you provided
to get a method implementation to return. So, in practice __objc_msg_forward2 allows you
to extend objc_msg_lookup() by adding some custom code that is called to do a further
lookup when no standard method implementation can be found using the normal lookup.
This hook is generally reserved for “Foundation” libraries such as GNUstep Base, which
use it to implement their high-level method forwarding API, typically based around the
forwardInvocation: method. So, unless you are implementing your own “Foundation”
library, you should not set this hook.
In a typical forwarding implementation, the __objc_msg_forward2 hook function deter-
mines the argument and return type of the method that is being looked up, and then creates
a function that takes these arguments and has that return type, and returns it to the caller.
Creating this function is non-trivial and is typically performed using a dedicated library
such as libffi.
The forwarding method implementation thus created is returned by objc_msg_lookup()
and is executed as if it was a normal method implementation. When the forwarding method
implementation is called, it is usually expected to pack all arguments into some sort of
object (typically, an NSInvocation in a “Foundation” library), and hand it over to the
programmer (forwardInvocation:) who is then allowed to manipulate the method in-
vocation using a high-level API provided by the “Foundation” library. For example, the
programmer may want to examine the method invocation arguments and name and poten-
tially change them before forwarding the method invocation to one or more local objects
(performInvocation:) or even to remote objects (by using Distributed Objects or some
other mechanism). When all this completes, the return value is passed back and must be
returned correctly to the original caller.
Note that the GNU Objective-C runtime currently provides no support for method for-
warding or method invocations other than the __objc_msg_forward2 hook.
If the forwarding hook does not exist or returns NULL, the runtime currently attempts
forwarding using an older, deprecated API, and if that fails, it aborts the program. In
future versions of the GNU Objective-C runtime, the runtime will immediately abort.
1047
9 Binary Compatibility
Binary compatibility encompasses several related concepts:
application binary interface (ABI)
The set of runtime conventions followed by all of the tools that deal with bi-
nary representations of a program, including compilers, assemblers, linkers, and
language runtime support. Some ABIs are formal with a written specification,
possibly designed by multiple interested parties. Others are simply the way
things are actually done by a particular set of tools.
ABI conformance
A compiler conforms to an ABI if it generates code that follows all of the
specifications enumerated by that ABI. A library conforms to an ABI if it is
implemented according to that ABI. An application conforms to an ABI if it
is built using tools that conform to that ABI and does not contain source code
that specifically changes behavior specified by the ABI.
calling conventions
Calling conventions are a subset of an ABI that specify of how arguments are
passed and function results are returned.
interoperability
Different sets of tools are interoperable if they generate files that can be used
in the same program. The set of tools includes compilers, assemblers, linkers,
libraries, header files, startup files, and debuggers. Binaries produced by dif-
ferent sets of tools are not interoperable unless they implement the same ABI.
This applies to different versions of the same tools as well as tools from different
vendors.
intercallability
Whether a function in a binary built by one set of tools can call a function in
a binary built by a different set of tools is a subset of interoperability.
implementation-defined features
Language standards include lists of implementation-defined features whose be-
havior can vary from one implementation to another. Some of these features
are normally covered by a platform’s ABI and others are not. The features
that are not covered by an ABI generally affect how a program behaves, but
not intercallability.
compatibility
Conformance to the same ABI and the same behavior of implementation-defined
features are both relevant for compatibility.
The application binary interface implemented by a C or C++ compiler affects code gen-
eration and runtime support for:
• size and alignment of data types
• layout of structured types
• calling conventions
1048 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The most straightforward way to link a program to use a particular C++ library is to
use a C++ driver that specifies that C++ library by default. The g++ driver, for example,
tells the linker where to find GCC’s C++ library (libstdc++) plus the other libraries and
startup files it needs, in the proper order.
If a program must use a different C++ library and it’s not possible to do the final link
using a C++ driver that uses that library by default, it is necessary to tell g++ the location
and name of that library. It might also be necessary to specify different startup files and
other runtime support libraries, and to suppress the use of GCC’s support libraries with
one or more of the options -nostdlib, -nostartfiles, and -nodefaultlibs.
1051
-a
--all-blocks
Write individual execution counts for every basic block. Normally gcov outputs
execution counts only for the main blocks of a line. With this option you can
determine if blocks within a single line are not being executed.
-b
--branch-probabilities
Write branch frequencies to the output file, and write branch summary info to
the standard output. This option allows you to see how often each branch in
your program was taken. Unconditional branches will not be shown, unless the
-u option is given.
-c
--branch-counts
Write branch frequencies as the number of branches taken, rather than the
percentage of branches taken.
-g
--conditions
Write condition coverage to the output file, and write condition summary info
to the standard output. This option allows you to see if the conditions in your
program at least once had an independent effect on the outcome of the boolean
expression (modified condition/decision coverage). This requires you to compile
the source with -fcondition-coverage.
-d
--display-progress
Display the progress on the standard output.
-f
--function-summaries
Output summaries for each function in addition to the file level summary.
--include regex
Include functions matching regex. This option makes gcov only report on
functions that match the extended regular expression regex. This flag can be
combined with --exclude. If a function matches both includes and excludes,
the last include/exclude applies. By default gcov reports on all functions, but if
a --include is used then only functions matching the include will be reported.
--exclude regex
Exclude functions matching regex. This option makes gcov not report on func-
tions that match the extended regular expression regex. This flag can be com-
bined with --include. If a function matches both includes and excludes, the
last include/exclude applies. By default gcov reports on all functions, and if
--exclude is used then functions matching it will be omitted.
-h
--help Display help about using gcov (on the standard output), and exit without doing
any further processing.
Chapter 10: gcov—a Test Coverage Program 1053
-j
--json-format
Output gcov file in an easy-to-parse JSON intermediate format which does not
require source code for generation. The JSON file is compressed with gzip
compression algorithm and the files have .gcov.json.gz extension.
Structure of the JSON is following:
{
"current_working_directory": "foo/bar",
"data_file": "a.out",
"format_version": "2",
"gcc_version": "11.1.1 20210510"
"files": ["$file"]
}
Fields of the root element have following semantics:
• current working directory: working directory where a compilation unit
was compiled
• data file: name of the data file (GCDA)
• format version: semantic version of the format
Changes in version 2 :
• calls: information about function calls is added
• gcc version: version of the GCC compiler
Each file has the following form:
{
"file": "a.c",
"functions": ["$function"],
"lines": ["$line"]
}
Fields of the file element have following semantics:
• file name: name of the source file
Each function has the following form:
{
"blocks": 2,
"blocks_executed": 2,
"demangled_name": "foo",
"end_column": 1,
"end_line": 4,
"execution_count": 1,
"name": "foo",
"start_column": 5,
"start_line": 1
}
Fields of the function element have following semantics:
• blocks: number of blocks that are in the function
• blocks executed: number of executed blocks of the function
• demangled name: demangled name of the function
• end column: column in the source file where the function ends
• end line: line in the source file where the function ends
1054 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
"returned": 11,
"source_block_id": 13
}
-H
--human-readable
Write counts in human readable format (like 24.6k).
-k
--use-colors
Use colors for lines of code that have zero coverage. We use red color for non-
exceptional lines and cyan for exceptional. Same colors are used for basic blocks
with -a option.
-l
--long-file-names
Create long file names for included source files. For example, if the header file
x.h contains code, and was included in the file a.c, then running gcov on the
file a.c will produce an output file called a.c##x.h.gcov instead of x.h.gcov.
This can be useful if x.h is included in multiple source files and you want to
see the individual contributions. If you use the ‘-p’ option, both the including
and included file names will be complete path names.
-m
--demangled-names
Display demangled function names in output. The default is to show mangled
function names.
1056 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-M
--filter-on-demangled
Make --include and --exclude match demangled names. This does only
affects the matching and does not imply --demangled-names, but it can safely
be combined with it.
-n
--no-output
Do not create the gcov output file.
-o directory|file
--object-directory directory
--object-file file
Specify either the directory containing the gcov data files, or the object path
name. The .gcno, and .gcda data files are searched for using this option. If a
directory is specified, the data files are in that directory and named after the
input file name, without its extension. If a file is specified here, the data files
are named after that file, without its extension.
-p
--preserve-paths
Preserve complete path information in the names of generated .gcov files.
Without this option, just the filename component is used. With this option, all
directories are used, with ‘/’ characters translated to ‘#’ characters, . directory
components removed and unremoveable .. components renamed to ‘^’. This is
useful if sourcefiles are in several different directories.
-q
--use-hotness-colors
Emit perf-like colored output for hot lines. Legend of the color scale is printed
at the very beginning of the output file.
-r
--relative-only
Only output information about source files with a relative pathname (after
source prefix elision). Absolute paths are usually system header files and cov-
erage of any inline functions therein is normally uninteresting.
-s directory
--source-prefix directory
A prefix for source file names to remove when generating the output coverage
files. This option is useful when building in a separate directory, and the path-
name to the source directory is not wanted when determining the output file
names. Note that this prefix detection is applied before determining whether
the source file is absolute.
-t
--stdout Output to standard output instead of output files.
Chapter 10: gcov—a Test Coverage Program 1057
-u
--unconditional-branches
When branch probabilities are given, include those of unconditional branches.
Unconditional branches are normally not interesting.
-v
--version
Display the gcov version number (on the standard output), and exit without
doing any further processing.
-w
--verbose
Print verbose informations related to basic blocks and arcs.
-x
--hash-filenames
When using –preserve-paths, gcov uses the full pathname of the source
files to create an output filename. This can lead to long filenames that
can overflow filesystem limits. This option creates names of the form
source-file##md5.gcov, where the source-file component is the final filename
part and the md5 component is calculated from the full mangled name
that would have been used otherwise. The option is an alternative to the
–preserve-paths on systems which have a filesystem limit.
gcov should be run with the current directory the same as that when you invoked the
compiler. Otherwise it will not be able to locate the source files. gcov produces files called
mangledname.gcov in the current directory. These contain the coverage information of the
source file they correspond to. One .gcov file is produced for each source (or header) file
containing code, which was compiled to produce the data files. The mangledname part of
the output file name is usually simply the source file name, but can be something more
complicated if the ‘-l’ or ‘-p’ options are given. Refer to those options for details.
If you invoke gcov with multiple input files, the contributions from each input file are
summed. Typically you would invoke it with the same list of files as the final link of your
executable.
The .gcov files contain the ‘:’ separated fields along with program source code. The
format is
execution_count:line_number:source line text
Additional block information may succeed each line, when requested by command line
option. The execution count is ‘-’ for lines containing no code. Unexecuted lines are
marked ‘#####’ or ‘=====’, depending on whether they are reachable by non-exceptional
paths or only exceptional paths such as C++ exception handlers, respectively. Given the
‘-a’ option, unexecuted blocks are marked ‘$$$$$’ or ‘%%%%%’, depending on whether a basic
block is reachable via non-exceptional or exceptional paths. Executed basic blocks having a
statement with zero execution count end with ‘*’ character and are colored with magenta
color with the -k option. This functionality is not supported in Ada.
Note that GCC can completely remove the bodies of functions that are not needed – for
instance if they are inlined everywhere. Such functions are marked with ‘-’, which can be
confusing. Use the -fkeep-inline-functions and -fkeep-static-functions options to
retain these functions and allow gcov to properly show their execution count.
1058 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Some lines of information at the start have line number of zero. These preamble lines
are of the form
-:0:tag:value
The ordering and number of these preamble lines will be augmented as gcov development
progresses — do not rely on them remaining unchanged. Use tag to locate a particular
preamble line.
The additional block information is of the form
tag information
The information is human readable, but designed to be simple enough for machine parsing
too.
When printing percentages, 0% and 100% are only printed when the values are exactly
0% and 100% respectively. Other values which would conventionally be rounded to 0% or
100% are instead printed as the nearest non-boundary value.
When using gcov, you must first compile your program with a special GCC option
‘--coverage’. This tells the compiler to generate additional information needed by gcov
(basically a flow graph of the program) and also includes additional code in the object files
for generating the extra profiling information needed by gcov. These additional files are
placed in the directory where the object file is located.
