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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-22T21:23:09+00:00

namespace X { void* operator new (size_t); } gives error message as: error: ‘void*

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namespace X
{
  void* operator new (size_t);
}

gives error message as:

error: ‘void* X::operator new(size_t)’ may not be declared within a namespace

Is it a gcc compiler bug ? In older gcc version it seems to be working.
Any idea, why it’s not allowed ?

Use case:
I wanted to allow only custom operator new/delete for the classes and wanted to disallow global new/operator. Instead of linker error, it was easy to catch compiler error; so I coded:

namespace X {
  void* operator new (size_t);
}
using namespace X;

This worked for older version of gcc but not for the new one.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    @Sharptooth’s Answer makes more sense if we consider this section from the standard:

    3.7.3.1 Allocation functions [basic.stc.dynamic.allocation]

    [..] An allocation function shall be a class member function or a global function; a program is ill-formed if an allocation function is declared in a namespace scope other than global scope or declared static in global scope. [..]

    The above limitation is probably imposed for the very reason that @sharptooth’s answer points out.

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