Re: Announce: gcc bogus warning repository

Jeff Garzik
2006-10-01T17:20:48Z

Randy Dunlap wrote:
> On Sun, 01 Oct 2006 09:44:55 -0400 Jeff Garzik wrote:
>
>> The level of warnings in a kernel build has lately increased to the
>> point where it is hiding bugs and otherwise making life difficult.
>>
>> In particular, recent gcc versions throw warnings when it thinks a
>> variable "MAY be used uninitialized", which is not terribly helpful due
>> to the fact that most of these warnings are bogus.
>>
>> For those that may find this valuable, I have started a git repo that
>> silences these bogus warnings, after careful auditing of code paths to
>> ensure that the warning truly is bogus.
>>
>> The results may be found in the "gccbug" branch of
>> git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jgarzik/misc-2.6.git
>>
>> This repository will NEVER EVER be pushed upstream. It exists solely
>> for those who want to decrease their build noise, thereby exposing true
>> bugs.
>>
>> The audit has already uncovered several minor bugs, lending credence to
>> my theory that too many warnings hides bugs.
>
> I usually build with must_check etc. enabled then grep them
> away if I want to look for other messages. I think that the situation
> is not so disastrous.

I think it's both sad, and telling, that the high level of build noise
has trained kernel hackers to tune out warnings, and/or build tools of
ever-increasing sophistication just to pick out the useful messages from
all the noise.

If you have to grep useful stuff out of the noise, you've already lost.

Jeff