Re: Should the shared_ptr have release method?

From:
"Greg Herlihy" <greghe@pacbell.net>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
6 Jan 2007 11:48:40 -0500
Message-ID:
<1168052007.460301.164240@q40g2000cwq.googlegroups.com>
Thiago Adams wrote:

The custon deleter is is a very interesting solution!!

But we also need to create a very specialized code. In this case, maybe
is better to create the "vector_builder" (it is more efficient). I
don't know if is possible to create an adapter to use the auto_ptr
inside STL containers? Something likes the CAdapt from ATL for
auto_ptr.
We need take care about the weak_ptr's as well.


To handle weak_ptrs correctly, ItemPtr::release() just has to combine a
few operations, namely: to assume ownership of the shared_ptr's
pointer, reset the shared_ptr, and return the emancipated pointer to
the caller. Once these changes are made, the weak_ptr problem is
solved.

To implement this solution, first add a get_weak_ptr() method to
ItemPtr:

    weak_ptr<Item>
    ItemPtr::get_weak_ptr() const
    {
         return weak_ptr<Item>(ptr_);
    }

Now implement the ItemPtr::release() method:

    Item* ItemPtr::release()
    {
        if (not ptr_.unique())
            throw std::runtime_error("released ptr not unique");

        Item * p = ptr_.get();

        std::tr1::get_deleter<released_deleter>( ptr_)->release();

        ptr_.reset();
        return p;
    }

And finally run this revised main() to try out this new design:

    int main()
    {
        vector<ItemPtr> v;

        v.push_back( ItemPtr(1) );

        weak_ptr<Item> wp = v.front().get_weak_ptr();

        std::cout << "weak_ptr expired: ";
        std::cout << std::boolalpha << wp.expired() << "\n";

        vector< Item* > v2( v.size() );

        transform( v.begin(), v.end(), v2.begin(),
            mem_fun_ref( &ItemPtr::release ));

        std::cout << "weak_ptr expired: ";
        std::cout << std::boolalpha << wp.expired() << "\n";

        v.clear();
    }

    Program Output:

    weak_ptr expired: false
    not deleting Item
    weak_ptr expired: true

Greg

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