How do I prevent boost::serialize from treating a pointer as an object and serializing the object. I have written the specialization of save/load for the object pointer. I get the following errors when I attempt to compile the program below... boost/serialization/access.hpp: In static member function 'static void boost::serialization::access::serialize(Archive&, T&, unsigned int) [with Archive = boost::archive::binary_oarchive, T = X]': boost/serialization/serialization.hpp:81: instantiated from 'void boost::serialization::serialize(Archive&, T&, unsigned int) [with Archive = boost::archive::binary_oarchive, T = X]' boost/serialization/serialization.hpp:140: instantiated from 'void boost::serialization::serialize_adl(Archive&, T&, unsigned int) [with Archive = boost::archive::binary_oarchive, T = X]' boost/archive/detail/oserializer.hpp:151: instantiated from 'void boost::archive::detail::oserializer::save_object_data(boost::archive::detail::basic_oarchive&, const void*) const [with Archive = boost::archive::binary_oarchive, T = X]' s3.cpp:53: instantiated from here boost/serialization/access.hpp:109: error: 'class X' has no member named 'serialize' ============================================================================================== #include <fstream> #include <sstream> #include <cstddef> #include #include #include "boost/serialization/split_free.hpp" using namespace std; class X { X(const X& other); X& operator=(const X& other); public : static X* get(int id); X() : id(0) {} int id; }; // Non-intrusive serialization (pretend I am not able to modify class X) // I was hoping serialization would use this specialization // archive X by id template<class Archive> void save(Archive& ar, X*& x, unsigned int version) { int id = x->id; ar & id; } // load X by lookup template void load(Archive& ar, X*& x, unsigned int version) { int id; ar & id; x = X::get(id); } template inline void serialize(Archive& ar, X*& t, const unsigned int version) { split_free(ar, t, version); } int main() { X x; std::ofstream ofs("junk"); boost::archive::binary_oarchive oa(ofs); oa & x; ofs.close(); return 0; }