The parent is right about the copy elision part (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_value_optimization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_value_optimization).

The parent is right about the copy elision part (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_value_optimization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_value_optimization). GCC definitely performs this and I'm sure that it's true of other widely used C++ compilers. I also don't know what yosefk means when he says that smart pointers rely on defective meta-programming techniques. The implementation of Boost's smart_ptr doesn't seem too esoteric to me.