Running the program will cause profile output to be generated. For each source file
compiled with -fprofile-arcs, an accompanying .gcda file will be placed in the object
file directory.
Running gcov with your program’s source file names as arguments will now produce a
listing of the code along with frequency of execution for each line. For example, if your
program is called tmp.cpp, this is what you see when you use the basic gcov facility:
$ g++ --coverage tmp.cpp -c
$ g++ --coverage tmp.o
$ a.out
$ gcov tmp.cpp -m
File 'tmp.cpp'
Lines executed:92.86% of 14
Creating 'tmp.cpp.gcov'
The file tmp.cpp.gcov contains output from gcov. Here is a sample:
-: 0:Source:tmp.cpp
-: 0:Working directory:/home/gcc/testcase
-: 0:Graph:tmp.gcno
-: 0:Data:tmp.gcda
-: 0:Runs:1
-: 0:Programs:1
-: 1:#include <stdio.h>
-: 2:
-: 3:template<class T>
-: 4:class Foo
-: 5:{
-: 6: public:
1*: 7: Foo(): b (1000) {}
------------------
Foo<char>::Foo():
#####: 7: Foo(): b (1000) {}
------------------
Foo<int>::Foo():
Chapter 10: gcov—a Test Coverage Program 1059
1: 7: Foo(): b (1000) {}
------------------
2*: 8: void inc () { b++; }
------------------
Foo<char>::inc():
#####: 8: void inc () { b++; }
------------------
Foo<int>::inc():
2: 8: void inc () { b++; }
------------------
-: 9:
-: 10: private:
-: 11: int b;
-: 12:};
-: 13:
-: 14:template class Foo<int>;
-: 15:template class Foo<char>;
-: 16:
-: 17:int
1: 18:main (void)
-: 19:{
-: 20: int i, total;
1: 21: Foo<int> counter;
-: 22:
1: 23: counter.inc();
1: 24: counter.inc();
1: 25: total = 0;
-: 26:
11: 27: for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
10: 28: total += i;
-: 29:
1*: 30: int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
-: 31:
1: 32: if (total != 45)
#####: 33: printf ("Failure\n");
-: 34: else
1: 35: printf ("Success\n");
1: 36: return 0;
-: 37:}
Note that line 7 is shown in the report multiple times. First occurrence presents total
number of execution of the line and the next two belong to instances of class Foo construc-
tors. As you can also see, line 30 contains some unexecuted basic blocks and thus execution
count has asterisk symbol.
When you use the -a option, you will get individual block counts, and the output looks
like this:
-: 0:Source:tmp.cpp
-: 0:Working directory:/home/gcc/testcase
-: 0:Graph:tmp.gcno
-: 0:Data:tmp.gcda
-: 0:Runs:1
-: 0:Programs:1
-: 1:#include <stdio.h>
-: 2:
-: 3:template<class T>
-: 4:class Foo
-: 5:{
1060 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
-: 6: public:
1*: 7: Foo(): b (1000) {}
------------------
Foo<char>::Foo():
#####: 7: Foo(): b (1000) {}
------------------
Foo<int>::Foo():
1: 7: Foo(): b (1000) {}
------------------
2*: 8: void inc () { b++; }
------------------
Foo<char>::inc():
#####: 8: void inc () { b++; }
------------------
Foo<int>::inc():
2: 8: void inc () { b++; }
------------------
-: 9:
-: 10: private:
-: 11: int b;
-: 12:};
-: 13:
-: 14:template class Foo<int>;
-: 15:template class Foo<char>;
-: 16:
-: 17:int
1: 18:main (void)
-: 19:{
-: 20: int i, total;
1: 21: Foo<int> counter;
1: 21-block 0
-: 22:
1: 23: counter.inc();
1: 23-block 0
1: 24: counter.inc();
1: 24-block 0
1: 25: total = 0;
-: 26:
11: 27: for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
1: 27-block 0
11: 27-block 1
10: 28: total += i;
10: 28-block 0
-: 29:
1*: 30: int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
1: 30-block 0
%%%%%: 30-block 1
1: 30-block 2
-: 31:
1: 32: if (total != 45)
1: 32-block 0
#####: 33: printf ("Failure\n");
%%%%%: 33-block 0
-: 34: else
1: 35: printf ("Success\n");
1: 35-block 0
1: 36: return 0;
1: 36-block 0
Chapter 10: gcov—a Test Coverage Program 1061
-: 37:}
In this mode, each basic block is only shown on one line – the last line of the block.
A multi-line block will only contribute to the execution count of that last line, and other
lines will not be shown to contain code, unless previous blocks end on those lines. The
total execution count of a line is shown and subsequent lines show the execution counts for
individual blocks that end on that line. After each block, the branch and call counts of the
block will be shown, if the -b option is given.
Because of the way GCC instruments calls, a call count can be shown after a line with
no individual blocks. As you can see, line 33 contains a basic block that was not executed.
When you use the -b option, your output looks like this:
-: 0:Source:tmp.cpp
-: 0:Working directory:/home/gcc/testcase
-: 0:Graph:tmp.gcno
-: 0:Data:tmp.gcda
-: 0:Runs:1
-: 0:Programs:1
-: 1:#include <stdio.h>
-: 2:
-: 3:template<class T>
-: 4:class Foo
-: 5:{
-: 6: public:
1*: 7: Foo(): b (1000) {}
------------------
Foo<char>::Foo():
function Foo<char>::Foo() called 0 returned 0% blocks executed 0%
#####: 7: Foo(): b (1000) {}
------------------
Foo<int>::Foo():
function Foo<int>::Foo() called 1 returned 100% blocks executed 100%
1: 7: Foo(): b (1000) {}
------------------
2*: 8: void inc () { b++; }
------------------
Foo<char>::inc():
function Foo<char>::inc() called 0 returned 0% blocks executed 0%
#####: 8: void inc () { b++; }
------------------
Foo<int>::inc():
function Foo<int>::inc() called 2 returned 100% blocks executed 100%
2: 8: void inc () { b++; }
------------------
-: 9:
-: 10: private:
-: 11: int b;
-: 12:};
-: 13:
-: 14:template class Foo<int>;
-: 15:template class Foo<char>;
-: 16:
-: 17:int
function main called 1 returned 100% blocks executed 81%
1: 18:main (void)
-: 19:{
-: 20: int i, total;
1062 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
For each function, a line is printed showing how many times the function is called, how
many times it returns and what percentage of the function’s blocks were executed.
For each basic block, a line is printed after the last line of the basic block describing the
branch or call that ends the basic block. There can be multiple branches and calls listed for
a single source line if there are multiple basic blocks that end on that line. In this case, the
branches and calls are each given a number. There is no simple way to map these branches
and calls back to source constructs. In general, though, the lowest numbered branch or call
will correspond to the leftmost construct on the source line.
For a branch, if it was executed at least once, then a percentage indicating the number
of times the branch was taken divided by the number of times the branch was executed will
be printed. Otherwise, the message “never executed” is printed.
For a call, if it was executed at least once, then a percentage indicating the number of
times the call returned divided by the number of times the call was executed will be printed.
This will usually be 100%, but may be less for functions that call exit or longjmp, and
thus may not return every time they are called.
Chapter 10: gcov—a Test Coverage Program 1063
When you use the -g option, your output looks like this:
$ gcov -t -m -g tmp
-: 0:Source:tmp.cpp
-: 0:Graph:tmp.gcno
-: 0:Data:tmp.gcda
-: 0:Runs:1
-: 1:#include <stdio.h>
-: 2:
-: 3:int
1: 4:main (void)
-: 5:{
-: 6: int i, total;
1: 7: total = 0;
-: 8:
11: 9: for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
condition outcomes covered 2/2
10: 10: total += i;
-: 11:
1*: 12: int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
condition outcomes covered 1/2
condition 0 not covered (true)
-: 13:
1*: 14: if (total != 45 && v == 1)
condition outcomes covered 1/4
condition 0 not covered (true)
condition 1 not covered (true false)
#####: 15: printf ("Failure\n");
-: 16: else
1: 17: printf ("Success\n");
1: 18: return 0;
-: 19:}
For every condition the number of taken and total outcomes are printed, and if there
are uncovered outcomes a line will be printed for each condition showing the uncovered
outcome in parentheses. Conditions are identified by their index – index 0 is the left-most
condition. In a || (b && c), a is condition 0, b condition 1, and c condition 2.
An outcome is considered covered if it has an independent effect on the decision, also
known as masking MC/DC (Modified Condition/Decision Coverage). In this example the
decision evaluates to true and a is evaluated, but not covered. This is because a cannot
affect the decision independently – both a and b must change value for the decision to
change.
$ gcov -t -m -g tmp
-: 0:Source:tmp.c
-: 0:Graph:tmp.gcno
-: 0:Data:tmp.gcda
-: 0:Runs:1
-: 1:#include <stdio.h>
-: 2:
1: 3:int main()
-: 4:{
1: 5: int a = 1;
1: 6: int b = 0;
-: 7:
1: 8: if (a && b)
condition outcomes covered 1/4
condition 0 not covered (true false)
1064 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
The arguments to --include and --exclude are extended regular expressions (like grep
-E), so the pattern in.? matches both inc and main. If used with -M then all int instanti-
ations of Foo would match too. --include and --exclude can be used multiple times, and
if a name matches multiple filters it is the last one to match which takes preference. For
example, to match main and the int instatiation of inc, while omitting the Foo constructor:
$ gcov -t -m -M --include in --exclude Foo --include '<int>::inc' tmp
-: 0:Source:tmp.cpp
-: 0:Graph:tmp.gcno
-: 0:Data:tmp.gcda
-: 0:Runs:1
2: 8: void inc () { b++; }
1: 18:main (void)
-: 19:{
-: 20: int i, total;
1: 21: Foo<int> counter;
-: 22:
1: 23: counter.inc();
1: 24: counter.inc();
1: 25: total = 0;
-: 26:
11: 27: for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
10: 28: total += i;
-: 29:
1*: 30: int v = total > 100 ? 1 : 2;
-: 31:
1: 32: if (total != 45)
#####: 33: printf ("Failure\n");
-: 34: else
1: 35: printf ("Success\n");
1: 36: return 0;
four of these lines. However, the output does not indicate how many times the result was
0 and how many times the result was 1.
Inlineable functions can create unexpected line counts. Line counts are shown for the
source code of the inlineable function, but what is shown depends on where the function is
inlined, or if it is not inlined at all.
If the function is not inlined, the compiler must emit an out of line copy of the function,
in any object file that needs it. If fileA.o and fileB.o both contain out of line bodies of a
particular inlineable function, they will also both contain coverage counts for that function.
When fileA.o and fileB.o are linked together, the linker will, on many systems, select
one of those out of line bodies for all calls to that function, and remove or ignore the other.
Unfortunately, it will not remove the coverage counters for the unused function body. Hence
when instrumented, all but one use of that function will show zero counts.
If the function is inlined in several places, the block structure in each location might not
be the same. For instance, a condition might now be calculable at compile time in some
instances. Because the coverage of all the uses of the inline function will be shown for the
same source lines, the line counts themselves might seem inconsistent.
Long-running applications can use the __gcov_reset and __gcov_dump facilities to re-
strict profile collection to the program region of interest. Calling __gcov_reset(void) will
clear all run-time profile counters to zero, and calling __gcov_dump(void) will cause the
profile information collected at that point to be dumped to .gcda output files. Instrumented
applications use a static destructor with priority 99 to invoke the __gcov_dump function.
Thus __gcov_dump is executed after all user defined static destructors, as well as handlers
registered with atexit.
If an executable loads a dynamic shared object via dlopen functionality, -Wl,--dynamic-
list-data is needed to dump all profile data.
Profiling run-time library reports various errors related to profile manipulation and pro-
file saving. Errors are printed into standard error output or ‘GCOV_ERROR_FILE’ file, if
environment variable is used. In order to terminate immediately after an errors occurs set
‘GCOV_EXIT_AT_ERROR’ environment variable. That can help users to find profile clashing
which leads to a misleading profile.
