C++: Best way to destruct static stuff

Question

When I have a class containing static stuff, how can I free the memory at the end of the application the best way?

Foo.h

class GLUtesselator;

class Foo
{
private:
    static GLUtesselator *tess;
public:
    Foo();
    virtual ~Foo();
}

Foo.cpp

#include "Foo.h"

#include <GL/glu.h>

GLUtesselator *Foo::tess = gluNewTess(); // System call

Foo::Foo() {}
Foo::~Foo()
{
     // And of course I don't want to destruct it here,
     // because I'm going to use the tesselator in other instances of Foo
     // Otherwise:
     // gluDeleteTess(tess);
}

Are there better alternatives to making a method to remove static stuff and call it when the app terminates?
Or can I say: "Oh, whatever, the application is terminated. The OS will free the memory..." ?

Thanks

Answer 1

Simple. Don't make the static member a pointer.
Then it will be correctly constructed and destructed.

Foo.h

#include <GL/glu.h>

class Foo
{
    private:
        static GLUtesselator  tess;
    public:
                 Foo();
        virtual ~Foo();
};

Foo.cpp

// 
GLUtesselator  Foo::tess;

If you have to use the gluNewTess() and gluDeleteTess() then you can use a shared pointer. I don't have a compiler so the exact usage may not be absolutely correct. But the shared_ptr does have this ability.

Foo.h

#include <GL/glu.h>

typedef std::shared_ptr<GLUtesselator,void (*)(GLUtesselator*)> AutoGluTess;
class Foo
{
    private:
        static AutoGluTess  tess;
    public:
                 Foo();
        virtual ~Foo();
};

Foo.cpp

// 
AutoGluTess    Foo::tess(gluNewTess(), &gluDeleteTess);

Answer 2

You don't need to destroy it. All operating systems I know will correctly free the memory and release any resources held by the object on application termination (Note: the destructor will not be called automatically, but the resources will be freed).

If you really want to destroy it though, either

1. Don't use a pointer as Martin York describes,
2. Or (if you need a pointer), use an auto_ptr or tr1::unique_ptr so that the pointee is automatically deleted when it goes out of scope (which is at the end of the application for static variables).