Fresh Fish 4/FreshFish_May-June1994.bin/bbs/gnu/gcc-2.5.8-bin.lha/info/gcc.info-2

GNU Info File | 1994-02-21 | 41.8 KB | 1,028 lines

This is Info file gcc.info, produced by Makeinfo-1.55 from the input
file gcc.texi.

   This file documents the use and the internals of the GNU compiler.

   Published by the Free Software Foundation 675 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA

   Copyright (C) 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

   Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also
that the sections entitled "GNU General Public License" and "Protect
Your Freedom--Fight `Look And Feel'" are included exactly as in the
original, and provided that the entire resulting derived work is
distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this
one.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions, except that the sections entitled "GNU General Public
License" and "Protect Your Freedom--Fight `Look And Feel'", and this
permission notice, may be included in translations approved by the Free
Software Foundation instead of in the original English.


File: gcc.info,  Node: Invoking G++,  Next: C Dialect Options,  Prev: Overall Options,  Up: Invoking GCC

Compiling C++ Programs
======================

   C++ source files conventionally use one of the suffixes `.C', `.cc',
or `.cxx'; preprocessed C++ files use the suffix `.ii'.  GNU CC
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, C++ programs often require class libraries as well as a
compiler that understands the C++ language--and under some
circumstances, you might want to compile programs from standard input,
or otherwise without a suffix that flags them as C++ programs.  `g++'
is a shell script that calls GNU CC with the default language set to
C++, and automatically specifies linking against the GNU class library
libg++.  (1) On many systems, the script `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++ programs.  *Note
Options Controlling C Dialect: C Dialect Options, for explanations of
options for languages related to C.  *Note Options Controlling C++
Dialect: C++ Dialect Options, for explanations of options that are
meaningful only for C++ programs.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1)  Prior to release 2 of the compiler, there was a separate `g++'
compiler.  That version was based on GNU CC, but not integrated with
it.  Versions of `g++' with a `1.XX' version number--for example, `g++'
version 1.37 or 1.42--are much less reliable than the versions
integrated with GCC 2.  Moreover, combining G++ `1.XX' with a version 2
GCC will simply not work.


File: gcc.info,  Node: C Dialect Options,  Next: C++ Dialect Options,  Prev: Invoking G++,  Up: Invoking GCC

Options Controlling C Dialect
=============================

   The following options control the dialect of C (or languages derived
from C, such as C++ and Objective C) that the compiler accepts:

`-ansi'
     Support all ANSI standard C programs.

     This turns off certain features of GNU C that are incompatible
     with ANSI C, such as the `asm', `inline' and `typeof' keywords, and
     predefined macros such as `unix' and `vax' that identify the type
     of system you are using.  It also enables the undesirable and
     rarely used ANSI trigraph feature, and disallows `$' as part of
     identifiers.

     The alternate keywords `__asm__', `__extension__', `__inline__'
     and `__typeof__' continue to work despite `-ansi'.  You would not
     want to use them in an ANSI C program, of course, but it useful to
     put them in header files that might be included in compilations
     done with `-ansi'.  Alternate predefined macros such as `__unix__'
     and `__vax__' are also available, with or without `-ansi'.

     The `-ansi' option does not cause non-ANSI programs to be rejected
     gratuitously.  For that, `-pedantic' is required in addition to
     `-ansi'.  *Note Warning Options::.

     The macro `__STRICT_ANSI__' is predefined when the `-ansi' option
     is used.  Some header files may notice this macro and refrain from
     declaring certain functions or defining certain macros that the
     ANSI standard doesn't call for; this is to avoid interfering with
     any programs that might use these names for other things.

     The functions `alloca', `abort', `exit', and `_exit' are not
     builtin functions when `-ansi' is used.

`-fno-asm'
     Do not recognize `asm', `inline' or `typeof' as a keyword.  These
     words may then be used as identifiers.  You can use the keywords
     `__asm__', `__inline__' and `__typeof__' instead.  `-ansi' implies
     `-fno-asm'.

