Well, I see how your example compiles in the case of RAW cyclic pointers. However, I cannot use raw pointers, and I don't know how to get it to compile with cyclic smart pointers (specifically, boost::shared_ptr). Was there something that I missed?
Just use a smart pointer instead of a raw pointer. The following compiles as expected. #include <fstream> #include <boost/archive/text_oarchive.hpp> #include <boost/archive/text_iarchive.hpp> #include <boost/serialization/shared_ptr.hpp> class A { public: friend class boost::serialization::access; template<class Archive> void serialize( Archive& ar, const unsigned int version ) { ar & aptr; } private: boost::shared_ptr<A> aptr; }; int main() { std::ofstream ofs("archive"); boost::archive::text_oarchive oa(ofs); const A a; oa << a; return 0; }