In The C++ programming language Edition 4 there is an example of a vector implementation, see relevant code at the end of the message.
uninitialized_move() initializes new T objects into the new memory area by moving them from the old memory area. Then it calls the destructor on the original T object, the moved-from object. Why is the destructor call necessary in this case?
Here is my incomplete understanding: moving an object means that the ownership of the resources owned by the moved-from object are transferred to the moved-to object. The remainings in the moved-from object are some possible members of built-in types that do not need to be destroyed, they will be deallocated when the the vector_base b goes out of scope (inside reserve(), after the swap() call). All pointers in the moved-from object are to be put to nullptr or some mechanism is employed to drop ownership of moved-from object on those resources so that we are safe, then why call the destructor on a depleted object when the "vector_base b" destructor will anyway deallocate the memory after the swap is done?
I understand the need to explicitly call the destructor in the cases when it must be called because we have something to destruct (e.g. drop elements) but I fail to see its meaning after the std::move + deallocation of vector_base. I read some texts on the net and I'm seeing the destructor call of the moved-from object as an signal (to whom or what?) that the lifetime of the object is over.
Please clarify to me what meaningful work remains to be done by the destructor? Thank you!
The code snippet below is from here http://www.stroustrup.com/4th_printing3.html
template<typename T, typename A>
void vector<T,A>::reserve(size_type newalloc)
{
if (newalloc<=capacity()) return; // never decrease allocation
vector_base<T,A> b {vb.alloc,size(),newalloc-size()}; // get new space
uninitialized_move(vb.elem,vb.elem+size(),b.elem); // move elements
swap(vb,b); // install new base
} // implicitly release old space
template<typename In, typename Out>
Out uninitialized_move(In b, In e, Out oo)
{
using T = Value_type<Out>; // assume suitably defined type function (_tour4.iteratortraits_, _meta.type.traits_)
for (; b!=e; ++b,++oo) {
new(static_cast<void*>(&*oo)) T{move(*b)}; // move construct
b->~T(); // destroy
}
return oo;
}
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