RAII tutorial for C++

Question

I'd like to learn how to use RAII in c++. I think I know what it is, but have no idea how to implement it in my programs. A quick google search did not show any nice tutorials.

Does any one have any nice links to teach me RAII?

Answer 1

There's nothing to it (that is, I don't think you need a full tutorial).

RAII can be shortly explained as "Every resource requiring cleanup should be given to an object's constructor."

In other words:

Pointers should be encapsulated in smart pointer classes (see std::auto_ptr, boost::shared_ptr and boost::scoped_ptr for examples).

Handles requiring cleanup should be encapsulated in classes that automatically free/release the handles upon destruction.

Synchronization should rely on releasing the mutex/synchronization primitive upon scope exit (see boost::mutex::scoped_lock usage for an example).

I don't think you can really have a tutorial on RAII (not anymore than you can have one on design patterns for example). RAII is more of a way of looking at resources than anything else.

For example, at the moment I'm coding using WinAPI and I wrote the following class:

template<typename H, BOOL _stdcall CloseFunction(H)>
class checked_handle
{
public:
    typedef checked_handle<H,CloseFunction> MyType;
    typedef typename H HandleType;

    static const HandleType     NoValue;

    checked_handle(const HandleType value)
        : _value(value)
    {
    }

    ~checked_handle()
    {
        Close();
    }

    HandleType* operator &()
    {
        return &_value;
    }

    operator HandleType()
    {
        return _value;
    }

private:
    HandleType      _value;

    void Close(const HandleType newValue = NoValue)
    {
        CloseFunction(_value);
        _value = newValue;
    }
};

template<typename H,BOOL _stdcall CloseFunction(H)>
const typename checked_handle<H,CloseFunction>::HandleType 
    checked_handle<H,CloseFunction>::NoValue = 
    checked_handle<H,CloseFunction>::HandleType(INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE);

typedef checked_handle<HANDLE,::CloseHandle> CheckedHandle;
typedef checked_handle<HWINSTA,::CloseWindowStation> WinStationHandle;
typedef checked_handle<HDESK,::CloseDesktop> DesktopHandle;
typedef checked_handle<HDEVNOTIFY,::UnregisterDeviceNotification> DevNotifyHandle;
typedef checked_handle<HWND,::DestroyWindow> WindowHandle;

BOOL __stdcall CloseKey(HKEY hKey);
typedef checked_handle<HKEY,CloseKey> RegHandle;

This class doesn't include assignment and copy semantics (I removed them to provide a minimal example) so returning by value, will cause the handles to be closed twice.

Here's how it's used:

class declaration:

class Something
{
public:
    // ...
private:
    WindowHandle        _window;
};

This member is allocated but I never call ::CloseWindow(_window._handle) explicitely (it will be called when instances of Something go out of scope (as Something::~Something -> WindowHandle::WindowHandle -> ::Close(_window._value) ).

Answer 2

The wikipedia explanation isn't bad.

Answer 3

The reference that I personally have found most helpful on the topic of RAII is the book Exceptional C++ by Herb Sutter.

Many of the topics covered in that book are touched on in the Guru of the Week articles by Sutter. Those articles are available at http://gotw.ca/gotw/index.htm.

Answer 4

Item 13 of "Effective C+" is also pretty useful