http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=52635
--- Comment #2 from joseph at codesourcery dot com <joseph at codesourcery dot com> 2012-03-20 15:13:13 UTC --- On Tue, 20 Mar 2012, mikpe at it dot uu.se wrote: > > cat bug.c > extern int bar; > void foo(void) > { > (void)sizeof(char[1 - 2 * !__builtin_constant_p(bar)]); > } > > objdir/gcc/xgcc -Bobjdir/gcc -O1 -S bug.c > > objdir/gcc/xgcc -Bobjdir/gcc -O0 -S bug.c > bug.c: In function 'foo': > bug.c:4:5: error: size of unnamed array is negative > > The test case deliberately contains an invalid type expression, but gcc only > diagnoses it at -O0, at -O1 and above there is no error or warning. Do you have an example not involving __builtin_constant_p? When optimizing, this array will be considered a VLA (i.e. the size will be considered nonconstant) as __builtin_constant_p is only evaluated later (after inlining, for example), long after decisions about whether arrays are VLAs have to be made.