[PATCH v2] selftests/powerpc: Suppress -Wmaybe-uninitialized with GCC 15

Amit Machhiwal posted 1 patch 3 weeks, 3 days ago
tools/testing/selftests/powerpc/vphn/Makefile | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
[PATCH v2] selftests/powerpc: Suppress -Wmaybe-uninitialized with GCC 15
Posted by Amit Machhiwal 3 weeks, 3 days ago
GCC 15 reports the below false positive '-Wmaybe-uninitialized' warning
in vphn_unpack_associativity() when building the powerpc selftests.

  # make -C tools/testing/selftests TARGETS="powerpc"
  [...]
    CC       test-vphn
  In file included from test-vphn.c:3:
  In function ‘vphn_unpack_associativity’,
      inlined from ‘test_one’ at test-vphn.c:371:2,
      inlined from ‘test_vphn’ at test-vphn.c:399:9:
  test-vphn.c:10:33: error: ‘be_packed’ may be used uninitialized [-Werror=maybe-uninitialized]
     10 | #define be16_to_cpup(x)         bswap_16(*x)
        |                                 ^~~~~~~~
  vphn.c:42:27: note: in expansion of macro ‘be16_to_cpup’
     42 |                 u16 new = be16_to_cpup(field++);
        |                           ^~~~~~~~~~~~
  In file included from test-vphn.c:19:
  vphn.c: In function ‘test_vphn’:
  vphn.c:27:16: note: ‘be_packed’ declared here
     27 |         __be64 be_packed[VPHN_REGISTER_COUNT];
        |                ^~~~~~~~~
  cc1: all warnings being treated as errors

When vphn_unpack_associativity() is called from hcall_vphn() in kernel
the error is not seen while building vphn.c during kernel compilation.
This is because the top level Makefile includes '-fno-strict-aliasing'
flag always.

The issue here is that GCC 15 emits '-Wmaybe-uninitialized' due to type
punning between __be64[] and __b16* when accessing the buffer via
be16_to_cpup(). The underlying object is fully initialized but GCC 15
fails to track the aliasing due to the strict aliasing violation here.
Please refer [1] and [2]. This results in a false positive warning which
is promoted to an error under '-Werror'. This problem is not seen when
the compilation is performed with GCC 13 and 14. An issue [1] has also
been created on GCC bugzilla.

The selftest compiles fine with '-fno-strict-aliasing'. Since this GCC
flag is used to compile vphn.c in kernel too, the same flag should be
used to build vphn tests when compiling vphn.c in the selftest as well.

Fix this by including '-fno-strict-aliasing' during vphn.c compilation
in the selftest. This keeps the build working while limiting the scope
of the suppression to building vphn tests.

[1] https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=124427
[2] https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=99768

Fixes: 58dae82843f5 ("selftests/powerpc: Add test for VPHN")
Reviewed-by: Vaibhav Jain <vaibhav@linux.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Amit Machhiwal <amachhiw@linux.ibm.com>
---
Changes since v2:
  * Compile vphn test with '-fno-strict-aliasing' as per the indications in the
    [1] instead of locally suppressing the '-Wmaybe-uninitialized' warning with
    diagnostic pragma
  * v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260310101519.67157-1-amachhiw@linux.ibm.com/
---
 tools/testing/selftests/powerpc/vphn/Makefile | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/powerpc/vphn/Makefile b/tools/testing/selftests/powerpc/vphn/Makefile
index 61d519a076c6..778fc396340d 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/powerpc/vphn/Makefile
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/powerpc/vphn/Makefile
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ top_srcdir = ../../../../..
 include ../../lib.mk
 include ../flags.mk
 
-CFLAGS += -m64 -I$(CURDIR)
+CFLAGS += -m64 -I$(CURDIR) -fno-strict-aliasing
 
 $(TEST_GEN_PROGS): ../harness.c
 

base-commit: 0257f64bdac7fdca30fa3cae0df8b9ecbec7733a
-- 
2.50.1 

Re: [PATCH v2] selftests/powerpc: Suppress -Wmaybe-uninitialized with GCC 15
Posted by Venkat 3 weeks, 3 days ago

