How to use C++ standard smart pointers with Windows HANDLEs?

Question

I was wondering if there is a way to use unique_ptr with Windows HANDLEs?

I was thinking to replace the std::default_delete with s

Answer 1

Create a specific smart pointer class, won't take long. Don't abuse library classes. Handle semantics is quite different from that of a C++ pointer; for one thing, dereferencing a HANDLE makes no sense.

One more reason to use a custom smart handle class - NULL does not always mean an empty handle. Sometimes it's INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE, which is not the same (actually -1).