Re: Can auto_ptr<> be used with void and malloc()/free()

From:
Sousuke <s0suk3@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.vc.language
Date:
Mon, 17 May 2010 07:08:06 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID:
<9c3bd85e-a939-49d6-8901-7168caf23065@r9g2000vbk.googlegroups.com>
On May 3, 1:02 pm, "bob" <rob...@robert.org> wrote:

Hi,

I need to allocate a variable size struct using malloc() and then free it
using free(). Is there a way I could wrap a pointer returned from mall=

oc()

in auto_ptr<>? I've used auto_ptr<> with objects of struct/class but o=

nly

when they were allocated using new() operator. AFAIK, it is generally =

not

safe to allocate with malloc() and then free with delete().

Example:

struct {
  int x;
  int y;
  unsigned char data[1];

} structA;

structA* pa = (structA*) malloc(100);

I'd like to wrap pa pointer in auto_ptr<> so I do not have to worry about
freeing it when I leave a given block.

I think I could do the following:

unsigned char* p = new unsigned char[100];
structA* pa = (structA*) p;
_auto_ptr<unsigned char> ptrA(p);
[...]

Any thoughts?


Sorry to drop in late, but here's something no one suggested: use
shared_ptr, which supports custom deallocation. (auto_ptr implements
single-owner ownership, whereas shared_ptr implements shared
ownership, so I think shared_ptr can be used as a replacement for
auto_ptr if you want.)

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <memory>

using namespace std::tr1;

// Your C-compatible struct
struct PacketData
{
    int x;
    int y;
    unsigned char data[1];
};

struct PacketDataDeleter
{
    void operator()(PacketData* pd)
    {
        free(pd);
    }
};

// Suppose this is the function that reads from the
// network and assembles a PacketData
PacketData* ReadPacketData();

// Example usage
void DoSomething()
{
    shared_ptr<PacketData> pd(ReadPacketData(), PacketDataDeleter());

    // use pd
}

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