Goran Pusic wrote:

Hi all!

I am trying to use boost smart pointers for some multithreaded work in the following way:

1. I use shared_ptr to wrap stuff in thread 1 2. I create weak_ptr-s in thread 1 and pass them to thread 2 3. in thread 2, I lock my weak_ptr-s and use stuff I get from there 4. in thread 1 I may destroy my shared_ptr 5. next time I want to lock my weak_ptr, I get NULL and can't use stuff

Basically, my idea is to use weak_ptr as sort of transport mechanism between threads, but with "stuff destroyed detection".

I did some tryouts and this seems to be OK. However, I'd like to get some more authorative advice :-)) Can I do that?

Yes, should be able to do this. You have a potential visibility problem in:

2. I create weak_ptr-s in thread 1 and pass them to thread 2

but it's not shared_ptr or weak_ptr specific. The mechanism that you use for passing needs to provide the necessary visibility guarantees (so that thread 2 can see the stuff that thread 1 initialized.)