Go forward to Preprocessor Options.
Go backward to Debugging Options.
Go up to Invoking GCC.

Options That Control Optimization
=================================

   These options control various sorts of optimizations:

`-O'
`-O1'
     Optimize.  Optimizing compilation takes somewhat more time, and a
     lot more memory for a large function.

     Without `-O', the compiler's goal is to reduce the cost of
     compilation and to make debugging produce the expected results.
     Statements are independent: if you stop the program with a
     breakpoint between statements, you can then assign a new value to
     any variable or change the program counter to any other statement
     in the function and get exactly the results you would expect from
     the source code.

     Without `-O', the compiler only allocates variables declared
     `register' in registers.  The resulting compiled code is a little
     worse than produced by PCC without `-O'.

     With `-O', the compiler tries to reduce code size and execution
     time.

     When you specify `-O', the compiler turns on `-fthread-jumps' and
     `-fdefer-pop' on all machines.  The compiler turns on
     `-fdelayed-branch' on machines that have delay slots, and
     `-fomit-frame-pointer' on machines that can support debugging even
     without a frame pointer.  On some machines the compiler also turns
     on other flags.

`-O2'
     Optimize even more.  GNU CC performs nearly all supported
     optimizations that do not involve a space-speed tradeoff.  The
     compiler does not perform loop unrolling or function inlining when
     you specify `-O2'.  As compared to `-O', this option increases
     both compilation time and the performance of the generated code.

     `-O2' turns on all optional optimizations except for loop unrolling
     and function inlining.  It also turns on the `-fforce-mem' option
     on all machines and frame pointer elimination on machines where
     doing so does not interfere with debugging.

`-O3'
     Optimize yet more.  `-O3' turns on all optimizations specified by
     `-O2' and also turns on the `inline-functions' option.

`-O0'
     Do not optimize.

     If you use multiple `-O' options, with or without level numbers,
     the last such option is the one that is effective.

   Options of the form `-fFLAG' specify machine-independent flags.
Most flags have both positive and negative forms; the negative form of
`-ffoo' would be `-fno-foo'.  In the table below, only one of the forms
is listed--the one which is not the default.  You can figure out the
other form by either removing `no-' or adding it.

`-ffloat-store'
     Do not store floating point variables in registers, and inhibit
     other options that might change whether a floating point value is
     taken from a register or memory.

     This option prevents undesirable excess precision on machines such
     as the 68000 where the floating registers (of the 68881) keep more
     precision than a `double' is supposed to have.  For most programs,
     the excess precision does only good, but a few programs rely on the
     precise definition of IEEE floating point.  Use `-ffloat-store' for
     such programs.

`-fno-default-inline'
     Do not make member functions inline by default merely because they
     are defined inside the class scope (C++ only).  Otherwise, when
     you specify `-O', member functions defined inside class scope are
     compiled inline by default; i.e., you don't need to add `inline'
     in front of the member function name.

`-fno-defer-pop'
     Always pop the arguments to each function call as soon as that
     function returns.  For machines which must pop arguments after a
     function call, the compiler normally lets arguments accumulate on
     the stack for several function calls and pops them all at once.

`-fforce-mem'
     Force memory operands to be copied into registers before doing
     arithmetic on them.  This produces better code by making all memory
     references potential common subexpressions.  When they are not
     common subexpressions, instruction combination should eliminate
     the separate register-load.  The `-O2' option turns on this option.

`-fforce-addr'
     Force memory address constants to be copied into registers before
     doing arithmetic on them.  This may produce better code just as
     `-fforce-mem' may.

`-fomit-frame-pointer'
     Don't keep the frame pointer in a register for functions that
     don't need one.  This avoids the instructions to save, set up and
     restore frame pointers; it also makes an extra register available
     in many functions.  *It also makes debugging impossible on some
     machines.*

     On some machines, such as the Vax, this flag has no effect, because
     the standard calling sequence automatically handles the frame
     pointer and nothing is saved by pretending it doesn't exist.  The
     machine-description macro `FRAME_POINTER_REQUIRED' controls
     whether a target machine supports this flag.  See Registers.

`-fno-inline'
     Don't pay attention to the `inline' keyword.  Normally this option
     is used to keep the compiler from expanding any functions inline.
     Note that if you are not optimizing, no functions can be expanded
     inline.

