Question

I tried to examine how the this code will be in assembly:

int main(){
  if (0){
    int x = 2;
    x++;
  }
  return 0;
}

I was wondering what does if (0) mean?

I used the shell command g++ -S helloWorld.cpp in Linux

and got this code:

    .file   "helloWorld.cpp"
    .text
    .globl  main
    .type   main, @function
main:
.LFB0:
    .cfi_startproc
    pushq   %rbp
    .cfi_def_cfa_offset 16
    .cfi_offset 6, -16
    movq    %rsp, %rbp
    .cfi_def_cfa_register 6
    movl    $0, %eax
    popq    %rbp
    .cfi_def_cfa 7, 8
    ret
    .cfi_endproc
.LFE0:
    .size   main, .-main
    .ident  "GCC: (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.1-9ubuntu3) 4.6.1"
    .section    .note.GNU-stack,"",@progbits

1. I expected that the assembly will contain some JZ but where is it?
2. How can I compile the code without optimization?

Answer 1

There is no direct, guaranteed relationship between C++ source code and
the generated assembler. The C++ source code defines a certain
semantics, and the compiler outputs machine code which will implement
the observable behavior of those semantics. How the compiler does this,
and the actual code it outputs, can vary enormously, even over the same
underlying hardware; I would be very disappointed in a compiler which
generated code which compared 0 with 0, and then did a conditional
jump if the results were equal, regardless of what the C++ source code
was.

In your example, the only observable behavior in your code is to return
0 to the OS. Anything the compiler generates must do this (and have
no other observable behavior). The code you show isn’t optimal for
this:

xorl %eax, %eax
ret

is really all that is needed. But of course, the compiler is free to
generate a lot more if it wants. (Your code, for example, sets up a
frame to support local variables, even though there aren’t any. Many
compilers do this systematically, because most debuggers expect it, and
get confused if there is no frame.)

With regards to optimization, this depends on the compiler. With g++,
-O0 (that’s the letter O followed by the number zero) turns off all
optimization. This is the default, however, so it is effectively what
you are seeing. In addition to having several different levels of
optimization, g++ supports turning individual optimizations off or on.
You might want to look at the complete list:
http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-4.6.2/gcc/Optimize-Options.html#Optimize-Options.