[halayli]

like the other comment said, std::unique_ptr is not ref counted. Ref counting is one of the ways to implement garbage collection but it is not garbage collection by itself. C++ does not have garbage collection.

[pebal]

C++ does not have garbage collection in the standard library, just as shared_ptr was not part of the standard library in the past. You can currently have optional garbage collection in C++: https://github.com/pebal/sgcl

[jb1991]

C++ can do pretty much anything, but that doesn't mean that it’s typical to do so. In practice, you will never see a garbage collector in C++.

[pebal]

You may be surprised. Herb Sutter wants to add optional GC to C++ 'syntax 2'.

[jb1991]

Sitter’s idea in that is a different matter entirely.