RAII and factory design pattern? - c++

Question

Let's say I have Foo class:
struct Resource {
void block();
void unblock();
};
struct Foo {
static Foo create() {
Resource resource;
resource.block();
return Foo{resource};
}
~Foo() { resource.unblock(); }
void f() {}
private:
Resource resource;
Foo(Resource resource): resource(resource) {}
};
Am I right and there is no guarantee that ~Foo will be called only once in such block?
{
Foo foo = Foo::create();
foo.f();
}
If there is no guarantee, is it possible to fix somehow if using c++11 and move semantic? For example not call unblock_resource in moved foo, but I am not sure is there guarantee to use move constructor/operator= in return from Foo::create?

Answer 1

Copy elision won't help you, since it is an optimization and may or may not be applied.
Move semantics do help, and you get guaranteed moves in function return of local variables. But that means you have to write the move constructor, and you have to modify the destructor so that it doesn't unlock the resource of an object that was moved from.

Answer 2

Not sure about how this is related to the factory pattern, but to answer your question "Am I right and there is no guarantee that ~Foo will be called only once in such block?":
Avoiding copying/moving objects used as return values (i.e. return value optimization, especially named return value optimization) is permitted, but not guaranteed:
Under the following circumstances, the compilers are permitted, but
not required to omit the copy- and move- (since C++11)construction of
class objects even if the copy/move (since C++11) constructor and the
destructor have observable side-effects. This is an optimization: even
when it takes place and the copy-/move-constructor is not called, it
still must be present and accessible (as if no optimization happened
at all), otherwise the program is ill-formed:
If a function returns a class type by value, and the return
statement's expression is the name of a non-volatile object with
automatic storage duration, which isn't a function parameter, or a
catch clause parameter, and which has the same type (ignoring
top-level cv-qualification) as the return type of the function, then
copy/move (since C++11) is omitted. When that local object is
constructed, it is constructed directly in the storage where the
function's return value would otherwise be moved or copied to. This
variant of copy elision is known as NRVO, "named return value
optimization".
One way could be to control locking/unlocking resources in the move constructor and the destructor, just as you mentioned in your question.
Another way could be to make use of shared_ptr, such that creation and deletion of your Foo-object is managed by an RAII-style shared_ptr wrapper. There is just one tricky thing if you want to keep the Foo-constructor private, since make_shared cannot deal with private constructors. To overcome this, you could declare a public constructor taking a parameter of a private data type as parameter. A little bit ugly, and maybe a little bit clumsy due to the shared_ptr-wrapper. But maybe it's at least some inspiration:
struct Foo {
private:
struct private_dummy {};
public:
static shared_ptr<Foo> create() {
shared_ptr<Foo> foo = make_shared<Foo>(private_dummy{});
return foo;
}
~Foo() { cout << "deleted."; }
Foo(struct private_dummy x) { cout << "created."; }
};
void test() {
shared_ptr<Foo> foo = Foo::create();
}
int main() {
test();
//Foo notOK();
}

Answer 3

Rule of 3/5/0. You define a destructor, but not copy / move constructors / assignment operators, which is a red flag that your type is unsafe. Indeed, the destructor may get called twice prior to C++17, and it's easy to mess up while using it even post C++17.
I recommend using std::unique_ptr so that you don't define any copy/move operations or the destructor. You can use std::unique_ptr even if the resource you are managing isn't a pointer; it'd look something like this:
class Resource {
int handle;
public:
Resource(std::nullptr_t = nullptr)
: handle{}
{}
Resource(int handle)
: handle{ handle }
{}
explicit operator bool() const { return handle != 0; }
friend bool operator==(Resource lhs, Resource rhs) { return lhs.handle == rhs.handle; }
friend bool operator!=(Resource lhs, Resource rhs) { return !(lhs == rhs); }
void block() { std::cout << "block\n"; }
void unblock() { std::cout << "unblock\n"; }
struct Deleter {
using pointer = Resource;
void operator()(Resource resource) const {
resource.unblock();
}
};
};
struct Foo {
static Foo create() {
Resource resource{42};
resource.block();
return Foo{resource};
}
void f() {}
private:
std::unique_ptr<Resource, Resource::Deleter> resource;
Foo(Resource resource): resource(resource) {}
};

Answer 4

You are looking for copy-elision.
In short, your code is guaranteed to work in C++17, as described at http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2015/p0135r0.html
In C++14 and before there is no such guarantee.
Copy elision is an optimization that existed before C++11 and allowed compiler to omit copy constructor call in some cases.
C++11 has added move semantics and copy elision was expanded to allow compiler to avoid moving or copying (if moving is not available) an object.
Regardless of what compiler actually does, your class must still provide copy or move constructor, even if one will not be used by the compiler.
C++17 introduces "guaranteed copy-elision", which allows you to return objects of non-movable classes, just like in your case. Note that proposal explicitly mentions "factory functions". Quote:
it is impossible or very difficult to write factory functions
Example from proposal has this example:
struct NonMoveable {
NonMoveable(int);
NonMoveable(NonMoveable&) = delete;
void NonMoveable(NonMoveable&) = delete;
std::array<int, 1024> arr;
};
NonMoveable make() {
return NonMoveable(42); // ok, directly constructs returned object
}
As of today, both Clang and GCC are able to compile that code with -std=c++17 flag, but not with -std=c++14.
I see two ways for you to solve this problem:
Use C++17: I recommend deleting both copy and move constructor (and operator=) to make sure your code will not compile under earlier standard with buggy effects.
Rely only on things that are available in C++14 to make your code work everywhere. You might want add additional state to your object, delete copy constructor and implement move constructor.
This is an example of how it can be done in C++14.
class Foo {
public:
Foo() = default;
Foo(const Foo &) = delete;
Foo(Foo &&rvalue) noexcept { std::swap(blocked, rvalue.blocked); }
~Foo() { if (blocked) unblock();
void block() { blocked = true; }
void unblock() { blocked = false; }
private:
bool blocked{false};
};