It is not recommended to access the coverage files directly. Consumers should use the
intermediate format that is provided by gcov tool via --json-format option.
10.6.1 Overview
For an application instrumented for profiling or test coverage, the compiler generates some
global data structures which are updated by instrumentation code while the application
runs. These data structures are called the gcov information. Normally, when the applica-
tion exits, the gcov information is stored to .gcda files. There is one file per translation
unit instrumented for profiling or test coverage. The function __gcov_exit(), which stores
1068 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
the gcov information to a file, is called by a global destructor function for each translation
unit instrumented for profiling or test coverage. It runs at process exit. In a global con-
structor function, the __gcov_init() function is called to register the gcov information of
a translation unit in a global list. In some situations, this procedure does not work. Firstly,
if you want to profile the global constructor or exit processing of an operating system, the
compiler generated functions may conflict with the test objectives. Secondly, you may want
to test early parts of the system initialization or abnormal program behaviour which do not
allow a global constructor or exit processing. Thirdly, you need a filesystem to store the
files.
The -fprofile-info-section GCC option enables you to use profiling and test cover-
age in freestanding environments. This option disables the use of global constructors and
destructors for the gcov information. Instead, a pointer to the gcov information is stored in
a special linker input section for each translation unit which is compiled with this option.
By default, the section name is .gcov_info. The gcov information is statically initialized.
The pointers to the gcov information from all translation units of an executable can be
collected by the linker in a contiguous memory block. For the GNU linker, the below linker
script output section definition can be used to achieve this:
.gcov_info :
{
PROVIDE (__gcov_info_start = .);
KEEP (*(.gcov_info))
PROVIDE (__gcov_info_end = .);
}
The linker will provide two global symbols, __gcov_info_start and __gcov_info_end,
which define the start and end of the array of pointers to gcov information blocks, respec-
tively. The KEEP () directive is required to prevent a garbage collection of the pointers.
They are not directly referenced by anything in the executable. The section may be placed
in a read-only memory area.
In order to transfer the profiling and test coverage data from the target to the host
system, the application has to provide a function to produce a reliable in order byte stream
from the target to the host. The byte stream may be compressed and encoded using
error detection and correction codes to meet application-specific requirements. The GCC
provided libgcov target library provides two functions, __gcov_info_to_gcda() and __
gcov_filename_to_gcfn(), to generate a byte stream from a gcov information bock. The
functions are declared in #include <gcov.h>. The byte stream can be deserialized by the
merge-stream subcommand of the gcov-tool to create or update .gcda files in the host
filesystem for the instrumented application.
10.6.2 Tutorial
This tutorial should be exercised on the host system. We will build a program instrumented
for test coverage. The program runs an application and dumps the gcov information to
stderr encoded as a printable character stream. The application simply decodes such
character streams from stdin and writes the decoded character stream to stdout (warning:
this is binary data). The decoded character stream is consumed by the merge-stream
subcommand of the gcov-tool to create or update the .gcda files.
To get started, create an empty directory. Change into the new directory. Then you will
create the following three files in this directory
Chapter 10: gcov—a Test Coverage Program 1069
#include <stdio.h>
void
application (void)
{
int first = 1;
int i;
unsigned char c;
if (can_decode (x))
{
if (first)
c = x - a;
else
fputc (c + 16 * (x - a), stdout);
first = !first;
}
else
first = 1;
}
}
Thirdly, create the source file main.c with the following content:
#include "app.h"
1070 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
#include <gcov.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
/* The start and end symbols are provided by the linker script. We use the
array notation to avoid issues with a potential small-data area. */
/* This function shall produce a reliable in order byte stream to transfer the
gcov information from the target to the host system. */
static void
dump (const void *d, unsigned n, void *arg)
{
(void)arg;
const unsigned char *c = d;
unsigned char buf[2];
static void
filename (const char *f, void *arg)
{
__gcov_filename_to_gcfn (f, dump, arg);
}
static void *
allocate (unsigned length, void *arg)
{
(void)arg;
return malloc (length);
}
static void
dump_gcov_info (void)
{
const struct gcov_info *const *info = __gcov_info_start;
const struct gcov_info *const *end = __gcov_info_end;
/* The main() function just runs the application and then dumps the gcov
information to stderr. */
int
main (void)
{
application ();
dump_gcov_info ();
return 0;
}
If we compile app.c with test coverage and no extra profiling options, then a global con-
structor (_sub_I_00100_0 here, it may have a different name in your environment) and
destructor (_sub_D_00100_1) is used to register and dump the gcov information, respec-
tively. We also see undefined references to __gcov_init and __gcov_exit:
$ gcc --coverage -c app.c
$ nm app.o
0000000000000000 r a
0000000000000030 T application
0000000000000000 t can_decode
U fgetc
U fputc
0000000000000000 b __gcov0.application
0000000000000038 b __gcov0.can_decode
0000000000000000 d __gcov_.application
00000000000000c0 d __gcov_.can_decode
U __gcov_exit
U __gcov_init
U __gcov_merge_add
U stdin
U stdout
0000000000000161 t _sub_D_00100_1
0000000000000151 t _sub_I_00100_0
Compile app.c and main.c with test coverage and -fprofile-info-section. Now, a
read-only pointer size object is present in the .gcov_info section and there are no undefined
references to __gcov_init and __gcov_exit:
$ gcc --coverage -fprofile-info-section -c main.c
$ gcc --coverage -fprofile-info-section -c app.c
$ objdump -h app.o
Sections:
Idx Name Size VMA LMA File off Algn
0 .text 00000151 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 00000040 2**0
CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, RELOC, READONLY, CODE
1 .data 00000100 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 000001a0 2**5
CONTENTS, ALLOC, LOAD, RELOC, DATA
1072 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Lines executed:69.23% of 13
Run the program to decode gcda-1.txt and send it to the gcov-tool using the merge-
stream subcommand to update the .gcda files. Run gcov to produce a report for app.c.
Since the second run decoded the gcov information of the first run, we have now a fully
covered application:
Chapter 10: gcov—a Test Coverage Program 1073
Lines executed:100.00% of 13
-v
--version
Display the gcov-tool version number (on the standard output), and exit
without doing any further processing.
merge Merge two profile directories.
-o directory
--output directory
Set the output profile directory. Default output directory name is
merged profile.
-v
--verbose
Set the verbose mode.
-w w1,w2
--weight w1,w2
Set the merge weights of the directory1 and directory2, respectively.
The default weights are 1 for both.
merge-stream
Collect profiles with associated filenames from a gcfn and gcda data stream.
Read the stream from the file specified by file or from stdin. Merge the profiles
with associated profiles in the host filesystem. Apply the optional weights while
merging profiles.
For the generation of a gcfn and gcda data stream on the target system, please
have a look at the __gcov_filename_to_gcfn() and __gcov_info_to_gcda()
functions declared in #include <gcov.h>.
-v
--verbose
Set the verbose mode.
-w w1,w2
--weight w1,w2
Set the merge weights of the profiles from the gcfn and gcda data
stream and the associated profiles in the host filesystem, respec-
tively. The default weights are 1 for both.
rewrite Read the specified profile directory and rewrite to a new directory.
-n long_long_value
--normalize <long_long_value>
Normalize the profile. The specified value is the max counter value
in the new profile.
-o directory
--output directory
Set the output profile directory. Default output name is
rewrite profile.
Chapter 11: gcov-tool—an Offline Gcda Profile Processing Tool 1077
-s float_or_simple-frac_value
--scale float_or_simple-frac_value
Scale the profile counters. The specified value can be in floating
point value, or simple fraction value form, such 1, 2, 2/3, and 5/3.
-v
--verbose
Set the verbose mode.
overlap Compute the overlap score between the two specified profile directories. The
overlap score is computed based on the arc profiles. It is defined as the sum
of min (p1 counter[i] / p1 sum all, p2 counter[i] / p2 sum all), for all arc
counter i, where p1 counter[i] and p2 counter[i] are two matched counters and
p1 sum all and p2 sum all are the sum of counter values in profile 1 and profile
2, respectively.
-f
--function
Print function level overlap score.
-F
--fullname
Print full gcda filename.
-h
--hotonly
Only print info for hot objects/functions.
-o
--object Print object level overlap score.
-t float
--hot_threshold <float>
Set the threshold for hot counter value.
-v
--verbose
Set the verbose mode.
1079
14.2 Interoperation
This section lists various difficulties encountered in using GCC together with other compilers
or with the assemblers, linkers, libraries and debuggers on certain systems.
• On many platforms, GCC supports a different ABI for C++ than do other compilers, so
the object files compiled by GCC cannot be used with object files generated by another
C++ compiler.
An area where the difference is most apparent is name mangling. The use of different
name mangling is intentional, to protect you from more subtle problems. Compilers
differ as to many internal details of C++ implementation, including: how class instances
are laid out, how multiple inheritance is implemented, and how virtual function calls
are handled. If the name encoding were made the same, your programs would link
against libraries provided from other compilers—but the programs would then crash
when run. Incompatible libraries are then detected at link time, rather than at run
time.
• On some BSD systems, including some versions of Ultrix, use of profiling causes static
variable destructors (currently used only in C++) not to be run.
• On a SPARC, GCC aligns all values of type double on an 8-byte boundary, and it
expects every double to be so aligned. The Sun compiler usually gives double values
8-byte alignment, with one exception: function arguments of type double may not be
aligned.
As a result, if a function compiled with Sun CC takes the address of an argument
of type double and passes this pointer of type double * to a function compiled with
GCC, dereferencing the pointer may cause a fatal signal.
One way to solve this problem is to compile your entire program with GCC. Another
solution is to modify the function that is compiled with Sun CC to copy the argument
into a local variable; local variables are always properly aligned. A third solution is to
modify the function that uses the pointer to dereference it via the following function
access_double instead of directly with ‘*’:
inline double
1084 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
u.i[0] = p->i[0];
u.i[1] = p->i[1];
return u.d;
}
Storing into the pointer can be done likewise with the same union.
• On Solaris, the malloc function in the libmalloc.a library may allocate memory that
is only 4 byte aligned. Since GCC on the SPARC assumes that doubles are 8 byte
aligned, this may result in a fatal signal if doubles are stored in memory allocated by
the libmalloc.a library.
The solution is to not use the libmalloc.a library. Use instead malloc and related
functions from libc.a; they do not have this problem.
• On the HP PA machine, ADB sometimes fails to work on functions compiled with
GCC. Specifically, it fails to work on functions that use alloca or variable-size arrays.
This is because GCC doesn’t generate HP-UX unwind descriptors for such functions.
It may even be impossible to generate them.
• Debugging (-g) is not supported on the HP PA machine, unless you use the preliminary
GNU tools.
• Taking the address of a label may generate errors from the HP-UX PA assembler. GAS
for the PA does not have this problem.
• Using floating point parameters for indirect calls to static functions will not work when
using the HP assembler. There simply is no way for GCC to specify what registers hold
arguments for static functions when using the HP assembler. GAS for the PA does not
have this problem.
• In extremely rare cases involving some very large functions you may receive errors from
the HP linker complaining about an out of bounds unconditional branch offset. This
used to occur more often in previous versions of GCC, but is now exceptionally rare.
If you should run into it, you can work around by making your function smaller.
• GCC compiled code sometimes emits warnings from the HP-UX assembler of the form:
(warning) Use of GR3 when
frame >= 8192 may cause conflict.
These warnings are harmless and can be safely ignored.
• In extremely rare cases involving some very large functions you may receive errors from
the AIX Assembler complaining about a displacement that is too large. If you should
run into it, you can work around by making your function smaller.
