C++ RAII not working?

Question

I'm just getting started with RAII in C++ and set up a little test case. Either my code is deeply confused, or RAII is not working! (I guess it is the former).

If I run:

#include <exception>
#include <iostream>
class A {
public:
    A(int i) { i_ = i; std::cout << "A " << i_ << " constructed" << std::endl; }
    ~A() { std::cout << "A " << i_ << " destructed" << std::endl; }
private:
    int i_;
};

int main(void) {
    A a1(1);
    A a2(2);
    throw std::exception();
    return 0;
}

with the exception commented out I get:

A 1 constructed
A 2 constructed
A 2 destructed
A 1 destructed

as expected, but with the exception I get:

A 1 constructed
A 2 constructed
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::exception'
  what():  std::exception
Aborted

so my objects aren't destructed even though they are going out of scope. Is this not the whole basis for RAII.

Pointers and corrections much appreciated!

Answer 1

You don't have a handler for your exception. When this happens the standard says that std::terminate is called, which in turn calls abort. See section 14.7 in The C++ Programming Language, 3rd edition.