How to capture a unique_ptr into a lambda expression?

Earth Engine picture Earth Engine · Nov 23, 2011 · Viewed 34.8k times · Source

I have tried the following:

std::function<void ()> getAction(std::unique_ptr<MyClass> &&psomething){
    //The caller given ownership of psomething
    return [psomething](){ 
        psomething->do_some_thing();
        //psomething is expected to be released after this point
    };
}

But it does not compile. Any ideas?

UPDATE:

AS suggested, some new syntax is required to explicitly specify we need to transfer the ownership to the lambda, I am now thinking about the following syntax:

std::function<void ()> getAction(std::unique_ptr<MyClass> psomething){
    //The caller given ownership of psomething
    return [auto psomething=move(psomething)](){ 
        psomething->do_some_thing();
        //psomething is expected to be released after this point
    };
}

Would it be a good candidate?

UPDATE 1:

I will show my implementation of move and copy as following:

template<typename T>
T copy(const T &t) {
    return t;
}

//process lvalue references
template<typename T>
T move(T &t) {
    return std::move(t);
}

class A{/*...*/};

void test(A &&a);

int main(int, char **){
    A a;
    test(copy(a));    //OK, copied
    test(move(a));    //OK, moved
    test(A());        //OK, temporary object
    test(copy(A()));  //OK, copying temporary object
    //You can disable this behavior by letting copy accepts T &  
    //test(move(A())); You should never move a temporary object
    //It is not good to have a rvalue version of move.
    //test(a); forbidden, you have to say weather you want to copy or move
    //from a lvalue reference.
}

Answer

mattnewport picture mattnewport · Jun 6, 2013

This issue is addressed by lambda generalized capture in C++14:

// a unique_ptr is move-only
auto u = make_unique<some_type>(some, parameters); 

// move the unique_ptr into the lambda
go.run([u = move(u)]{do_something_with(u);});