Is there any reason to use auto_ptr?

Question

After reading Jossutis\' explanation on auto_ptr from his STL book I\'ve got a strong impression that whatever task I would try to use it in I\'d 100% fail becuase of one of

Answer 1

I use std::auto_ptr moderately often, to ensure exception safety. That is, to prevent a memory leak in the event of part of a method throwing an exception.

For example:

Foo &Container::addFoo(
   const std::string &name
   )
{
  // The post conditions of the method require that the new Foo
  // has been added to this container, but the addition method
  // may throw exceptiona
  std::auto_ptr< Foo > foo(new Foo(name));

  foo->twiddle();// may throw
  this->addFoo(*foo);// record reference. May throw

  return *foo.release();
}

Edited: clarified that this->addFoo(*foo) records a reference.