Clang -Wunused-command-line-argument

clangDriver is the library implementing the compiler driver for Clang. It utilitizes LLVMOption to process command line options. As options are processed when required, as opposed to use a large switch, Clang gets the ability to detect unused options straightforwardly.

When an option is checked with APIs such as hasArg and getLastArg, its "claimed" bit is set.

template<typename ...OptSpecifiers>
Arg *getLastArg(OptSpecifiers ...Ids) const {
  Arg *Res = nullptr;
  for (Arg *A : filtered(Ids...)) {
    Res = A;
    Res->claim();
  }
  return Res;
}

After all options are processed, Clang reports a -Wunused-command-line-argument diagnostic for each unclaimed option. There are multiple possible messages, but argument unused during compilation is the most common one.

% clang -c a.c -la
clang: warning: -la: 'linker' input unused [-Wunused-command-line-argument]
% clang -c -Werror a.c -la
clang: error: -la: 'linker' input unused [-Werror,-Wunused-command-line-argument]
% clang -c -Werror=unused-command-line-argument a.c -la
clang: error: -la: 'linker' input unused [-Werror,-Wunused-command-line-argument]

There are many heuristics to enhance the desirability of -Wunused-command-line-argument, which can be rather subjective. For instance, options that are relevant only during compilation do not result in -Wunused-command-line-argument diagnostics when linking is performed. This is necessary to support linking actions that utilitize CFLAGS or CXXFLAGS.

% clang -faddrsig -fpic -march=generic a.o

Assembly files

For assembly files that do not need preprocessing (e.g. .s (clang::driver::types::TY_PP_Asm)), the driver selects clang::driver::tools::ClangAs when using the integrated assembler. ClangAs::ConstructJob claims very few options and clangDriver will report many -Wunused-command-line-argument diagnostics.

% gcc -S -fpic -mfpmath=sse a.c
% gcc -c -fpic -mfpmath=sse a.s
% clang-16 -c -fpic -mfpmath=sse a.s
clang-16: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-mfpmath=sse' [-Wunused-command-line-argument]

For assembly files that need preprocessing (e.g. .S (clang::driver::types::TY_Asm)), clangDriver selects clang::driver::tools::Clang. Clang::ConstructJob is where most driver options are handled. Target-specific options are handled by Clang's member function RenderTargetOptions. We will get behaviors similar to compiling a .c file: compilation only options do not lead to diagnostics.

% clang-16 -c -fpic -mfpmath=sse a.S

Default options

There is a tension between -Wunused-command-line-argument and default options. Let's consider a scenario where we specify --rtlib=compiler-rt --unwindlib=libunwind in CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS to utilize compiler-rt and LLVM libunwind. ClangDriver claims --rtlib and --unwindlib in the following code snippet:

if (!Args.hasArg(options::OPT_nostdlib, options::OPT_r)) {
  if (!Args.hasArg(options::OPT_nodefaultlibs)) {
    // Handle --rtlib and --unwindlib.
  }
  if (!Args.hasArg(options::OPT_nostartfiles)) {
    // Handle --rtlib. Append clang_rt.crtend.o or GCC style crtend{,S,T}.o
  }
}

However, if a build target employs -nostdlib or -nodefaultlibs, options such as --rtlib, --unwindlib, and many other linker options (e.g. -static-libstdc++ and -pthread) will not be claimed, resulting in unused argument diagnostics:

% clang --rtlib=compiler-rt --unwindlib=libunwind -stdlib=libstdc++ -static-libstdc++ -pthread -nostdlib a.o
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '--rtlib=compiler-rt' [-Wunused-command-line-argument]
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '--unwindlib=libunwind' [-Wunused-command-line-argument]
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-static-libstdc++' [-Wunused-command-line-argument]
clang: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-pthread' [-Wunused-command-line-argument]

While some options like -stdlib= do not trigger a diagnostic, this seems more like a happenstance rather than a deliberate design choice.

To suppress the diagnostics, we can utilitize --start-no-unused-arguments and --end-no-unused-arguments (Clang 14) like the following:

% clang --start-no-unused-arguments --rtlib=compiler-rt --unwindlib=libunwind -stdlib=libstdc++ -static-libstdc++ -pthread --end-no-unused-arguments -nostdlib a.o

There is also a heavy hammer -Qunused-arguments to suppress -Wunused-command-line-argument diagnostics regardless of options' positions:

% clang -Qunused-arguments --rtlib=compiler-rt --unwindlib=libunwind -stdlib=libstdc++ -static-libstdc++ -pthread -nostdlib a.o

-Qunused-arguments is similar to -Wno-unused-command-line-argument.

Conveniently, options specified in a Clang configuration file are automatically claimed.

cat >a.cfg <<e
-stdlib=libstdc++
--rtlib=libgcc
--unwindlib=libgcc
e
clang --config=./a.cfg a.c            # no diagnostic
mkdir bin lib
ln -s /usr/bin/clang bin/
cp a.cfg bin/clang.cfg
ln -s /usr/lib/clang lib/
bin/clang -no-canonical-prefixes a.c  # no diagnostic

In the last command, I specify -no-canonical-prefixes so that clang will find dirname(clang)/clang.cfg, otherwise Clang would try to find dirname(realname(clang))/clang.cfg.

Target-specific options

GCC has machine-dependent options that usually begin with -m. These options are often referred to as "machine-specific" or sometimes as "target-specific". I am not certain whether there are any distinctions in these terms within the context of GCC. In Clang, we prefer the term "target-specific".

For instance, certain targets implement -mtls-dialect=. This is achieved through files like gcc/config/aarch64/aarch64.opt. If we use such options on unsupported targets, we will encounter an error:

% aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc -c -mtls-dialect=desc a.c
% powerpc64le-linux-gnu-gcc -c -mtls-dialect=desc a.c
powerpc64le-linux-gnu-gcc: error: unrecognized command-line option ‘-mtls-dialect=desc’

However, Clang employs a unified table named clang/include/clang/Driver/Options.td for all options, thereby eliminating the need for maintaining target-specific lists. Historically, an unsupported option merely issued a warning (unless -Werror is used):

% clang-16 -c --target=aarch64 -mavx a.c
clang-16: warning: argument unused during compilation: '-mavx' [-Wunused-command-line-argument]

For Clang 17, I have implemented the TargetSpecific flag in clang/include/clang/Driver/Options.td and annotated numerous options accordingly. If an option is annotated as TargetSpecific, the -Wunused-command-line-argument diagnostic will be elevated to an error

% clang -c --target=aarch64 -mavx a.c
clang: error: unsupported option '-mavx' for target 'aarch64'

For assembler input, marking target-specific options as TargetSpecific without claiming them will lead to errors:

% clang -mfpmath=sse -c a.s
clang: error: unsupported option '-mfpmath=' for target 'x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu'