I was trying out the new Boost 1.56 beta and some of my serialization code fails to compile (they work fine with previous versions of Boost e.g. Boost 1.55).

I am trying to do serialization of Eigen (http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/) matrices with following code:

#include <Eigen/Core>

#include <fstream>

#include <boost/serialization/vector.hpp>

#include <boost/archive/binary_oarchive.hpp>

#include <boost/archive/binary_iarchive.hpp>

//Boost Serialization of Eigen Matrix

namespace boost {

  template<class Archive, typename _Scalar, int _Rows, int _Cols, int _Options, int _MaxRows, int _MaxCols>

  inline void serialize(Archive & ar,

    Eigen::Matrix<_Scalar, _Rows, _Cols, _Options, _MaxRows, _MaxCols>& t,

    const unsigned int file_version) {

    size_t rows = t.rows(), cols = t.cols();

    ar & rows;

    ar & cols;

    if (rows * cols != t.size())

      t.resize(rows, cols);

    ar & boost::serialization::make_array(t.data(), t.size());

  }

}

//Simple helper for serialization to a file

template <typename T>

bool serialize(const T& data, const std::string& filename) {

  std::ofstream ofs(filename.c_str(), std::ios::out | std::ios::binary);

  if (!ofs.is_open())

    return false;

  { // use scope to ensure archive goes out of scope before stream

    boost::archive::binary_oarchive oa(ofs);

    oa << data;

  }

  ofs.close();

  return true;

}

//Simple helper for de-serialization from a file

template <typename T>

bool deSerialize(T& data, const std::string& filename) {

  std::ifstream ifs(filename.c_str(), std::ios::in | std::ios::binary);

  if (!ifs.is_open())

    return false;

  { // use scope to ensure archive goes out of scope before stream

    boost::archive::binary_iarchive ia(ifs);

    ia >> data;

  }

  ifs.close();

  return true;

}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {

  typedef Eigen::Vector3d VectorType;

  VectorType* vec = new VectorType(1, 2, 3);

  serialize(vec, "v4d.dat");

  std::cout << "v4d =\n" << *vec << std::endl;

  VectorType* vec_in;

  deSerialize(vec_in, "v4d.dat");

  std::cout << "v4d_in =\n" << *vec_in << std::endl;

  return 0;

}

The error in Visual studio 2013 says:

boost/archive/detail/iserializer.hpp(237): error C2665: 'Eigen::PlainObjectBase<Eigen::Matrix<double,3,1,0,3,1>>::operator delete' : none of the 3 overloads could convert all the argument types

2>          c:\users\abhijit\codes\installs\eigen\eigen-install\include\eigen3\eigen\src/Core/PlainObjectBase.h(132): could be 'void Eigen::PlainObjectBase<Eigen::Matrix<double,3,1,0,3,1>>::operator delete(void *,const std::nothrow_t &) throw()'

2>          c:\users\abhijit\codes\installs\eigen\eigen-install\include\eigen3\eigen\src/Core/PlainObjectBase.h(132): or       'void Eigen::PlainObjectBase<Eigen::Matrix<double,3,1,0,3,1>>::operator delete(void *,void *) throw()'

2>          while trying to match the argument list '(VectorType *, size_t)'

2>          C:\Boost\boost-1_56_0_b1\boost/archive/detail/iserializer.hpp(224) : while compiling class template member function 'void boost::archive::detail::heap_allocation<T>::has_new_operator::invoke_delete(T *)'

There is also the following note, but I cannot seem to understand this.

// if compilation fails here, the likely cause that the class

// T has a class specific new operator but no class specific

// delete operator which matches the following signature.  Fix

// your program to have this.  Note that adding operator delete

// with only one parameter doesn't seem correct to me since 

// the standard(3.7.4.2) says "

// "If a class T has a member deallocation function named

// 'operator delete' with exactly one parameter, then that function 

// is a usual (non-placement) deallocation function" which I take

// to mean that it will call the destructor of type T which we don't

// want to do here.

I want to understand this issue because this breaks a lot of existing code.