Proposed resolution (approved by CWG telecon 2022-09-09):

Change in 14.3 [except.ctor] paragraph 3 as follows:

If the initialization or destruction of an object other than by delegating constructor is terminated by an exception, the destructor is invoked for each of the object's direct subobjects and, for a complete object, virtual base class subobjects that were known to be initialized by the object's initialization and , whose initialization has completed (9.4 [dcl.init]) and whose destructor has not yet begun execution, except that in the case of destruction, the variant members of a union-like class are not destroyed. [Note: If such an object has a reference member that extends the lifetime of a temporary object, this ends the lifetime of the reference member, so the lifetime of the temporary object is effectively not extended. —end note] A subobject is known to be initialized if its initialization is specified

• in 11.9.3 [class.base.init] for initialization by constructor,
• in 11.4.5.3 [class.copy.ctor] for initialization by defaulted copy/move constructor,
• in 11.9.4 [class.inhctor.init] for initialization by inherited constructor,
• in 9.4.2 [dcl.init.aggr] for aggregate initialization,
• in 7.5.6.3 [expr.prim.lambda.capture] for the initialization of the closure object when evaluating a lambda-expression,
• in 9.4.1 [dcl.init.general] for default-initialization, value-initialization, or direct-initialization of an array.

[Note: This includes virtual base class subobjects if the initialization is for a complete object, and can include variant members that were nominated explicitly by a mem-initializer or designated-initializer-clause or that have a default member initializer. —end note]

If the destructor of an object is terminated by an exception, each destructor invocation that would be performed after executing the body of the destructor (11.4.7 [class.dtor]) and that has not yet begun execution is performed. [Note: This includes virtual base class subobjects if the destructor was invoked for a complete object. —end note]

The subobjects are destroyed in the reverse order of the completion of their construction. Such destruction is sequenced before entering a handler of the function-try-block of the constructor or destructor, if any.

Additional notes (August, 2022):

The proposed resolution above does not handle the situation where the initialization of a closure object is terminated by an exception during the evaluation of a lambda expression. It also does not handle 11.4.5.3 [class.copy.ctor] bullet 14.1 (array copies in defaulted constructors).

Proposed resolution (CWG telecon 2022-08-12) [SUPERSEDED]:

Change in 14.3 [except.ctor] paragraph 3 as follows:

If the initialization or destruction of an object other than by delegating constructor is terminated by an exception, the destructor is invoked for each of the object's direct subobjects and, for a complete object, virtual base class subobjects that were known to be initialized by the object's initialization and , whose initialization has completed (9.4 [dcl.init]) and whose destructor has not yet begun execution, except that in the case of destruction, the variant members of a union-like class are not destroyed. A subobject is known to be initialized if its initialization is specified in 11.9.3 [class.base.init] for initialization by constructor, in 11.9.4 [class.inhctor.init] for initialization by inherited constructor, in 9.4.2 [dcl.init.aggr] for aggregate initialization, or in 9.4.1 [dcl.init.general] for default-initialization, value-initialization, or direct-initialization of an array. [Note: This includes virtual base class subobjects if the initialization is for a complete object, and can include variant members that were nominated explicitly by a mem-initializer or designated-initializer-clause or that have a default member initializer. -- end note]

If the destructor of an object is terminated by an exception, each destructor invocation that would be performed after executing the body of the destructor (11.4.7 [class.dtor]) and that has not yet begun execution is performed. [Note: This includes virtual base class subobjects if the destructor was invoked for a complete object. -- end note ]

Suggested resolution [SUPERSEDED]:

Change in 14.3 [except.ctor] paragraph 3 as follows:

If the initialization or destruction of an object other than by delegating constructor is terminated by an exception, the destructor is invoked for each of the object's direct subobjects and, for a complete object, virtual base class subobjects that were directly initialized by the object's initialization and , whose initialization has completed (9.4 [dcl.init]) and whose destructor has not yet begun execution, except that in the case of destruction, the variant members of a union-like class are not destroyed. A subobject is directly initialized if its initialization is specified in 11.9.3 [class.base.init] for initialization by constructor, in 11.9.4 [class.inhctor.init] for initialization by inherited constructor, in 9.4.2 [dcl.init.aggr] for aggregate initialization, or in 9.4.1 [dcl.init.general] for default-initialization, value-initialization, or direct-initialization of an array. [Note: This includes virtual base class subobjects if the initialization is for a complete object, and can include variant members that were nominated explicitly by a mem-initializer or designated-initializer-clause or that have a default member initializer. -- end note]

If the destructor of an object is terminated by an exception, each destructor invocation that would be performed after executing the body of the destructor (11.4.7 [class.dtor]) and that has not yet begun execution is performed. [Note: This includes virtual base class subobjects if the destructor was invoked for a complete object. -- end note ]

[Accepted as a DR at the November, 2022 meeting.]

Subclause 14.3 [except.ctor] paragraph 3 specifies:

If the initialization or destruction of an object other than by delegating constructor is terminated by an exception, the destructor is invoked for each of the object's direct subobjects and, for a complete object, virtual base class subobjects, whose initialization has completed (9.4 [dcl.init]) and whose destructor has not yet begun execution, except that in the case of destruction, the variant members of a union-like class are not destroyed.

A traditional implementation has no way of knowing which subobjects are in the state that their initialization has completed but their destructor has not yet begun execution. For example, the program might call the destructor explicitly, and the implementation does not track whether that has happened. The intent here is that it only matters whether the implied destructor call generated implicitly as part of the class object's destructor has begun yet, but it does not say that, and the reference to variant members reinforces the interpretation that the set of subobjects that are destroyed is determined dynamically based on which objects are within their lifetimes. Also, combining construction and destruction rules here confuses the matter further -- in "whose initialization has completed and whose destructor has not yet begun" we care exclusively about the first part in constructors and exclusively about the second part in destructors.

The set of things that we actually want to destroy here is the things that were initialized by the initialization (constructor or aggregate initializer) itself, not the things that have been constructed and not destroyed by evaluations that the initialization happens to perform. For example:

  struct A {
    union { T x; U y; };
    A() { throw "does not destroy x"; }
    A(int) : x() { throw "does destroy x"; }
    A(float) : x() { x.~T(); throw "still destroys x, oops"; }
    A(double) : x() {
      x.~T();
      new(&y) U();
      throw "destroys x, does not destroy y";
    }
  };

and similarly for aggregate initialization:

  struct B {
    union { T x; U y; };
    int a;
  };
  B b = { .x = {}, .a = (b.x.~T(), new (&b.y) U(), throw "destroys x not y")};

Destruction is completely different: we just want to destroy all the things that the destructor was going to destroy anyway and hasn't already started destroying.