Delete objects of incomplete type

c++ pointers forward-declaration delete-operator incomplete-type
fredoverflow picture fredoverflow · Dec 1, 2010 · Viewed 15.5k times · Source

This one made me think:

class X;

void foo(X* p)
{
    delete p;
}

How can we possibly delete p if we do not even know whether X has visible destructor? g++ 4.5.1 gives three warnings:

warning: possible problem detected in invocation of delete operator:
warning: 'p' has incomplete type
warning: forward declaration of 'struct X'

And then it says:

note: neither the destructor nor the class-specific operator delete will be called, even if they are declared when the class is defined.

Wow... are compilers required to diagnose this situation like g++ does? Or is it undefined behavior?

Answer

etarion picture etarion · Dec 1, 2010

From the standard [expr.delete]:

If the object being deleted has incomplete class type at the point of deletion and the complete class has a non-trivial destructor or a deallocation function, the behavior is undefined.

So, it's UB if there's nontrivial stuff to do, and it's ok if there isn't. Warnings aren't neccessary for UB.

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