c++memorylanguage-lawyermemory-alignmentobject-lifetime

Creating/destroying an object in a static memory section


Is the static memory section alignas(alignof(T)) char bytes[sizeof(T)] suitable to hold an instance of T during its lifetime by calling std::construct_at(bytes, ...) / std::destroy_at(bytes)? My instincts say, yeah, the alignment and size requirements are guaranteed, so after construction (since there are also trivially constructible types, I prefer to call it initialization) reinterpret_cast<T*>(bytes) is a valid pointer to a completely valid instance of type T.

Am I missing something?

PS: I could also write std::aligned_storage_t<sizeof(T), alignof(T)> bytes - in that case its memory would be referenced as &bytes or std::addressof(bytes).


Solution

  • Is the static memory section alignas(alignof(T)) char bytes[sizeof(T)] suitable to hold an instance of T during its lifetime by calling std::construct_at(bytes, ...) / std::destroy_at(bytes)?

    Yes.

    reinterpret_cast<T*>(bytes) is a valid pointer to a completely valid instance of type T.

    Am I missing something?

    You would still need to launder a pointer to reused memory:

    T* ptr1 = std::construct_at(reinterpret_cast<T*>(bytes), ...); // valid
    T* ptr2 = std::launder(reinterpret_cast<T*>(bytes)); // valid
    std::destroy_at(ptr2); // valid, just like std::destroy_at(ptr1)