open() bug? or feature?

[Martin v. Loewis]

"Adonis" <deltapigz at telocity.com> writes:

> i did this:
> >>> x = open('/tmp/test1.txt', 'w').write('hi!')
> >>> x
> 
> the data is written, and the file is closed? 

Is that a question, or a statement of fact?

Yes, the data is written, and the file is closed.

> is this a feature?

That the data is written is a feature. That x becomes None is also a
feature - x is the result of the write call, and write returns None.

That the file is closed is an implementation detail guaranteed for
CPython: since nobody references the file anymore, it is closed, and
the file object is released.

(notice that x does *not* reference the file object, as x gets the
result of the write call, not the result of the open call).

HTH,
Martin