c++ - Singleton instance declared as static variable of GetInstance method, is it thread-safe?

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Answer 1

In C++11 it is thread safe:

§6.7 [stmt.dcl] p4 If control enters the declaration concurrently while the variable is being initialized, the concurrent execution shall wait for completion of the initialization.

In C++03:

• Under g++ it is thread safe.
  But this is because g++ explicitly adds code to guarantee it.

One problem is that if you have two singletons and they try and use each other during construction and destruction.

Read this: Finding C++ static initialization order problems

A variation on this problem is if the singleton is accessed from the destructor of a global variable. In this situation the singleton has definitely been destroyed, but the get method will still return a reference to the destroyed object.

There are ways around this but they are messy and not worth doing. Just don't access a singleton from the destructor of a global variable.

A Safer definition but ugly:
I am sure you can add some appropriate macros to tidy this up

SomeBaseClass &SomeClass::GetInstance()
{
#ifdef _WIN32 
Start Critical Section Here
#elif  defined(__GNUC__) && (__GNUC__ > 3)
// You are OK
#else
#error Add Critical Section for your platform
#endif

    static SomeClass instance;

#ifdef _WIN32
END Critical Section Here
#endif 

    return instance;
}