spinlock variable protection

Hi, I have the following code int ret = 0; unsigned long irqflags; spin_lock_irqsave(&lock, irqflags); //... ret = hdl->count; //... spin_unlock_irqrestore(&lock, irqflags); return ret; I would like to be sure, that ret will not be optimized out. I think compiler can convert the code to equivalent: unsigned long irqflags; spin_lock_irqsave(&lock, irqflags); //... //... spin_unlock_irqrestore(&lock, irqflags); return hdl->count; But this is not what I want, because I use lock to protect hdl and want to return hdl->count value as it was in protected section.