Should std::list::size have constant complexity in C++11?

Question

I am using gcc 4.8.1 and after hours of debugging a horrible mysterious performance issue I found out that the std::list::size is actually impl

Answer 1

This is not exactly a bug and you can read about it here:

http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=49561

It's more of a case of compatibility with older versions of gcc. Looks like they really don't want to add an additional "data member".

Quoting:

This patch made c++98 and c++11 code incompatible and is causing serious problems for distros.

Where the patch is the fix they implemented for gcc 4.7 (it was O(1) in it).

Another quote:

maintaining ABI compatibility has been decided to be more important for the current releases