"file" does not work with the "with" statement!

[Diez B. Roggisch]

Michele Simionato wrote:

> I have just discovered that the syntax
> 
> with file(name, 'w') as f:
>    do_something(f)
> 
> does not close the file at the end of the with statement! On the
> contrary
> 
> with open(name, 'w') as f:
>    do_something(f)
> 
> works fine. The docs say "When opening a file, it’s preferable to use
> open() instead of invoking this constructor directly." but perhaps
> they should mention why :(

Are you sure? For me on python2.5, it works as advertised:

from __future__ import with_statement

def test(outf):
    with outf:
        outf.write("test\n")
    try:
        outf.write("test\n")
        assert False, "Not closed"
    except ValueError:
        pass

outf = open("/tmp/foo", "w")
test(outf)
outf = file("/tmp/bar", "w")
test(outf)

Which Python do you use?

Diez