In described examples, a non-transitory machine-readable medium includes a compiler (56) that detects a soft-break indicator in a loop included in source code (52), and the compiler (56) applies software pipelining to generate compiled code (58) for the loop. The compiled code (58) includes assembly instructions, and the soft-break indicator enables the compiler (56) to arrange the assembly instructions to complete in-flight iterations of the loop after execution of the soft-break.