I am fairly new to C++ memory management. I read Should every class have a virtual destructor? and found this answer:
Every abstract class should either have a
- protected destructor or
- virtual destructor
If you've got a public non-virtual destructor, that's no good, since it allows users to delete through that pointer a derived object. Since as we all know, that's undefined behavior.
For a class not intended to delete through a pointer to it, there is no reason whatsoever to have a virtual destructor. It would not only waste resources, but more importantly it would give users a wrong hint. Just think about what crappy sense it would make to give std::iterator a virtual destructor.
So I have a protected destructor now (I am not deriving from the class).
In another class though I have a pointer to this object. In my constructor I make give the pointer a "new" object of that class, in my destrcutor I would like to destroy it.
How do I do that? If the destructor is not protected I get a seg fault (which I don't entirely understand but I realise is bad programming anyway). If the destructor is protected I don't know how to delete the object.
