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I figured an explicit instantiation request would automatically instantiate all base class members also, but I get a linker error: unresolved external symbol "public: void Base<int>::foo(int)" when building this code using Visual Studio 2008 or 2010. Note that adding a call to foo() inside bar() forces the compiler to instantiate Base<int>::bar() and the build succeeds, so it appears that the compiler has all the necessary information to instantiate foo() . Obviously, explicitly instantiating Base<int> in source.cpp allows the build to succeed, but it seems silly to need to explicitly instantiate any dependent base classes whenever explicitly instantiating a derived class. Is this normal? I couldn't find what the standard says regarding this issue. header.h template<typename T> class Base { public: void foo(); }; template<typename T> class Derived : public Base<T> { public: void bar(); }; source.cpp #include "header.h" template<typename T> void Base<T>::foo() { } template<typename T> void Derived<T>::bar() { // this->foo(); // adding this forces instantiation of foo()??? } template class Derived<int>; main.cpp #include "header.h" int main() { Derived<int> d; d.foo(); // Linker Error: unresolved external symbol "public: void Base<int>::foo(int)" } Edit: It looks like the Standard says only members of a class get instantiated by an explicit class instantiation, so the linker error is justified in my example. Note that a class is defined by class-head { member-specification } and "The member-specification in a class definition declares the full set of members of

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