Re: [PATCH -mm] sys_semctl gcc 4.1 warning fix

Andrew Morton
2006-05-10T23:48:51Z

Al Viro <viro@ftp.linux.org.uk> wrote:
>
> On Wed, May 10, 2006 at 04:05:48PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
> > Sure - it's sad and we need some workaround.
> >
> > The init_self() thingy seemed reasonable to me - it shuts up the warning
> > and has no runtime cost. What we could perhaps do is to make
> >
> > #define init_self(x) (x = x)
> >
> > only if the problematic gcc versions are detected. Later, if/when gcc gets
> > fixed up, we use
>
> Sorry, no - it shuts up too much. Look, there are two kinds of warnings
> here. "May be used" and "is used". This stuff shuts both. And unlike
> "may be used", "is used" has fairly high S/N ratio.
>
> Moreover, once you do that, you lose all future "is used" warnings on
> that variable. So your ability to catch future bugs is decreased, not
> increased.

Only for certain gcc versions. Other people use other versions, so it'll
be noticed. If/when gcc gets fixed, more and more people will see the real
warnings.

Look, of course it has problems. But the current build has problems too.
It's a question of which problem is worse..