`-fno-builtin'
     Don't recognize builtin functions that do not begin with two
     leading underscores.  Currently, the functions affected include
     `abort', `abs', `alloca', `cos', `exit', `fabs', `ffs', `labs',
     `memcmp', `memcpy', `sin', `sqrt', `strcmp', `strcpy', and
     `strlen'.

     GCC normally generates special code to handle certain builtin
     functions more efficiently; for instance, calls to `alloca' may
     become single instructions that 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.

     The `-ansi' option prevents `alloca' and `ffs' from being builtin
     functions, since these functions do not have an ANSI standard
     meaning.

`-trigraphs'
     Support ANSI C trigraphs.  You don't want to know about this
     brain-damage.  The `-ansi' option implies `-trigraphs'.

`-traditional'
     Attempt to support some aspects of traditional C compilers.
     Specifically:

        * All `extern' declarations take effect globally even if they
          are written inside of a function definition.  This includes
          implicit declarations of functions.

        * The newer keywords `typeof', `inline', `signed', `const' and
          `volatile' are not recognized.  (You can still use the
          alternative keywords such as `__typeof__', `__inline__', and
          so on.)

        * Comparisons between pointers and integers are always allowed.

        * Integer types `unsigned short' and `unsigned char' promote to
          `unsigned int'.

        * Out-of-range floating point literals are not an error.

        * Certain constructs which ANSI regards as a single invalid
          preprocessing number, such as `0xe-0xd', are treated as
          expressions instead.

        * String "constants" are not necessarily constant; they are
          stored in writable space, and identical looking constants are
          allocated separately.  (This is the same as the effect of
          `-fwritable-strings'.)

        * All automatic variables not declared `register' are preserved
          by `longjmp'.  Ordinarily, GNU C follows ANSI C: automatic
          variables not declared `volatile' may be clobbered.

        * In the preprocessor, comments convert to nothing at all,
          rather than to a space.  This allows traditional token
          concatenation.

        * In the preprocessor, macro arguments are recognized within
          string constants in a macro definition (and their values are
          stringified, though without additional quote marks, when they
          appear in such a context).  The preprocessor always considers
          a string constant to end at a newline.

        * The predefined macro `__STDC__' is not defined when you use
          `-traditional', but `__GNUC__' is (since the GNU extensions
          which `__GNUC__' indicates are not affected by
          `-traditional').  If you need to write header files that work
          differently depending on whether `-traditional' is in use, by
          testing both of these predefined macros you can distinguish
          four situations: GNU C, traditional GNU C, other ANSI C
          compilers, and other old C compilers.  *Note Standard
          Predefined Macros: (cpp.info)Standard Predefined, for more
          discussion of these and other predefined macros.

        * The preprocessor considers a string constant to end at a
          newline (unless the newline is escaped with `\').  (Without
          `-traditional', string constants can contain the newline
          character as typed.)

        * The character escape sequences `\x' and `\a' evaluate as the
          literal characters `x' and `a' respectively.  Without
          `-traditional', `\x' is a prefix for the hexadecimal
          representation of a character, and `\a' produces a bell.

        * In C++ programs, assignment to `this' is permitted with
          `-traditional'.  (The option `-fthis-is-variable' also has
          this effect.)

     You may wish to use `-fno-builtin' as well as `-traditional' if
     your program uses names that are normally GNU C builtin functions
     for other purposes of its own.

`-traditional-cpp'
     Attempt to support some aspects of traditional C preprocessors.
     This includes the last three items in the table immediately above,
     but none of the other effects of `-traditional'.

`-fcond-mismatch'
     Allow conditional expressions with mismatched types in the second
     and third arguments.  The value of such an expression is void.

`-funsigned-char'
     Let the type `char' be unsigned, like `unsigned char'.

     Each kind of machine has a default for what `char' should be.  It
     is either like `unsigned char' by default or like `signed char' by
     default.

     Ideally, a portable program should always use `signed char' or
     `unsigned char' when it depends on the signedness of an object.
     But many programs have been written to use plain `char' and expect
     it to be signed, or expect it to be unsigned, depending on the
     machines they were written for.  This option, and its inverse, let
     you make such a program work with the opposite default.

