Chapter 3. Resource Management

A resource is something that, once you're done using it, you need to return to the system. If you don't, bad things happen. In C++ programs, the most commonly used resource is dynamically allocated memory (if you allocate memory and never deallocate it, you've got a memory leak), but memory is only one of many resources you must manage. Other common resources include file descriptors, mutex locks, fonts and brushes in graphical user interfaces (GUIs), database connections, and network sockets. Regardless of the resource, it's important that it be released when you're finished with it.

Trying to ensure this by hand is difficult under any conditions, but when you consider exceptions, functions with multiple return paths, and maintenance programmers modifying software without fully comprehending the impact of their changes, it becomes clear that ad hoc ways of dealing with resource management aren't sufficient.

This chapter begins with a straightforward object-based approach to resource management built on C++'s support for constructors, destructors, and copying operations. Experience has shown that disciplined adherence to this approach can all but eliminate resource management problems. The chapter then moves on to Items dedicated specifically to memory management. These latter Items complement the more general Items that come earlier, because objects that manage memory have to know how to do it properly.