This is an unofficial snapshot of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21 Core Issues List revision 114a. See http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ for the official list.

2024-04-18

1840. Non-deleted explicit specialization of deleted function template

The resolution of issue 941 permits a non-deleted explicit specialization of a deleted function template. For example:

  template<typename T> void f() = delete;
  decltype(f<int>()) *p;
  template<> void f<int>();

However, the existing normative wording is not adequate to handle this usage. For one thing, =delete is formally, at least, a function definition, and an implementation is not permitted to instantiate a function definition unless it is used; presumably, then, an implementation could not reject the decltype above as a reference to a deleted specialization. Furthermore, there should be a requirement that a non-deleted explicit specialization of a deleted function template must precede any reference to that specialization. (I.e., the example should be ill-formed as written but well-formed if the last two lines were interchanged.)