From: Linus Torvalds

Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2023 4:31 PM

...

        movzwl  .LC1(%rip), %eax
        testl   %esi, %esi
        movb    $0, (%rdi)
        movb    $1, 4(%rdi)
        movw    %ax, 1(%rdi)
        movq    $0, 8(%rdi)
        movq    %rdx, 16(%rdi)
        movq    %r8, 24(%rdi)
        movq    %rcx, 32(%rdi)
        setne   3(%rdi)

which is that disgusting "move two bytes from memory", and makes
absolutely no sense as a way to "write 2 zero bytes":

.LC1:
        .byte   0
        .byte   0

I think that's some odd gcc bug, actually.

I get that with some code, but not others.
Seems to depend on random other stuff.
Happens for:
	struct { unsigned char x:7, y:1; };
but not if I add anything after if (that gets zeroed).
Which seems to be the opposite of what you see.

If I use explicit assignments (rather than an initialiser)
I still get merged writes (even if not a bitfield) but also
lose the memory access.

	David

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