Class templates in the ::std
namespace can generally be specialized by programs for user-defined types. I did not find any exception to this rule for std::allocator
.
So, am I allowed to specialize std::allocator
for my own types? And if I am allowed to, do I need to provide all members of std::allocator
's primary template, given that many of them can be provided by std::allocator_traits
(and are consequently deprecated in C++17)?
Consider this program
#include<vector>
#include<utility>
#include<type_traits>
#include<iostream>
#include<limits>
#include<stdexcept>
struct A { };
namespace std {
template<>
struct allocator<A> {
using value_type = A;
using size_type = std::size_t;
using difference_type = std::ptrdiff_t;
using propagate_on_container_move_assignment = std::true_type;
allocator() = default;
template<class U>
allocator(const allocator<U>&) noexcept {}
value_type* allocate(std::size_t n) {
if(std::numeric_limits<std::size_t>::max()/sizeof(value_type) < n)
throw std::bad_array_new_length{};
std::cout << "Allocating for " << n << "\n";
return static_cast<value_type*>(::operator new(n*sizeof(value_type)));
}
void deallocate(value_type* p, std::size_t) {
::operator delete(p);
}
template<class U, class... Args>
void construct(U* p, Args&&... args) {
std::cout << "Constructing one\n";
::new((void *)p) U(std::forward<Args>(args)...);
};
template<class U>
void destroy( U* p ) {
p->~U();
}
size_type max_size() const noexcept {
return std::numeric_limits<size_type>::max()/sizeof(value_type);
}
};
}
int main() {
std::vector<A> v(2);
for(int i=0; i<6; i++) {
v.emplace_back();
}
std::cout << v.size();
}
The output of this program with libc++ (Clang with -std=c++17 -Wall -Wextra -pedantic-errors -O2 -stdlib=libc++
) is:
Allocating for 2
Constructing one
Constructing one
Allocating for 4
Constructing one
Constructing one
Allocating for 8
Constructing one
Constructing one
Constructing one
Constructing one
8
and the output with libstdc++ (Clang with -std=c++17 -Wall -Wextra -pedantic-errors -O2 -stdlib=libstdc++
) is:
Allocating for 2
Allocating for 4
Constructing one
Constructing one
Allocating for 8
Constructing one
Constructing one
Constructing one
Constructing one
8
As you can see libstdc++ does not always honor the overload of construct
that I have provided and if I remove the construct
, destroy
or max_size
members, then the program doesn't even compile with libstdc++ complaining about these missing members, although they are supplied by std::allocator_traits
.
Does the program have undefined behavior and are therefore both standard libraries correct, or is the program's behavior well-defined and the standard library required to use my specialization?
Note that there are some members from std::allocator
's primary template that I still left out in my specialization. Do I need to add them as well?
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