gcc compiler bug (sparc, ppc)

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Wed, 2007-05-23 at 08:07 -0500, Joel Sherrill wrote:
> Ralf Corsepius wrote:
> > On Wed, 2007-05-23 at 06:30 -0500, Joel Sherrill wrote:
> >   
> >> Sergei Organov wrote:
> >>     
> >>> Till Straumann <strauman at slac.stanford.edu> writes:
> >>>   
> >>>       
> >>>> I found that gcc produces bad code for the
> >>>> following example:
> >>>>
> >>>> struct node {
> >>>>      struct node *next, *prev;
> >>>> };
> >>>>
> >>>> void xtract(struct node *x)
> >>>> {
> >>>> struct node *n, *p;
> >>>>     n = x->n;
> >>>>     p = x->p;
> >>>>     n->prev = p;
> >>>>     p->next = n;
> >>>> }
> >>>>     
> >>>>         
> >>> This doesn't compile:
> >>>
> >>> np.c: In function ‘xtract’:
> >>> np.c:8: error: ‘struct node’ has no member named ‘n’
> >>> np.c:9: error: ‘struct node’ has no member named ‘p’
> >>>
> >>> I think you mean:
> >>>
> >>> void xtract(struct node *x)
> >>> {
> >>>     struct node *n, *p;
> >>>     n = x->next;
> >>>     p = x->prev;
> >>>     n->prev = p;
> >>>     p->next = n;
> >>> }
> >>>
> >>> right?
> >>>
> >>>   
> >>>       
> >> Changing the structure definition to make the pointers volatile appears
> >> to result in correct code.
> >>     
> > IMO, this is bad advice, these ain't no volatiles.
> >   
> Not in the general sense but this looks remarkably like the RTEMS chain code
> and the intent there was very simple.  The code was originally in assembly
> language and we really meant each memory load or store to occur. 
This code above is a standard "list-type" operation and is not related to volatiles at all.

Given the fact such constructs are very common, I strongly doubt Till to
be first to trip them, so there is likely either something we are
missing or a bug in GCC.

Ralf