Re: Re-entering Release() - strange crash

From:
"Igor Tandetnik" <itandetnik@mvps.org>
Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.vc.atl
Date:
Tue, 8 Sep 2009 15:47:26 -0400
Message-ID:
<et0Ny0LMKHA.3704@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl>
Igor R. <igor.rubinov@gmail.com> wrote:

No, I debugged it thoroughly: release() is called excalty when it
should (otherwise the object would never be deleted!), and everything
works as expected. Except for the last accord.
On app. shutdown It goes like this:

// refcount == 2
Release()
 InternalRelease() // now refcount == 1
   release()
     Release() // due to holder_.reset()
       delete this;
       return 0; // retval is discarded
 return 1; // retval goes to the client(?); I tried to change it to 0
in the debugger -- it doesn't matter


I wonder if shared_ptr::reset implementation is prepared for its
shared_ptr instance to be destroyed from under it. In other words, I'm
curious how well this would work:

class C {
 public:
  void DeleteMe() { delete this; }
  shared_ptr<C> holder_;

  C() : holder_(this, mem_fn(&C::DeleteMe)) {}
  void ResetHolder() { holder_.reset(); }
};

int main() {
  C* p = new C;
  p->ResetHolder();
  return 0;
}

The issue here is that reset() calls DeleteMe, which destroys C, which
takes holder_ with it to the grave - while holder_.reset() is still on
the call stack. If reset() tries to access member variables of
shared_ptr after calling DeleteMe, it's in trouble.
--
With best wishes,
    Igor Tandetnik

With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not
necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are going to
land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them as they fly
overhead. -- RFC 1925

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