C++ allows us to declare various forms of non-local objects: they usually live throughout the execution of the whole program. In this article, we’ll look at global variables, dynamic, and thread-local objects. We’ll also consider new features for safe initialization C++20.

Storage duration and Non-local Objects in C++

by Bartlomiej Filipek

From the article:

To start, we need to understand two key properties of an object in C++: storage and linkage. Let’s begin with the definition of storage, from [basic.stc#general]:

"The storage duration is the property of an object that defines the minimum potential lifetime of the storage containing the object. The storage duration is determined by the construct used to create the object."

An object in C++ has one of the following storage duration options: