MALLOC_PERTURB_ will make inval-equ-1.l fail, because with errors fixups aren't run, which means the space for displacement operands remains uninitialized. The testcase invalidly expects zeros there. See bnc #590820 . --- gas/testsuite/gas/i386/inval-equ-1.l.mm 2008-03-03 15:28:58.000000000 +0000 +++ gas/testsuite/gas/i386/inval-equ-1.l 2010-03-24 16:16:30.000000000 +0000 @@ -9,6 +9,6 @@ GAS LISTING .* [ ]*3[ ]+\.equ bar1,%eax [ ]*4[ ]+\.equ bar2,%eax [ ]*5[ ]+\.globl bar2 -[ ]*6[ ]+\?\?\?\? A1000000 mov bar1,%eax -[ ]*6[ ]+00 -[ ]*7[ ]+\?\?\?\? 89C0 mov bar2,%eax +[ ]*6[ ]+.*[ ]+mov bar1,%eax +[ ]*6[ ]+.* +[ ]*7[ ]+.*[ ]+mov bar2,%eax --- gas/testsuite/gas/i386/inval-equ-2.l.mm 2008-03-03 15:28:58.000000000 +0000 +++ gas/testsuite/gas/i386/inval-equ-2.l 2010-03-24 16:18:05.000000000 +0000 @@ -7,13 +7,13 @@ GAS LISTING .* [ ]*1[ ]+\.globl bar1 [ ]*2[ ]+\.set bar1,\(%eax\+1\) -[ ]*3[ ]+\?\?\?\? A12A0000 mov bar1,%eax -[ ]*3[ ]+00 +[ ]*3[ ]+.*[ ]+mov bar1,%eax +[ ]*3[ ]+.* [ ]*4[ ]+\.set bar2,\(%eax\+1\) -[ ]*5[ ]+\?\?\?\? A12A0000 mov bar2,%eax -[ ]*5[ ]+00 +[ ]*5[ ]+.*[ ]+mov bar2,%eax +[ ]*5[ ]+.* [ ]*6[ ]+\.globl bar2 [ ]*7[ ]+\.set bar3,\(%eax\+1\) -[ ]*8[ ]+\?\?\?\? A12A0000 mov bar3,%eax +[ ]*8[ ]+.*[ ]+mov bar3,%eax \*\*\*\* Error:can't make global register symbol `bar3' -[ ]*8[ ]+00 +[ ]*8[ ]+.*