     The type `char' is always a distinct type from each of `signed
     char' or `unsigned char', even though its behavior is always just
     like one of those two.

`-fsigned-char'
     Let the type `char' be signed, like `signed char'.

     Note that this is equivalent to `-fno-unsigned-char', which is the
     negative form of `-funsigned-char'.  Likewise, the option
     `-fno-signed-char' is equivalent to `-funsigned-char'.

`-fsigned-bitfields'
`-funsigned-bitfields'
`-fno-signed-bitfields'
`-fno-unsigned-bitfields'
     These options control whether a bitfield is signed or unsigned,
     when the declaration does not use either `signed' or `unsigned'.
     By default, such a bitfield is signed, because this is consistent:
     the basic integer types such as `int' are signed types.

     However, when `-traditional' is used, bitfields are all unsigned
     no matter what.

`-fwritable-strings'
     Store string constants in the writable data segment and don't
     uniquize them.  This is for compatibility with old programs which
     assume they can write into string constants.  The option
     `-traditional' also has this effect.

     Writing into string constants is a very bad idea; "constants"
     should be constant.

`-fallow-single-precision'
     Do not promote single precision math operations to double
     precision, even when compiling with `-traditional'.

     Traditional K&R C promotes all floating point operations to double
     precision, regardless of the sizes of the operands.   On the
     architecture for which you are compiling, single precision may be
     faster than double precision.   If you must use `-traditional',
     but want to use single precision operations when the operands are
     single precision, use this option.   This option has no effect
     when compiling with ANSI or GNU C conventions (the default).


File: gcc.info,  Node: C++ Dialect Options,  Next: Warning Options,  Prev: C Dialect Options,  Up: Invoking GCC

Options Controlling C++ Dialect
===============================

   This section describes the command-line options that are only
meaningful for C++ programs; but you can also use most of the GNU
compiler options regardless of what language your program is in.  For
example, you might compile a file `firstClass.C' like this:

     g++ -g -felide-constructors -O -c firstClass.C

In this example, only `-felide-constructors' is an option meant only
for C++ programs; you can use the other options with any language
supported by GNU CC.

   Here is a list of options that are *only* for compiling C++ programs:

`-fall-virtual'
     Treat all possible member functions as virtual, implicitly.  All
     member functions (except for constructor functions and `new' or
     `delete' member operators) are treated as virtual functions of the
     class where they appear.

     This does not mean that all calls to these member functions will
     be made through the internal table of virtual functions.  Under
     some circumstances, the compiler can determine that a call to a
     given virtual function can be made directly; in these cases the
     calls are direct in any case.

`-fdollars-in-identifiers'
     Accept `$' in identifiers.  You can also explicitly prohibit use of
     `$' with the option `-fno-dollars-in-identifiers'.  (GNU C++
     allows `$' by default on some target systems but not others.)
     Traditional C allowed the character `$' to form part of
     identifiers.  However, ANSI C and C++ forbid `$' in identifiers.

`-felide-constructors'
     Elide constructors when this seems plausible.  With this option,
     GNU C++ initializes `y' directly from the call to `foo' without
     going through a temporary in the following code:

          A foo ();
          A y = foo ();

     Without this option, GNU C++ (1) initializes `y' by calling the
     appropriate constructor for type `A'; (2) assigns the result of
     `foo' to a temporary; and, finally, (3) replaces the initial value
     of `y' with the temporary.

     The default behavior (`-fno-elide-constructors') is specified by
     the draft ANSI C++ standard.  If your program's constructors have
     side effects, `-felide-constructors' can change your program's
     behavior, since some constructor calls may be omitted.

`-fenum-int-equiv'
     Permit implicit conversion of `int' to enumeration types.  Normally
     GNU C++ allows conversion of `enum' to `int', but not the other
     way around.

`-fexternal-templates'
     Produce smaller code for template declarations, by generating only
     a single copy of each template function where it is defined.  To
     use this option successfully, you must also mark all files that
     use templates with either `#pragma implementation' (the
     definition) or `#pragma interface' (declarations).  *Note
     Declarations and Definitions in One Header: C++ Interface, for more
     discussion of these pragmas.