• The libstdc++.a library in GCC relies on the SVR4 dynamic linker semantics which
merges global symbols between libraries and applications, especially necessary for C++
streams functionality. This is not the default behavior of AIX shared libraries and
dynamic linking. libstdc++.a is built on AIX with “runtime-linking” enabled so
that symbol merging can occur. To utilize this feature, the application linked with
Chapter 14: Known Causes of Trouble with GCC 1085
libstdc++.a must include the -Wl,-brtl flag on the link line. G++ cannot impose
this because this option may interfere with the semantics of the user program and users
may not always use ‘g++’ to link his or her application. Applications are not required
to use the -Wl,-brtl flag on the link line—the rest of the libstdc++.a library which
is not dependent on the symbol merging semantics will continue to function correctly.
• An application can interpose its own definition of functions for functions invoked by
libstdc++.a with “runtime-linking” enabled on AIX. To accomplish this the applica-
tion must be linked with “runtime-linking” option and the functions explicitly must be
exported by the application (-Wl,-brtl,-bE:exportfile).
• AIX on the RS/6000 provides support (NLS) for environments outside of the United
States. Compilers and assemblers use NLS to support locale-specific representations
of various objects including floating-point numbers (‘.’ vs ‘,’ for separating decimal
fractions). There have been problems reported where the library linked with GCC does
not produce the same floating-point formats that the assembler accepts. If you have
this problem, set the LANG environment variable to ‘C’ or ‘En_US’.
• Even if you specify -fdollars-in-identifiers, you cannot successfully use ‘$’ in
identifiers on the RS/6000 due to a restriction in the IBM assembler. GAS supports
these identifiers.
foo ()
1086 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
{
int a, b;
a = fun1 ();
if (setjmp (j))
return a;
a = fun2 ();
/* longjmp (j) may occur in fun3. */
return a + fun3 ();
}
Here a may or may not be restored to its first value when the longjmp occurs. If a is
allocated in a register, then its first value is restored; otherwise, it keeps the last value
stored in it.
If you use the -W option with the -O option, you will get a warning when GCC thinks
such a problem might be possible.
• Programs that use preprocessing directives in the middle of macro arguments do not
work with GCC. For example, a program like this will not work:
foobar (
#define luser
hack)
ISO C does not permit such a construct.
• K&R compilers allow comments to cross over an inclusion boundary (i.e. started in an
include file and ended in the including file).
• Declarations of external variables and functions within a block apply only to the block
containing the declaration. In other words, they have the same scope as any other
declaration in the same place.
In some other C compilers, an extern declaration affects all the rest of the file even if
it happens within a block.
• In traditional C, you can combine long, etc., with a typedef name, as shown here:
typedef int foo;
typedef long foo bar;
In ISO C, this is not allowed: long and other type modifiers require an explicit int.
• PCC allows typedef names to be used as function parameters.
• Traditional C allows the following erroneous pair of declarations to appear together in
a given scope:
typedef int foo;
typedef foo foo;
• GCC treats all characters of identifiers as significant. According to K&R-1 (2.2), “No
more than the first eight characters are significant, although more may be used.”. Also
according to K&R-1 (2.2), “An identifier is a sequence of letters and digits; the first
character must be a letter. The underscore counts as a letter.”, but GCC also allows
dollar signs in identifiers.
• PCC allows whitespace in the middle of compound assignment operators such as ‘+=’.
GCC, following the ISO standard, does not allow this.
• GCC complains about unterminated character constants inside of preprocessing con-
ditionals that fail. Some programs have English comments enclosed in conditionals
Chapter 14: Known Causes of Trouble with GCC 1087
that are guaranteed to fail; if these comments contain apostrophes, GCC will probably
report an error. For example, this code would produce an error:
#if 0
You can't expect this to work.
#endif
The best solution to such a problem is to put the text into an actual C comment
delimited by ‘/*...*/’.
• Many user programs contain the declaration ‘long time ();’. In the past, the system
header files on many systems did not actually declare time, so it did not matter what
type your program declared it to return. But in systems with ISO C headers, time is
declared to return time_t, and if that is not the same as long, then ‘long time ();’
is erroneous.
The solution is to change your program to use appropriate system headers (<time.h>
on systems with ISO C headers) and not to declare time if the system header files
declare it, or failing that to use time_t as the return type of time.
• When compiling functions that return float, PCC converts it to a double. GCC
actually returns a float. If you are concerned with PCC compatibility, you should
declare your functions to return double; you might as well say what you mean.
• When compiling functions that return structures or unions, GCC output code normally
uses a method different from that used on most versions of Unix. As a result, code
compiled with GCC cannot call a structure-returning function compiled with PCC,
and vice versa.
The method used by GCC is as follows: a structure or union which is 1, 2, 4 or 8
bytes long is returned like a scalar. A structure or union with any other size is stored
into an address supplied by the caller (usually in a special, fixed register, but on some
machines it is passed on the stack). The target hook TARGET_STRUCT_VALUE_RTX tells
GCC where to pass this address.
By contrast, PCC on most target machines returns structures and unions of any size
by copying the data into an area of static storage, and then returning the address of
that storage as if it were a pointer value. The caller must copy the data from that
memory area to the place where the value is wanted. GCC does not use this method
because it is slower and nonreentrant.
On some newer machines, PCC uses a reentrant convention for all structure and union
returning. GCC on most of these machines uses a compatible convention when return-
ing structures and unions in memory, but still returns small structures and unions in
registers.
You can tell GCC to use a compatible convention for all structure and union returning
with the option -fpcc-struct-return.
• GCC complains about program fragments such as ‘0x74ae-0x4000’ which appear to be
two hexadecimal constants separated by the minus operator. Actually, this string is a
single preprocessing token. Each such token must correspond to one token in C. Since
this does not, GCC prints an error message. Although it may appear obvious that
what is meant is an operator and two values, the ISO C standard specifically requires
that this be treated as erroneous.
1088 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
You can partially avoid this problem by using the -ffloat-store option (see Sec-
tion 3.12 [Optimize Options], page 185).
• On AIX and other platforms without weak symbol support, templates need to be in-
stantiated explicitly and symbols for static members of templates will not be generated.
• On AIX, GCC scans object files and library archives for static constructors and de-
structors when linking an application before the linker prunes unreferenced symbols.
This is necessary to prevent the AIX linker from mistakenly assuming that static con-
structor or destructor are unused and removing them before the scanning can occur.
All static constructors and destructors found will be referenced even though the mod-
ules in which they occur may not be used by the program. This may lead to both
increased executable size and unexpected symbol references.
1
The C++ standard just uses the term “dependent” for names that depend on the type or value of template
parameters. This shorter term will also be used in the rest of this section.
Chapter 14: Known Causes of Trouble with GCC 1091
struct A {
template <typename T>
void f () {
foo (1); // 1
int i = N; // 2
T t;
t.bar(); // 3
foo (t); // 4
}
};
Again, the call to f() is not dependent on template arguments (there are no arguments
that depend on the type T, and it is also not otherwise specified that the call should be
in a dependent context). Thus a global declaration of such a function must be available,
since the one in the base class is not visible until instantiation time. The compiler will
consequently produce the following error message:
x.cc: In member function `int Derived<T>::g()':
x.cc:6: error: there are no arguments to `f' that depend on a template
parameter, so a declaration of `f' must be available
x.cc:6: error: (if you use `-fpermissive', G++ will accept your code, but
allowing the use of an undeclared name is deprecated)
To make the code valid either use this->f(), or Base<T>::f(). Using the -fpermissive
flag will also let the compiler accept the code, by marking all function calls for which no
declaration is visible at the time of definition of the template for later lookup at instantiation
time, as if it were a dependent call. We do not recommend using -fpermissive to work
around invalid code, and it will also only catch cases where functions in base classes are
called, not where variables in base classes are used (as in the example above).
Note that some compilers (including G++ versions prior to 3.4) get these examples wrong
and accept above code without an error. Those compilers do not implement two-stage name
lookup correctly.
void
f ()
{
const char *p = strfunc().c_str();
...
charfunc (p);
...
charfunc (p);
}
In this situation, it may seem reasonable to save a pointer to the C string returned by
the c_str member function and use that rather than call c_str repeatedly. However, the
temporary string created by the call to strfunc is destroyed after p is initialized, at which
point p is left pointing to freed memory.
Code like this may run successfully under some other compilers, particularly obsolete
cfront-based compilers that delete temporaries along with normal local variables. How-
Chapter 14: Known Causes of Trouble with GCC 1093
ever, the GNU C++ behavior is standard-conforming, so if your program depends on late
destruction of temporaries it is not portable.
The safe way to write such code is to give the temporary a name, which forces it to
remain until the end of the scope of the name. For example:
const string& tmp = strfunc ();
charfunc (tmp.c_str ());
Whether a particular object file was compiled using signed bit-fields or unsigned is of
no concern to other object files, even if they access the same bit-fields in the same data
structures.
A given program is written in one or the other of these two dialects. The program
stands a chance to work on most any machine if it is compiled with the proper dialect.
It is unlikely to work at all if compiled with the wrong dialect.
Many users appreciate the GNU C compiler because it provides an environment that is
uniform across machines. These users would be inconvenienced if the compiler treated
plain bit-fields differently on certain machines.
Occasionally users write programs intended only for a particular machine type. On
these occasions, the users would benefit if the GNU C compiler were to support by
default the same dialect as the other compilers on that machine. But such applications
are rare. And users writing a program to run on more than one type of machine cannot
possibly benefit from this kind of compatibility.
This is why GCC does and will treat plain bit-fields in the same fashion on all types
of machines (by default).
There are some arguments for making bit-fields unsigned by default on all machines.
If, for example, this becomes a universal de facto standard, it would make sense for
GCC to go along with it. This is something to be considered in the future.
(Of course, users strongly concerned about portability should indicate explicitly in each
bit-field whether it is signed or not. In this way, they write programs which have the
same meaning in both C dialects.)
• Undefining __STDC__ when -ansi is not used.
Currently, GCC defines __STDC__ unconditionally. This provides good results in prac-
tice.
Programmers normally use conditionals on __STDC__ to ask whether it is safe to use
certain features of ISO C, such as function prototypes or ISO token concatenation.
Since plain gcc supports all the features of ISO C, the correct answer to these questions
is “yes”.
Some users try to use __STDC__ to check for the availability of certain library facilities.
This is actually incorrect usage in an ISO C program, because the ISO C standard says
that a conforming freestanding implementation should define __STDC__ even though it
does not have the library facilities. ‘gcc -ansi -pedantic’ is a conforming freestanding
implementation, and it is therefore required to define __STDC__, even though it does
not come with an ISO C library.
Sometimes people say that defining __STDC__ in a compiler that does not completely
conform to the ISO C standard somehow violates the standard. This is illogical. The
standard is a standard for compilers that claim to support ISO C, such as ‘gcc -ansi’—
not for other compilers such as plain gcc. Whatever the ISO C standard says is
relevant to the design of plain gcc without -ansi only for pragmatic reasons, not as a
requirement.
GCC normally defines __STDC__ to be 1, and in addition defines __STRICT_ANSI__ if
you specify the -ansi option, or a -std option for strict conformance to some version of
ISO C. On some hosts, system include files use a different convention, where __STDC__
1096 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
is normally 0, but is 1 if the user specifies strict conformance to the C Standard. GCC
follows the host convention when processing system include files, but when processing
user files it follows the usual GNU C convention.
• Undefining __STDC__ in C++.
Programs written to compile with C++-to-C translators get the value of __STDC__ that
goes with the C compiler that is subsequently used. These programs must test __STDC_
_ to determine what kind of C preprocessor that compiler uses: whether they should
concatenate tokens in the ISO C fashion or in the traditional fashion.
These programs work properly with GNU C++ if __STDC__ is defined. They would not
work otherwise.
In addition, many header files are written to provide prototypes in ISO C but not in
traditional C. Many of these header files can work without change in C++ provided
__STDC__ is defined. If __STDC__ is not defined, they will all fail, and will all need to
be changed to test explicitly for C++ as well.
• Deleting “empty” loops.
Historically, GCC has not deleted “empty” loops under the assumption that the most
likely reason you would put one in a program is to have a delay, so deleting them will
not make real programs run any faster.
