But it's quite unclear what they are currently doing. Literally translating what you are describing: template<char... FILE> struct magic { }; magic<_

But it's quite unclear what they are currently doing. Literally translating what you are describing: template<char... FILE> struct magic { }; magic<__FILE__> m; This does not compile with gcc, and std::source_location fails to work for exactly the same reason. I don't see any additional problems with std::source_location that don't equally apply to __FILE__.