If a class has an owning pointer member, define a destructor

Reason

An owned object must be deleted upon destruction of the object that owns it.

Example

A pointer member could represent a resource. A T* should not do so, but in older code, that's common. Consider a T* a possible owner and therefore suspect.

template<typename T>
class Smart_ptr {
    T* p;   // BAD: vague about ownership of *p
    // ...
public:
    // ... no user-defined default operations ...
};

void use(Smart_ptr<int> p1)
{
    // error: p2.p leaked (if not nullptr and not owned by some other code)
    auto p2 = p1;
}

Note that if you define a destructor, you must define or delete all default operations:

template<typename T>
class Smart_ptr2 {
    T* p;   // BAD: vague about ownership of *p
    // ...
public:
    // ... no user-defined copy operations ...
    ~Smart_ptr2() { delete p; }  // p is an owner!
};

void use(Smart_ptr2<int> p1)
{
    auto p2 = p1;   // error: double deletion
}

The default copy operation will just copy the p1.p into p2.p leading to a double destruction of p1.p. Be explicit about ownership:

template<typename T>
class Smart_ptr3 {
    owner<T*> p;   // OK: explicit about ownership of *p
    // ...
public:
    // ...
    // ... copy and move operations ...
    ~Smart_ptr3() { delete p; }
};

void use(Smart_ptr3<int> p1)
{
    auto p2 = p1;   // OK: no double deletion
}

Note

Often the simplest way to get a destructor is to replace the pointer with a smart pointer (e.g., std::unique_ptr) and let the compiler arrange for proper destruction to be done implicitly.

Note

Why not just require all owning pointers to be "smart pointers"? That would sometimes require non-trivial code changes and might affect ABIs.

Enforcement

• A class with a pointer data member is suspect.
• A class with an owner<T> should define its default operations.