Merge pull request #456 from libtom/mp-has-comment s_mp_rand_platform: add comment regarding MP_HAS requiring dead code elim
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diff --git a/doc/bn.tex b/doc/bn.tex
index 6204414..64a07ff 100644
--- a/doc/bn.tex
+++ b/doc/bn.tex
@@ -298,6 +298,11 @@ You will also note that the header \texttt{tommath\_class.h} is actually recursi
includes itself twice). This is to help resolve as many dependencies as possible. In the last pass
the symbol \texttt{LTM\_LAST} will be defined. This is useful for ``trims''.
+Note that the configuration system relies
+on dead code elimination. Unfortunately this can result in linking errors on compilers which
+perform insufficient dead code elimination. In particular MSVC with the /Od option enabled shows this issue.
+The issue can be resolved by passing the /O option instead to the compiler.
+
\subsection{Build Trims}
A trim is a manner of removing functionality from a function that is not required. For instance,
to perform RSA cryptography you only require exponentiation with odd moduli so even moduli support
diff --git a/s_mp_rand_platform.c b/s_mp_rand_platform.c
index 06e92ab..06b2f1b 100644
--- a/s_mp_rand_platform.c
+++ b/s_mp_rand_platform.c
@@ -117,6 +117,25 @@ mp_err s_read_wincsp(void *p, size_t n);
mp_err s_read_getrandom(void *p, size_t n);
mp_err s_read_urandom(void *p, size_t n);
+/*
+ * Note: libtommath relies on dead code elimination
+ * for the configuration system, i.e., the MP_HAS macro.
+ *
+ * If you observe linking errors in this functions,
+ * your compiler does not perform the dead code compilation
+ * such that the unused functions are still referenced.
+ *
+ * This happens for example for MSVC if the /Od compilation
+ * option is given. The option /Od instructs MSVC to
+ * not perform any "optimizations", not even removal of
+ * dead code wrapped in `if (0)` blocks.
+ *
+ * If you still insist on compiling with /Od, simply
+ * comment out the lines which result in linking errors.
+ *
+ * We intentionally don't fix this issue in order
+ * to have a single point of failure for misconfigured compilers.
+ */
mp_err s_mp_rand_platform(void *p, size_t n)
{
mp_err err = MP_ERR;