Created attachment 23237 [details]
assembly and g++ -v output

g++ versions tested: g++-4.5 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.5.1-7ubuntu2)  4.5.1
                     g++-4.4 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.4.4-14ubuntu5) 4.4.5

Problem: I have code like this:

double fakeManipulation(double d) { return d; }
...
dist = <about 100>
const double d = <very small number, 1e-16>;
const double ndist = dist+d; // does not work with optimizer
//const double ndist = fakeManipulation(dist+d); // works with optimizer
if( ndist <= dist )
    <avoid endless loop>

The comparison in the if statement is intended exactly like this: check if d is so small that adding it to dist does not make any difference because of the limited floating-point precision. I do not know a simpler way to do that which is equally fast and independent of the actual values of d and dist.

When compiling this code without optimization, the comparison is handled correctly and the endless loop is avoided.

When compiling with -O or -O2, the comparison is NOT handled correctly and the program runs into an endless loop. With -O and -O2 and the fakeManipulation call, it is also handled correctly.

My suspicion is that the optimizer replaces the comparison with (d<=0) which is not numerically correct. 

The full code is rather lengthy and I did not succeed to write a small demonstration program, so I attached parts of the generated assembler code.