OpenCV Mat::operator= - does it support copy on write?

Question

From the OpenCV documentation, it appears that copying a matrix is done using a shallow copy, but when changing one of the copies, a copy is done.

The exact referenc

Answer 1

It seems you misunderstood. "Before assigning new data, the old data is dereferenced via Mat::release" does not mean that when you write on a or b then a copy occurs. It means that when you type b=a, you lose the data that was in b.

Long story short : copy on write is not supported.