Sorry, I don't know all of the correct terminology. Is it the "landing pads"? Here is the code that is generated for main (after removing that constructor so it

Sorry, I don't know all of the correct terminology. Is it the "landing pads"? Here is the code that is generated for main (after removing that constructor so it ends up without he extra call), and this is all in the text segment... and this definitely isn't "the happy path standing alone". 0000000000401160 <main>: 401160: 53 push %rbx 401161: e8 8a 00 00 00 callq 4011f0 <construct> 401166: e8 85 00 00 00 callq 4011f0 <construct> 40116b: e8 80 00 00 00 callq 4011f0 <construct> 401170: e8 8b 00 00 00 callq 401200 <destruct> 401175: e8 86 00 00 00 callq 401200 <destruct> 40117a: e8 81 00 00 00 callq 401200 <destruct> 40117f: b8 08 00 00 00 mov $0x8,%eax 401184: 5b pop %rbx 401185: c3 retq 401186: 48 89 c7 mov %rax,%rdi 401189: e8 52 00 00 00 callq 4011e0 <__clang_call_terminate> 40118e: 48 89 c7 mov %rax,%rdi 401191: e8 4a 00 00 00 callq 4011e0 <__clang_call_terminate> 401196: 48 89 c7 mov %rax,%rdi 401199: e8 42 00 00 00 callq 4011e0 <__clang_call_terminate> 40119e: 48 89 c3 mov %rax,%rbx 4011a1: e8 5a 00 00 00 callq 401200 <destruct> 4011a6: e8 55 00 00 00 callq 401200 <destruct> 4011ab: eb 18 jmp 4011c5 <main+0x65> 4011ad: 48 89 c7 mov %rax,%rdi 4011b0: e8 2b 00 00 00 callq 4011e0 <__clang_call_terminate> 4011b5: 48 89 c7 mov %rax,%rdi 4011b8: e8 23 00 00 00 callq 4011e0 <__clang_call_terminate> 4011bd: 48 89 c3 mov %rax,%rbx 4011c0: e8 3b 00 00 00 callq 401200 <destruct> 4011c5: 48 89 df mov %rbx,%rdi 4011c8: e8 93 fe ff ff callq 401060 <_Unwind_Resume@plt> 4011cd: 48 89 c7 mov %rax,%rdi 4011d0: e8 0b 00 00 00 callq 4011e0 <__clang_call_terminate> 4011d5: 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 nopw %cs:0x0(%rax,%rax,1) 4011dc: 00 00 00 4011df: 90 The issue isn't the non-executable code: it is that it generates a lot more executable code that it intermixes with all of the rest of the code next to the code that relies on it, which is great for the performance of quickly being able to jump into the exceptional case but heavily dilutes the code cache and implies many more page faults and TLB misses.