GCC Optimize Options - Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)

3.10 Options That Control Optimization

These options control various sorts of optimizations.
Without any optimization option, the compiler's goal is to reduce the cost of compilation and to make debugging produce the expected results. Statements are independent: if you stop the program with a breakpoint between statements, you can then assign a new value to any variable or change the program counter to any other statement in the function and get exactly the results you expect from the source code.
Turning on optimization flags makes the compiler attempt to improve the performance and/or code size at the expense of compilation time and possibly the ability to debug the program.
The compiler performs optimization based on the knowledge it has of the program. Compiling multiple files at once to a single output file mode allows the compiler to use information gained from all of the files when compiling each of them.
Not all optimizations are controlled directly by a flag. Only optimizations that have a flag are listed in this section.
Most optimizations are only enabled if an -O level is set on the command line. Otherwise they are disabled, even if individual optimization flags are specified.
Depending on the target and how GCC was configured, a slightly different set of optimizations may be enabled at each -O level than those listed here. You can invoke GCC with -Q --help=optimizers to find out the exact set of optimizations that are enabled at each level. See Overall Options, for examples.

-O

-O1

Optimize. Optimizing compilation takes somewhat more time, and a lot more memory for a large function.With -O, the compiler tries to reduce code size and execution time, without performing any optimizations that take a great deal of compilation time. -O turns on the following optimization flags:

-fauto-inc-dec 
          -fcompare-elim 
          -fcprop-registers 
          -fdce 
          -fdefer-pop 
          -fdelayed-branch 
          -fdse 
          -fguess-branch-probability 
          -fif-conversion2 
          -fif-conversion 
          -fipa-pure-const 
          -fipa-profile 
          -fipa-reference 
          -fmerge-constants
          -fsplit-wide-types 
          -ftree-bit-ccp 
          -ftree-builtin-call-dce 
          -ftree-ccp 
          -ftree-ch 
          -ftree-copyrename 
          -ftree-dce 
          -ftree-dominator-opts 
          -ftree-dse 
          -ftree-forwprop 
          -ftree-fre 
          -ftree-phiprop 
          -ftree-slsr 
          -ftree-sra 
          -ftree-pta 
          -ftree-ter 
          -funit-at-a-time
     

-O also turns on -fomit-frame-pointer on machines where doing so does not interfere with debugging. 

-O2

Optimize even more. GCC performs nearly all supported optimizations that do not involve a space-speed tradeoff. As compared to -O, this option increases both compilation time and the performance of the generated code.-O2 turns on all optimization flags specified by -O. It also turns on the following optimization flags:

-fthread-jumps 
          -falign-functions  -falign-jumps 
          -falign-loops  -falign-labels 
          -fcaller-saves 
          -fcrossjumping 
          -fcse-follow-jumps  -fcse-skip-blocks 
          -fdelete-null-pointer-checks 
          -fdevirtualize 
          -fexpensive-optimizations 
          -fgcse  -fgcse-lm  
          -fhoist-adjacent-loads 
          -finline-small-functions 
          -findirect-inlining 
          -fipa-sra 
          -foptimize-sibling-calls 
          -fpartial-inlining 
          -fpeephole2 
          -fregmove 
          -freorder-blocks  -freorder-functions 
          -frerun-cse-after-loop  
          -fsched-interblock  -fsched-spec 
          -fschedule-insns  -fschedule-insns2 
          -fstrict-aliasing -fstrict-overflow 
          -ftree-switch-conversion -ftree-tail-merge 
          -ftree-pre 
          -ftree-vrp
     

Please note the warning under -fgcse about invoking -O2 on programs that use computed gotos. 

-O3

Optimize yet more. -O3 turns on all optimizations specified by -O2 and also turns on the -finline-functions, -funswitch-loops, -fpredictive-commoning, -fgcse-after-reload, -ftree-vectorize, -fvect-cost-model, -ftree-partial-pre and -fipa-cp-clone options. 

-O0

Reduce compilation time and make debugging produce the expected results. This is the default. 

-Os

Optimize for size. -Os enables all -O2 optimizations that do not typically increase code size. It also performs further optimizations designed to reduce code size.-Os disables the following optimization flags:

-falign-functions  -falign-jumps  -falign-loops 
          -falign-labels  -freorder-blocks  -freorder-blocks-and-partition 
          -fprefetch-loop-arrays  -ftree-vect-loop-version
     

-Ofast

Disregard strict standards compliance. -Ofast enables all -O3 optimizations. It also enables optimizations that are not valid for all standard-compliant programs. It turns on -ffast-math and the Fortran-specific -fno-protect-parens and -fstack-arrays. 

-Og

Optimize debugging experience. -Og enables optimizations that do not interfere with debugging. It should be the optimization level of choice for the standard edit-compile-debug cycle, offering a reasonable level of optimization while maintaining fast compilation and a good debugging experience.If you use multiple -O options, with or without level numbers, the last such option is the one that is effective.

Options of the form -fflag specify machine-independent flags. Most flags have both positive and negative forms; the negative form of -ffoo is -fno-foo. In the table below, only one of the forms is listed—the one you typically use. You can figure out the other form by either removing `no-' or adding it.
The following options control specific optimizations.
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Optimize Options - Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)

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