These ‘-m’ options are defined for the i386 and x86-64 family of computers:
-march=cpu-typeThe choices for cpu-type are:
-mtune=cpu-typeThe choices for cpu-type are the same as for -march. In addition, -mtune supports an extra choice for cpu-type:
As new processors are deployed in the marketplace, the behavior of this option will change. Therefore, if you upgrade to a newer version of GCC, code generation controlled by this option will change to reflect the processors that are most common at the time that version of GCC is released.
There is no -march=generic option because -march indicates the instruction set the compiler can use, and there is no generic instruction set applicable to all processors. In contrast, -mtune indicates the processor (or, in this case, collection of processors) for which the code is optimized.
-mcpu=cpu-type-mfpmath=unitThis is the default choice for i386 compiler.
For the i386 compiler, you must use -march=cpu-type, -msse or -msse2 switches to enable SSE extensions and make this option effective. For the x86-64 compiler, these extensions are enabled by default.
The resulting code should be considerably faster in the majority of cases and avoid the numerical instability problems of 387 code, but may break some existing code that expects temporaries to be 80 bits.
This is the default choice for the x86-64 compiler.
-masm=dialect-mieee-fp-mno-ieee-fp-msoft-floatWarning: the requisite libraries are not part of GCC. Normally the facilities of the machine's usual C compiler are used, but this can't be done directly in cross-compilation. You must make your own arrangements to provide suitable library functions for cross-compilation.
On machines where a function returns floating-point results in the 80387
register stack, some floating-point opcodes may be emitted even if
-msoft-float is used.
-mno-fp-ret-in-387The usual calling convention has functions return values of types
float and double in an FPU register, even if there
is no FPU. The idea is that the operating system should emulate
an FPU.
The option -mno-fp-ret-in-387 causes such values to be returned
in ordinary CPU registers instead.
-mno-fancy-math-387sin, cos and
sqrt instructions for the 387. Specify this option to avoid
generating those instructions. This option is the default on FreeBSD,
OpenBSD and NetBSD. This option is overridden when -march
indicates that the target CPU always has an FPU and so the
instruction does not need emulation. These
instructions are not generated unless you also use the
-funsafe-math-optimizations switch.
-malign-double-mno-align-doubledouble, long double, and
long long variables on a two-word boundary or a one-word
boundary. Aligning double variables on a two-word boundary
produces code that runs somewhat faster on a Pentium at the
expense of more memory.
On x86-64, -malign-double is enabled by default.
Warning: if you use the -malign-double switch,
structures containing the above types are aligned differently than
the published application binary interface specifications for the 386
and are not binary compatible with structures in code compiled
without that switch.
-m96bit-long-double-m128bit-long-doublelong double type. The i386
application binary interface specifies the size to be 96 bits,
so -m96bit-long-double is the default in 32-bit mode.
Modern architectures (Pentium and newer) prefer long double
to be aligned to an 8- or 16-byte boundary. In arrays or structures
conforming to the ABI, this is not possible. So specifying
-m128bit-long-double aligns long double
to a 16-byte boundary by padding the long double with an additional
32-bit zero.
In the x86-64 compiler, -m128bit-long-double is the default choice as
its ABI specifies that long double is aligned on 16-byte boundary.
Notice that neither of these options enable any extra precision over the x87
standard of 80 bits for a long double.
Warning: if you override the default value for your target ABI, this
changes the size of
structures and arrays containing long double variables,
as well as modifying the function calling convention for functions taking
long double. Hence they are not binary-compatible
with code compiled without that switch.
-mlong-double-64-mlong-double-80long double type. A size
of 64 bits makes the long double type equivalent to the double
type. This is the default for Bionic C library.
Warning: if you override the default value for your target ABI, this
changes the size of
structures and arrays containing long double variables,
as well as modifying the function calling convention for functions taking
long double. Hence they are not binary-compatible
with code compiled without that switch.
-mlarge-data-threshold=threshold-mrtdret num
instruction, which pops their arguments while returning. This saves one
instruction in the caller since there is no need to pop the arguments
there.
You can specify that an individual function is called with this calling sequence with the function attribute ‘stdcall’. You can also override the -mrtd option by using the function attribute ‘cdecl’. See Function Attributes.
Warning: this calling convention is incompatible with the one normally used on Unix, so you cannot use it if you need to call libraries compiled with the Unix compiler.
Also, you must provide function prototypes for all functions that
take variable numbers of arguments (including printf);
otherwise incorrect code is generated for calls to those
functions.
In addition, seriously incorrect code results if you call a
function with too many arguments. (Normally, extra arguments are
harmlessly ignored.)
-mregparm=numWarning: if you use this switch, and
num is nonzero, then you must build all modules with the same
value, including any libraries. This includes the system libraries and
startup modules.
