This is an unofficial snapshot of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21 Core Issues List revision 120c. See http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ for the official list.

2026-09-22

3025. Deallocation functions returning void

Subclause 6.8.6.5.3 [basic.stc.dynamic.deallocation] paragraph 3 specifies:

Each deallocation function shall return void. ...

It has caused confusion in the marketplace whether that is a syntactic constraint on the return type of a deallocation function, or a semantic constraint on the behavior (e.g. a deallocation cannot perform a longjmp).

Proposed resolution (approved by CWG 2026-09-22):

Change in 6.8.6.5.3 [basic.stc.dynamic.deallocation] paragraph 3 as follows:

Each A deallocation function shall have a declared return type void. ...