Getting a boost::shared_ptr for this

You can derive from enable_shared_from_this and then you can use “shared_from_this()” instead of “this” to spawn a shared pointer to your own self object.

Example in the link:

#include <boost/enable_shared_from_this.hpp>

class Y: public boost::enable_shared_from_this<Y>
{
public:

    shared_ptr<Y> f()
    {
        return shared_from_this();
    }
}

int main()
{
    shared_ptr<Y> p(new Y);
    shared_ptr<Y> q = p->f();
    assert(p == q);
    assert(!(p < q || q < p)); // p and q must share ownership
}

It’s a good idea when spawning threads from a member function to boost::bind to a shared_from_this() instead of this. It will ensure that the object is not released.