On 8 March 2012 01:44, Timothy Madden wrote: > > What does g++ do with this template ? > Does it really compile any templates in each and every .cc file that they > are used in ? Yes, as it says at the same page (http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Vague-Linkage.html) templates also have vague linkage. If you follow the "Where's the template?" link there's a whole page on the topic: http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Template-Instantiation.html (ignore the paragraph about "a future version of G++") You can use an explicit instantiation declaration (i.e. "extern template") to suppress the implicit instantiation in every file that uses the template: extern template void draw_unit_vector<int>(); If you do that then you must ensure that an explicit instantiation definition appears in exactly one object file: template void draw_unit_vector<int>();
