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Enable strict compiler warnings for C and Cython levels#9718

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Tawfeeqshaik wants to merge 8 commits into
borgbackup:masterfrom
Tawfeeqshaik:feature/enable-strict-warnings-9140
Open

Enable strict compiler warnings for C and Cython levels#9718
Tawfeeqshaik wants to merge 8 commits into
borgbackup:masterfrom
Tawfeeqshaik:feature/enable-strict-warnings-9140

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@Tawfeeqshaik
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Description

Fixes #9140

This PR addresses the issue by implementing stricter compiler warnings and checks across both the C and Cython build layers:

  • C Level: Appended -Wpedantic and -Wstrict-prototypes to the central cflags array (safely wrapping it to skip Windows/MSVC compiler configurations).
  • Cython Level: Added warn.undeclared and warn.unreachable to the compiler_directives dictionary inside the cythonize block to catch un-declared variables and dead code early.

Checklist

  • PR is against master (or maintenance branch if only applicable there)
  • New code has tests and docs where appropriate
  • Tests pass (run tox or the relevant test subset)
  • Commit messages are clean and reference related issues

@Tawfeeqshaik
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Hi @ThomasWaldmann! I've opened this PR to resolve #9140 by adding stricter build-level warnings. I ended up implementing changes across both the C flag array and the Cython compiler options.

Please let me know if you'd like me to add or modify any specific flags, or if there are any further adjustments needed to get this ready for a merge. Looking forward to your feedback!

@codecov
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codecov Bot commented Jun 4, 2026

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 83.55%. Comparing base (8f28844) to head (1776561).
⚠️ Report is 22 commits behind head on master.
✅ All tests successful. No failed tests found.

Additional details and impacted files
@@           Coverage Diff           @@
##           master    #9718   +/-   ##
=======================================
  Coverage   83.55%   83.55%           
=======================================
  Files          93       93           
  Lines       15681    15685    +4     
  Branches     2353     2354    +1     
=======================================
+ Hits        13102    13106    +4     
  Misses       1838     1838           
  Partials      741      741           

☔ View full report in Codecov by Harness.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

@ThomasWaldmann
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@Tawfeeqshaik Thanks for the PR.

Wondering about platform compatibility of such options: are they the same on every platform, linux, bsd, macOS, omniOS, haiku - but not on windows?

@Tawfeeqshaik
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@Tawfeeqshaik Thanks for the PR.

Wondering about platform compatibility of such options: are they the same on every platform, linux, bsd, macOS, omniOS, haiku - but not on windows?

@ThomasWaldmann, thanks for taking a look at this!

Yep, they're fully compatible.

Since Linux, macOS, the BSDs, omniOS, and Haiku all rely on GCC or Clang as their default compilers, they'll handle -Wpedantic and -Wstrict-prototypes without any issues. The only compiler that would trip over these Unix-style flags is MSVC on Windows, which is why I wrapped them in the if not is_win32 check.

As for the Cython directives (warn.undeclared and warn.unreachable), those are handled entirely by Cython itself during the code generation phase, so they'll behave exactly the same on every single platform.

@ThomasWaldmann
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https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/actions/runs/26938203010/job/79473456121?pr=9718

Quite a lot of warnings now. Guess we need to evaluate what's actually useful for borg and what is just spam (because it is either harmless or up to another project to fix).

@Tawfeeqshaik
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Tawfeeqshaik commented Jun 4, 2026

https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/actions/runs/26938203010/job/79473456121?pr=9718

Quite a lot of warnings now. Guess we need to evaluate what's actually useful for borg and what is just spam (because it is either harmless or up to another project to fix).

Thanks for checking it further!

Yep, that makes total sense , enabling strict warnings can definitely surface a lot of existing noise across dependencies and older code paths. It’s cool to see the compiler digging deep, but we definitely want to avoid cluttering the build logs with unactionable noise.

Just let me know which specific flags you'd like me to drop or adjust, and I'll update the PR right away!

@ThomasWaldmann
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There are tons of "implicit declaration of '...'" warnings.

E.g.: warning: src/borg/chunkers/buzhash.pyx:6:7: implicit declaration of 'time'

Line 6 is just:

import time

So, what does it even want from us? :-)

@Tawfeeqshaik
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Tawfeeqshaik commented Jun 4, 2026

There are tons of "implicit declaration of '...'" warnings.

E.g.: warning: src/borg/chunkers/buzhash.pyx:6:7: implicit declaration of 'time'

Line 6 is just:

import time

So, what does it even want from us? :-)

Ah, got it! That's Cython's code generation triggering a C-level warning because it's missing the explicit header includes (like <time.h>) in the generated C code when warn.undeclared is active.

I can fix those cleanly by adding from libc cimport time (and any other missing standard libc imports) to the top of the complaining .pyx files so the C compiler gets the proper declarations. I've updated the setup configuration to include the "implicit_declarations": True directive for Cython. This instructs Cython to generate the necessary function prototypes, which should completely clear up those implicit C declaration warnings across the modules.

@Tawfeeqshaik
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Hi @ThomasWaldmann, just wanted to let you know that the latest changes have successfully passed all of the CI linting and platform test suites!

The build logs look crisp and focused now. Whenever you have a moment, it should be fully ready for your final review and merge. Thanks again for the helpful guidance through this!

@ThomasWaldmann
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Well, the "implicit declaration" stuff still looks a bit spammy, did you see that?

@ThomasWaldmann
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Did you just git add -a or so?

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can we reasonably enable more warnings?

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