Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ITD.NRL.NAVY.MIL!sae!david
From: sae!david@ITD.NRL.NAVY.MIL (D.Witten Overhead)
Newsgroups: gnu.gcc
Subject: A flag to aid detecting unitialized variables.
Message-ID: <8912200024.AA29158@sae.com>
Date: 20 Dec 89 00:24:59 GMT
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One of the nastier bugs that I run across in my code involves
unitialized variables.  I think these would be much easier to detect
and fix if the compiler set each bit of each unitialized variable
(whether static, or automatic) to be 1.  I already set all of the heap
memory used in my programs, while they are being developed, to be
filled with 1s.  It would delight me to have a gcc flag that would
cause every bit of each unitialized variable to be a 1.  Needless to
say all this 1 filling wouldn't be done in the delivered version of any
program.

While I would be interested in having a patch that does this, I think
its utility is general enough to merit inclusion in gcc proper.

-With deep gratitude for gcc and its quality,
 David S. Witten	witten@nrl-css.arpa	witten@css.itd.nrl.navy.mil