Re: [Boost-users] [Boost.Serialization] Derived class de-serializationproblem due to MSVC linker

From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-07-10 12:43:17

[Boost.Serialization] Derived class de-serialization problem due to MSVC 
linkerThe problem is this: When I de-serialize a DerivedObject to a 
BaseObject-pointer
(so that only the header of the BaseObject class is included) the linker 
seems
to throw away the information from the explicit template instantiation of 
the
DerivedObject in some cases. When I combine the explicit template 
instantiation
and definition of serialize into one object for BaseObject and all 
DerivedObject,
the linker keeps the registration information of the derived class (because 
MSVC
uses object-level linking).

Due to the coding standards in our institution this
method was disapproved.

Is there a way to make the linker keep the registration information of
DerivedObject?

***

Generally, the linker will discard any code not explicitly referred to. 
This
is addressed by EXPORT which is non-standard and compiler dependent
and "too clever".  So it's not 100% relieable in all cases.

My personal recomendation would be to create a small module which
just refers to all your derived classes and link that in.  But that
would likely violate your organizations coding standards.

I don't see a way to do this without changing you're organizations coding 
standards.

Robert Ramey