The function ce_write_entry() uses a 'self-initialised' variable construct, for the symbol 'saved_namelen', to suppress a gcc '-Wmaybe-uninitialized' warning, given that the warning is a false positive. For the purposes of this discussion, the ce_write_entry() function has three code blocks of interest, that look like so: /* block #1 */ if (ce->ce_flags & CE_STRIP_NAME) { saved_namelen = ce_namelen(ce); ce->ce_namelen = 0; } /* block #2 */ /* * several code blocks that contain, among others, calls * to copy_cache_entry_to_ondisk(ondisk, ce); */ /* block #3 */ if (ce->ce_flags & CE_STRIP_NAME) { ce->ce_namelen = saved_namelen; ce->ce_flags &= ~CE_STRIP_NAME; } The warning implies that gcc thinks it is possible that the first block is not entered, the calls to copy_cache_entry_to_ondisk() could toggle the CE_STRIP_NAME flag on, thereby entering block #3 with saved_namelen unset. However, the copy_cache_entry_to_ondisk() function does not write to ce->ce_flags (it only reads). gcc could easily determine this, since that function is local to this file, but it obviously doesn't. In order to suppress this warning, we make it clear to the reader (human and compiler), that block #3 will only be entered when the first block has been entered, by introducing a new 'stripped_name' boolean variable. We also take the opportunity to change the type of 'saved_namelen' to 'unsigned int' to match ce->ce_namelen. Signed-off-by: Ramsay Jones <ramsay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- read-cache.c | 6 ++++-- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/read-cache.c b/read-cache.c index 2eb81a66b..49607ddcd 100644 --- a/read-cache.c +++ b/read-cache.c @@ -2104,13 +2104,15 @@ static int ce_write_entry(git_SHA_CTX *c, int fd, struct cache_entry *ce, struct strbuf *previous_name, struct ondisk_cache_entry *ondisk) { int size; - int saved_namelen = saved_namelen; /* compiler workaround */ int result; + unsigned int saved_namelen; + int stripped_name = 0; static unsigned char padding[8] = { 0x00 }; if (ce->ce_flags & CE_STRIP_NAME) { saved_namelen = ce_namelen(ce); ce->ce_namelen = 0; + stripped_name = 1; } if (ce->ce_flags & CE_EXTENDED) @@ -2150,7 +2152,7 @@ static int ce_write_entry(git_SHA_CTX *c, int fd, struct cache_entry *ce, strbuf_splice(previous_name, common, to_remove, ce->name + common, ce_namelen(ce) - common); } - if (ce->ce_flags & CE_STRIP_NAME) { + if (stripped_name) { ce->ce_namelen = saved_namelen; ce->ce_flags &= ~CE_STRIP_NAME; } -- 2.16.0