Question

The following is a well known implementation of singleton pattern in C++.
However, I’m not entirely sure whether its thread-safe.
Based upon answers to similar question asked here previously, it seems it is thread safe.
Is that so?

//Curiously Recurring Template Pattern    
//Separates a class from its Singleton-ness (almost).    
#include <iostream>  
using namespace std;

template<class T> class Singleton {
  Singleton(const Singleton&);
  Singleton& operator=(const Singleton&);
protected:
  Singleton() {}
  virtual ~Singleton() {}
public:
  static T& instance() {
    static T theInstance;
    return theInstance;
  }
};

// A sample class to be made into a Singleton
class MyClass : public Singleton<MyClass> {
 int x;
protected:
  friend class Singleton<MyClass>;
  MyClass() { x = 0; }
public:
 void setValue(int n) { x = n; }
  int getValue() const { return x; }
};

Answer 1

No, this is not thread safe because the static local is not guarded in any way. By default a static local is not thread safe. This means you could run into the following issues

• Constructor for the singleton runs more than once
• The assignment to the static is not guaranteed to be atomic hence you could see a partial assignment in multi-threaded scenarios
• Probably a few more that I’m missing.

Here is a detailed blog entry by Raymond Chen on why C++ statics are not thread safe by default.

• http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/03/08/85901.aspx