https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=113099
--- Comment #11 from andysem at mail dot ru --- > I'm not sure what you mean by "the compiler is free to generate code that > takes it into account." Takes what into account? What problem does that > freedom cause? I mean the compiler could move (some part of) dynamic_cast to precede the check for the standard facet. I.e. of something like this: template< typename _Facet > const _Facet* __try_use_facet(locale const& loc) { const size_t __i = _Facet::id._M_id(); const locale::facet** __facets = __loc._M_impl->_M_facets; const _Facet* __dyn_facet = __dynamic_cast< const _Facet* >(__facets[__i]); // checks for every standard facet type if (__is_same(_Facet, ...)) return static_cast<const _Facet*>(__facets[__i]); return __dyn_facet; } >> I think, a failing dynamic_cast would not be useful as this would make >> std::use_facet unusable with -fno-rtti. > > I don't see a problem with that. If you want to use a polymorphic container > of facets, you need RTTI. The standard facets will work, but it doesn't seem > reasonable to expect it to work for program-defined facets. AFAIK, the standard or libstdc++ docs do not require RTTI for std::locale to function. In fact, the facet::id stuff seems to exist precisely to make RTTI optional in the implementations. Besides, the code, as it was written, seems to intend to work without RTTI by switching to static_cast instead of dynamic_cast. So making std::use_facet always fail would go against that intention. > And a std::use_facet that fails seems better than one that segfaults, doesn't > it? No, not really. It still means users cannot use locale without RTTI, just for a different reason. > And I guess if the user's derived facet uses virtual inheritance from > std::locale::facet, then this could break with the > static_cast<std::ctype<char>*> in libstdc++ today. Hmm. std::ctype non-virtually derives from std::locale::facet, so no, that would not break. What wouldn't work is this: class my_facet : virtual public std::ctype< char > {}; my_facet const& fac = std::use_facet< my_facet >(loc); But this would fail in compile time with no RTTI, which *is* better than a segfault or an exception in runtime.