making non-shared copies of boost::interprocess shared memory objects

Question

I have implemented various classes that are designed to be used in boost::interprocess shared memory segments. All their constructors employ allocator<

Answer 1

Ok, you've run into the Frequently Annoying Edgecase that template-template arguments aren't first class citizens in C++ (you cannot pass them around/typedef them):

• How to transmit a template?

What shall we do?

1. allocator::rebind

   Allocators have a rebind mechanism, I daresay precisely because of this. So you can pass a alloc as if it is the open template, because you can always get from there to a sibling allocator type by doing Alloc::rebind::other.

2. Add to this the fact that allocators usually have conversion constructors that do this rebinding, you don't need to be overly specific in many places taking allocators

3. in c++11, scoped_allocators have been introduced to avoid having to manually pass allocator instances in a number of places that will do internal construction of elements (e.g. emplace_back).

   There's library magic in place that will automatically add the allocator instance from the container's scoped_allocator as the last constructor argument (by default). Boost Container library has backported the scoped_allocator_adaptor concept to c++03 so you can use it.

Here's a full sample that shows you how to solve the issues you had, and also, how you can mix the heap-based Bar instances with the shared-memory Foo instance:

foo2.add(bar1); // this works because of ... MAGIC!

Which works due to the scoped_allocator mentioned above.

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#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 

namespace bip = boost::interprocess;

namespace generic { 

    template */ >
        using vector = bip::vector::other >;

    template  struct Bar {
        typedef Alloc allocator_type; // ties in with uses_allocator/scoped_allocator

        // only require allocator if not default-constructible
        Bar(Alloc alloc = Alloc()) : mInts(alloc) {}

        // conversion constructor so we can convert between allocators 
        template 
            Bar(Bar const& rhs, Alloc alloc = Alloc())
                : mInts(rhs.mInts.begin(), rhs.mInts.end(), alloc) 
            {
            }

        void Report() const;

        void add(int i) { mInts.emplace_back(i); }

      private:
        template friend struct Bar; // we can see each other's mInts
        typedef vector ints_t;
        ints_t mInts;
    };

    template  struct Foo {
        typedef Alloc allocator_type; // ties in with uses_allocator/scoped_allocator

        Foo(Alloc alloc = Alloc()) : mBars(alloc) {}
        void Report() const;

        template 
        void add(Bar const& bar) { mBars.emplace_back(bar); }

      private:
        typedef vector, Alloc> mbars_t;
        mbars_t mBars;
    };
}

namespace heap {
    using VAlloc = std::allocator;

    using Bar = generic::Bar;
    using Foo = generic::Foo;
}

namespace shared {
    using VAlloc = boost::container::scoped_allocator_adaptor >;

    using Bar = generic::Bar;
    using Foo = generic::Foo;
}

template  void generic::Bar::Report() const {
    std::cout << "[";
    for (typename ints_t::const_iterator it = mInts.begin(); it != mInts.end(); it++)
        std::cout << (it == mInts.begin() ? "" : ", ") << *it;
    std::cout << "]\n";
}

template 
void generic::Foo::Report() const {
    for (typename mbars_t::const_iterator it = mBars.begin(); it != mBars.end(); it++)
        it->Report();
    std::cout << "\n";
}

int main(void) {
    struct shm_remove {
        shm_remove()  { bip::shared_memory_object::remove("MySharedMemory"); }
        ~shm_remove() { bip::shared_memory_object::remove("MySharedMemory"); }
    } remover;

    ///////////////////////////////////
    // heap based:
    std::cout << "Heap based storage: \n";

    heap::Foo foo1;
    heap::Bar bar1;

    bar1.add(42);
    bar1.add(2);
    bar1.add(-99);

    foo1.add(bar1);
    foo1.Report();

    /////////////////////////////////
    std::cout << "Shared memory storage: \n";
    bip::managed_shared_memory seg(bip::create_only, "MySharedMemory", 65536);
    shared::VAlloc shalloc(seg.get_segment_manager());

    shared::Foo foo2(shalloc);
    shared::Bar bar2(shalloc);

    bar2.add(43);
    bar2.add(3);
    bar2.add(-98);

    foo2.add(bar2); // of course this works
    foo2.add(bar1); // this works because of ... MAGIC!
    foo2.Report();
}

Prints:

Heap based storage: 
[42, 2, -99]

Shared memory storage: 
[43, 3, -98]
[42, 2, -99]