Question

Is it compulsory to have a private destructor for a singleton class.

Answer 1

This might not be what you are looking for.. But for reference, I use it as follows:

// .h
class Foo {
public:
    static Foo* getInstance();
    static void destroy();
private:
    Foo();
    ~Foo();

    static Foo* myInstance;
};

// .cpp
Foo* Foo::myInstance = NULL;

Foo* Foo::getInstance(){
    if (!myInstance){
        myInstance = new Foo();
    }
    return myInstance;
}
void Foo::destroy(){
    delete myInstance;
    myInstance = NULL;
}

Then at the end of my program, I call destroy on the object. As Péter points out the system will reclaim the memory when your program ends, so there is no real reason. The reason I use a destroy is when Ogre complained that I hadn’t released all the memory I allocated. After that I just use it as “good manner”, since I like cleaning up after myself.