However, the rationale here is that optimization of a nonempty loop cannot produce an
empty one. This held for carefully written C compiled with less powerful optimizers but
is not always the case for carefully written C++ or with more powerful optimizers. Thus
GCC will remove operations from loops whenever it can determine those operations
are not externally visible (apart from the time taken to execute them, of course). In
case the loop can be proved to be finite, GCC will also remove the loop itself.
Be aware of this when performing timing tests, for instance the following loop can be
completely removed, provided some_expression can provably not change any global
state.
{
int sum = 0;
int ix;
int i = 2;
func (i++, i++);
There is no guarantee (in either the C or the C++ standard language definitions) that the
increments will be evaluated in any particular order. Either increment might happen
first. func might get the arguments ‘2, 3’, or it might get ‘3, 2’, or even ‘2, 2’.
Chapter 14: Known Causes of Trouble with GCC 1097
15 Reporting Bugs
Your bug reports play an essential role in making GCC reliable.
When you encounter a problem, the first thing to do is to see if it is already known. See
Chapter 14 [Trouble], page 1083. If it isn’t known, then you should report the problem.
Preamble
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1110 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
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1112 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
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1114 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
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1116 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
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1118 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
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THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PER-
MITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN
WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE
THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EX-
PRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE
OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFEC-
TIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR
CORRECTION.
16. Limitation of Liability.
IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN
WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO
MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, IN-
CIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR
INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUS-
TAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM
TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR
OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAM-
AGES.
17. Interpretation of Sections 15 and 16.
If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided above cannot be given
local legal effect according to their terms, reviewing courts shall apply local law that
most closely approximates an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with
the Program, unless a warranty or assumption of liability accompanies a copy of the
Program in return for a fee.
GNU General Public License 1119
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
If the program does terminal interaction, make it output a short notice like this when it
starts in an interactive mode:
program Copyright (C) year name of author
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type ‘show w’.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type ‘show c’ for details.
The hypothetical commands ‘show w’ and ‘show c’ should show the appropriate parts of
the General Public License. Of course, your program’s commands might be different; for a
GUI interface, you would use an “about box”.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or school, if any, to
sign a “copyright disclaimer” for the program, if necessary. For more information on this,
and how to apply and follow the GNU GPL, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
The GNU General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into pro-
prietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful
to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. If this is what you want to do,
use the GNU Lesser General Public License instead of this License. But first, please read
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-not-lgpl.html.
1121
under this License. If a section does not fit the above definition of Secondary then it is
not allowed to be designated as Invariant. The Document may contain zero Invariant
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The “Cover Texts” are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover
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Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ascii without
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only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or
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PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors for output purposes only.
The “Title Page” means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following
pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the
title page. For works in formats which do not have any title page as such, “Title Page”
means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work’s title, preceding the
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is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses following text that translates XYZ in
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the Title” of such a section when you modify the Document means that it remains a
section “Entitled XYZ” according to this definition.
The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that
this License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to
be included by reference in this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties:
any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no
effect on the meaning of this License.
2. VERBATIM COPYING
GNU Free Documentation License 1123
You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or
noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license
notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and
that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use
technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies
you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies.
If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions
in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly
display copies.
3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed covers) of
the Document, numbering more than 100, and the Document’s license notice requires
Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all
these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on
the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher
of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title
equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition.
Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the
Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other
respects.
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put
the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the
rest onto adjacent pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100,
you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque
copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which
the general network-using public has access to download using public-standard network
protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material. If
you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin
distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will
remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time
you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that
edition to the public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well
before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you
with an updated version of the Document.
4. MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions
of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely
this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing
distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of
it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:
A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the
Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any,
1124 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as
a previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission.
B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for
authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five
of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer
than five), unless they release you from this requirement.
C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the
publisher.
D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other
copyright notices.
F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public
permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form
shown in the Addendum below.
G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover
Texts given in the Document’s license notice.
H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
I. Preserve the section Entitled “History”, Preserve its Title, and add to it an item
stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version
as given on the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled “History” in the Docu-
ment, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document
as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as
stated in the previous sentence.
J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to
a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in
the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the
“History” section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published
at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the
version it refers to gives permission.
K. For any section Entitled “Acknowledgements” or “Dedications”, Preserve the Title
of the section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the
contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.
L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and
in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the
section titles.
M. Delete any section Entitled “Endorsements”. Such a section may not be included
in the Modified Version.
N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled “Endorsements” or to conflict in
title with any Invariant Section.
O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify
as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at
your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their
GNU Free Documentation License 1125
titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version’s license notice. These
titles must be distinct from any other section titles.
You may add a section Entitled “Endorsements”, provided it contains nothing but
endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties—for example, statements of
peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative
definition of a standard.
You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up
to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified
Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be
added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already
includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement
made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but
you may replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that
added the old one.
The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission
to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified
Version.
5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License,
under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you
include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents,
unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license
notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical
Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant
Sections with the same name but different contents, make the title of each such section
unique by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or
publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment
to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined
work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled “History” in the vari-
ous original documents, forming one section Entitled “History”; likewise combine any
sections Entitled “Acknowledgements”, and any sections Entitled “Dedications”. You
must delete all sections Entitled “Endorsements.”
6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released
under this License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various
documents with a single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you
follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all
other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individu-
ally under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted
document, and follow this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of
that document.
1126 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Contributors to GCC
The GCC project would like to thank its many contributors. Without them the project
would not have been nearly as successful as it has been. Any omissions in this list are
accidental. Feel free to contact [email protected] or [email protected] if you
have been left out or some of your contributions are not listed. Please keep this list in
alphabetical order.
• Analog Devices helped implement the support for complex data types and iterators.
• John David Anglin for threading-related fixes and improvements to libstdc++-v3, and
the HP-UX port.
• James van Artsdalen wrote the code that makes efficient use of the Intel 80387 register
stack.
• Abramo and Roberto Bagnara for the SysV68 Motorola 3300 Delta Series port.
• Alasdair Baird for various bug fixes.
• Giovanni Bajo for analyzing lots of complicated C++ problem reports.
• Peter Barada for his work to improve code generation for new ColdFire cores.
• Gerald Baumgartner added the signature extension to the C++ front end.
• Godmar Back for his Java improvements and encouragement.
• Scott Bambrough for help porting the Java compiler.
• Wolfgang Bangerth for processing tons of bug reports.
• Jon Beniston for his Microsoft Windows port of Java and port to Lattice Mico32.
• Daniel Berlin for better DWARF 2 support, faster/better optimizations, improved alias
analysis, plus migrating GCC to Bugzilla.
• Geoff Berry for his Java object serialization work and various patches.
• Richard Biener for his ongoing middle-end contributions and bug fixes and for release
management.
• David Binderman for testing GCC trunk against Fedora Rawhide and csmith.
• Laurynas Biveinis for memory management work and DJGPP port fixes.
• Uros Bizjak for the implementation of x87 math built-in functions and for various
middle end and i386 back end improvements and bug fixes.
• Eric Blake for helping to make GCJ and libgcj conform to the specifications.
• Janne Blomqvist for contributions to GNU Fortran.
• Hans-J. Boehm for his garbage collector, IA-64 libffi port, and other Java work.
• Segher Boessenkool for helping maintain the PowerPC port and the instruction com-
biner plus various contributions to the middle end.
• Neil Booth for work on cpplib, lang hooks, debug hooks and other miscellaneous clean-
ups.
• Steven Bosscher for integrating the GNU Fortran front end into GCC and for con-
tributing to the tree-ssa branch.
• Eric Botcazou for fixing middle- and backend bugs left and right.
1130 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
• Per Bothner for his direction via the steering committee and various improvements
to the infrastructure for supporting new languages. Chill front end implementation.
Initial implementations of cpplib, fix-header, config.guess, libio, and past C++ library
(libg++) maintainer. Dreaming up, designing and implementing much of GCJ.
• Devon Bowen helped port GCC to the Tahoe.
• Don Bowman for mips-vxworks contributions.
• James Bowman for the FT32 port.
• Dave Brolley for work on cpplib and Chill.
• Paul Brook for work on the ARM architecture and maintaining GNU Fortran.
• Robert Brown implemented the support for Encore 32000 systems.
• Christian Bruel for improvements to local store elimination.
• Herman A.J. ten Brugge for various fixes.
• Joerg Brunsmann for Java compiler hacking and help with the GCJ FAQ.
• Joe Buck for his direction via the steering committee from its creation to 2013.
• Iain Buclaw for the D frontend.
• Craig Burley for leadership of the G77 Fortran effort.
• Tobias Burnus for contributions to GNU Fortran.
• Stephan Buys for contributing Doxygen notes for libstdc++.
• Paolo Carlini for libstdc++ work: lots of efficiency improvements to the C++ strings,
streambufs and formatted I/O, hard detective work on the frustrating localization
issues, and keeping up with the problem reports.
• John Carr for his alias work, SPARC hacking, infrastructure improvements, previous
contributions to the steering committee, loop optimizations, etc.
• Stephane Carrez for 68HC11 and 68HC12 ports.
• Steve Chamberlain for support for the Renesas SH and H8 processors and the PicoJava
processor, and for GCJ config fixes.
• Glenn Chambers for help with the GCJ FAQ.
• John-Marc Chandonia for various libgcj patches.
• Denis Chertykov for contributing and maintaining the AVR port, the first GCC port
for an 8-bit architecture.
• Kito Cheng for his work on the RISC-V port, including bringing up the test suite and
maintenance.
• Scott Christley for his Objective-C contributions.
• Eric Christopher for his Java porting help and clean-ups.
• Branko Cibej for more warning contributions.
• The GNU Classpath project for all of their merged runtime code.
• Nick Clifton for arm, mcore, fr30, v850, m32r, msp430 rx work, --help, and other
random hacking.
• Michael Cook for libstdc++ cleanup patches to reduce warnings.
• R. Kelley Cook for making GCC buildable from a read-only directory as well as other
miscellaneous build process and documentation clean-ups.
Contributors to GCC 1131
• Aldy Hernandez for working on the PowerPC port, SIMD support, and various fixes.
• Nobuyuki Hikichi of Software Research Associates, Tokyo, contributed the support for
the Sony NEWS machine.
• Kazu Hirata for caring and feeding the Renesas H8/300 port and various fixes.
• Katherine Holcomb for work on GNU Fortran.
• Manfred Hollstein for his ongoing work to keep the m88k alive, lots of testing and bug
fixing, particularly of GCC configury code.
• Steve Holmgren for MachTen patches.
• Mat Hostetter for work on the TILE-Gx and TILEPro ports.
• Jan Hubicka for his x86 port improvements.
• Falk Hueffner for working on C and optimization bug reports.
• Bernardo Innocenti for his m68k work, including merging of ColdFire improvements
and uClinux support.
• Christian Iseli for various bug fixes.
• Kamil Iskra for general m68k hacking.
• Lee Iverson for random fixes and MIPS testing.
• Balaji V. Iyer for Cilk+ development and merging.
• Andreas Jaeger for testing and benchmarking of GCC and various bug fixes.
• Martin Jambor for his work on inter-procedural optimizations, the switch conversion
pass, and scalar replacement of aggregates.
• Jakub Jelinek for his SPARC work and sibling call optimizations as well as lots of bug
fixes and test cases, and for improving the Java build system.
• Janis Johnson for ia64 testing and fixes, her quality improvement sidetracks, and web
page maintenance.
• Kean Johnston for SCO OpenServer support and various fixes.
• Tim Josling for the sample language treelang based originally on Richard Kenner’s
“toy” language.
• Nicolai Josuttis for additional libstdc++ documentation.
• Klaus Kaempf for his ongoing work to make alpha-vms a viable target.
• Steven G. Kargl for work on GNU Fortran.
• David Kashtan of SRI adapted GCC to VMS.
• Ryszard Kabatek for many, many libstdc++ bug fixes and optimizations of strings,
especially member functions, and for auto ptr fixes.
• Geoffrey Keating for his ongoing work to make the PPC work for GNU/Linux and his
automatic regression tester.
