https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=110712
--- Comment #2 from Iain Buclaw <ibuclaw at gdcproject dot org> --- (In reply to Richard Biener from comment #1) > this_2(D)->ap = VIEW_CONVERT_EXPR<struct [1]>(ap_3(D)); > > it looks odd since ap_3(D) is a is_gimple_reg but a struct[1] definitely > would not. Maybe you are missing a dereference here? In C > struct[1] would decay to a pointer so > > this.ap = ap; > > wouldn't work (besides that va_list copying requires va_copy). Static arrays in D are passed around by value, rather than decaying to a pointer. However va_list is an inconsistent type on this front. In some D compilers, it's always a pointer type to get around the incompatibility with C/C++ - though this requires locals and fields to be specially initialized before being passed to va_start() or va_copy(). i.e, underneath the hood it does: --- void va_start(T)(out va_list ap, ref T parmn, va_list storage = alloca(__va_list_tag.sizeof)) { ap = storage; // initialize *ap } void va_copy(out va_list ap, va_list src, va_list storage = alloca(__va_list_tag.sizeof)) { ap = storage; // copy *src. } --- GDC doesn't do this, rather - in a way that mimics C/C++ - va_list static arrays are decayed to a pointer type when used as a parameter, but semantically it's still treated as a static array. I think some extra errors during the D front-end codegen pass are likely the most appropriate thing to do here, as you say, such things are rejected by C/C++, so GDC ought to reject them too.