linux-kernel - Re: [patch] compiler, clang: suppress warning for unused static inline functions

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Date:   Thu, 25 May 2017 07:52:07 +0200
From:   Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>
To:     Matthias Kaehlcke <mka@...omium.org>
Cc:     David Rientjes <rientjes@...gle.com>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Christoph Lameter <cl@...ux.com>,
        Pekka Enberg <penberg@...nel.org>,
        Joonsoo Kim <iamjoonsoo.kim@....com>, linux-mm@...ck.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Douglas Anderson <dianders@...omium.org>,
        Mark Brown <broonie@...nel.org>,
        David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>
Subject: Re: [patch] compiler, clang: suppress warning for unused static
 inline functions


* Matthias Kaehlcke <mka@...omium.org> wrote:

> El Wed, May 24, 2017 at 02:01:15PM -0700 David Rientjes ha dit:
> 
> > GCC explicitly does not warn for unused static inline functions for
> > -Wunused-function.  The manual states:
> > 
> > 	Warn whenever a static function is declared but not defined or
> > 	a non-inline static function is unused.
> > 
> > Clang does warn for static inline functions that are unused.
> > 
> > It turns out that suppressing the warnings avoids potentially complex
> > #ifdef directives, which also reduces LOC.
> > 
> > Supress the warning for clang.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: David Rientjes <rientjes@...gle.com>
> > ---
> 
> As expressed earlier in other threads, I don't think gcc's behavior is
> preferable in this case. The warning on static inline functions (only
> in .c files) allows to detect truly unused code. About 50% of the
> warnings I have looked into so far fall into this category.
> 
> In my opinion it is more valuable to detect dead code than not having
> a few more __maybe_unused attributes (there aren't really that many
> instances, at least with x86 and arm64 defconfig). In most cases it is
> not necessary to use #ifdef, it is an option which is preferred by
> some maintainers. The reduced LOC is arguable, since dectecting dead
> code allows to remove it.

Static inline functions in headers are often not dead code.

Thanks,

	Ingo