[Boost-users] [pool] pool allocator: customizing and memory usage

Hello all, I've been trying to integrate pool allocators for lists within our project, but early test runs turned up quite a surprising number of questions and problems. I've tried to resolve those issues by closely regarding the documentation, debugging, and - finally - checking this list for threads that potentially answer my questions, but unfortunately I found that on this list more questions were raised than answered. Specifically, I noticed that Stephen Cleary doesn't seem to frequent this list, or has stopped doing so some 5 or 6 years ago. Nevertheless maybe there are other people out there who can answer one or more of my questions, so here I go: 1. When using fast_pool_allocator for std::list<> I see no way to influence the blocksize being used for the next allocation. Since our application handles huge lists I cannot have fast_pool_allocator always simply double the next block's size ad infinitum! The pool class does offer methods to inquire and set the next_size property, but unfortunately, the singleton_pool underlying fast_pool_allocator is not accessible through the allocator interface! Is there a recommended way to set or limit next_size for pool allocators? I have found a workaround to achieve this (see below) but am not very comfortable doing it this way. 2. I am under the impression fast_pool_allocator heavily leaks memory! As far as I can tell, it works properly in the beginning, but uses up to 7 times the memory a std::list::malloc_need_resize() method to get more control and info on what was happening internally. So far all the problems I noticed (and more) have been confirmed. I am also quite sure I used all the pool and pool allocator interfaces properly (except maybe purge_memory, as noted above), and yes, I am aware that pool<> does allocate blocks in multiples of a size that is big enough to contain several instances of the object being managed (list nodes in this case). I have considered fixing one or more of the issues above by similarily defining my own pool<> method specializations, but I am very uncomfortable doing so since I don't fully understand the inner workings of the pool classes, and am not very experienced in metaprogramming. At this point I am about to give up. It is a shame however - I notice an increase of allocation/deallocation speed by a factor of 6-8, although in hindsight this might also be in part due to the fact release_memory simply doesn't work... Is there anyone out there using pool_allocator or fast_pool_allocator, and willing to share advice? Cheers, Stefan