Integrating Boehm Garbage Collector and C Standard Library

To seamlessly integrate Boehm's conservative garbage collector with C standard library collections, there are two primary approaches:

Redefining Operator ::new

This approach involves redefining operator ::new to use Boehm's GC. However, it can conflict with existing C code and may not be portable across different compilers.

Explicit Allocator Argument

Instead of redefining operator ::new, you can use the second template argument of standard library collections to specify a custom allocator. This argument controls how memory for the collection's internal data structures is allocated.

Example with std::vector

The following code demonstrates how to use gc_allocator with std::vector:

#include 
#include 

std::vector> myVector(10); // Allocate vector with GC-specific allocator

std::string Integration

For std::string, you can use GC_malloc_atomic to explicitly allocate the internal character array:

#include 
#include 

std::string myString((char*)GC_malloc_atomic(10), 10); // Allocate string with GC_malloc_atomic

Note:

It's generally not advisable to redefine operator ::new when integrating Boehm GC with g . Instead, prefer using the explicit allocator argument approach for greater portability and compatibility.