     When your code is compiled with `-fexternal-templates', all
     template instantiations are external.  You must arrange for all
     necessary instantiations to appear in the implementation file; you
     can do this with a `typedef' that references each instantiation
     needed.  Conversely, when you compile using the default option
     `-fno-external-templates', all template instantiations are
     explicitly internal.

     You do not need to specify `-fexternal-templates' when compiling a
     file that does not define and instantiate templates used in other
     files, even if your file *uses* templates defined in other files
     that are compiled with `-fexternal-templates'.  The only side
     effect is an increase in object size for each file that you
     compile without `-fexternal-templates'.

`-fmemoize-lookups'
`-fsave-memoized'
     Use heuristics to compile faster.  These heuristics are not
     enabled by default, since they are only effective for certain
     input files.  Other input files compile more slowly.

     The first time the compiler must build a call to a member function
     (or reference to a data member), it must (1) determine whether the
     class implements member functions of that name; (2) resolve which
     member function to call (which involves figuring out what sorts of
     type conversions need to be made); and (3) check the visibility of
     the member function to the caller.  All of this adds up to slower
     compilation.  Normally, the second time a call is made to that
     member function (or reference to that data member), it must go
     through the same lengthy process again.  This means that code like
     this:

          cout << "This " << p << " has " << n << " legs.\n";

     makes six passes through all three steps.  By using a software
     cache, a "hit" significantly reduces this cost.  Unfortunately,
     using the cache introduces another layer of mechanisms which must
     be implemented, and so incurs its own overhead.
     `-fmemoize-lookups' enables the software cache.

     Because access privileges (visibility) to members and member
     functions may differ from one function context to the next, G++
     may need to flush the cache.  With the `-fmemoize-lookups' flag,
     the cache is flushed after every function that is compiled.  The
     `-fsave-memoized' flag enables the same software cache, but when
     the compiler determines that the context of the last function
     compiled would yield the same access privileges of the next
     function to compile, it preserves the cache.  This is most helpful
     when defining many member functions for the same class: with the
     exception of member functions which are friends of other classes,
     each member function has exactly the same access privileges as
     every other, and the cache need not be flushed.

`-fno-strict-prototype'
     Treat a function declaration with no arguments, such as `int foo
     ();', as C would treat it--as saying nothing about the number of
     arguments or their types.  Normally, such a declaration in C++
     means that the function `foo' takes no arguments.

`-fnonnull-objects'
     Assume that objects reached through references are not null.

     Normally, GNU C++ makes conservative assumptions about objects
     reached through references.  For example, the compiler must check
     that `a' is not null in code like the following:

          obj &a = g ();
          a.f (2);

     Checking that references of this sort have non-null values requires
     extra code, however, and it is unnecessary for many programs.  You
     can use `-fnonnull-objects' to omit the checks for null, if your
     program doesn't require checking.

`-fthis-is-variable'
     Permit assignment to `this'.  The incorporation of user-defined
     free store management into C++ has made assignment to `this' an
     anachronism.  Therefore, by default it is invalid to assign to
     `this' within a class member function; that is, GNU C++ treats the
     type of `this' in a member function of class `X' to be `X *const'.
     However, for backwards compatibility, you can make it valid with
     `-fthis-is-variable'.

`-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 libg++.)

`-traditional'
     For C++ programs (in addition to the effects that apply to both C
     and C++), this has the same effect as `-fthis-is-variable'.  *Note
     Options Controlling C Dialect: C Dialect Options.

   In addition, these optimization, warning, and code generation options
have meanings only for C++ programs:

`-fno-default-inline'
     Do not assume `inline' for functions defined inside a class scope.
     *Note Options That Control Optimization: Optimize Options.

`-Wenum-clash'
`-Woverloaded-virtual'
`-Wtemplate-debugging'
     Warnings that apply only to C++ programs.  *Note Options to
     Request or Suppress Warnings: Warning Options.

`+eN'
     Control how virtual function definitions are used, in a fashion
     compatible with `cfront' 1.x.  *Note Options for Code Generation
     Conventions: Code Gen Options.


