I was wondering if anybody can point to a post, pdf, or excerpt of a book containing the rules for C++ variable life-times and best practices for passing and returning function parameters. Things like when to pass by value and by reference, how to share ownership, avoid unnecessary copies, etc. This is not for a particular problem of mine, I've been programming in C++ for long enough to know the rules by instinct, but it is something that a lot of newcomers to the language stumble with, and I would be glad to point them to such a thing.