Teuchos::RefCountPtr beginner's guide : an introduction to the Trilinos smart reference-counted pointer class for (almost) automatic dynamic memory management in C++.

Technical Report · Tue Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/919177· OSTI ID:919177

Bartlett, Roscoe A

Dynamic memory management in C++ is one of the most common areas of difficulty and errors for amateur and expert C++ developers alike. The improper use of operator new and operator delete is arguably the most common cause of incorrect program behavior and segmentation faults in C++ programs. Here we introduce a templated concrete C++ class Teuchos::RefCountPtr<>, which is part of the Trilinos tools package Teuchos, that combines the concepts of smart pointers and reference counting to build a low-overhead but effective tool for simplifying dynamic memory management in C++. We discuss why the use of raw pointers for memory management, managed through explicit calls to operator new and operator delete, is so difficult to accomplish without making mistakes and how programs that use raw pointers for memory management can easily be modified to use RefCountPtr<>. In addition, explicit calls to operator delete is fragile and results in memory leaks in the presents of C++ exceptions. In its most basic usage, RefCountPtr<> automatically determines when operator delete should be called to free an object allocated with operator new and is not fragile in the presents of exceptions. The class also supports more sophisticated use cases as well. This document describes just the most basic usage of RefCountPtr<> to allow developers to get started using it right away. However, more detailed information on the design and advanced features of RefCountPtr<> is provided by the companion document 'Teuchos::RefCountPtr : The Trilinos Smart Reference-Counted Pointer Class for (Almost) Automatic Dynamic Memory Management in C++'.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 919177
• Report Number(s): SAND2004-3268
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
CONCRETES
DESIGN
Dynamic programming.
MEMORY MANAGEMENT
Memory-Computer simulation.