<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>auto_ptr</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.74.0" /><meta name="keywords" content=" ISO C++ , auto_ptr " /><meta name="keywords" content=" ISO C++ , library " /><link rel="home" href="../spine.html" title="The GNU C++ Library Documentation" /><link rel="up" href="memory.html" title="Chapter 11. Memory" /><link rel="prev" href="memory.html" title="Chapter 11. Memory" /><link rel="next" href="shared_ptr.html" title="shared_ptr" /></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">auto_ptr</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="memory.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 11. Memory</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="shared_ptr.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="sect1" lang="en" xml:lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="manual.util.memory.auto_ptr"></a>auto_ptr</h2></div></div></div><div class="sect2" lang="en" xml:lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="auto_ptr.limitations"></a>Limitations</h3></div></div></div><p>Explaining all of the fun and delicious things that can happen with misuse of the <code class="classname">auto_ptr</code> class template (called <acronym class="acronym">AP</acronym> here) would take some time. Suffice it to say that the use of <acronym class="acronym">AP</acronym> safely in the presence of copying has some subtleties. </p><p> The AP class is a really nifty idea for a smart pointer, but it is one of the dumbest of all the smart pointers -- and that's fine. </p><p> AP is not meant to be a supersmart solution to all resource leaks everywhere. Neither is it meant to be an effective form of garbage collection (although it can help, a little bit). And it can <span class="emphasis"><em>not</em></span>be used for arrays! </p><p> <acronym class="acronym">AP</acronym> is meant to prevent nasty leaks in the presence of exceptions. That's <span class="emphasis"><em>all</em></span>. This code is AP-friendly: </p><pre class="programlisting"> // Not a recommend naming scheme, but good for web-based FAQs. typedef std::auto_ptr<MyClass> APMC; extern function_taking_MyClass_pointer (MyClass*); extern some_throwable_function (); void func (int data) { APMC ap (new MyClass(data)); some_throwable_function(); // this will throw an exception function_taking_MyClass_pointer (ap.get()); } </pre><p>When an exception gets thrown, the instance of MyClass that's been created on the heap will be <code class="function">delete</code>'d as the stack is unwound past <code class="function">func()</code>. </p><p>Changing that code as follows is not <acronym class="acronym">AP</acronym>-friendly: </p><pre class="programlisting"> APMC ap (new MyClass[22]); </pre><p>You will get the same problems as you would without the use of <acronym class="acronym">AP</acronym>: </p><pre class="programlisting"> char* array = new char[10]; // array new... ... delete array; // ...but single-object delete </pre><p> AP cannot tell whether the pointer you've passed at creation points to one or many things. If it points to many things, you are about to die. AP is trivial to write, however, so you could write your own <code class="code">auto_array_ptr</code> for that situation (in fact, this has been done many times; check the mailing lists, Usenet, Boost, etc). </p></div><div class="sect2" lang="en" xml:lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="auto_ptr.using"></a>Use in Containers</h3></div></div></div><p> </p><p>All of the <a class="ulink" href="../23_containers/howto.html" target="_top">containers</a> described in the standard library require their contained types to have, among other things, a copy constructor like this: </p><pre class="programlisting"> struct My_Type { My_Type (My_Type const&); }; </pre><p> Note the const keyword; the object being copied shouldn't change. The template class <code class="code">auto_ptr</code> (called AP here) does not meet this requirement. Creating a new AP by copying an existing one transfers ownership of the pointed-to object, which means that the AP being copied must change, which in turn means that the copy ctors of AP do not take const objects. </p><p> The resulting rule is simple: <span class="emphasis"><em>Never ever use a container of auto_ptr objects</em></span>. The standard says that “<span class="quote">undefined</span>” behavior is the result, but it is guaranteed to be messy. </p><p> To prevent you from doing this to yourself, the <a class="ulink" href="../19_diagnostics/howto.html#3" target="_top">concept checks</a> built in to this implementation will issue an error if you try to compile code like this: </p><pre class="programlisting"> #include <vector> #include <memory> void f() { std::vector< std::auto_ptr<int> > vec_ap_int; } </pre><p> Should you try this with the checks enabled, you will see an error. </p></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="memory.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="memory.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="shared_ptr.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 11. 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