Re: gcc or binutils bug?

[Nick Clifton]

Hi Paul,

> I'm experiencing some problem try to build binutils-2.17
> using GCC 4.1.1 on an AMD Athon.  By default, 
> binutils-2.17 is configured and compiled with -Werror.  
> When using -O2, binutils-2.17 compiles cleanly.  
> However, with -O3, I get some warnings which get 
> elevated to fatal errors.  

We enabled -Werror in order to help uncover any lurking bugs which do 
not normally trigger compiler error messages.  (And in the process also 
to help tidy up the sources).  Hence we are very much interested in 
warnings/errors produced when compiling at -O3, even though we do not 
normally do that ourselves.

So, please feel free to report these warnings/errors on this list.  Even 
better, please feel free to submit patches to fix them as well.  In some 
cases however it is necessary to be a little bit cautious, as not all 
warnings reported at -O3 are actual problems with the code.  Sometimes 
the compiler itself can be a little bit too over-enthusiastic.  In such 
cases we will consider altering the code to avoid the warning as long as 
it does not introduce any performance penalties or unnecessary 
complexities into the code.  Otherwise we would probably just ignore the 
warning and instead put a comment into the code explaining why we are 
not taking any other action.

Cheers
  Nick