• Brendan Kehoe for his ongoing work with G++ and for a lot of early work in just about
every part of libstdc++.
• Oliver M. Kellogg of Deutsche Aerospace contributed the port to the MIL-STD-1750A.
• Richard Kenner of the New York University Ultracomputer Research Laboratory wrote
the machine descriptions for the AMD 29000, the DEC Alpha, the IBM RT PC, and
the IBM RS/6000 as well as the support for instruction attributes. He also made
1134 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
• Martin von Löwis for internal consistency checking infrastructure, various C++ improve-
ments including namespace support, and tons of assistance with libstdc++/compiler
merges.
• H.J. Lu for his previous contributions to the steering committee, many x86 bug reports,
prototype patches, and keeping the GNU/Linux ports working.
• Greg McGary for random fixes and (someday) bounded pointers.
• Andrew MacLeod for his ongoing work in building a real EH system, various code
generation improvements, work on the global optimizer, etc.
• Vladimir Makarov for hacking some ugly i960 problems, PowerPC hacking improve-
ments to compile-time performance, overall knowledge and direction in the area of
instruction scheduling, design and implementation of the automaton based instruction
scheduler and design and implementation of the integrated and local register allocators.
• David Malcolm for his work on improving GCC diagnostics, JIT, self-tests and unit
testing.
• Bob Manson for his behind the scenes work on dejagnu.
• Jose E. Marchesi for contributing the eBPF backend and his ongoing work maintaining
it.
• John Marino for contributing the DragonFly BSD port.
• Philip Martin for lots of libstdc++ string and vector iterator fixes and improvements,
and string clean up and testsuites.
• Dhruv Matani for work on libstdc++ allocators.
• Michael Matz for his work on dominance tree discovery, the x86-64 port, link-time
optimization framework and general optimization improvements.
• All of the Mauve project contributors for Java test code.
• Bryce McKinlay for numerous GCJ and libgcj fixes and improvements.
• Adam Megacz for his work on the Microsoft Windows port of GCJ.
• Michael Meissner for LRS framework, ia32, m32r, v850, m88k, MIPS, powerpc, haifa,
ECOFF debug support, and other assorted hacking.
• Jason Merrill for his direction via the steering committee and leading the G++ effort.
• Martin Michlmayr for testing GCC on several architectures using the entire Debian
archive.
• David Miller for his direction via the steering committee, lots of SPARC work, im-
provements in jump.cc and interfacing with the Linux kernel developers.
• Gary Miller ported GCC to Charles River Data Systems machines.
• Alfred Minarik for libstdc++ string and ios bug fixes, and turning the entire libstdc++
testsuite namespace-compatible.
• Mark Mitchell for his direction via the steering committee, mountains of C++ work,
load/store hoisting out of loops, alias analysis improvements, ISO C restrict support,
and serving as release manager from 2000 to 2011.
• Alan Modra for various GNU/Linux bits and testing.
• Toon Moene for his direction via the steering committee, Fortran maintenance, and his
ongoing work to make us make Fortran run fast.
1136 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
• Jason Molenda for major help in the care and feeding of all the services on the
gcc.gnu.org (formerly egcs.cygnus.com) machine—mail, web services, ftp services, etc
etc. Doing all this work on scrap paper and the backs of envelopes would have been. . .
difficult.
• Catherine Moore for fixing various ugly problems we have sent her way, including the
haifa bug which was killing the Alpha & PowerPC Linux kernels.
• Mike Moreton for his various Java patches.
• David Mosberger-Tang for various Alpha improvements, and for the initial IA-64 port.
• Stephen Moshier contributed the floating point emulator that assists in cross-
compilation and permits support for floating point numbers wider than 64 bits and
for ISO C99 support.
• Bill Moyer for his behind the scenes work on various issues.
• Philippe De Muyter for his work on the m68k port.
• Joseph S. Myers for his work on the PDP-11 port, format checking and ISO C99
support, and continuous emphasis on (and contributions to) documentation.
• Nathan Myers for his work on libstdc++-v3: architecture and authorship through the
first three snapshots, including implementation of locale infrastructure, string, shadow
C headers, and the initial project documentation (DESIGN, CHECKLIST, and so
forth). Later, more work on MT-safe string and shadow headers.
• Felix Natter for documentation on porting libstdc++.
• Nathanael Nerode for cleaning up the configuration/build process.
• NeXT, Inc. donated the front end that supports the Objective-C language.
• Hans-Peter Nilsson for the CRIS and MMIX ports, improvements to the search engine
setup, various documentation fixes and other small fixes.
• Geoff Noer for his work on getting cygwin native builds working.
• Vegard Nossum for running automated regression testing of GCC and reporting nu-
merous bugs.
• Diego Novillo for his work on Tree SSA, OpenMP, SPEC performance tracking web
pages, GIMPLE tuples, and assorted fixes.
• David O’Brien for the FreeBSD/alpha, FreeBSD/AMD x86-64, FreeBSD/ARM,
FreeBSD/PowerPC, and FreeBSD/SPARC64 ports and related infrastructure
improvements.
• Alexandre Oliva for various build infrastructure improvements, scripts and amazing
testing work, including keeping libtool issues sane and happy.
• Stefan Olsson for work on mt alloc.
• Melissa O’Neill for various NeXT fixes.
• Rainer Orth for random MIPS work, including improvements to GCC’s o32 ABI sup-
port, improvements to dejagnu’s MIPS support, Java configuration clean-ups and port-
ing work, and maintaining the IRIX, Solaris 2, and Tru64 UNIX ports.
• Patrick Palka for contributions to the C++ library and front end.
• Steven Pemberton for his contribution of enquire which allowed GCC to determine
various properties of the floating point unit and generate float.h in older versions of
GCC.
Contributors to GCC 1137
• Roger Sayle for improvements to constant folding and GCC’s RTL optimizers as well
as for fixing numerous bugs.
• Bradley Schatz for his work on the GCJ FAQ.
• Peter Schauer wrote the code to allow debugging to work on the Alpha.
• William Schelter did most of the work on the Intel 80386 support.
• Tobias Schlüter for work on GNU Fortran.
• Bernd Schmidt for various code generation improvements and major work in the reload
pass, serving as release manager for GCC 2.95.3, and work on the Blackfin and C6X
ports.
• Peter Schmid for constant testing of libstdc++—especially application testing, going
above and beyond what was requested for the release criteria—and libstdc++ header
file tweaks.
• Jason Schroeder for jcf-dump patches.
• Andreas Schwab for his work on the m68k port.
• Lars Segerlund for work on GNU Fortran.
• Dodji Seketeli for numerous C++ bug fixes and debug info improvements.
• Tim Shen for major work on <regex>.
• Joel Sherrill for his direction via the steering committee, RTEMS contributions and
RTEMS testing.
• Nathan Sidwell for many C++ fixes/improvements.
• Jeffrey Siegal for helping RMS with the original design of GCC, some code which
handles the parse tree and RTL data structures, constant folding and help with the
original VAX & m68k ports.
• Kenny Simpson for prompting libstdc++ fixes due to defect reports from the LWG
(thereby keeping GCC in line with updates from the ISO).
• Franz Sirl for his ongoing work with making the PPC port stable for GNU/Linux.
• Andrey Slepuhin for assorted AIX hacking.
• Trevor Smigiel for contributing the SPU port.
• Christopher Smith did the port for Convex machines.
• Danny Smith for his major efforts on the Mingw (and Cygwin) ports. Retired from
GCC maintainership August 2010, having mentored two new maintainers into the role.
• Randy Smith finished the Sun FPA support.
• Ed Smith-Rowland for his continuous work on libstdc++-v3, special functions,
<random>, and various improvements to C++11 features.
• Scott Snyder for queue, iterator, istream, and string fixes and libstdc++ testsuite en-
tries. Also for providing the patch to G77 to add rudimentary support for INTEGER*1,
INTEGER*2, and LOGICAL*1.
• Zdenek Sojka for running automated regression testing of GCC and reporting numerous
bugs.
• Arseny Solokha for running automated regression testing of GCC and reporting nu-
merous bugs.
Contributors to GCC 1139
• Andy Vaught for the design and initial implementation of the GNU Fortran front end.
• Brent Verner for work with the libstdc++ cshadow files and their associated configure
steps.
• Todd Vierling for contributions for NetBSD ports.
• Andrew Waterman for contributing the RISC-V port, as well as maintaining it.
• Jonathan Wakely for contributing to and maintaining libstdc++.
• Dean Wakerley for converting the install documentation from HTML to texinfo in time
for GCC 3.0.
• Krister Walfridsson for random bug fixes.
• Feng Wang for contributions to GNU Fortran.
• Stephen M. Webb for time and effort on making libstdc++ shadow files work with the
tricky Solaris 8+ headers, and for pushing the build-time header tree. Also, for starting
and driving the <regex> effort.
• John Wehle for various improvements for the x86 code generator, related infrastructure
improvements to help x86 code generation, value range propagation and other work,
WE32k port.
• Ulrich Weigand for work on the s390 port.
• Janus Weil for contributions to GNU Fortran.
• Zack Weinberg for major work on cpplib and various other bug fixes.
• Matt Welsh for help with Linux Threads support in GCJ.
• Urban Widmark for help fixing java.io.
• Mark Wielaard for new Java library code and his work integrating with Classpath.
• Dale Wiles helped port GCC to the Tahoe.
• Bob Wilson from Tensilica, Inc. for the Xtensa port.
• Jim Wilson for his direction via the steering committee, tackling hard problems in
various places that nobody else wanted to work on, strength reduction and other loop
optimizations.
• Paul Woegerer and Tal Agmon for the CRX port.
• Carlo Wood for various fixes.
• Tom Wood for work on the m88k port.
• Chung-Ju Wu for his work on the Andes NDS32 port.
• Canqun Yang for work on GNU Fortran.
• Masanobu Yuhara of Fujitsu Laboratories implemented the machine description for the
Tron architecture (specifically, the Gmicro).
• Kevin Zachmann helped port GCC to the Tahoe.
• Ayal Zaks for Swing Modulo Scheduling (SMS).
• Qirun Zhang for running automated regression testing of GCC and reporting numerous
bugs.
• Xiaoqiang Zhang for work on GNU Fortran.
• Gilles Zunino for help porting Java to Irix.
Contributors to GCC 1141
The following people are recognized for their contributions to GNAT, the Ada front end
of GCC:
• Bernard Banner
• Romain Berrendonner
• Geert Bosch
• Emmanuel Briot
• Joel Brobecker
• Ben Brosgol
• Vincent Celier
• Arnaud Charlet
• Chien Chieng
• Cyrille Comar
• Cyrille Crozes
• Robert Dewar
• Gary Dismukes
• Robert Duff
• Ed Falis
• Ramon Fernandez
• Sam Figueroa
• Vasiliy Fofanov
• Michael Friess
• Franco Gasperoni
• Ted Giering
• Matthew Gingell
• Laurent Guerby
• Jerome Guitton
• Olivier Hainque
• Jerome Hugues
• Hristian Kirtchev
• Jerome Lambourg
• Bruno Leclerc
• Albert Lee
• Sean McNeil
• Javier Miranda
• Laurent Nana
• Pascal Obry
• Dong-Ik Oh
• Laurent Pautet
• Brett Porter
1142 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
• Thomas Quinot
• Nicolas Roche
• Pat Rogers
• Jose Ruiz
• Douglas Rupp
• Sergey Rybin
• Gail Schenker
• Ed Schonberg
• Nicolas Setton
• Samuel Tardieu
The following people are recognized for their contributions of new features, bug reports,
testing and integration of classpath/libgcj for GCC version 4.1:
• Lillian Angel for JTree implementation and lots Free Swing additions and bug fixes.
• Wolfgang Baer for GapContent bug fixes.
• Anthony Balkissoon for JList, Free Swing 1.5 updates and mouse event fixes, lots of
Free Swing work including JTable editing.
• Stuart Ballard for RMI constant fixes.
• Goffredo Baroncelli for HTTPURLConnection fixes.