-msseregparmWarning: if you use this switch then you must build all
modules with the same value, including any libraries. This includes
the system libraries and startup modules.
-mvect8-ret-in-mem-mpc32-mpc64-mpc80Setting the rounding of floating-point operations to less than the default
80 bits can speed some programs by 2% or more. Note that some mathematical
libraries assume that extended-precision (80-bit) floating-point operations
are enabled by default; routines in such libraries could suffer significant
loss of accuracy, typically through so-called “catastrophic cancellation”,
when this option is used to set the precision to less than extended precision.
-mstackrealignforce_align_arg_pointer,
applicable to individual functions.
-mpreferred-stack-boundary=numWarning: When generating code for the x86-64 architecture with
SSE extensions disabled, -mpreferred-stack-boundary=3 can be
used to keep the stack boundary aligned to 8 byte boundary. Since
x86-64 ABI require 16 byte stack alignment, this is ABI incompatible and
intended to be used in controlled environment where stack space is
important limitation. This option will lead to wrong code when functions
compiled with 16 byte stack alignment (such as functions from a standard
library) are called with misaligned stack. In this case, SSE
instructions may lead to misaligned memory access traps. In addition,
variable arguments will be handled incorrectly for 16 byte aligned
objects (including x87 long double and __int128), leading to wrong
results. You must build all modules with
-mpreferred-stack-boundary=3, including any libraries. This
includes the system libraries and startup modules.
-mincoming-stack-boundary=numOn Pentium and Pentium Pro, double and long double values
should be aligned to an 8-byte boundary (see -malign-double) or
suffer significant run time performance penalties. On Pentium III, the
Streaming SIMD Extension (SSE) data type __m128 may not work
properly if it is not 16-byte aligned.
To ensure proper alignment of this values on the stack, the stack boundary must be as aligned as that required by any value stored on the stack. Further, every function must be generated such that it keeps the stack aligned. Thus calling a function compiled with a higher preferred stack boundary from a function compiled with a lower preferred stack boundary most likely misaligns the stack. It is recommended that libraries that use callbacks always use the default setting.
This extra alignment does consume extra stack space, and generally
increases code size. Code that is sensitive to stack space usage, such
as embedded systems and operating system kernels, may want to reduce the
preferred alignment to -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2.
-mmmx-mno-mmx-msse-mno-sse-msse2-mno-sse2-msse3-mno-sse3-mssse3-mno-ssse3-msse4.1-mno-sse4.1-msse4.2-mno-sse4.2-msse4-mno-sse4-mavx-mno-avx-mavx2-mno-avx2-maes-mno-aes-mpclmul-mno-pclmul-mfsgsbase-mno-fsgsbase-mrdrnd-mno-rdrnd-mf16c-mno-f16c-mfma-mno-fma-msse4a-mno-sse4a-mfma4-mno-fma4-mxop-mno-xop-mlwp-mno-lwp-m3dnow-mno-3dnow-mpopcnt-mno-popcnt-mabm-mno-abm-mbmi-mbmi2-mno-bmi-mno-bmi2-mlzcnt-mno-lzcnt-mrtm-mtbm-mno-tbmTo generate SSE/SSE2 instructions automatically from floating-point code (as opposed to 387 instructions), see -mfpmath=sse.
GCC depresses SSEx instructions when -mavx is used. Instead, it generates new AVX instructions or AVX equivalence for all SSEx instructions when needed.
These options enable GCC to use these extended instructions in
generated code, even without -mfpmath=sse. Applications that
perform run-time CPU detection must compile separate files for each
supported architecture, using the appropriate flags. In particular,
the file containing the CPU detection code should be compiled without
these options.
-mcldcld instruction in the prologue
of functions that use string instructions. String instructions depend on
the DF flag to select between autoincrement or autodecrement mode. While the
ABI specifies the DF flag to be cleared on function entry, some operating
systems violate this specification by not clearing the DF flag in their
exception dispatchers. The exception handler can be invoked with the DF flag
set, which leads to wrong direction mode when string instructions are used.
This option can be enabled by default on 32-bit x86 targets by configuring
GCC with the --enable-cld configure option. Generation of cld
instructions can be suppressed with the -mno-cld compiler option
in this case.
-mvzerouppervzeroupper instruction
before a transfer of control flow out of the function to minimize
the AVX to SSE transition penalty as well as remove unnecessary zeroupper
intrinsics.
-mprefer-avx128-mcx16CMPXCHG16B instructions.
CMPXCHG16B allows for atomic operations on 128-bit double quadword
(or oword) data types.
This is useful for high-resolution counters that can be updated
by multiple processors (or cores). This instruction is generated as part of
atomic built-in functions: see __sync Builtins or
__atomic Builtins for details.
-msahfSAHF instructions in 64-bit code.
