1 files changed, 29 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/c++/src/H5RefCounter.h b/c++/src/H5RefCounter.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dec1b3c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/c++/src/H5RefCounter.h
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+#ifndef _H5RefCounter_H
+#define _H5RefCounter_H
+
+#ifndef H5_NO_NAMESPACE
+namespace H5 {
+#endif
+
+class RefCounter {
+   public:
+	// Creates a reference counter to be used by an HDF5 object
+	RefCounter();
+
+        int getCounter () const;
+        void increment();
+        void decrement();
+
+	// this bool function is used to determine whether to close an
+	// HDF5 object when there are no more reference to that object
+	bool noReference();
+
+	~RefCounter();
+
+   private:
+	int counter; // keeps track of number of copies of an object
+};
+#ifndef H5_NO_NAMESPACE
+}
+#endif
+#endif