Replace root node for Document - c++

Question

I found a memory leak in my application using libxml++ due to an XML document where I replace the root node. I took good care for removing any child nodes, but using the xmlpp::Document interface I find no way to replace the root node.
This is a sample of the offending code:
xmlpp::Document Doc;
Doc.create_root_node("root");
// Populate the document
// [...]
void ReplaceRootNode(const xmlpp::Element* NewRootNode)
{
// Remove all root node children
xmlpp::Element* RootNode = Doc.get_root_node();
const xmlpp::Node::NodeList Children = RootNode->get_children();
xmlpp::Node::NodeList::const_iterator itChild = Children.begin();
while (itChild != Children.end()) {
RootNode->remove_child(*itChild++);
}
// Replace root node
Doc.create_root_node_by_import(NewRootNode); // Leak: memory for previous root node is not freed
}
The solution I came up with so far is to edit the document's root node to change it's name and attributes but. Is there a simpler way to avoid this leak which does not involve edition of previous root node's name and attributes?

Answer 1

I work around this by setting the document to an empty Document object (Doc = xmlpp:Document()) before calling create_root_node_by_import instead of removing the root's child nodes explicitly. This appears to cause the previous contents of Doc to be freed.
I first encountered this problem several years ago, and it still does not appear to be fixed in recent versions of libxml++. Surely they must be aware of it. Could this case somehow be using create_root_node_by_import in an unintended fashion? I would not have thought so, but OTOH this seems too important not to fix.