std::unique_ptr declared on base class - c++11

Question

Sorry about the title, I couldn't come with a better one.
Suppose that I have a class with special delete semantics, which needs to call a function instead of been deleted by delete, let's call it releaseable_object:
struct releaseable_object
{
releaseable_object() : dummy_ptr(new int) {}
void Release()
{
std::cout << "Releasing releaseable object\n";
delete dummy_ptr;
}
int *const dummy_ptr;
};
And this releaseable_object is the base class of a bunch of other objects, each of them constructed by a factory which only returns pointers.
I'm trying to wrap each class into a std::unique_ptr with a custom deleter which call the releaseable_object::Release() function, so I've created a helper struct to handle some of the generic stuff:
// std::is_base_of<releaseable_object, T>::value must be true
template <typename T> struct Managed
{
using type = T;
static void deleter(type *object)
{
std::cout << "Release!\n";
object->Release();
};
using pointer = std::unique_ptr<T, decltype(deleter)>;
};
And then, a bunch of derived classes which does all the specific initializations and calls to te factory:
struct ManagedA : Managed<A>
{
using base = Managed<A>;
using base::pointer;
using base::deleter;
ManagedA(/* lots of parameters */) :
m_pointer(nullptr, deleter)
{
// do A specific stuff...
A *a = factory::CreateA(/* lots of parameters */);
// more A specific stuff...
// wrap the pointer:
m_pointer.reset(a);
}
pointer m_pointer;
};
If I try to compile the code above, it complains about the unique_ptr (demo here), I don't know what I'm doing wrong there, the error is about the instantiation of a tuple (the complete error log is in the ideone demo):
tuple: In instantiation of ‘struct std::_Head_base<1u, void(A*), false>’:
tuple:229:12: recursively required from ‘struct std::_Tuple_impl<1u, void(A*)>’
tuple:229:12: required from ‘struct std::_Tuple_impl<0u, A*, void(A*)>’
tuple:521:11: required from ‘class std::tuple<A*, void(A*)>’
bits/unique_ptr.h:127:57: required from ‘class std::unique_ptr<A, void(A*)>’
If I get rid of the m_pointer member then the compilation succeeds. I'm pretty lost with this, I'll be grateful of any hints about how to fix the compilation error.
Thanks for your attention.

Answer 1

The problem is that decltype(deleter) is a function type instead of a pointer-to-function type. Changing the pointer declaration to
using pointer = std::unique_ptr<T, decltype(deleter)*>; // or spell out void(*)(T*)
will fix it.
Be aware that a function object type is usually preferable to a function pointer type for a unique pointer deleter, since the function pointer must be stored in the object itself. i.e.,
sizeof(std::unique_ptr<foo*,void(*)(foo*)>) == sizeof(foo*) + sizeof(void(*)(foo*))
but most implementations will take advantage of the Empty Base Optimization if you use an empty deleter type:
struct deleter_type {
void operator () (foo*) {
// ...
}
};
sizeof(std::unique_ptr<foo*,deleter_type>) == sizeof(foo*)
Here's how your sample code would be written using a deleter type..