"In no case is it ok to just 'shut up the warning'," Linus Torvalds exclaimed in response to a patch that stifled a compiler warning. Reminiscent of a thread on the lkml last year [story], Linus pointed out that it is very important to understand and properly fix compiler warnings [story]:

"Please, we do NOT fix compiler warnings without understanding the code! That's a sure way to just introduce _new_ bugs, rather than fix old ones. So please, please, please, realize that the compiler is _stupid_, and fixing warnings without understanding the code is bad.

"In this case, anybody who actually spends 5 seconds looking at the code should have realized that the warning is just another way of saying that the author of the code was on some bad drugs, and the warnings WERE BETTER OFF REMAINING! Because that code _should_ have warnings. Big fat warnings about incompetence!?"