Our goal for the C pmemobj library was to make a fully featured implementation of persistent memory programming model without modifying the compiler. It’s meant for authors of very low-level system software and language creators. It’s not particularly pretty nor easy to use. The amount of macros, as well as the trickery inside them, might ‘amaze’ even the biggest preprocessor fans ;)

The natural next step is to leverage the high-level languages features to create a more friendly, less error prone and generally nicer API.

This tutorial series will introduce you to libpmemobj C++ bindings that leverage meta-programming capabilities of that language. The bindings are implemented as header-only library and can be found in the src/include/libpmemobj directory. All classes/functions are in the pmem::obj namespace.

The overall goal of the libpmemobj for C++ is to focus modifications to volatile programs on data structures and not on the code. In other words, we want you to be able to modify your structs and classes with only slight modifications to your functions.

The tutorial posts will introduce new C++ features one-by-one and as a consequence of that, the first few tutorials will still use C API before the C++ equivalents are introduced.

General knowledge of persistent memory programming model is recommended. Please read the libpmemobj tutorial if you haven’t already.

Note: Currently only C++11 (and newer) version of the language is supported. Older standard (minimum C++03) support is going to be added at a later date.

C++ limitations

• References as members of persistent structures/classes are forbidden.
• Polymorphic persistent classes are forbidden.
• Be mindful about static member variables. Not using them is recommended.

[This entry was edited on 2017-12-11 to reflect the name change from NVML to PMDK.]