Early Intel Pentium 4 CPUs with Intel 64 support,
prior to the introduction of Pentium 4 G1 step in December 2005,
lacked the LAHF and SAHF instructions
which were supported by AMD64.
These are load and store instructions, respectively, for certain status flags.
In 64-bit mode, the SAHF instruction is used to optimize fmod,
drem, and remainder built-in functions;
see Other Builtins for details.
-mmovbemovbe instruction to implement
__builtin_bswap32 and __builtin_bswap64.
-mcrc32__builtin_ia32_crc32qi,
__builtin_ia32_crc32hi, __builtin_ia32_crc32si and
__builtin_ia32_crc32di to generate the crc32 machine instruction.
-mrecipRCPSS and RSQRTSS instructions
(and their vectorized variants RCPPS and RSQRTPS)
with an additional Newton-Raphson step
to increase precision instead of DIVSS and SQRTSS
(and their vectorized
variants) for single-precision floating-point arguments. These instructions
are generated only when -funsafe-math-optimizations is enabled
together with -finite-math-only and -fno-trapping-math.
Note that while the throughput of the sequence is higher than the throughput
of the non-reciprocal instruction, the precision of the sequence can be
decreased by up to 2 ulp (i.e. the inverse of 1.0 equals 0.99999994).
Note that GCC implements 1.0f/sqrtf(x) in terms of RSQRTSS
(or RSQRTPS) already with -ffast-math (or the above option
combination), and doesn't need -mrecip.
Also note that GCC emits the above sequence with additional Newton-Raphson step
for vectorized single-float division and vectorized sqrtf(x)
already with -ffast-math (or the above option combination), and
doesn't need -mrecip.
-mrecip=optSo, for example, -mrecip=all,!sqrt enables
all of the reciprocal approximations, except for square root.
-mveclibabi=typeGCC currently emits calls to vmldExp2,
vmldLn2, vmldLog102, vmldLog102, vmldPow2,
vmldTanh2, vmldTan2, vmldAtan2, vmldAtanh2,
vmldCbrt2, vmldSinh2, vmldSin2, vmldAsinh2,
vmldAsin2, vmldCosh2, vmldCos2, vmldAcosh2,
vmldAcos2, vmlsExp4, vmlsLn4, vmlsLog104,
vmlsLog104, vmlsPow4, vmlsTanh4, vmlsTan4,
vmlsAtan4, vmlsAtanh4, vmlsCbrt4, vmlsSinh4,
vmlsSin4, vmlsAsinh4, vmlsAsin4, vmlsCosh4,
vmlsCos4, vmlsAcosh4 and vmlsAcos4 for corresponding
function type when -mveclibabi=svml is used, and __vrd2_sin,
__vrd2_cos, __vrd2_exp, __vrd2_log, __vrd2_log2,
__vrd2_log10, __vrs4_sinf, __vrs4_cosf,
__vrs4_expf, __vrs4_logf, __vrs4_log2f,
__vrs4_log10f and __vrs4_powf for the corresponding function type
when -mveclibabi=acml is used.
-mabi=name-mtls-dialect=type-mpush-args-mno-push-args-maccumulate-outgoing-args-mthreads-D_MT; when linking, it links in a special thread helper library
-lmingwthrd which cleans up per-thread exception-handling data.
-mno-align-stringops-minline-all-stringopsmemcpy, strlen,
and memset for short lengths.
-minline-stringops-dynamically-mstringop-strategy=algrep prefix of the specified size.
-momit-leaf-frame-pointer-mtls-direct-seg-refs-mno-tls-direct-seg-refs%gs for 32-bit, %fs for 64-bit),
or whether the thread base pointer must be added. Whether or not this
is valid depends on the operating system, and whether it maps the
segment to cover the entire TLS area.
For systems that use the GNU C Library, the default is on.
-msse2avx-mno-sse2avx-mfentry-mno-fentryms_hook_prologue
isn't possible at the moment for -mfentry and -pg.
-m8bit-idiv-mno-8bit-idiv-mavx256-split-unaligned-load-mavx256-split-unaligned-storeThese ‘-m’ switches are supported in addition to the above on x86-64 processors in 64-bit environments.
-m32-m64-mx32int, long, and pointer types
to 32 bits, and
generates code that runs on any i386 system.
The -m64 option sets int to 32 bits and long and pointer
types to 64 bits, and generates code for the x86-64 architecture.
For Darwin only the -m64 option also turns off the -fno-pic
and -mdynamic-no-pic options.
The -mx32 option sets int, long, and pointer types
to 32 bits, and
generates code for the x86-64 architecture.
-mno-red-zone-mcmodel=small-mcmodel=kernel-mcmodel=medium-mcmodel=large-maddress-mode=long-maddress-mode=short