3.4 Warning options in -Wall

As described earlier (see section 2.1 Compiling a simple C program), the warning option -Wall enables warnings for many common errors, and should always be used. It combines a large number of other, more specific, warning options which can also be selected individually. Here is a summary of these options:

-Wcomment (included in -Wall)

This option warns about nested comments. Nested comments typically arise when a section of code containing comments is later commented out:

/* commented out 
double x = 1.23 ; /* x-position */
*/

Nested comments can be a source of confusion--the safe way to "comment out" a section of code containing comments is to surround it with the preprocessor directive #if 0 ... #endif:

/* commented out */
#if 0 
double x = 1.23 ; /* x-position */
#endif

-Wformat (included in -Wall)

This option warns about the incorrect use of format strings in functions such as printf and scanf, where the format specifier does not agree with the type of the corresponding function argument.

-Wunused (included in -Wall)

This option warns about unused variables. When a variable is declared but not used this can be the result of another variable being accidentally substituted in its place. If the variable is genuinely not needed it can be removed from the source code.

-Wimplicit (included in -Wall)

This option warns about any functions that are used without being declared. The most common reason for a function to be used without being declared is forgetting to include a header file.

-Wreturn-type (included in -Wall)

This option warns about functions that are defined without a return type but not declared void. It also catches empty return statements in functions that are not declared void. For example, the following program does not use an explicit return value:

#include <stdio.h>

int
main (void)
{
  printf ("hello world\n");
  return;
}

The lack of a return value in the code above could be the result of an accidental omission by the programmer--the value returned by the main function is actually the return value of the printf function (the number of characters printed). To avoid ambiguity, it is preferable to use an explicit value in the return statement, either as a variable or a constant, such as return 0.

The complete set of warning options included in -Wall can be found in the GCC Reference Manual "Using GCC" (see section Further reading). The options included in -Wall have the common characteristic that they report constructions which are always wrong, or can easily be rewritten in an unambiguously correct way. This is why they are so useful--any warning produced by -Wall can be taken as an indication of a potentially serious problem.