How to prevent gcc optimizing some statements in C?

Instead of using the new pragmas, you can also use __attribute__((optimize("O0"))) for your needs. This has the advantage of just applying to a single function and not all functions defined in the same file.

Usage example:

void __attribute__((optimize("O0"))) foo(unsigned char data) {
    // unmodifiable compiler code
}

You can use

#pragma GCC push_options
#pragma GCC optimize ("O0")

your code

#pragma GCC pop_options

to disable optimizations since GCC 4.4.

See the GCC documentation if you need more details.