Randy Dunlap wrote:
On Sun, 01 Oct 2006 09:44:55 -0400 Jeff Garzik wrote:
The level of warnings in a kernel build has lately increased to the
point where it is hiding bugs and otherwise making life difficult.
In particular, recent gcc versions throw warnings when it thinks a
variable "MAY be used uninitialized", which is not terribly helpful due
to the fact that most of these warnings are bogus.
For those that may find this valuable, I have started a git repo that
silences these bogus warnings, after careful auditing of code paths to
ensure that the warning truly is bogus.
The results may be found in the "gccbug" branch of
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jgarzik/misc-2.6.git
This repository will NEVER EVER be pushed upstream. It exists solely
for those who want to decrease their build noise, thereby exposing true
bugs.
The audit has already uncovered several minor bugs, lending credence to
my theory that too many warnings hides bugs.
I usually build with must_check etc. enabled then grep them
away if I want to look for other messages. I think that the situation
is not so disastrous.
I think it's both sad, and telling, that the high level of build noise
has trained kernel hackers to tune out warnings, and/or build tools of
ever-increasing sophistication just to pick out the useful messages from
all the noise.
If you have to grep useful stuff out of the noise, you've already lost.
Jeff
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