How can I get gcc to warn me about "int i = i;"

Question

A simple program:

int main() {     long i = i;      return 0; } 

Compiling as C gives no errors and no warnings.

$ gcc -Wall -Wextra -pedantic 1.c 

Compiling as C++ gives a warning:

$ c++ -Wall -Wextra -pedantic 1.c 1.c: In function ‘int main()’: 1.c:3:7: warning: ‘i’ is used uninitialized in this function [-Wuninitialized]   long i = i; 

In both cases variable i seems to be 0, although in c++ it could be uninitialized. I actually made such a typo in one of my functions and it was quite hard to find it. What can I do to avoid this? I'd expect at least a warning. Moreover, Clang doesn't give any warning in either case (c or c++). Is there a specific part of the standard that says anything about this behavior?

Edit: Having tried something similar:

$ cat 1.c int main(void) {     int k = k + 0;     int i = i + 1;     return 0; } 

The warning (in C) is generated only for "i".

$ gcc -Wall -Wextra 1.c 1.c: In function ‘main’: 1.c:4:6: warning: ‘i’ is used uninitialized in this function [-Wuninitialized]   int i = i + 1; 

Answer 1

For GCC compiling C programs, you need to add the compiler flag -Winit-self. (You also need -Wall or -Wuninitialized, see below.) For GCC compiling C++ programs, this flag is implied by -Wall but for C it needs to specified explicitly; it is not part of -Wextra either.

For Clang, the situation is slightly more interesting. In the snippet in the OP, Clang does not produce any diagnostic. However, with the slightly different snippet supplied in the GCC manual below, a diagnostic is provided:

int f() {   int i = i;   return i; } 

The difference is that in the above snippet, the (uninitialized) value of i is actually used. Apparently, in the original code Clang detected that the variable was useless and eliminated it as dead code before applying the diagnostic.

In Clang, the diagnostic is triggered by -Wuninitialized, which is enabled by -Wall as in GCC.

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Here's an excerpt from the GCC manual:

-Winit-self (C, C++, Objective-C and Objective-C++ only)

Warn about uninitialized variables that are initialized with themselves. Note this option can only be used with the -Wuninitialized option.

For example, GCC warns about i being uninitialized in the following snippet only when -Winit-self has been specified:

        int f()           {             int i = i;             return i;           } 

This warning is enabled by -Wall in C++.

As the excerpt indicates, -Wuninitialized is also required. In both C and C++, -Wall implies -Wuninitialized. However, note that many uninitialized uses will not be detected unless some optimization level is also requested. (That doesn't apply to -Winit-self, as far as I know. It can be detected without optimization.)

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Irritatingly, when you unmark a question as a duplicate, the previously-marked duplicates disappear. I unmarked it because none of the duplicates actually answered the question in the body; I also edited the title.

For reference, here are the original duplicates, which may be of interest:

• Why does the compiler allow initializing a variable with itself?

• gcc failing to warn of uninitialized variable

• Why is this initialization accepted by the c++ compiler? static int x = x;

• Has C++ standard changed with respect to the use of indeterminate values and undefined behavior in C++14?

Answer 2

It is basically:

int i; i = i; 

in which i is an uninitialized value.