Question

When compiling C++ with GCC 4.4 or MSVC is it possible to get the compiler to emit messages when a function is inlined?

Answer 1

With g++, I don’t think you can make g++ report that, but you can examine the resulting binary with any tool that shows symbols, nm for example:

#include <iostream>
struct T {
        void print() const;
};
void T::print() const { std::cout << " test\n" ; }
int main()
{
        T t;
        t.print();
}

~ $ g++ -O3  -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -o test test.cc
~ $ nm test | grep print
0000000000400800 t _GLOBAL__I__ZNK1T5printEv
0000000000400830 T _ZNK1T5printEv

vs

#include <iostream>
struct T {
        void print() const { std::cout << " test\n" ; }
};
int main()
{
        T t;
        t.print();
}
~ $ g++ -O3  -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -o test test.cc
~ $ nm test | grep print

(no output from nm in the second case)

EDIT:
Also, profilers may be of use. gprof shows, on these two examples:

0.00      0.00     0.00        1     0.00     0.00  global constructors keyed to _ZNK1T5printEv
0.00      0.00     0.00        1     0.00     0.00  T::print() const

vs. just

0.00      0.00     0.00        1     0.00     0.00  global constructors keyed to main