XercesDOMParser scoped instantiation causes segfault

Question

I have just come across a strange behavior of the Xerces-C library which I do not understand. The following code, which has already been seen in loads of examples, works for me:

#include <iostream>

#include <xercesc/util/PlatformUtils.hpp>
#include <xercesc/parsers/XercesDOMParser.hpp>

using namespace std;
using namespace xercesc;

int main (int argc, char* argv[])
{
    try {
        XMLPlatformUtils::Initialize ();
        XercesDOMParser* parser = new XercesDOMParser ();
        // here one might want to add some useful operations
        delete parser;
        XMLPlatformUtils::Terminate ();
    }
    catch (...) {
        cout << "caught some exception" << endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

Surely, this code does not do many meaningful things. But it runs and in particular terminates cleanly.

Now, I was trying to avoid the new/delete and switch to a scoped object, like so:

#include <iostream>

#include <xercesc/util/PlatformUtils.hpp>
#include <xercesc/parsers/XercesDOMParser.hpp>

using namespace std;
using namespace xercesc;


int main (int argc, char* argv[])
{
    try {
        XMLPlatformUtils::Initialize ();
        XercesDOMParser parser;
        // here one might want to add some useful operations
        XMLPlatformUtils::Terminate ();
    }
    catch (XMLException& exc) {
        cout << "caught an XMLException" << endl;
    }
    catch (...) {
        cout << "caught an exception" << endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

This or similar code has also been seen many times. However, when I run it, it creates a segfault after (?) XMLPlatformUtils::Terminate() (that's at least, what my debugger is suggesting). Still, I have successfully worked with a parser object created in that way. And if I omit the call to Terminate(), I see my process terminate cleanly.

Does anyone have a clue what I am doing wrong here?

Answer 1

Paul's comment already gave the correct answer and his explanation why does make sense. So for completeness, here is the code that actually works (note the explicitly created inner scope):

#include <iostream>

#include <xercesc/util/PlatformUtils.hpp>
#include <xercesc/parsers/XercesDOMParser.hpp>

using namespace std;
using namespace xercesc;


int main (int argc, char* argv[])
{
    try {
        XMLPlatformUtils::Initialize ();
        {
            XercesDOMParser parser;
            // here one might want to add some useful operations
        }
        XMLPlatformUtils::Terminate ();
    }
    catch (XMLException& exc) {
        cout << "caught an XMLException" << endl;
    }
    catch (...) {
        cout << "caught an exception" << endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

Thank you Paul!