Template serialization - shared_ptr

###  | # Serialization ## Template serialization - `shared_ptr<class T>`

All the code snippets included below are defined within the `boost::serialization` namespace.

`shared_ptr<T>` is defined in shared_ptr.hpp.

The general class outline for a `shared_ptr<T>` is:

`shared_ptr<T>` contains:

`T *px;`
`shared_count pn;` which contains a pointer to:

`sp_counted_base_impl<T, ...>` which is derived from the polymorphic abstract class

`sp_counted_base`

The serialization process proceeds down the tree above.

The first cut at implementing serialization for `shared_ptr` just serializes the relevant members of `shared_ptr`. It's almost trivial:

    template<class Archive, class T>
    inline void serialize(
        Archive & ar,
        shared_ptr<T> & t,
        const unsigned int file_version,
        int
    ){
        ar & t.px; // save the raw pointer
        ar & t.pn; // save the shared reference count
    }

So far so good. Now for the serialization of `shared_count`:

    template<class Archive>
    inline void save(
        Archive & ar,
        const boost::detail::shared_count & t,
        const unsigned int file_version
    ){
        ar << t.pi_;
    }

    template<class Archive>
    inline void load(
        Archive & ar,
        boost::detail::shared_count & t,
        const unsigned int file_version
    ){
        ar >> t.pi_;
    }

A key feature of this library is the ability to specify serialization of a class or template without changing the class or template declaration or definition. This is referred to as non-intrusive serialization.

The `pi_`member of shared count is a pointer to an instance of `sp_counted_base_impl`. Since this class doesn't have a default constructor, serialization requires specification of the following overload:

    template<class Archive, class P, class D>
    inline void save_construct_data(
        Archive & ar,
        const boost::detail::sp_counted_base_impl * t,
        const unsigned int file_version
    ){
        // variables used for construction
        ar << t->ptr;
        ar << *t;
    }

    template
    inline void load_construct_data(
        Archive & ar,
        boost::detail::sp_counted_base_impl * t,
        const unsigned int file_version
    ){
        P ptr_;
        ar >> ptr_;
        // placement new
        ::new(t)boost::detail::sp_counted_base_impl(ptr_,  D());
        ar >>; *t;
    }

The statement `ar >> ptr_` is key. This deserializes the same pointer deserialzed above. Default object tracking will ensure that no more than one instance of the object is created and that the pointer returned by multiple deserializations are all the same. Hence, regardless of how many instances of `shared_ptr/shared_count` corresponding to a particular object are created, the will all point to the same object.

Since `sp_counted_base_impl<P, D>` is derived from `sp_counted_base`, the following is needed:

    template<class Archive, class P, class D>
    inline void serialize(
        Archive & ar,
        boost::detail::sp_counted_base_impl<P, D> & t,
        const unsigned int file_version,
        int
    ){
        ar & boost::serialization::base_object<
    	boost::detail::sp_counted_base
        >(*this);
    }

which will in turn require serialization of its base class:

    inline void serialize(
        Archive & ar,
        boost::detail::sp_counted & t,
        const unsigned int file_version,
        int
    ){
    }

It would seem we're done, running the test program, demo_shared_ptr.cpp , with this code produces the following output.

    a = 0x003017A0 use count = 2
    a1 = 0x003017A0 use count = 2
    unique element count = 1
    a = 0x00000000 use count = 0
    a1 = 0x00000000 use count = 0
    unique element count = 0
    a = 0x00303060 use count = 1
    a1 = 0x00303060 use count = 1
    unique element count = 1

This indicates that we're not quite done. Due to default object tracking, `sp_counted_base_impl<P, D>` is only created once regardless of how many shared pointers point to the same object. Of course, it has to be this way. The reference count starts at 1 and is never incrememented. Code must be added to the serialization functions to maintain the proper reference count.

The process of serialization of an empty base class - `sp_counted_base` - seems like additional overhead. Examination of code in base_object.hpp reveals that `base_object.hpp` provides two functions:

- invokes serialization of the base class data
- as a side effect, "registers" the fact base/derived relationship so that conversions of pointers between base and derived classes can be made at runtime.

In this case we need only the latter function so we can replace the base object serialization with:

    // register the relationship between each derived class
    // its polymorphic base
    void_cast_register<
        boost::detail::sp_counted_base_impl<P, D>
        boost::detail::sp_counted_base,
    >();

and we don't have to include a trival serializer for `sp_counted_base`

Finally we need to specify name-value pair wrappers if we want to be able to use this serialization with XML archives.

Actually, even this is really just a start. Among the issues not addressed in this implementation are:

- `weak_ptr` is not addressed. I haven't even looked into this.
- Other smart pointers that might interact with `shared_ptr` haven't been addressed at all. To be confident that the implementation is complete and correct, all these should be addressed as well.
- Exception handling hasn't been exhaustively considered.
- Other issues yet to be discovered.

One thing that has been considered is export of shared_ptr. The header which declares shared pointer serialization includes some special macros for exporting shared pointers: `

    BOOST_SHARED_POINTER_EXPORT(T)
    BOOST_SHARED_POINTER_EXPORT_GUID(T, K)

` These are specialize versions of the macros used for exporting classes serialized through raw pointers.

Clearly, complete, correct and exception safe serialization of smart pointers is going to be a challenge. I hope that this implementation provides a useful starting point for such an effort.

© Copyright Robert Ramey 2002-2004. Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)