This program allocates memory with new operator.
When stack is out of memory and because i declare a function with
set_new_handler new calls the declared function
"new_exception_handler".

One of the choices to return from the declared function is to free memory by
deallocating memory.

The first problem in the example program that i use here is that in set_new_handler(new_handler p)

p must be type void(*)(void)
that means that p function can't get any arguments.
so i have to use global variables to be visible inside p function.

has anyone any idea how can i make p function to see variables declared in
main??

The second choice to return from the declared function is to free memory by closing an application.
But i have no idea how can i make new_exception_handler function to know
that an application has been closed.

Here is my example code:

# include <cstdlib>

#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::cerr;

#include <exception>
using std::exception;

#include <new>
using std::bad_alloc;
using std::set_new_handler;

# define SIZE 5000
# define ONE_MB 131072 // to a typical 32-bit system sizeof(double) * ONE_MB = 1Mb

//global variables
double *ptr[SIZE];
int i;

void new_exception_handler(void)
{
   static char counter = 0;   
   cerr<< "\n\nSystem out of memory\nDeallocating memory\n";

   if(counter == 2)
      throw bad_alloc();

   for(register int j = 0; j < 5; j++, i--)
      delete[] ptr[i];

   i++;
   counter++;

   system("pause");   
   return;
}

int main(void)
{
   set_new_handler(new_exception_handler);   
   cout << "\nnew_exception_handler set as new allocation failure handler\n";

   cout << "\nTo start memory allocation\n";
   system("pause");

   try
   {
      for(i = 0; i < SIZE; i++)
      {
         cout << "allocation\n";
         ptr[i] = new double[ONE_MB];

         cout << "Allocated 1MB that starts from memory address: " << (void*)ptr[i] << "\n";
      }
   }
   catch(exception &bad)
   {
      cout << "\nmemory error " << bad.what() << "\n";    
   }

   cout << "\n\n\t\tTo start memory deallocation\n";   
   system("pause");

   for(register int i = 0; i < SIZE; i++)
   {
      delete [] ptr[i];   
   }

   cout << "\n\n\t\t Normal main() termination\n\n";   
   system("pause");

   return 0;
}

You are using the same pointer variable "ptr" for all of your allocations.
Each allocation needs a separate variable.
This should be fixed before you work on the other problems.

You will probably have to free the memory in a "catch" statement since
new_exception_handler doesn't allow arguments.
It would be better if the "try" statement were inside the for loop.

Tks for your reply, but:

I use the same ptr just because in this example i just want to get the system
out of memory and make new throw a bad_alloc exception, so i don't care to
have a handler for each allocation...

your idea to put try - catch inside for() works but i want to handle
exceptions outside the main path of the program, with a function which could
be used as a global way of handling this kind of exceptions in my project.

You are deleting the same pointer 5 times with a "for" loop. That is not going
to work. Why are you doing this? It needs to be fixed before you can test the
rest.

The new_exception_handler doesn't allow arguments. You cannot do it the way
you are trying.

You could have a try-catch in a separate function to allocate memory and
handle the error in the same function. You could call the exception handling
function from a "catch" statement and pass it the pointer. Or you could put
the memory allocation pointers in a class variable and get them with a "get"
statement. You need to think of solutions other than new_exception_handler.

Hmm, I don't get it :(