------- Comment #4 from jakub at gcc dot gnu dot org 2010-09-16 17:13 ------- i?86 is a FLT_EVAL_METHOD 2 target, so for strict C compliance all floating operations and constants are supposed to be evaluated in the precision of long double. The assignment of the constant to a double var or explicit cast to double cause rounding to happen, so your testcase is evaluated as: int main() { double z = 3.14159265358979323846L; puts((long double) z == 3.14159265358979323846L ? "==" : "!="); return 0; } and of course (double) 3.14159265358979323846L != 3.14159265358979323846L. You can use -fexcess-precision=fast (the default unless -std=c99/-std=c89 is requested) for the old behavior, or you can add explicit cast, z == (double) M_PI, or (as usually a good idea) avoid floating point equality/non-equality comparisons, instead check whether difference is smaller than some epsilon.
-- http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=45691