Re: Deleting from destructor

You did it again. Please do not top-post. It is frowned upon around these
parts.

mc wrote:


[snip]

I am not sure, I understand your code. You have:

  Foo::Foo() {
   // Initialize stuff
   m_This = this; // m_This is a "void*"
  }

  Foo::~Foo() {
    // Release all resources
    // and finally the memory
    delete m_This;
  }

  const FOO& MCU::foo() {
    return (*new Foo());
  }

and then
    
  FOO foo = mcu.foo(); // creates a copy

Now the destructor of the foo object will be called. This destructor, in
turn, is going to invoke

  delete m_This;

which will call the destructor for the original. Here is what I do not
understand:

a) Why is m_This a void*? It appears that in this case

  delete m_This;

will _not_ invoke the destructor of the original.

b) Why are you not running into an infinite loop? After all, the destructor
of the original, once invoked, has to execute

  delete m_This;

too.

c) Could it be that (a) and (b) are related, i.e., do you run into an
infinite loop if m_This had type foo*? If that is the case, then with the

  delete m_This;

statement in the destructor of the copy foo, you are likely invoking
undefined behavior because of a type mismatch of the actual object and what
you are telling the compiler [5.3.5/3].

Best

Kai-Uwe Bux