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<P, D> * t, 
    const unsigned int file_version
){
    // variables used for construction
    ar << t->ptr;
    ar << *t;
}

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

The statement ar >> ptr_ is key. This deserializes the same pointer deserialized 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, they 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, but 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 incremented. 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
// and 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 trivial 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 specialized versions of the macros used for exporting classes serialized through raw pointers.

Clear, 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.

Serialization

Template serialization - shared_ptr<class T>

Template serialization - `shared_ptr<class T>`