B.2.93.2 When Not To Use -xipo=2 Interprocedural Analysis

The compiler tries to perform whole-program analysis and optimizations as it works with the set of object files in the link step. The compiler makes the following two assumptions for any function (or subroutine) foo() defined in this set of object files:

• foo() is not called explicitly by another routine that is defined outside this set of object files at runtime.

• The calls to foo() from any routine in the set of object files are not interposed upon by a different version of foo() defined outside this set of object files.

Do not compile with either -xipo=1 or -xipo=2, if assumption 2 is not true.

As an example, consider interposing on the function malloc() with your own version and compiling with -xipo=2. Consequently, all the functions in any library that reference malloc() that are linked with your code have to be compiled with -xipo=2 also and their object files need to participate in the link step. Since this might not be possible for system libraries, do not compile your version of malloc with -xipo=2.

As another example, suppose that you build a shared library with two external calls, foo() and bar() inside two different source files. Furthermore, suppose that bar() calls foo(). If there is a possibility that foo() could be interposed at runtime, then do not compile the source file for foo() or for bar() with -xipo=1 or -xipo=2. Otherwise, foo() could be inlined into bar(), which could cause incorrect results.