Generating permutations from a template - c++

Question

My goal is to create a general function that creates a two-dimensional vector filled with permutations (vector) based on a template given and on parameters, as follows:
some positions of the vector have to be fixed, based on a template as a function parameter vector. For example, if the given template is {0, 1, 0, -1, 3, -1}, this means that permutations will only vary by the numbers in places of -1.
n. n-1 is the range of integers the permutation can include. E.g. if n = 4, only 0, 1, 2, 3 can appear in the vector
length, which is the length of the vector
Note, that if a number from the template already appears in it, it will not be generated in the permutations.
So, to give an example:
n = 6, length = 5, template = {2, 1, 0, -1, 0, -1}
the permutations are:
{2, 1, 0, 3, 0, 3}
{2, 1, 0, 3, 0, 4}
{2, 1, 0, 3, 0, 5}
{2, 1, 0, 4, 0, 3}
{2, 1, 0, 4, 0, 4}
{2, 1, 0, 4, 0, 5}
{2, 1, 0, 5, 0, 3}
{2, 1, 0, 5, 0, 4}
{2, 1, 0, 5, 0, 5}
As you can see, the numbers are only generated in indexes 3 and 5 (places, where it was -1), also, the places to do not include 0, 1 or 2, since they already appear in the template.
I need to generate these permutations without using the <algorithm> library.
I assume creating a recursive function is the best option, but I do not know how to move forward. Any suggestions would help.
Thanks

Answer 1

Since you've offered no visible attempt, I assume it might be helpful for you to study some working code. This is in JavaScript (I hope it's producing the expected output). I hope it can help give you some ideas you could translate to C++.
function f(template){
console.log(JSON.stringify(template));
var used = template.reduce((acc, x) => { if (x != -1) acc.add(x); return acc; }, new Set());
console.log(`used: ${Array.from(used)}`);
var needed = new Set(template.reduce((acc, x, i) => { if (!used.has(i)) acc.push(i); return acc; }, []));
console.log(`needed: ${Array.from(needed)}`);
var indexes = template.reduce((acc, x, i) => { if (x == -1) return acc.concat(i); else return acc; }, []);
console.log(`indexes: ${indexes}`);
function g(needed, indexes, template, i=0){
if (i == indexes.length)
return [template];
var result = [];
// Each member of 'needed' must appear in
// each position, indexes[i]
for (x of needed){
let _template = template.slice();
_template[ indexes[i] ] = x;
result = result.concat(
g(needed, indexes, _template, i + 1));
}
return result;
}
return g(needed, indexes, template);
}
var template = [2, 1, 0, -1, 0, -1];
var result = f(template);
var str = '\n';
for (let r of result)
str += JSON.stringify(r) + '\n';
console.log(str);