Is it possible to generate an exception inside a destructor and how would it affect the program's operation?

Generating an exception inside a destructor in C++ is not recommended. If an exception is thrown from a destructor during the handling of another exception (for example, when exiting a try block), it will lead to a call to std::terminate and terminate the program.

This is because it is unsafe to throw new exceptions during exception unwinding — it creates a double exception situation.

If you need to signal an error in a destructor, it is better to use other mechanisms, such as logging or returning a status through separate methods, but not throwing exceptions directly.

Example of bad practice:

struct A {
    ~A() {
        throw std::runtime_error("Error in destructor"); // dangerous!
    }
};

Such code can lead to program crash.