Comparing an error code enum with std::error_code - c++

Question

I'm using the C++11 system_error error code library to create a custom error class for a library I'm making. I've done this before with boost::error_code, but I can't quite it get it working with std::error_code. I'm using GCC 4.6.
Basically, I've laid out all the boilerplate code to create an error class, an error_category, and the conversion routines in the STD namespace to convert my custom enums into an std::error_code object:
namespace mylib
{
namespace errc {
enum my_error
{
failed = 0
};
inline const char* error_message(int c)
{
static const char* err_msg[] =
{
"Failed",
};
assert(c < sizeof(err_msg) / sizeof(err_msg[0]));
return err_msg[c];
}
class my_error_category : public std::error_category
{
public:
my_error_category()
{ }
std::string message(int c) const
{
return error_message(c);
}
const char* name() const { return "My Error Category"; }
const static error_category& get()
{
const static my_error_category category_const;
return category_const;
}
};
} // end namespace errc
} // end namespace mylib
namespace std {
inline error_code make_error_code(mylib::errc::my_error e)
{
return error_code(static_cast<int>(e), mylib::errc::my_error_category::get());
}
template<>
struct is_error_code_enum<mylib::errc::my_error>
: std::true_type
{ };
The problem is, implicit conversion between my error code enums and std::error_code objects doesn't seem to be working, so I can't for example try and compare an instance of std::error_code with enum literals:
int main()
{
std::error_code ec1 = std::make_error_code(mylib::errc::failed); // works
std::error_code ec2 = mylib::errc::failed; // doesn't compile
bool result = (ec2 == mylib::errc::failed); // doesn't compile
}
The expression ec2 == mylib::errc::failed won't compile - I have to say ec2 == std::make_error_code(mylib::errc::failed).
The error the compiler emits is:
In file included from test6.cc:3:0:
/usr/include/c++/4.6/system_error: In constructor ‘std::error_code::error_code(_ErrorCodeEnum, typename std::enable_if<std::is_error_code_enum<_ErrorCodeEnum>::value>::type*) [with _ErrorCodeEnum = mylib::errc::my_error, typename std::enable_if<std::is_error_code_enum<_ErrorCodeEnum>::value>::type = void]’:
test6.cc:70:37: instantiated from here
/usr/include/c++/4.6/system_error:127:9: error: cannot convert ‘mylib::errc::my_error’ to ‘std::errc’ for argument ‘1’ to ‘std::error_code std::make_error_code(std::errc)’
And here's an Ideone link.
So, why isn't this working? Do I need additional boilerplate code to enable mylib::errc::my_error enums to be implicitly convertible to std::error_code? I thought that the specialization of std::make_error_code takes care of that?

Answer 1

You have to move error_code make_error_code(mylib::errc::my_error e) function from std to your error namespace (mylib::errc). Please check http://ideone.com/eSfee.