Can Google Mock a method with a smart pointer return type?

Question

I have a factory that returns a smart pointer. Regardless of what smart pointer I use, I can\'t get Google Mock to mock the factory method.

The mock object is the im

Answer 1

Google Mock requires parameters and return values of mocked methods to be copyable, in most cases. Per boost's documentation, unique_ptr is not copyable. You have an option of returning one of the smart pointer classes that use shared ownership (shared_ptr, linked_ptr, etc.) and are thus copyable. Or you can use a raw pointer. Since the method in question is apparently the method constructing an object, I see no inherent problem with returning a raw pointer. As long as you assign the result to some shared pointer at every call site, you are going to be fine.