Re: [RFD] MIPS/gas: Optimisation cannot be set to 0

["Maciej W. Rozycki" <macro at mips dot com>]

On Fri, 9 Nov 2007, Ian Lance Taylor wrote:

> My vague recollection of the problem is that at least at that time gcc
> would always pass a -O option to the assembler.  When not optimizing,
> it would pass -O0.  However, inserting NOPs for MIPS variants which do
> not need them does not help debugging.

 Presumably it does not impair it either.  It's no more the case as 
noticed by Thiemo though.

> I'm not sure I see the relevance of "assembled intact."  The source is
> assembled just as the user specified with -O1.  -O1 simply inhibits
> adding additional unnecessary nop instructions--nop instructions that
> were required for MIPS ISA I but not for later ISAs.

 The "assembled intact" phrase comes from me just interpreting the comment 
as is -- I have had a look at the code and mips_optimize == 0 means not to 
remove NOPs inserted by gas itself, rather than optimising away 
unnecessary padding supplied by the source code (".set reorder" always 
assumed).  Sorry about the confusion.

> At -O1 branches are not swapped, so debugging is not impaired.
> 
> I agree there should be a way to set mips_optimize to 0, but we should
> ensure that gcc -O0 does not set mips_optimize to 0 when assembling.

 These days GCC is meant to handle delay slot scheduling itself, so 
perhaps the best bet is not to pass -O options from the driver to gas at 
all.  OTOH, apparently -mips16 still does not schedule slots and uses 
".set reorder" at least for some configurations and this branch swapping 
messes with debugging terribly -- it's no fun to have a breakpoint set on 
the second half of an exteded branch/jump instruction. :-(  Which is why I 
have had a look at gas in this area in the first place.

  Maciej