https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=102402
Bug ID: 102402 Summary: Seemingly suboptimal optimization of jmp/cmovcc for conditionally loading constants Product: gcc Version: 12.0 Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P3 Component: target Assignee: unassigned at gcc dot gnu.org Reporter: gabravier at gmail dot com Target Milestone: --- #include <stdint.h> struct MusicPlayerTrack { uint8_t flags; uint8_t modT; }; void ClearModM(struct MusicPlayerTrack *track, uint8_t modT) { if (track->modT == 0) track->flags |= 3; else track->flags |= 12; } This is optimized weirdly by GCC. Leaving it as-is gives this AMD64 assembly: ClearModM: movzx edx, BYTE PTR [rdi] mov eax, edx or eax, 12 cmp BYTE PTR [rdi+1], 0 jne .L3 mov eax, edx or eax, 3 .L3: mov BYTE PTR [rdi], al ret Whereas changing the `if` to `if (modT == 0)` gives this: ClearModM: movzx eax, BYTE PTR [rdi] mov edx, eax or eax, 12 or edx, 3 test sil, sil cmove eax, edx mov BYTE PTR [rdi], al ret It seems to me that this should be better than the first output, though of course this could be the other way considering how finicky cmovcc seems to be, but it seems to me like at least one should be preferred above the other. Note that this also occurs on IA-32, so the issue seems unrelated to whether modT is in a register or in memory. Perhaps it's about whether it's a function argument ?