Question

I have compiled this code with vs2011. It prints first constructor then copy constructor.
But if I change the function to return a instead of ap, it will move the object. Is this a bug or why does it behave like this? Is *ap not a rvalue?

struct A
{
  A() { cout << "constructor" << endl;}
  A(const A&) { cout << "copy constructor " << endl;}
  void operator=(const A&) { cout << "assignment operator" << endl; }
  A( A&&) { cout << "move copy constructor" << endl;}
  void operator=(A&&) { cout << "move assignment operator" << endl;}
};

A func() { A a; A *ap = &a; return *ap; }

int main()
{
    A a = func();
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

*ap is an lvalue (§ 5.3.1.1, n3290) which is in general not safe for the move to happen automatically. The local variable return a; is a different case. There’s no requirement for the compiler to prove that in this specific instance it would be safe. This is another good reason for not using pointers in cases where you don’t really want pointer semantics.

Changing it to:

return std::move(*ap);

will cause it to be explicitly moved however.