How do I prevent my 'unused' global variables being compiled out?

Question

I\'m using static initialisation to ease the process of registering some classes with a factory in C++. Unfortunately, I think the compiler is optimising out the \'unused\'

Answer 1

The compiler is not allowed to optimiza away global objects.
Even if they are never used.

Somthing else is happening in your code.
Now if you built a static library with your global object and that global object is not referenced from the executable it will not be pulled into the executable by the linker.