How can one handle a destructor that fails?

A: Write down a message to a log-_le. However do not throw an exception. The C++ rule is that you ought to never throw an exception from a destructor which is being called during the "stack unwinding" procedure of another exception. For instance, if someone says throw Foo(), the stack will be unwound so all of the stack frames among the throw Foo() and the } catch (Foo e) { will get popped. It is called stack unwinding. Throughout stack unwinding, the entire local objects in all those stack frames are destructed. If one of those destructors throws an exception (say it throws a Bar object), the C++ runtime system is in a no-win condition: should it avoid the Bar and end up in the} catch (Foo e) {where it was headed originally? Should it avoid the Foo and look for a } catch (Bare) { handler? There is no good answer: either choice loses information. Thus the C++ language guarantees that it will call terminate() at this point, and terminate() kills the procedure. Bang you''re dead.