C++: Replace raw pointers with shared and weak ptr

Question

I\'m facing a design issue in my program. I have to manage Nodes object which are part of a root ChainDescriptor.

Basically it looks like the following:

Answer 1

shared_ptr is owning smart pointer and weak_ptr is referencing smart pointer.

So in your situation I think the ChainDescriptor should use shared_ptr (it owns the nodes) and Node should use weak_ptr for m_parent (it only references it) and shared_ptr for m_childs (it owns them).