• Gary Benson for MessageFormat fixes.
• Daniel Bonniot for Serialization fixes.
• Chris Burdess for lots of gnu.xml and http protocol fixes, StAX and DOM xml:id support.
• Ka-Hing Cheung for TreePath and TreeSelection fixes.
• Archie Cobbs for build fixes, VM interface updates, URLClassLoader updates.
• Kelley Cook for build fixes.
• Martin Cordova for Suggestions for better SocketTimeoutException.
• David Daney for BitSet bug fixes, HttpURLConnection rewrite and improvements.
• Thomas Fitzsimmons for lots of upgrades to the gtk+ AWT and Cairo 2D support.
Lots of imageio framework additions, lots of AWT and Free Swing bug fixes.
• Jeroen Frijters for ClassLoader and nio cleanups, serialization fixes, better Proxy
support, bug fixes and IKVM integration.
• Santiago Gala for AccessControlContext fixes.
• Nicolas Geoffray for VMClassLoader and AccessController improvements.
• David Gilbert for basic and metal icon and plaf support and lots of documenting,
Lots of Free Swing and metal theme additions. MetalIconFactory implementation.
• Anthony Green for MIDI framework, ALSA and DSSI providers.
• Andrew Haley for Serialization and URLClassLoader fixes, gcj build speedups.
• Kim Ho for JFileChooser implementation.
• Andrew John Hughes for Locale and net fixes, URI RFC2986 updates, Serialization
fixes, Properties XML support and generic branch work, VMIntegration guide update.
Contributors to GCC 1143
• Mark Wielaard for bug fixes, packaging and release management, Clipboard imple-
mentation, system call interrupts and network timeouts and GdkPixpufDecoder fixes.
In addition to the above, all of which also contributed time and energy in testing GCC,
we would like to thank the following for their contributions to testing:
• Michael Abd-El-Malek
• Thomas Arend
• Bonzo Armstrong
• Steven Ashe
• Chris Baldwin
• David Billinghurst
• Jim Blandy
• Stephane Bortzmeyer
• Horst von Brand
• Frank Braun
• Rodney Brown
• Sidney Cadot
• Bradford Castalia
• Robert Clark
• Jonathan Corbet
• Ralph Doncaster
• Richard Emberson
• Levente Farkas
• Graham Fawcett
• Mark Fernyhough
• Robert A. French
• Jörgen Freyh
• Mark K. Gardner
• Charles-Antoine Gauthier
• Yung Shing Gene
• David Gilbert
• Simon Gornall
• Fred Gray
• John Griffin
• Patrik Hagglund
• Phil Hargett
• Amancio Hasty
• Takafumi Hayashi
• Bryan W. Headley
• Kevin B. Hendricks
Contributors to GCC 1145
• Joep Jansen
• Christian Joensson
• Michel Kern
• David Kidd
• Tobias Kuipers
• Anand Krishnaswamy
• A. O. V. Le Blanc
• llewelly
• Damon Love
• Brad Lucier
• Matthias Klose
• Martin Knoblauch
• Rick Lutowski
• Jesse Macnish
• Stefan Morrell
• Anon A. Mous
• Matthias Mueller
• Pekka Nikander
• Rick Niles
• Jon Olson
• Magnus Persson
• Chris Pollard
• Richard Polton
• Derk Reefman
• David Rees
• Paul Reilly
• Tom Reilly
• Torsten Rueger
• Danny Sadinoff
• Marc Schifer
• Erik Schnetter
• Wayne K. Schroll
• David Schuler
• Vin Shelton
• Tim Souder
• Adam Sulmicki
• Bill Thorson
• George Talbot
• Pedro A. M. Vazquez
1146 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
• Gregory Warnes
• Ian Watson
• David E. Young
• And many others
And finally we’d like to thank everyone who uses the compiler, provides feedback and
generally reminds us why we’re doing this work in the first place.
1147
Appendix A Indices
# dP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
### . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 dump-analyzer-exploded-nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
dump-analyzer-exploded-nodes-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
dump-analyzer-exploded-nodes-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
A dump-analyzer-feasibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
all_load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 dump-analyzer-infinite-loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
allowable_client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 dumpbase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 dumpbase-ext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
ansi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 43, 797, 1095
dumpdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
arch_errors_fatal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
dumpfullversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
aux-info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 dumpmachine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
dumpspecs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
dumpversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
B dU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
B ............................................. 300 dx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Bdynamic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506 dylib_file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
bind_at_load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 dylinker_install_name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
block-ops-unaligned-vsx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481 dynamic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Bstatic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
dynamiclib . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
bundle_loader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
C
c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35, 292 E
CC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
client_name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
compatibility_version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 EB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351, 387, 427
coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 EL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351, 387, 427
current_version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 embed-dir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
entry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
exported_symbols_list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
D E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35, 292
d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290, 313
da . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
dA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
dD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291, 316
dead_strip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
dependency-file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
dH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
dI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
dM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
dN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
dp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
1148 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
F fconstant-cfstrings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
fabi-compat-version. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 fconstant-string-class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
fabi-version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 fconstexpr-cache-depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
faccess-control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 fconstexpr-depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
fada-spec-parent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 fconstexpr-fp-except . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
faggressive-loop-optimizations . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 fconstexpr-loop-limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
falign-functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 fconstexpr-ops-limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
falign-jumps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 fcontract-assumption-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
falign-labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 fcontract-build-level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
falign-loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 fcontract-continuation-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
faligned-new . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 fcontract-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
fallocation-dce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 fcontract-role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
fallow-store-data-races . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 fcontract-strict-declarations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
fanalyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 fcontracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
fanalyzer-call-summaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 fcoroutines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
fanalyzer-checker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 fcprop-registers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
fanalyzer-debug-text-art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 fcrossjumping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
fanalyzer-feasibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 fcse-follow-jumps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
fanalyzer-fine-grained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 fcse-skip-blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
fanalyzer-show-duplicate-count . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 fcx-fortran-rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
fanalyzer-show-events-in- fcx-limited-range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
system-headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 fdata-sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
fanalyzer-state-merge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 fdbg-cnt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
fanalyzer-state-purge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 fdbg-cnt-list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
fanalyzer-suppress-followups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 fdce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
fanalyzer-transitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 fdebug-cpp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
fanalyzer-undo-inlining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 fdebug-prefix-map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
fasan-shadow-offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 fdebug-types-section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
fasm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 fdeclone-ctor-dtor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
fassociative-math . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 fdefer-pop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
fassume-sane-operators-new-delete . . . . . . . . . 53 fdelayed-branch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
fasynchronous-unwind-tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 fdelete-dead-exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
fauto-inc-dec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 fdelete-null-pointer-checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
fauto-profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 fdeps-. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
favoid-store-forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 fdeps-file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
fbit-tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 fdeps-format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
fbranch-count-reg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 fdeps-target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
fbranch-probabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 fdevirtualize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
fbuiltin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 fdevirtualize-at-ltrans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
fcall-saved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 fdevirtualize-speculatively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
fcall-used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 fdiagnostics-add-output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
fcaller-saves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 fdiagnostics-all-candidates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
fcallgraph-info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 fdiagnostics-color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
fcanon-prefix-map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 fdiagnostics-column-origin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
fcf-protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 fdiagnostics-column-unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
fchar8_t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 fdiagnostics-escape-format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
fcheck-new . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 fdiagnostics-format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
fchecking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 fdiagnostics-generate-patch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
fcode-hoisting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 fdiagnostics-json-formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
fcombine-stack-adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 fdiagnostics-minimum-margin-width . . . . . . . . . 88
fcommon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305, 680 fdiagnostics-parseable-fixits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
fcompare-debug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 fdiagnostics-path-format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
fcompare-debug-second . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 fdiagnostics-set-output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
fcompare-elim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 fdiagnostics-show-caret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
fconcepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 fdiagnostics-show-cwe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
fcond-mismatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 fdiagnostics-show-event-links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
fcondition-coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 fdiagnostics-show-highlight-colors . . . . . . . . 88
fconserve-stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 fdiagnostics-show-labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Appendix A: Indices 1149
gno-inline-points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 M
gno-internal-reset-location-views . . . . . . . . 183 m1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
gno-prune-btf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 m10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
gno-record-gcc-switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 m128bit-long-double . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
gno-statement-frontiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 m16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
gno-strict-dwarf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 m16-bit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386, 448
gno-variable-location-views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 m1reg- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
gprune-btf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 m2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
gpubnames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 m210 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
grecord-gcc-switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 m2a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
gsplit-dwarf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 m2a-nofpu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
gstatement-frontiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 m2a-single . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
gstrict-dwarf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 m2a-single-only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
gtoggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 m3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
gused. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390 m31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
gvariable-location-views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 m32 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469, 500, 538
gvariable-location-views=incompat5 . . . . . . . 183 m32-bit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
gvms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 m32bit-doubles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465, 481
gz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 m32r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348, 414, 418, 434, 477, 501 m32r2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
m32rx. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
m340 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
H m3dnow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
headerpad_max_install_names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 m3dnowa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 m3e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 m4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
m4-100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
m4-100-nofpu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
I m4-100-single . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
I- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 m4-100-single-only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
idirafter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 m4-200 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
iframework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390 m4-200-nofpu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
imacros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 m4-200-single . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
image_base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 m4-200-single-only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
imultilib . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 m4-300 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 m4-300-nofpu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
init . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 m4-300-single . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
install_name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 m4-300-single-only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
iplugindir= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 m4-340 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
iprefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 m4-500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
iquote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 m4-nofpu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
isysroot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 m4-single . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
isystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 m4-single-only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
iwithprefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 m40 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
iwithprefixbefore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 m45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 m4a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
m4a-nofpu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
m4a-single . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
K m4a-single-only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
m4al . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
keep_private_externs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
m4byte-functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
m5200. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
m5206e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
L m528x. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 m5307. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
lobjc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 m5407. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 m64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448, 469, 485, 500, 538
m64bit-doubles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465, 481
1156 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
P segs_read_only_addr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
p . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264, 618 segs_read_write_addr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
pagezero_size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 shared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
param. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 shared-libgcc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
pass-exit-codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 short-calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
pedantic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 96, 575, 776, 1097 sim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
pedantic-errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 97, 1097 sim2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
pg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264, 618 single_module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
pie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 specs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 static . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295, 393, 408
plt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 static-libasan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
prebind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 static-libgcc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
prebind_all_twolevel_modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 static-liblsan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
print-file-name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 static-libstdc++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
print-libgcc-file-name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 static-libtsan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
print-multi-directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 static-libubsan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
print-multi-lib . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 static-pie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
print-multi-os-directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 std . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 43, 797, 1095
print-multiarch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 stdlib. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
print-objc-runtime-info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 sub_library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
print-prog-name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 sub_umbrella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
print-search-dirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 symbolic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
print-sysroot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
sysroot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
print-sysroot-headers-suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35, 292
private_bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
pthread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285, 295
pthreads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 T
target-help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Q threads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Qn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 tno-android-cc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Qy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 tno-android-ld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
traditional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290, 1085
traditional-cpp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
R trigraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
twolevel_namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
rdynamic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
read_only_relocs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
remap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
U
u . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
S umbrella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 undef. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
save-temps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 undefined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
save-temps=cwd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 unexported_symbols_list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
save-temps=obj . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
sectalign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
sectcreate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
sectobjectsymbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
sectorder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 V
seg_addr_table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 v . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
seg_addr_table_filename . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
seg1addr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
segaddr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
seglinkedit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
segprot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Appendix A: Indices 1169
W Wanalyzer-undefined-behavior-ptrdiff . . . . . 170
w . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Wanalyzer-undefined-behavior-strtok . . . . . . 171
W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99, 152, 155, 1086 Wanalyzer-unsafe-call-within-
Wa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 signal-handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Wabi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Wanalyzer-use-after-free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Wabi-tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Wanalyzer-use-of-pointer-in-
Wabsolute-value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 stale-stack-frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Waddr-space-convert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375 Wanalyzer-use-of-uninitialized-value . . . . . 172
