What Automatic Resource Management alternatives exist for Scala?

Question

I have seen many examples of ARM (automatic resource management) on the web for Scala. It seems to be a rite-of-passage to write one, though most look pretty much like one a

Answer 1

Another alternative is Choppy's Lazy TryClose monad. It's pretty good with database connections:

val ds = new JdbcDataSource()
val output = for {
  conn  <- TryClose(ds.getConnection())
  ps    <- TryClose(conn.prepareStatement("select * from MyTable"))
  rs    <- TryClose.wrap(ps.executeQuery())
} yield wrap(extractResult(rs))

// Note that Nothing will actually be done until 'resolve' is called
output.resolve match {
    case Success(result) => // Do something
    case Failure(e) =>      // Handle Stuff
}

And with streams:

val output = for {
  outputStream      <- TryClose(new ByteArrayOutputStream())
  gzipOutputStream  <- TryClose(new GZIPOutputStream(outputStream))
  _                 <- TryClose.wrap(gzipOutputStream.write(content))
} yield wrap({gzipOutputStream.flush(); outputStream.toByteArray})

output.resolve.unwrap match {
  case Success(bytes) => // process result
  case Failure(e) => // handle exception
}

More info here: https://github.com/choppythelumberjack/tryclose

Answer 2

How about using Type classes

trait GenericDisposable[-T] {
   def dispose(v:T):Unit
}
...

def using[T,U](r:T)(block:T => U)(implicit disp:GenericDisposable[T]):U = try {
   block(r)
} finally { 
   Option(r).foreach { r => disp.dispose(r) } 
}

Answer 3

Chris Hansen's blog entry 'ARM Blocks in Scala: Revisited' from 3/26/09 talks about about slide 21 of Martin Odersky's FOSDEM presentation. This next block is taken straight from slide 21 (with permission):

def using[T <: { def close() }]
    (resource: T)
    (block: T => Unit) 
{
  try {
    block(resource)
  } finally {
    if (resource != null) resource.close()
  }
}

--end quote--

Then we can call like this:

using(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("file"))) { r =>
  var count = 0
  while (r.readLine != null) count += 1
  println(count)
}

What are the drawbacks of this approach? That pattern would seem to address 95% of where I would need automatic resource management...

Edit: added code snippet

---

Edit2: extending the design pattern - taking inspiration from python with statement and addressing:

• statements to run before the block
• re-throwing exception depending on the managed resource
• handling two resources with one single using statement
• resource-specific handling by providing an implicit conversion and a Managed class

This is with Scala 2.8.

trait Managed[T] {
  def onEnter(): T
  def onExit(t:Throwable = null): Unit
  def attempt(block: => Unit): Unit = {
    try { block } finally {}
  }
}

def using[T <: Any](managed: Managed[T])(block: T => Unit) {
  val resource = managed.onEnter()
  var exception = false
  try { block(resource) } catch  {
    case t:Throwable => exception = true; managed.onExit(t)
  } finally {
    if (!exception) managed.onExit()
  }
}

def using[T <: Any, U <: Any]
    (managed1: Managed[T], managed2: Managed[U])
    (block: T => U => Unit) {
  using[T](managed1) { r =>
    using[U](managed2) { s => block(r)(s) }
  }
}

class ManagedOS(out:OutputStream) extends Managed[OutputStream] {
  def onEnter(): OutputStream = out
  def onExit(t:Throwable = null): Unit = {
    attempt(out.close())
    if (t != null) throw t
  }
}
class ManagedIS(in:InputStream) extends Managed[InputStream] {
  def onEnter(): InputStream = in
  def onExit(t:Throwable = null): Unit = {
    attempt(in.close())
    if (t != null) throw t
  }
}

implicit def os2managed(out:OutputStream): Managed[OutputStream] = {
  return new ManagedOS(out)
}
implicit def is2managed(in:InputStream): Managed[InputStream] = {
  return new ManagedIS(in)
}

def main(args:Array[String]): Unit = {
  using(new FileInputStream("foo.txt"), new FileOutputStream("bar.txt")) { 
    in => out =>
    Iterator continually { in.read() } takeWhile( _ != -1) foreach { 
      out.write(_) 
    }
  }
}

Answer 4

There is light-weight (10 lines of code) ARM included with better-files. See: https://github.com/pathikrit/better-files#lightweight-arm

import better.files._
for {
  in <- inputStream.autoClosed
  out <- outputStream.autoClosed
} in.pipeTo(out)
// The input and output streams are auto-closed once out of scope

Here is how it is implemented if you don't want the whole library:

  type Closeable = {
    def close(): Unit
  }

  type ManagedResource[A <: Closeable] = Traversable[A]

  implicit class CloseableOps[A <: Closeable](resource: A) {        
    def autoClosed: ManagedResource[A] = new Traversable[A] {
      override def foreach[U](f: A => U) = try {
        f(resource)
      } finally {
        resource.close()
      }
    }
  }

Answer 5

Here is @chengpohi's answer, modified so it works with Scala 2.8+, instead of just Scala 2.13 (yes, it works with Scala 2.13 also):

def unfold[A, S](start: S)(op: S => Option[(A, S)]): List[A] =
  Iterator
    .iterate(op(start))(_.flatMap{ case (_, s) => op(s) })
    .map(_.map(_._1))
    .takeWhile(_.isDefined)
    .flatten
    .toList

def using[A <: AutoCloseable, B](resource: A)
                                (block: A => B): B =
  try block(resource) finally resource.close()

val lines: Seq[String] =
  using(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("file.txt"))) { reader =>
    unfold(())(_ => Option(reader.readLine()).map(_ -> ())).toList
  }

Answer 6

I see a gradual 4 step evolution for doing ARM in Scala:

1. No ARM: Dirt
2. Only closures: Better, but multiple nested blocks
3. Continuation Monad: Use For to flatten the nesting, but unnatural separation in 2 blocks
4. Direct style continuations: Nirava, aha! This is also the most type-safe alternative: a resource outside withResource block will be type error.