[jmorse2]

Assuming you're referring to the articles first example, I suspect optimised-out is the correct outcome in that situation. The program is stopped at the start of one function, and the author is looking one stack frame up at this code:

     0x0000564ab5d178c4 <+52>:    callq  *%rax
  => 0x0000564ab5d178c6 <+54>:    mov    %rbp,%rdi

%rsi indeed hasn't been clobbered when the call executes, but it becomes liable to be clobbered during the execution of the callee. By the next instruction (at +54) there's no guarantee that %rsi contains the correct value, thus it's best reported as optimised out. The author is handily stopped at a point in time between the two instructions displayed above (in a lower stack frame), where the correct value happens to be in %rsi, but this is not guaranteed to be always true.

[kingluo]

Yes, if there is a call before the instruction, you should check if it changes the register you want. Particular case is particular analysis.