Re: Exception caught inside a constructor

From:
Victor Bazarov <v.bazarov@comcast.invalid>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Tue, 09 Jul 2013 13:37:50 -0400
Message-ID:
<krhhem$46s$1@dont-email.me>
On 7/9/2013 1:27 PM, Paavo Helde wrote:

Victor Bazarov <v.bazarov@comcast.invalid> wrote in
news:krha4v$pun$1@dont-email.me:

On 7/9/2013 11:08 AM, Drew Lawson wrote:

In article <1a6e9f3f-3338-4acc-88e9-706ce47c3eb2@googlegroups.com>
      Jarek Blakarz <jumianek@gmail.com> writes:

Hi

The following program throws an exception while allocating "A"
object. Allocation fails. An exception is caught inside "C"
constructor. "C" destructor releases memory for both objects.
Segmentation fault occurs while releasing memory for object "A"
since the memory has actually not been allocated for that object.


That isn't exactly what your problem is.

struct C {
   B *ptrB;
   A *ptrA;

   C(void)
   {


At this point, both ptrB and ptrA are uninialized pointers.
They probably have junk for values.

     cout << "C" << endl;
     try {
       ptrB = new B;
     } catch(...) {
       cout << "new B - exception" << endl;
     }
     try {
       ptrA = new A;
     } catch(...) {
       cout << "new A - exception" << endl;
     }


If those threw, 'new' never returned, and no assignment was made,
so the pointers are still junk.

   }

   ~C(void) {
     cout << "~C" << endl;
     delete ptrB;
     delete ptrA;


And here, you pass junk to delete.

   }
};

int main(void)
{
   try {
     C c;
   } catch(...) {
     cout << "main exception handler" << endl;
   }
}


You should clear the pointers before anything has a chance of going
wrong:

    C() : ptrA(0), ptrB(0)
    {
      // do the c'tor details
    }

(Others will now tell you not to use pointers.)


Why?

And why not do

    C() : ptrA(new A), ptrB(new B) {}

at all? If the latter throws, the former memory will be deallocated
(I think that's guaranteed by the Standard, let somebody correct me if
I'm wrong),


Yes, I think this is wrong. The constructed subobjects are destroyed
automatically if there is an exception during the next subobject
construction. However, here the subobject in question is a raw pointer
ptrA, whose destroy is a non-op. The C++ compiler is not so smart (and
should not be!) to figure out how to execute parts of the C destructor
code if something goes wrong during the construction.

That's why it is bad to use pointers.


OK, so I must have confused this situation with some other, like
constructing subobjects or members that have their own overloaded 'new'
operator (or something like that).

Oh well, shows how much experience using pointers I have... So, kids,
either learn to use pointers for those rare moments when you do need to
use them, or find any way not to use them at all, ever. :-)

V
--
I do not respond to top-posted replies, please don't ask

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