What's the most reliable way to prohibit a copy constructor in C++?

Question

Sometimes it\'s necessary to prohibit a copy constructor in a C++ class so that class becomes \"non-copyable\". Of course, operator= should be prohibited at the

Answer 1

Personally I think you've answered your own question, and should use the first approach.

If you don't want it to be copyable at all, as you said it will throw a linker error. However if you use the second approach and you DO end up using the copy constructor by accident, it WILL compile and it WILL run; and you'll have absolutely no indication of where the inconsistency came from until you bust open a debugger. Or as sehe said, if you can use a modern compiler, use C++11's '= delete' notation.