Does C++11 change the behavior of explicitly calling std::swap to ensure ADL-located swap's are found, like boost::swap?

I would have had to vote against your proof-of-concept implementation had it been proposed. I fear it would break the following code, which I'm pretty sure I've seen in the wild at least once or twice over the past dozen years.

namespace oops
{

    struct foo
    {
        foo() : i(0) {}
        int i;

        void swap(foo& x) {std::swap(*this, x);}
    };

    void swap(foo& lhs, foo& rhs)
    {
        lhs.swap(rhs);
    }

}

Whether you think the above is good code or bad, it works as the author intends in C++98/03 and so the bar for silently breaking it is pretty high. Telling users that in C++11 they would no longer have to write using std::swap; isn't a sufficiently high benefit to outweigh the disadvantage of silently turning the above code into infinite recursion.

Another way to get out of writing using std::swap; is to use std::iter_swap instead:

template <typename T>
void do_swap(T& lhs, T& rhs)
{
    std::iter_swap(&lhs, &rhs); // internally does what do_swap did above
}

In C++20, this is finally standardized:

std::swap(a, b);

This uses ADL to call the correct overload and imposes the correct requirements to use in SFINAE. The magic is specified in [namespace.std]/7:

Other than in namespace std or in a namespace within namespace std, a program may provide an overload for any library function template designated as a customization point, provided that (a) the overload's declaration depends on at least one user-defined type and (b) the overload meets the standard library requirements for the customization point.174 [ Note: This permits a (qualified or unqualified) call to the customization point to invoke the most appropriate overload for the given arguments. — end note ]

174) Any library customization point must be prepared to work adequately with any user-defined overload that meets the minimum requirements of this document. Therefore an implementation may elect, under the as-if rule ([intro.execution]), to provide any customization point in the form of an instantiated function object ([function.objects]) even though the customization point's specification is in the form of a function template. The template parameters of each such function object and the function parameters and return type of the object's operator() must match those of the corresponding customization point's specification.

(emphasis mine)

And swap is designated as a customization point in [utility.swap]:

template<class T>
  constexpr void swap(T& a, T& b) noexcept(see below);

Remarks: This function is a designated customization point ([namespace.std]) and shall not participate in overload resolution unless is_­move_­constructible_­v<T> is true and is_­move_­assignable_­v<T> is true. The expression inside noexcept is equivalent to:

is_nothrow_move_constructible_v<T> && is_nothrow_move_assignable_v<T>

Requires: Type T shall be Cpp17MoveConstructible (Table 26) and Cpp17MoveAssignable (Table 28).

Effects: Exchanges values stored in two locations.

(emphasis mine)


Here's a proof-of-concept implementation:

#include <utility>

// exposition implementation
namespace std_
{
    namespace detail
    {
        // actual fallback implementation
        template <typename T>
        void swap(T& lhs, T& rhs)
        {
            T temp = std::move(lhs);
            lhs = std::move(rhs);
            rhs = std::move(temp);
        }
    }

    template <typename T>
    void swap(T& lhs, T& rhs)
    {
        using detail::swap; // shadows std_::swap, stops recursion
        swap(lhs, rhs); // unqualified call, allows ADL
    }
}

namespace ns
{
    struct foo
    {
        foo() : i(0) {}
        int i;

    private:
        foo(const foo&); // not defined,
        foo& operator=(const foo&); // non-copyable
    };

    void swap(foo& lhs, foo& rhs)
    {
        std::swap(lhs.i, rhs.i);
    }
}


int main()
{
    int i = 0, j = 0;
    std_::swap(i, j);

    ns::foo a, b;
    std_::swap(a, b);
}