Waddress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Wanalyzer-va-arg-type-mismatch . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Waddress-of-packed-member. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Wanalyzer-va-list-exhausted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Waggregate-return . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Wanalyzer-va-list-leak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Waggressive-loop-optimizations . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Wanalyzer-va-list-use-after-va-end . . . . . . . 172
Waligned-new . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Wanalyzer-write-to-const . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98, 1088 Wanalyzer-write-to-string-literal . . . . . . . . 172
Walloc-size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Warith-conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Walloc-size-larger-than= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Warray-bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Walloc-zero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Warray-compare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Walloca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Warray-parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Walloca-larger-than= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Wassign-intercept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Wanalyzer-allocation-size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Wattribute-alias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Wanalyzer-deref-before-check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Wattribute-warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Wanalyzer-double-fclose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Wattributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Wanalyzer-double-free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Wbad-function-cast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Wanalyzer-exposure-through-output-file . . . 163 Wbidi-chars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Wanalyzer-exposure-through-uninit-copy . . . 163 Wbidi-chars= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Wanalyzer-fd-access-mode-mismatch . . . . . . . . 163 Wbool-compare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Wanalyzer-fd-double-close. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Wbool-operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Wanalyzer-fd-leak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Wbuiltin-declaration-mismatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Wanalyzer-fd-phase-mismatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Wbuiltin-macro-redefined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Wanalyzer-fd-type-mismatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Wc++-compat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Wanalyzer-fd-use-after-close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Wc++11-compat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Wanalyzer-fd-use-without-check . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Wc++11-extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Wanalyzer-file-leak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Wc++14-compat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Wanalyzer-free-of-non-heap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Wc++14-extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Wanalyzer-imprecise-fp-arithmetic . . . . . . . . 165 Wc++17-compat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Wanalyzer-infinite-loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Wc++17-extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Wanalyzer-infinite-recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Wc++20-compat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Wanalyzer-jump-through-null . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Wc++20-extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Wanalyzer-malloc-leak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Wc++23-extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Wanalyzer-mismatching-deallocation . . . . . . . 166 Wc++26-extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Wanalyzer-null-argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Wc11-c23-compat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Wanalyzer-null-dereference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Wc23-c2y-compat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Wanalyzer-out-of-bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Wc90-c99-compat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Wanalyzer-overlapping-buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Wc99-c11-compat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Wanalyzer-possible-null-argument . . . . . . . . . 167 Wcalloc-transposed-args . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Wanalyzer-possible-null-dereference . . . . . . 167 Wcast-align . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Wanalyzer-putenv-of-auto-var . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Wcast-align=strict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Wanalyzer-shift-count-negative . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Wcast-function-type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Wanalyzer-shift-count-overflow . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Wcast-qual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Wanalyzer-stale-setjmp-buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Wcast-user-defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Wanalyzer-symbol-too-complex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Wcatch-value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Wanalyzer-tainted-allocation-size . . . . . . . . 169 Wchanges-meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Wanalyzer-tainted-array-index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Wchar-subscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Wanalyzer-tainted-assertion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Wclass-conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Wanalyzer-tainted-divisor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Wclass-memaccess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Wanalyzer-tainted-offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Wclobbered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Wanalyzer-tainted-size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Wcomma-subscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Wanalyzer-too-complex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Wcomment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
1170 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
X Y
x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Ym . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Xassembler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 YP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Xbind-lazy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Xbind-now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Xlinker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Z
Xpreprocessor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 z . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
# /
#pragma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1003 // . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
#pragma implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1020
#pragma implementation, implied . . . . . . . . . . . . 1020
#pragma interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1019
:
$ ‘:’ in constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744
$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
%
‘%’ in constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746
<
%include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544 ‘<’ in constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
%include_noerr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544
%rename . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544
& =
‘&’ in constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745 ‘=’ in constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745
’
' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1086
>
‘>’ in constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
+
‘+’ in constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745
– ?
‘-’ in constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746 ?: extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
-lgcc, use with -nodefaultlibs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 ?: side effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
-lgcc, use with -nostdlib . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
-march feature modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
-mcpu feature modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
-nodefaultlibs and unresolved references . . . . 294
-nostdlib and unresolved references . . . . . . . . . . 294
.
.sdata/.sdata2 references (PowerPC) . . . . . . . . . . 477
Appendix A: Indices 1177
__builtin_arc_brk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
‘_’ in variables in macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583 __builtin_arc_core_read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
__atomic_add_fetch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 __builtin_arc_core_write . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
__atomic_always_lock_free. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790 __builtin_arc_divaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
__atomic_and_fetch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 __builtin_arc_flag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
__atomic_clear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790 __builtin_arc_lr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
__atomic_compare_exchange. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 __builtin_arc_mul64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
__atomic_compare_exchange_n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788 __builtin_arc_mulu64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
__atomic_exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788 __builtin_arc_nop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
__atomic_exchange_n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788 __builtin_arc_norm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
__atomic_fetch_add . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 __builtin_arc_normw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
__atomic_fetch_and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 __builtin_arc_rtie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
__atomic_fetch_nand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 __builtin_arc_sleep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
__atomic_fetch_or . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 __builtin_arc_sr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
__atomic_fetch_sub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 __builtin_arc_swap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
__atomic_fetch_xor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 __builtin_arc_swi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
__atomic_is_lock_free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790 __builtin_arc_sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
__atomic_load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788 __builtin_arc_trap_s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
__atomic_load_n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787 __builtin_arc_unimp_s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
__atomic_nand_fetch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 __builtin_assoc_barrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
__atomic_or_fetch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 __builtin_assume_aligned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
__atomic_signal_fence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790 __builtin_avr_cli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831
__atomic_store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788 __builtin_avr_delay_cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
__atomic_store_n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788 __builtin_avr_flash_segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
__atomic_sub_fetch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 __builtin_avr_fmul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
__atomic_test_and_set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790 __builtin_avr_fmuls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
__atomic_thread_fence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790 __builtin_avr_fmulsu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
__atomic_xor_fetch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 789 __builtin_avr_insert_bits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
__auto_type in GNU C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 __builtin_avr_mask1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
__builtin___clear_cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 809 __builtin_avr_nop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831
__builtin___memcpy_chk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794 __builtin_avr_nops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
__builtin___memmove_chk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794 __builtin_avr_sei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831
__builtin___mempcpy_chk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794 __builtin_avr_sleep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831
__builtin___memset_chk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794 __builtin_avr_swap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
__builtin___snprintf_chk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796 __builtin_avr_wdr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831
__builtin___sprintf_chk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796 __builtin_bit_cast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
__builtin___stpcpy_chk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794 __builtin_bpf_load_byte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
__builtin___strcat_chk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794 __builtin_bpf_load_half . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
__builtin___strcpy_chk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794 __builtin_bpf_load_word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
__builtin___strncat_chk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794 __builtin_bswap128 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818
__builtin___strncpy_chk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794 __builtin_bswap16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817
__builtin___strub_enter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779 __builtin_bswap32 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817
__builtin___strub_leave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779 __builtin_bswap64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818
__builtin___strub_update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779 __builtin_btf_type_id . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835
__builtin___vsnprintf_chk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796 __builtin_call_with_static_chain . . . . . . . . . 803
__builtin___vsprintf_chk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796 __builtin_cfuged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905
__builtin_add_overflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791 __builtin_choose_expr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803
__builtin_add_overflow_p . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792 __builtin_classify_type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 810
__builtin_addc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793 __builtin_clear_padding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
__builtin_addcl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793 __builtin_clrsb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813
__builtin_addcll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793 __builtin_clrsbg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815
__builtin_addf128_round_to_odd . . . . . . . . . . . . 903 __builtin_clrsbl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814
__builtin_alloca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799 __builtin_clrsbll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814
__builtin_alloca_with_align . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799 __builtin_clz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813
__builtin_alloca_with_align_and_max . . . . . . 800 __builtin_clzg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814
__builtin_apply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582 __builtin_clzl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814
__builtin_apply_args . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581 __builtin_clzll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814
__builtin_arc_aligned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821 __builtin_cntlzdm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905
1178 Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
E F
‘E’ in constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743 ‘F’ in constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
earlyclobber operand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745 fabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
eBPF Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 fabsf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
eight-bit data on the H8/300, fabsl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
H8/300H, and H8S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688 fallthrough statement attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708
eightbit_data variable attribute, H8/300 . . . . . 688 far function attribute, MIPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
EIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375 fast_interrupt function attribute, M32C. . . . . 646
either function attribute, MSP430 . . . . . . . . . . . 653 fast_interrupt function
either variable attribute, MSP430 . . . . . . . . . . . . 690 attribute, MicroBlaze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648
empty structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596 fast_interrupt function attribute, RX . . . . . . . 659
Enumerator Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707 fastcall function attribute, x86-32 . . . . . . . . . . . 663
environment variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552 fatal signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1099
erf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 fd_arg function attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
erfc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 fd_arg_read function attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
erfcf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 fd_arg_write function attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
erfcl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 fdim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
erff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 fdimf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
erfl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 fdiml. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
error function attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610 FDL, GNU Free Documentation License . . . . . 1121
error GCC_COLORS capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 fentry_name function attribute, x86 . . . . . . . . . . 676
error messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1097 fentry_section function attribute, x86 . . . . . . . 676
escaped newlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598 ffs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
exception function attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654 file name suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
exception handler functions, Blackfin . . . . . . . . . . 643 file names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
exception handler functions, NDS32 . . . . . . . . . . . 654 fix-cortex-a53-835769 function
exception_handler function attribute . . . . . . . . 643 attribute, AArch64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634
exit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 fixed-point types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
exp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 fixit-delete GCC_COLORS capability . . . . . . . . . . . 86
exp10. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 fixit-insert GCC_COLORS capability . . . . . . . . . . . 86
exp10f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 flag_enum type attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
exp10l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 flatten function attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
exp2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 flexible array members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
exp2f. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 float as function value type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1087
exp2l. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 floating point precision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1089
expected_throw function attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . 611 floating-point precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
expf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 floor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
expl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 floorf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
explicit register variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772 floorl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
expm1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 fma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
expm1f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 fmaf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
expm1l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797 fmal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
expressions containing statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575 fmax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
expressions, constructor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600 fmaxf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
extended asm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720 fmaxl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
extensible constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744 fmin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
extensions, ?:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 fminf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
extensions, C language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575 fminl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
extensions, C++ language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1017 fmod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
external declaration scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1086 fmodf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
externally_visible function attribute . . . . . . . 611 fmodl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
extra NOP instructions at the fnname GCC_COLORS capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
function entry point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623 force_align_arg_pointer
function attribute, x86 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664
format function attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
format_arg function attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Fortran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Appendix A: Indices 1187
W X
x86 named address spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
w floating point suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
x86 Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
W floating point suffix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587 x86 Windows Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
wakeup function attribute, MSP430 . . . . . . . . . . . 653 ‘X’ in constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744
warm function attribute, NDS32 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654 X3.159-1989 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
warn_if_not_aligned type attribute . . . . . . . . . . 704 Xstormy16 Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
Xtensa Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
warn_if_not_aligned variable attribute . . . . . . 685
warn_unused type attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1024
warn_unused_result function attribute . . . . . . . 631 Y
warning for comparison of signed and y0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
unsigned values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 y0f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
warning for overloaded virtual function . . . . . . . . . 72 y0l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
warning for reordering of member initializers . . . 69 y1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
y1f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
warning for unknown pragmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
y1l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
warning function attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610 yn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
warning GCC_COLORS capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 ynf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
warning messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 ynl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
warnings from system headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
warnings vs errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1097
weak function attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
Z
zda variable attribute, V850 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691
weak variable attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686
zero-length arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
weakref function attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631 zero-size structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
whitespace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1086 zero_call_used_regs function attribute . . . . . . 632
Windows Options for x86 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 zSeries options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543