added safe_ptr as pointer wrapper to ensure actual method constness [skip ci]

Author: firewave

lib/cppcheck.vcxproj

@@ -156,6 +156,7 @@
     <ClInclude Include="preprocessor.h" />
     <ClInclude Include="programmemory.h" />
     <ClInclude Include="reverseanalyzer.h" />
+    <ClInclude Include="safeptr.h" />
     <ClInclude Include="settings.h" />
     <ClInclude Include="smallvector.h" />
     <ClInclude Include="sourcelocation.h" />

lib/safeptr.h

@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+/* -*- C++ -*-
+ * Cppcheck - A tool for static C/C++ code analysis
+ * Copyright (C) 2007-2025 Cppcheck team.
+ *
+ * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ */
+
+//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+#ifndef safePtrH
+#define safePtrH
+//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+#include "config.h"
+
+// as std::optional behaves similarly so we could use that instead of if we ever move to C++17.
+// it is not a simple drop-in as our "operator bool()" indicates if the pointer is non-null
+// whereas std::optional indicates if a value is set.
+//
+// This is similar to std::experimental::propagate_const
+// see https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/experimental/propagate_const
+template<typename T>
+class safe_ptr
+{
+public:
+    explicit safe_ptr(T* p)
+        : mPtr(p)
+    {}
+
+    T* get() NOEXCEPT {
+        return mPtr;
+    }
+
+    const T* get() const NOEXCEPT {
+        return mPtr;
+    }
+
+    T* operator->() NOEXCEPT {
+        return mPtr;
+    }
+
+    const T* operator->() const NOEXCEPT {
+        return mPtr;
+    }
+
+    T& operator*() NOEXCEPT {
+        return *mPtr;
+    }
+
+    const T& operator*() const NOEXCEPT {
+        return *mPtr;
+    }
+
+    explicit operator bool() const NOEXCEPT {
+        return mPtr != nullptr;
+    }
+
+private:
+    T* mPtr;
+};
+
+#endif // safePtrH

tools/dmake/dmake.cpp

@@ -473,6 +473,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     libfiles_h.emplace("json.h");
     libfiles_h.emplace("matchcompiler.h");
     libfiles_h.emplace("precompiled.h");
+    libfiles_h.emplace("safeptr.h");
     libfiles_h.emplace("smallvector.h");
     libfiles_h.emplace("sourcelocation.h");
     libfiles_h.emplace("tokenrange.h");