/usr/include/c++/4.2.1/stl_vector.h:767 has a try/catch block. Is that safe?

Yes. The block is attempting to catch std::bad_alloc, but (i) try/catch are ignored in -fno-exceptions; (ii) Gecko overrides ::operator new() (which std::allocator uses) with an implementation that never throws bad_alloc.

Then I can confirm that <vector> is safe for gcc 4.2.1 (on mac, but I don't expect the header to be different on linux). Do we need to look at other gcc versions as well?

I can also confirm the safety of the <vector> header on MSVC 2008.

<vector> changed a fair amount in 4.4. Not sure about 4.5.

I also checked the gcc libstd++ trunk source, and it looks good to me. This <http://gcc.gnu.org/viewcvs/trunk/libstdc%2B%2B-v3/libsupc%2B%2B/exception_defines.h?view=markup> makes me much happier as well. :-)