File: gcc.info,  Node: Warning Options,  Next: Debugging Options,  Prev: C++ Dialect Options,  Up: Invoking GCC

Options to Request or Suppress Warnings
=======================================

   Warnings are diagnostic messages that report constructions which are
not inherently erroneous but which are risky or suggest there may have
been an error.

   You can request many specific warnings with options beginning `-W',
for example `-Wimplicit' to request warnings on implicit declarations.
Each of these specific warning 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.

   These options control the amount and kinds of warnings produced by
GNU CC:

`-fsyntax-only'
     Check the code for syntax errors, but don't do anything beyond
     that.

`-w'
     Inhibit all warning messages.

`-Wno-import'
     Inhibit warning messages about the use of `#import'.

`-pedantic'
     Issue all the warnings demanded by strict ANSI standard C; reject
     all programs that use forbidden extensions.

     Valid ANSI standard C programs should compile properly with or
     without this option (though a rare few will require `-ansi').
     However, without this option, certain GNU extensions and
     traditional C features are supported as well.  With this option,
     they are rejected.

     `-pedantic' does not cause warning messages for use of the
     alternate keywords whose names begin and end with `__'.  Pedantic
     warnings are also disabled in the expression that follows
     `__extension__'.  However, only system header files should use
     these escape routes; application programs should avoid them.
     *Note Alternate Keywords::.

     This option is not intended to be useful; it exists only to satisfy
     pedants who would otherwise claim that GNU CC fails to support the
     ANSI standard.

     Some users try to use `-pedantic' to check programs for strict ANSI
     C conformance.  They soon find that it does not do quite what they
     want: it finds some non-ANSI practices, but not all--only those
     for which ANSI C *requires* a diagnostic.

     A feature to report any failure to conform to ANSI C might be
     useful in some instances, but would require considerable
     additional work and would be quite different from `-pedantic'.  We
     recommend, rather, that users take advantage of the extensions of
     GNU C and disregard the limitations of other compilers.  Aside
     from certain supercomputers and obsolete small machines, there is
     less and less reason ever to use any other C compiler other than
     for bootstrapping GNU CC.

`-pedantic-errors'
     Like `-pedantic', except that errors are produced rather than
     warnings.

`-W'
     Print extra warning messages for these events:

        * A nonvolatile automatic variable might be changed by a call to
          `longjmp'.  These warnings as well are possible only in
          optimizing compilation.

          The compiler sees only the calls to `setjmp'.  It cannot know
          where `longjmp' will be called; in fact, a signal handler
          could call it at any point in the code.  As a result, you may
          get a warning even when there is in fact no problem because
          `longjmp' cannot in fact be called at the place which would
          cause a problem.

        * A function can return either with or without a value.
          (Falling off the end of the function body is considered
          returning without a value.)  For example, this function would
          evoke such a warning:

               foo (a)
               {
                 if (a > 0)
                   return a;
               }

        * An expression-statement contains no side effects.

        * An unsigned value is compared against zero with `>' or `<='.

        * 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 mathematical notation.

        * Storage-class specifiers like `static' are not the first
          things in a declaration.  According to the C Standard, this
          usage is obsolescent.

        * An aggregate has a partly bracketed initializer.  For
          example, the following code would evoke such a warning,
          because braces are missing around the initializer for `x.h':

               struct s { int f, g; };
               struct t { struct s h; int i; };
               struct t x = { 1, 2, 3 };

`-Wimplicit'
     Warn whenever a function or parameter is implicitly declared.

`-Wreturn-type'
     Warn whenever a function is defined with a return-type that
     defaults to `int'.  Also warn about any `return' statement with no
     return-value in a function whose return-type is not `void'.

`-Wunused'
     Warn whenever a local variable is unused aside from its
     declaration, whenever a function is declared static but never
     defined, and whenever a statement computes a result that is
     explicitly not used.