> On 13 Mar 2026, at 10:24 PM, Amit Machhiwal <amachhiw@linux.ibm.com> wrote:
> 
> GCC 15 reports the below false positive '-Wmaybe-uninitialized' warning
> in vphn_unpack_associativity() when building the powerpc selftests.
> 
>  # make -C tools/testing/selftests TARGETS="powerpc"
>  [...]
>    CC       test-vphn
>  In file included from test-vphn.c:3:
>  In function ‘vphn_unpack_associativity’,
>      inlined from ‘test_one’ at test-vphn.c:371:2,
>      inlined from ‘test_vphn’ at test-vphn.c:399:9:
>  test-vphn.c:10:33: error: ‘be_packed’ may be used uninitialized [-Werror=maybe-uninitialized]
>     10 | #define be16_to_cpup(x)         bswap_16(*x)
>        |                                 ^~~~~~~~
>  vphn.c:42:27: note: in expansion of macro ‘be16_to_cpup’
>     42 |                 u16 new = be16_to_cpup(field++);
>        |                           ^~~~~~~~~~~~
>  In file included from test-vphn.c:19:
>  vphn.c: In function ‘test_vphn’:
>  vphn.c:27:16: note: ‘be_packed’ declared here
>     27 |         __be64 be_packed[VPHN_REGISTER_COUNT];
>        |                ^~~~~~~~~
>  cc1: all warnings being treated as errors
> 
> When vphn_unpack_associativity() is called from hcall_vphn() in kernel
> the error is not seen while building vphn.c during kernel compilation.
> This is because the top level Makefile includes '-fno-strict-aliasing'
> flag always.
> 
> The issue here is that GCC 15 emits '-Wmaybe-uninitialized' due to type
> punning between __be64[] and __b16* when accessing the buffer via
> be16_to_cpup(). The underlying object is fully initialized but GCC 15
> fails to track the aliasing due to the strict aliasing violation here.
> Please refer [1] and [2]. This results in a false positive warning which
> is promoted to an error under '-Werror'. This problem is not seen when
> the compilation is performed with GCC 13 and 14. An issue [1] has also
> been created on GCC bugzilla.
> 
> The selftest compiles fine with '-fno-strict-aliasing'. Since this GCC
> flag is used to compile vphn.c in kernel too, the same flag should be
> used to build vphn tests when compiling vphn.c in the selftest as well.
> 
> Fix this by including '-fno-strict-aliasing' during vphn.c compilation
> in the selftest. This keeps the build working while limiting the scope
> of the suppression to building vphn tests.
> 
> [1] https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=124427
> [2] https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=99768
> 
> Fixes: 58dae82843f5 ("selftests/powerpc: Add test for VPHN")
> Reviewed-by: Vaibhav Jain <vaibhav@linux.ibm.com>
> Signed-off-by: Amit Machhiwal <amachhiw@linux.ibm.com>
> ---

Tested this patch, and it fixes reported issue.

Tested-by: Venkat Rao Bagalkote <venkat88@linux.ibm.com>

WithOut This Patch:

make -j32
  CC       test-vphn
In file included from test-vphn.c:3:
In function ‘vphn_unpack_associativity’,
    inlined from ‘test_one’ at test-vphn.c:371:2,
    inlined from ‘test_vphn’ at test-vphn.c:399:9:
test-vphn.c:10:33: error: ‘be_packed’ may be used uninitialized [-Werror=maybe-uninitialized]
   10 | #define be16_to_cpup(x)         bswap_16(*x)
      |                                 ^~~~~~~~
vphn.c:42:27: note: in expansion of macro ‘be16_to_cpup’
   42 |                 u16 new = be16_to_cpup(field++);
      |                           ^~~~~~~~~~~~
In file included from test-vphn.c:19:
vphn.c: In function ‘test_vphn’:
vphn.c:27:16: note: ‘be_packed’ declared here
   27 |         __be64 be_packed[VPHN_REGISTER_COUNT];
      |                ^~~~~~~~~
cc1: all warnings being treated as errors
make: *** [../../lib.mk:225: /home/upstreamci/linux/tools/testing/selftests/powerpc/vphn/test-vphn] Error 1


With This Patch:

make run_tests 
TAP version 13
1..1
# timeout set to 130
# selftests: powerpc/vphn: test-vphn
# test: test-vphn
# tags: git_version:ec7d5e129
# success: vphn: no data
# success: vphn: 1 x 16-bit value
# success: vphn: 2 x 16-bit values
# success: vphn: 3 x 16-bit values
# success: vphn: 4 x 16-bit values
# success: vphn: 5 x 16-bit values
# success: vphn: 24 x 16-bit values
# success: vphn: 1 x 32-bit value
# success: vphn: 2 x 32-bit values
# success: vphn: 3 x 32-bit values
# success: vphn: 12 x 32-bit values
# success: vphn: 16-bit value followed by 32-bit value
# success: vphn: 32-bit value followed by 16-bit value
# success: vphn: 16-bit value followed by 2 x 32-bit values
# success: vphn: 32-bit value has all ones in 16 lower bits
# success: vphn: last 32-bit value is truncated
# success: vphn: garbage after terminator
# success: test-vphn
ok 1 selftests: powerpc/vphn: test-vphn


Regards,
Venkat.
> Changes since v2:
>  * Compile vphn test with '-fno-strict-aliasing' as per the indications in the
>    [1] instead of locally suppressing the '-Wmaybe-uninitialized' warning with
>    diagnostic pragma
>  * v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260310101519.67157-1-amachhiw@linux.ibm.com/
> ---
> tools/testing/selftests/powerpc/vphn/Makefile | 2 +-
> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/powerpc/vphn/Makefile b/tools/testing/selftests/powerpc/vphn/Makefile
> index 61d519a076c6..778fc396340d 100644
> --- a/tools/testing/selftests/powerpc/vphn/Makefile
> +++ b/tools/testing/selftests/powerpc/vphn/Makefile
> @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ top_srcdir = ../../../../..
> include ../../lib.mk
> include ../flags.mk
> 
> -CFLAGS += -m64 -I$(CURDIR)
> +CFLAGS += -m64 -I$(CURDIR) -fno-strict-aliasing
> 
> $(TEST_GEN_PROGS): ../harness.c
> 
> 
> base-commit: 0257f64bdac7fdca30fa3cae0df8b9ecbec7733a
> -- 
> 2.50.1 
>