throwing a boost::shared_ptr< customException>

Question

is there any pitfall of the following;

 if (someCondition)
   throw boost::shared_ptr<SomeException>( new SomeException( "foo!" ) );

 ...

 catch( const boost::shared_ptr<SomeException>& expRef )
 {
 }

Answer 1

Yes, there is a pitfall. You won't be able to catch based on base classes:

void f()
{
  throw std::runtime_error("look here");
}
void g()
{
  throw boost::shared_ptr<std::runtime_error>("look here");
}

int main()
{
  try
  {
    f();
  }
  catch ( std::exception const& e) {}

  try { g(); }
  catch ( boost::shared_ptr<std::exception> const& e) {} // no work
}

You could of course make it throw on base, but then you can't catch the derived.

So yeah...don't do it.