Using unique_ptr to control a file descriptor

Question

In theory, I should be able to use a custom pointer type and deleter in order to have unique_ptr manage an object that is not a pointer. I tried the following c

Answer 1

Can you do something simple like the following?

class unique_fd {
public:
    unique_fd(int fd) : fd_(fd) {}
    unique_fd(unique_fd&& uf) { fd_ = uf.fd_; uf.fd_ = -1; }
    ~unique_fd() { if (fd_ != -1) close(fd_); }

    explicit operator bool() const { return fd_ != -1; }

private:
    int fd_;

    unique_fd(const unique_fd&) = delete;
    unique_fd& operator=(const unique_fd&) = delete;
};

I do not see why you had to use unique_ptr, which is designed to manage pointers.