I get it. I haven't read Berserker's tests carefully (sorry), and our tests do indeed not cover this case. Either ~enable_shared_from_this2 should be made virtual and (T*)0 be made a dynamic_cast<T*>(this) as in the original, or shared_from_this should be a free function, as you suggest. (How about 'shared_from_raw' as a name for the free function?)
Thanks for yours replies, I hope that you'll find the time to have a look at my test :) Peter did you remember the problem related to boost::python I'm talking about? Here is the link of your reply http://lists.boost.org/boost-users/2008/08/38864.php I'm experiencing that problem and the only way I can solve it is using the patch in my first message. I'll "suggest" two new methods in enable_shared_from_this2 too: template <typename I> inline shared_ptr<I> shared_from_this() { return boost::dynamic_pointer_cast<I>(shared_from_this()); } template <typename I> inline shared_ptr<I const> shared_from_this() const { return boost::dynamic_pointer_cast<I const>(shared_from_this()); } This is for sure nothing special, but I think it's very useful in case of overriding from base classes which inherit from enable_shared_from_this2, for example: class A : public enable_shared_from_this2<A> { }; class B : public A { void foo1() { // short version :) shared_ptr<B> me = shared_from_this<B>(); } void foo2() { // verbose version :( shared_ptr<B> me = boost::dynamic_pointer_cast<B>(shared_from_this()); } };