     If you want to prevent a warning for a particular variable, you
     can use this macro:

          #define USE(var) \
            static void * use_##var = (&use_##var, (void *) &var)

          USE (string);

`-Wswitch'
     Warn whenever a `switch' statement has an index of enumeral type
     and lacks a `case' for one or more of the named codes of that
     enumeration.  (The presence of a `default' label prevents this
     warning.)  `case' labels outside the enumeration range also
     provoke warnings when this option is used.

`-Wcomment'
     Warn whenever a comment-start sequence `/*' appears in a comment.

`-Wtrigraphs'
     Warn if any trigraphs are encountered (assuming they are enabled).

`-Wformat'
     Check calls to `printf' and `scanf', etc., to make sure that the
     arguments supplied have types appropriate to the format string
     specified.

`-Wchar-subscripts'
     Warn if an array subscript has type `char'.  This is a common cause
     of error, as programmers often forget that this type is signed on
     some machines.

`-Wuninitialized'
     An automatic variable is used without first being initialized.

     These warnings are possible only in optimizing compilation,
     because they require data flow information that is computed only
     when optimizing.  If you don't specify `-O', you simply won't get
     these warnings.

     These warnings occur only for variables that are candidates for
     register allocation.  Therefore, they do not occur for a variable
     that is declared `volatile', or whose address is taken, or whose
     size is other than 1, 2, 4 or 8 bytes.  Also, they do not occur for
     structures, unions or arrays, even when they are in registers.

     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.

     These warnings are made optional because GNU CC is not smart
     enough to see all the reasons why the code might be correct
     despite 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);
          }

     If the value of `y' is always 1, 2 or 3, then `x' is always
     initialized, but GNU CC doesn't know this.  Here is another common
     case:

          {
            int save_y;
            if (change_y) save_y = y, y = new_y;
            ...
            if (change_y) y = save_y;
          }

     This has no bug because `save_y' is used only if it is set.

     Some spurious warnings can be avoided if you declare all the
     functions you use that never return as `volatile'.  *Note Function
     Attributes::.

`-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.

`-Wenum-clash'
     Warn about conversion between different enumeration types.  (C++
     only).

`-Wtemplate-debugging'
     When using templates in a C++ program, warn if debugging is not yet
     fully available (C++ only).

`-Wall'
     All of the above `-W' options combined.  These are all the options
     which pertain to usage that we recommend avoiding and that we
     believe is easy to avoid, even in conjunction with macros.

   The remaining `-W...' options are not implied by `-Wall' because
they warn about constructions that we consider reasonable to use, on
occasion, in clean programs.

`-Wtraditional'
     Warn about certain constructs that behave differently in
     traditional and ANSI C.

        * Macro arguments occurring within string constants in the
          macro body.  These would substitute the argument in
          traditional C, but are part of the constant in ANSI C.

        * 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'.

`-Wshadow'
     Warn whenever a local variable shadows another local variable.

`-Wid-clash-LEN'
     Warn whenever two distinct identifiers match in the first LEN
     characters.  This may help you prepare a program that will compile
     with certain obsolete, brain-damaged compilers.

`-Wpointer-arith'
     Warn about anything that depends on the "size of" a function type
     or of `void'.  GNU C assigns these types a size of 1, for
     convenience in calculations with `void *' pointers and pointers to
     functions.

`-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 *'.

`-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.

`-Wwrite-strings'
     Give string constants the type `const char[LENGTH]' so that
     copying the address of one into a non-`const' `char *' pointer
     will get a warning.  These warnings will 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 will just be a nuisance; this is
     why we did not make `-Wall' request these warnings.

`-Wconversion'
     Warn if a prototype causes a type conversion that is different
     from what would happen to the same argument in the absence of a
     prototype.  This includes conversions of fixed point to floating
     and vice versa, and conversions changing the width or signedness
     of a fixed point argument except when the same as the default
     promotion.

     Also, warn if a negative integer constant expression is implicitly
     converted to an unsigned type.  For example, warn about the
     assignment `x = -1' if `x' is unsigned.  But do not warn about
     explicit casts like `(unsigned) -1'.

`-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.)

`-Wstrict-prototypes'
     Warn if a function is declared or defined without specifying the
     argument types.  (An old-style function definition is permitted
     without a warning if preceded by a declaration which specifies the
     argument types.)

