It sounds like you are running 8c -c file.c to compile file.c into an object file. This is a typical Unix command line, but on Plan 9 the compilers create object files, not executables, by default, so you can just say "8c file.c". Adding -c just sets the 'c' flag, which causes the compiler to print some more information about control flow, in this case a print about the const if false.
If you just run 8c file.c (or even 8c -w file.c), you shouldn't see this message. If you still see a message, please report exactly what it is. Russ
