What should happen to template class static member variables with definition in the .h file

Question

If a template class definition contains a static member variable that depends on the template type, I\'m unsure of what the reliable behavior should be?

In my case i

Answer 1

The linker handles such cases almost exactly the same as for non-template class static members with __declspec(selectany) declaration applied, like this:

class X {
public:
X(int i){};
};
__declspec(selectany) X x(1);//works in msvc, for gcc use __attribute__((weak))

And as msdn says: "At link time, if multiple definitions of a COMDAT are seen, the linker picks one and discards the rest... For dynamically initialized, global objects, selectany will discard an unreferenced object's initialization code, as well."