Inspection of the code shows there's no instruction generated (in a simple test case - the code in question has been rearranged to confuse the profiler less, though the old arrangement is still there in bzr).

I tried a simpler test case and although inspection of the output reveals that no code is generated, the profiler does think the code ran.

        1:    5:int main(void) {
        1:    6:  int x = 99;
        -:    7:
        1:    8:  f();
        1:    9:  x |= 0;
        1:   10:  f();
        1:   11:  return x;
        -:   12:}

So perhaps in this case the profiler is being clever (or stupid in a way that gives superficially more correct results).