Ben Hutchings wrote:

Peter Dimov wrote:

...

Victor A. Wagner Jr. wrote:

...

OK, blunt point. the standard is (insert favorite expletive or "in error") if it allows use of std::runtime_error to terminate the program due to low memory situations (run out of memory (due to copying) during stack unwinding).

It does not allow such a thing.

This is an known and unresolved issue: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/lwg-active.html#254

"The copy constructors of all exception-derived classes already have a no throw spec. Reference 18.6.1, 19.1 and 15.4/13."

From the above link.