Given: enum ib_qp_state { IB_QPS_RESET, IB_QPS_INIT, IB_QPS_RTR, IB_QPS_RTS, IB_QPS_SQD, IB_QPS_SQE, IB_QPS_ERR }; int p(enum ib_qp_state cur_state, enum ib_qp_state next_state) { #if 0 if (cur_state < 0 || cur_state > IB_QPS_ERR || next_state < 0 || next_state > IB_QPS_ERR) { return (5); } #else if (next_state < 0 || next_state > IB_QPS_ERR) { return (5); } #endif return (0); } current smatch is happy. But "#if 1" above instead, and: jlevon@sent:~/src/smatch$ ./smatch a.c ./smatch: a.c:15 p() warn: unsigned 'cur_state' is never less than zero. Why is "next_state" not reported equally? thanks john