shared_ptr throwing assert when it goes out of scope

Question

Ok, I've been trying to wrap my head around this for some time now , but I dont get it can someone please tell me why case#1 throws an assert (BLOCK TYPE IS INVALID)?

case #1

mehodName()
{
    // Get all dependents for this resource
    boost::shared_ptr<std::set<std::string>> dependents = deactivatedResource->getDependendents();
    // Do some stuff 
} // Assertion thrown here (heap gets corrupted)

Here's the getDependents in this case :

boost::shared_ptr<std::set<std::string>> Resource::getDependendents()
{
    return boost::shared_ptr<std::set<std::string>>(&dependents);
}

case #2

mehodName()
{
// Get all dependents for this resource
std::set<std::string>* dependents = deactivatedResource->getDependendents();
} // No problem !! (but an obvious leak , if I try to use delete ,then the same assertion as in case 1)

Here's the getDependents in this case :

   std::set<std::string>* Resource::getDependendents()
   {
    return &dependents;
   }

For both cases :

std::set<std::string> dependents;

Answer 1

1. is it dependents an attribute of Resource?, it seems that boost is trying to deallocate non-dynamic memory when the reference gets to zero. You could return a reference in that case.
2. is it dependents a local variable? if so you should use dynamic memory.

Update:

Then in your case it doesn't make sense returning a shared pointer as the object dependents has not been created dynamically.

In any case, if you would need to create it dynamically, you should do the following:

In the class declaration:

boost::shared_ptr<std::set<std::string> > dependents;

In the constructor:

Constructor (...) : dependents (new std::set<std::string> ()) { ... }

But in your case there is no need to use dynamic memory. I would recommend you to return a reference rather than a pointer.