`-Wmissing-prototypes'
     Warn if a global function is defined without a previous prototype
     declaration.  This warning is issued even if the definition itself
     provides a prototype.  The aim is to detect global functions that
     fail to be declared in header files.

`-Wredundant-decls'
     Warn if anything is declared more than once in the same scope,
     even in cases where multiple declaration is valid and changes
     nothing.

`-Wnested-externs'
     Warn if an `extern' declaration is encountered within an function.

`-Winline'
     Warn if a function can not be inlined, and either it was declared
     as inline, or else the `-finline-functions' option was given.

`-Woverloaded-virtual'
     Warn when a derived class function declaration may be an error in
     defining a virtual function (C++ only).  In a derived class, the
     definitions of virtual functions must match the type signature of a
     virtual function declared in the base class.  With this option, the
     compiler warns when you define a function with the same name as a
     virtual function, but with a type signature that does not match any
     declarations from the base class.

`-Werror'
     Make all warnings into errors.


File: gcc.info,  Node: Debugging Options,  Next: Optimize Options,  Prev: Warning Options,  Up: Invoking GCC

Options for Debugging Your Program or GNU CC
============================================

   GNU CC has various special options that are used for debugging
either your program or GCC:

`-g'
     Produce debugging information in the operating system's native
     format (stabs, COFF, XCOFF, or DWARF).  GDB can work with this
     debugging information.

     On most systems that use stabs format, `-g' enables use of extra
     debugging information that only GDB can use; this extra information
     makes debugging work better in GDB but will probably make other
     debuggers crash or refuse to read the program.  If you want to
     control for certain whether to generate the extra information, use
     `-gstabs+', `-gstabs', `-gxcoff+', `-gxcoff', `-gdwarf+', or
     `-gdwarf' (see below).

     Unlike most other C compilers, GNU CC allows you to use `-g' with
     `-O'.  The shortcuts taken by optimized code may occasionally
     produce surprising results: some variables you declared may not
     exist at all; flow of control may briefly move where you did not
     expect it; some statements may not be executed because they
     compute constant results or their values were already at hand;
     some statements may execute in different places because they were
     moved out of loops.

     Nevertheless it proves possible to debug optimized output.  This
     makes it reasonable to use the optimizer for programs that might
     have bugs.

     The following options are useful when GNU CC is generated with the
     capability for more than one debugging format.

`-ggdb'
     Produce debugging information in the native format (if that is
     supported), including GDB extensions if at all possible.

`-gstabs'
     Produce debugging information in stabs format (if that is
     supported), without GDB extensions.  This is the format used by
     DBX on most BSD systems.  On MIPS and Alpha systems this option
     produces embedded stabs debugging output which is not understood
     by DBX.

`-gstabs+'
     Produce debugging information in stabs format (if that is
     supported), using GNU extensions understood only by the GNU
     debugger (GDB).  The use of these extensions is likely to make
     other debuggers crash or refuse to read the program.

`-gcoff'
     Produce debugging information in COFF format (if that is
     supported).  This is the format used by SDB on most System V
     systems prior to System V Release 4.

`-gxcoff'
     Produce debugging information in XCOFF format (if that is
     supported).  This is the format used by the DBX debugger on IBM
     RS/6000 systems.

`-gxcoff+'
     Produce debugging information in XCOFF format (if that is
     supported), using GNU extensions understood only by the GNU
     debugger (GDB).  The use of these extensions is likely to make
     other debuggers crash or refuse to read the program.

`-gdwarf'
     Produce debugging information in DWARF format (if that is
     supported).  This is the format used by SDB on most System V
     Release 4 systems.

`-gdwarf+'
     Produce debugging information in DWARF format (if that is
     supported), using GNU extensions understood only by the GNU
     debugger (GDB).  The use of these extensions is likely to make
     other debuggers crash or refuse to read the program.

`-gLEVEL'
`-ggdbLEVEL'
`-gstabsLEVEL'
`-gcoffLEVEL'
`-gxcoffLEVEL'
`-gdwarfLEVEL'
     Request debugging information and also use LEVEL to specify how
     much information.  The default level is 2.

