[Python-Dev] Destructors and Closing of File Objects

Nikolaus Rath Nikolaus at rath.org
Sat Apr 27 04:39:46 CEST 2013


Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> writes:
> On Monday, April 15, 2013, Nikolaus Rath wrote:
>> Brian Curtin <brian at python.org <javascript:;>> writes:
>> > On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 12:04 AM, Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus at rath.org<javascript:;>>
>> wrote:
>> >> [ Note: I already asked this on
>> >> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15917502 but didn't get any
>> >> satisfactory answers]
>> >
>> > Sorry, but that's not a reason to repost your question to this list.
>> > If you have to ask somewhere else, it would be python-list, aka,
>> > comp.lang.python.
>>
>> I figured it belonged here because the question is really about the
>> internal implementation of file objects, which to me didn't seem like a
>> question about using Python. But I'll give it a few days and send
>> another mail there if still haven't found the answer by then.
>
> You got your answer 16 hours ago on S.O.

I guess you are referring to http://stackoverflow.com/a/15968516/293003
from Armin Ringo?

,----
| On Windows, NamedTemporaryFile uses a Windows-specific extension
| (os.O_TEMPORARY) to ensure that the file is deleted when it is closed.
| This probably also works if the process is killed in any way. However
| there is no obvious equivalent on POSIX, most likely because on POSIX
| you can simply delete files that are still in use; it only deletes the
| name, and the file's content is only removed after it is closed (in any
| way). But indeed assuming that we want the file name to persist until
| the file is closed, like with NamedTemporaryFile, then we need "magic".
| 
| We cannot use the same magic as for flushing buffered files. What occurs
| there is that the C library handles it (in Python 2): the files are FILE
| objects in C, and the C guarantees that they are flushed on normal
| program exit (but not if the process is killed). In the case of Python
| 3, there is custom C code to achieve the same effect. But it's specific
| to this use case, not anything directly reusable.
[...]
`----

It's indeed very informative, but it doesn't fully address the question
because of the _pyio module which certainly can't use any custom C code.
Does that mean that when I'm using x = _pyio.BufferedWriter(), I could loose
data in the write buffer when the interpreter exits without me calling
x.close(), but when using x = io.BufferedWriter(), the buffer is
guaranteed to get flushed?

(Note: this isn't a complaint, just curiosity about the Python
internals).


Best,

   -Nikolaus

-- 
 »Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a Banana.«

  PGP fingerprint: 5B93 61F8 4EA2 E279 ABF6  02CF A9AD B7F8 AE4E 425C



More information about the Python-Dev mailing list