Is this a false positive?

[Bart Vandewoestyne]

My colleagues and me are discussing a cppcheck error for some code for which I created the following trimmed down example:

#include <memory>

class Timer {};

class Controller {
public:
  explicit Controller(std::unique_ptr<Timer> timer)
      : mpTimer(std::move(timer)) {}

private:
  std::unique_ptr<Timer> mpTimer;
};

class Test {
protected:
  void createController() {
    std::unique_ptr<Timer> upTimer = std::make_unique<Timer>();
    pTimer = upTimer.get();

    upController = std::make_unique<Controller>(std::move(upTimer));
  }

protected:
  std::unique_ptr<Controller> upController;
  Timer *pTimer;
};

int main() {}

The cppcheck error that we get (using cppcheck 2.16.0) is:

bvandewoestyne@BVANDEW-70TZQ73:~/Downloads/cppcheck-2.16.0$ ./cppcheck ../test.cpp 
Checking ../test.cpp ...
../test.cpp:18:5: error: Non-local variable 'pTimer' will use pointer to local variable 'upTimer'. [danglingLifetime]
    pTimer = upTimer.get();
    ^
../test.cpp:18:25: note: Raw pointer to smart pointer created here.
    pTimer = upTimer.get();
                        ^
../test.cpp:17:28: note: Variable created here.
    std::unique_ptr<Timer> upTimer = std::make_unique<Timer>();
                           ^
../test.cpp:18:5: note: Non-local variable 'pTimer' will use pointer to local variable 'upTimer'.
    pTimer = upTimer.get();
    ^

We are unsure whether this is actually a false positive or not. Our reasoning is as follows:

The lifetime for pTimer (the raw pointer to the object managed by upTimer) is indeed longer than for upTimer (which gets destroyed when createController ends and this indeed could be a problem), but before that destruction happens, upTimer is already moved into the object managed by upController which has a larger lifetime than pTimer. Had that std::move not happened, then I agree that this is a real error. But isn't this a false positive knowing that the std::move happened?

[CHR]

Looks like a variation of this issue: https://trac.cppcheck.net/ticket/12794