[gravypod]

The problem with optimizing compilers is that you're changing what the user expects to come out. This is very dangerious because you need to be able to prove that what you've generated will work as the non-optimized version.

I know of a few programs that when compiled with -O2 work fine but break with -O3. This is because some optimizations that are applied are just not what the programmer expected or in the older days just broken working code.

Formally verifying the output is difficult because you need to prove the same operation is happening both times even if they are extremely different in what they are doing. I'm assuming that's where the difficulty comes in.

[nickpsecurity]

Hence the Vellvm project and its ilk:

https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~stevez/vellvm