possessiveobject

Possessiveobject is a term used in software design to describe an object that has exclusive ownership of another object or resource. The possessor controls the lifetime of the possessed, ensuring that the held resource is created, maintained, and eventually destroyed within the scope of the possessor. The relationship is characterized by ownership semantics rather than mere reference: the possessed object should not be shared concurrently with other owners unless an explicit transfer or sharing mechanism is provided. The term is sometimes stylized as possessiveobject.

In practice, possessive objects implement deterministic resource management. They acquire ownership at construction, enforce invariants during their lifetime, and release the resource when they are destroyed or when ownership is transferred to another possessive object. Transferring ownership is a key operation, allowing the resource to move without duplicating. In languages with manual memory management, this mirrors patterns like unique ownership or RAII; in languages with automatic garbage collection, ownership is often represented by exclusive handles or access control rather than explicit destruction.

Common use cases include managing non-shareable resources such as file handles, sockets, or large buffers where shared ownership would complicate lifecycle management. The pattern helps prevent resource leaks and race conditions by centralizing lifecycle control in a single owner. Adopted wisely, it reduces aliasing and clarifies responsibility; adopted poorly, it can create rigid coupling and hinder flexibility.

Related concepts include ownership models, smart pointers, move semantics, and resource acquisition is initialization (RAII). See also: resource management, unique ownership, and move semantics.