http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=49863
Summary: -Wunused-result not behaving correctly Product: gcc Version: 4.5.2 Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P3 Component: c AssignedTo: unassig...@gcc.gnu.org ReportedBy: antom...@gmail.com With a snippet as simple as the following # cat main.c #include <stdlib.h> int main() { system("ls"); return 0; } I'm getting these, different, compilation results: 1) # gcc main.c Output: empty 2) # gcc -Wunused-result main.c Output: empty 3) # gcc -W -Wall -Wextra main.c Output: empty 4) # gcc -W -Wall -Wextra -Wunused-result main.c Output: empty 5) # gcc -O0 -W -Wall -Wextra -Wunused-result main.c Output: empty 6) # gcc -O1 main.c # same thing with -O2 -O3 Output: main.c: In function ‘main’: main.c:4:9: warning: ignoring return value of ‘system’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result Why is putting -Ox with x > 0 the only way to get the correct compilation warning when invoking the 'system' call without parsing its result? # gcc -v Using built-in specs. COLLECT_GCC=gcc COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.5.2/lto-wrapper Target: x86_64-linux-gnu Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu/Linaro 4.5.2-8ubuntu4' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.5/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr --program-suffix=-4.5 --enable-shared --enable-multiarch --with-multiarch-defaults=x86_64-linux-gnu --enable-linker-build-id --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.5 --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --enable-plugin --enable-gold --enable-ld=default --with-plugin-ld=ld.gold --enable-objc-gc --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-tune=generic --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu Thread model: posix gcc version 4.5.2 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.5.2-8ubuntu4)