     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, but no
     information about local variables and no line numbers.

     Level 3 includes extra information, such as all the macro
     definitions present in the program.  Some debuggers support macro
     expansion when you use `-g3'.

`-p'
     Generate extra code to write profile information suitable for the
     analysis program `prof'.  You must use this option when compiling
     the source files you want data about, and you must also use it when
     linking.

`-pg'
     Generate extra code to write profile information suitable for the
     analysis program `gprof'.  You must use this option when compiling
     the source files you want data about, and you must also use it when
     linking.

`-a'
     Generate extra code to write profile information for basic blocks,
     which will record the number of times each basic block is
     executed, the basic block start address, and the function name
     containing the basic block.  If `-g' is used, the line number and
     filename of the start of the basic block will also be recorded.
     If not overridden by the machine description, the default action is
     to append to the text file `bb.out'.

     This data could be analyzed by a program like `tcov'.  Note,
     however, that the format of the data is not what `tcov' expects.
     Eventually GNU `gprof' should be extended to process this data.

`-dLETTERS'
     Says to make debugging dumps during compilation at times specified
     by LETTERS.  This is used for debugging the compiler.  The file
     names for most of the dumps are made by appending a word to the
     source file name (e.g.  `foo.c.rtl' or `foo.c.jump').  Here are the
     possible letters for use in LETTERS, and their meanings:

    `M'
          Dump all macro definitions, at the end of preprocessing, and
          write no output.

    `N'
          Dump all macro names, at the end of preprocessing.

    `D'
          Dump all macro definitions, at the end of preprocessing, in
          addition to normal output.

    `y'
          Dump debugging information during parsing, to standard error.

    `r'
          Dump after RTL generation, to `FILE.rtl'.

    `x'
          Just generate RTL for a function instead of compiling it.
          Usually used with `r'.

    `j'
          Dump after first jump optimization, to `FILE.jump'.

    `s'
          Dump after CSE (including the jump optimization that sometimes
          follows CSE), to `FILE.cse'.

    `L'
          Dump after loop optimization, to `FILE.loop'.

    `t'
          Dump after the second CSE pass (including the jump
          optimization that sometimes follows CSE), to `FILE.cse2'.

    `f'
          Dump after flow analysis, to `FILE.flow'.

    `c'
          Dump after instruction combination, to the file
          `FILE.combine'.

    `S'
          Dump after the first instruction scheduling pass, to
          `FILE.sched'.

    `l'
          Dump after local register allocation, to `FILE.lreg'.

    `g'
          Dump after global register allocation, to `FILE.greg'.

    `R'
          Dump after the second instruction scheduling pass, to
          `FILE.sched2'.

    `J'
          Dump after last jump optimization, to `FILE.jump2'.

    `d'
          Dump after delayed branch scheduling, to `FILE.dbr'.

    `k'
          Dump after conversion from registers to stack, to
          `FILE.stack'.

    `a'
          Produce all the dumps listed above.

    `m'
          Print statistics on memory usage, at the end of the run, to
          standard error.

    `p'
          Annotate the assembler output with a comment indicating which
          pattern and alternative was used.

`-fpretend-float'
     When running a cross-compiler, pretend that the target machine
     uses the same floating point format as the host machine.  This
     causes incorrect output of the actual floating constants, but the
     actual instruction sequence will probably be the same as GNU CC
     would make when running on the target machine.

`-save-temps'
     Store the usual "temporary" intermediate files permanently; place
     them in the current directory and name them based on the source
     file.  Thus, compiling `foo.c' with `-c -save-temps' would produce
     files `foo.i' and `foo.s', as well as `foo.o'.

`-print-libgcc-file-name'
     Print the full absolute name of the library file `libgcc.a' that
     would be used when linking--and don't do anything else.  With this
     option, GNU CC does not compile or link anything; it just prints
     the file name.

     This is useful when you use `-nostdlib' but you do want to link
     with `libgcc.a'.  You can do

          gcc -nostdlib FILES... `gcc -print-libgcc-file-name`