http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=49368
Summary: __builtin_constant_p is unable to determine if a union is constant Product: gcc Version: 4.5.1 Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P3 Component: c AssignedTo: unassig...@gcc.gnu.org ReportedBy: david.me...@icron.com In the following code GCC seems to be unable to determine that a const union is actually const when passed as an argument to __builtin_constant_p(). If I use a struct instead, then it seems to work, so there is only an issue when using a union. This is tested on GCC 4.5.1 & GCC 4.1.2 $ cat dummy.c #include <stdio.h> union u { int a; int b; }; #define DO_WORK(_arg_) \ do { \ if (__builtin_constant_p(_arg_)) \ { \ printf("Do optimized code\n"); \ } \ else \ { \ printf("Do slow code\n"); \ } \ } while (0 == 1) int main() { const union u x = { .a = 0 } ; DO_WORK(x.b); return 0; } $ gcc -Wall -Os dummy.c $ ./a.out Do slow code