At -O1, the intention is that we compile things in a "reasonable" amount of time (ditto memory use). In particular, we try to especially avoid optimizations which scale poorly on pathological cases, as is the case for large machine-generated code.
Recommend -O1 for large machine-generated code, as has been informally done on bugs for a while now. This applies (broadly speaking) for both large machine-generated functions but also to a lesser extent repetitive small-but-still-not-tiny functions from a generator program. gcc/ChangeLog: PR middle-end/114855 * doc/invoke.texi (Optimize options): Mention machine-generated code for -O1. --- richi, does this accurately reflect the discussion we had on IRC a little while ago? Please push if OK, thanks. gcc/doc/invoke.texi | 5 +++++ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+) diff --git a/gcc/doc/invoke.texi b/gcc/doc/invoke.texi index e0a641213ae4..9fb0925ed292 100644 --- a/gcc/doc/invoke.texi +++ b/gcc/doc/invoke.texi @@ -12560,6 +12560,11 @@ With @option{-O}, the compiler tries to reduce code size and execution time, without performing any optimizations that take a great deal of compilation time. +@option{-O} is the recommended optimization level for large machine-generated +code as a sensible balance between time taken to compile and memory use: +higher optimization levels perform optimizations with greater algorithmic +complexity than at @option{-O}. + @c Note that in addition to the default_options_table list in opts.cc, @c several optimization flags default to true but control optimization @c passes that are explicitly disabled at -O0. -- 2.45.2