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### 744. What is the lifetime of an exception pointed to by an `exception_ptr`?

Section: 17.9.7 [propagation] Status: CD1 Submitter: Alisdair Meredith Opened: 2007-10-10 Last modified: 2016-01-28

Priority: Not Prioritized

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Discussion:

Without some lifetime guarantee, it is hard to know how this type can be used. Very specifically, I don't see how the current wording would guarantee and `exception_ptr` caught at the end of one thread could be safely stored and rethrown in another thread - the original motivation for this API.

(Peter Dimov agreed it should be clearer, maybe a non-normative note to explain?)

[ Bellevue: ]

> Agree the issue is real.

> Intent is lifetime is similar to a shared_ptr (and we might even want to consider explicitly saying that it is a shared_ptr< unspecified type >).

> We expect that most implementations will use shared_ptr, and the standard should be clear that the exception_ptr type is intended to be something whose semantics are smart-pointer-like so that the user does not need to worry about lifetime management. We still need someone to draught those words - suggest emailing Peter Dimov.

> Move to Open.

Proposed resolution:

Change 17.9.7 [propagation]/7:

> -7- Returns: An `exception_ptr` object that refers to the currently handled exception or a copy of the currently handled exception, or a null `exception_ptr` object if no exception is being handled. The referenced object remains valid at least as long as there is an `exception_ptr` that refers to it. If the function needs to allocate memory and the attempt fails, it returns an `exception_ptr` object that refers to an instance of `bad_alloc`. It is unspecified whether the return values of two successive calls to `current_exception` refer to the same exception object. [Note: that is, it is unspecified whether `current_exception` creates a new copy each time it is called. --end note]