When I'm bridge casting an Objective C object do I have to do something special to prevent memory leaks?

Question

I'm trying to pass an object of type id to a NSInvocation object. The compiler suggests I do a bridged cast like so:

[invocation setArgument:(__bridge void *)(argument) atIndex:idx];

Is that OK, and should I do anything else to prevent memory leaks or other problems?

Answer 1

__bridge will allow you (in loose terms) to go back and forth between Objective-C and C without any impact on the memory management of the object.

__bridge_transfer is for transferring an object from C to Objective-C with a change in the object's ownership. It decreases the CF retain count and hands memory management over to ARC, which should be smart enough to subsequently retain the object in the manner necessary.

__bridge_retained is essentially the inverse of __bridge_transfer, it will pass from Objective-C to C and increment the object's retain count in the process. ARC will cease to be interested in the object.