`-finline-functions'
     Integrate all simple functions into their callers.  The compiler
     heuristically decides which functions are simple enough to be worth
     integrating in this way.

     If all calls to a given function are integrated, and the function
     is declared `static', then the function is normally not output as
     assembler code in its own right.

`-fkeep-inline-functions'
     Even if all calls to a given function are integrated, and the
     function is declared `static', nevertheless output a separate
     run-time callable version of the function.

`-fno-function-cse'
     Do not put function addresses in registers; make each instruction
     that calls a constant function contain the function's address
     explicitly.

     This option results in less efficient code, but some strange hacks
     that alter the assembler output may be confused by the
     optimizations performed when this option is not used.

`-ffast-math'
     This option allows GCC to violate some ANSI or IEEE rules and/or
     specifications in the interest of optimizing code for speed.  For
     example, it allows the compiler to assume arguments to the `sqrt'
     function are non-negative numbers and that no floating-point values
     are NaNs.

     This option should never be turned on by any `-O' option since it
     can result in incorrect output for programs which depend on an
     exact implementation of IEEE or ANSI rules/specifications for math
     functions.

   The following options control specific optimizations.  The `-O2'
option turns on all of these optimizations except `-funroll-loops' and
`-funroll-all-loops'.  On most machines, the `-O' option turns on the
`-fthread-jumps' and `-fdelayed-branch' options, but specific machines
may handle it differently.

   You can use the following flags in the rare cases when "fine-tuning"
of optimizations to be performed is desired.

`-fstrength-reduce'
     Perform the optimizations of loop strength reduction and
     elimination of iteration variables.

`-fthread-jumps'
     Perform optimizations where we check to see if a jump branches to a
     location where another comparison subsumed by the first is found.
     If so, the first branch is redirected to either the destination of
     the second branch or a point immediately following it, depending
     on whether the condition is known to be true or false.

`-fcse-follow-jumps'
     In common subexpression elimination, scan through jump instructions
     when the target of the jump is not reached by any other path.  For
     example, when CSE encounters an `if' statement with an `else'
     clause, CSE will follow the jump when the condition tested is
     false.

`-fcse-skip-blocks'
     This is similar to `-fcse-follow-jumps', but causes CSE to follow
     jumps which conditionally skip over blocks.  When CSE encounters a
     simple `if' statement with no else clause, `-fcse-skip-blocks'
     causes CSE to follow the jump around the body of the `if'.

`-frerun-cse-after-loop'
     Re-run common subexpression elimination after loop optimizations
     has been performed.

`-fexpensive-optimizations'
     Perform a number of minor optimizations that are relatively
     expensive.

`-fdelayed-branch'
     If supported for the target machine, attempt to reorder
     instructions to exploit instruction slots available after delayed
     branch instructions.

`-fschedule-insns'
     If supported for the target machine, attempt to reorder
     instructions to eliminate execution stalls due to required data
     being unavailable.  This helps machines that have slow floating
     point or memory load instructions by allowing other instructions
     to be issued until the result of the load or floating point
     instruction is required.

`-fschedule-insns2'
     Similar to `-fschedule-insns', but requests an additional pass of
     instruction scheduling after register allocation has been done.
     This is especially useful on machines with a relatively small
     number of registers and where memory load instructions take more
     than one cycle.

`-fcaller-saves'
     Enable values to be allocated in registers that will be clobbered
     by function calls, by emitting extra instructions to save and
     restore the registers around such calls.  Such allocation is done
     only when it seems to result in better code than would otherwise
     be produced.

     This option is enabled by default on certain machines, usually
     those which have no call-preserved registers to use instead.

`-funroll-loops'
     Perform the optimization of loop unrolling.  This is only done for
     loops whose number of iterations can be determined at compile time
     or run time.  `-funroll-loop' implies both `-fstrength-reduce' and
     `-frerun-cse-after-loop'.

`-funroll-all-loops'
     Perform the optimization of loop unrolling.  This is done for all
     loops and usually makes programs run more slowly.
     `-funroll-all-loops' implies `-fstrength-reduce' as well as
     `-frerun-cse-after-loop'.

`-fno-peephole'
     Disable any machine-specific peephole optimizations.