RAII vs. exceptions

Question

The more we use RAII in C++, the more we find ourselves with destructors that do non-trivial deallocation. Now, deallocation (finalization, however you want to call it) can fail

Answer 1

You SHOULD NOT throw an exception out of a destructor.

Note: Updated to refeclt changes in the standard:

In C++03
If an exception is already propagating then the application will terminate.

In C++11
If the destructor is noexcept (the default) then the application will terminate.

The Following is based on C++11

If an exception escapes a noexcept function it is implementation defined if the stack is even unwound.

The Following is based on C++03

By terminate I mean stop immediately. Stack unwinding stops. No more destructors are called. All bad stuff. See the discussion here.

throwing exceptions out of a destructor

I don't follow (as in disagree with) your logic that this causes the destructor to get more complicated.
With the correct usage of smart pointers this actually makes the destructor simpler as everything now becomes automatic. Each class tides up its own little piece of the puzzle. No brain surgery or rocket science here. Another Big win for RAII.

As for the possibility of std::uncaught_exception() I point you at Herb Sutters article about why it does not work