The problem is that the variable is only referenced inside an assert(), which is presumably being compiled out under RelWithDebInfo.
Building C object CMakeFiles/rcl__rmw_opensplice_cpp.dir/src/rcl/timer.c.o
/home/gerkey/ros2_ws/src/ros2/rcl/rcl/src/rcl/wait.c: In function ‘__wait_set_clean_up’:
/home/gerkey/ros2_ws/src/ros2/rcl/rcl/src/rcl/wait.c:66:13: warning: variable ‘ret’ set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]
rcl_ret_t ret;
^
/home/gerkey/ros2_ws/src/ros2/rcl/rcl/src/rcl/wait.c: In function ‘rcl_wait’:
/home/gerkey/ros2_ws/src/ros2/rcl/rcl/src/rcl/wait.c:431:15: warning: variable ‘rcl_ret’ set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]
rcl_ret_t rcl_ret;
^