os.remove() in windows gives “[Error 32] being used by another process”

Question

I know this question has been asked before quiet a lot on SO and elsewhere too. I still couldn\'t get it done. And im sorry if my English is bad

Removing file in lin

Answer 1

Pythonic way of reading from or writing to a file is by using a with context.

To read a file:

with open("/path/to/file") as f:
    contents = f.read()
    #Inside the block, the file is still open

# Outside `with` here, f.close() is automatically called.

To write:

with open("/path/to/file", "w") as f:
    print>>f, "Goodbye world"

# Outside `with` here, f.close() is automatically called.

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Now, if there's no other process reading or writing to the file, and assuming you have all the permission you should be able to close the file. There is a very good chance that there's a resource leak (file handle not being closed), because of which Windows will not allow you to delete a file. Solution is to use with.

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Further, to clarify on few other points:

• Its the garbage collector that causes the closure of the stream when the object is destroyed. The file is not auto-closed upon complete reading. That wouldn't make sense if the programmer wanted to rewind, would it?
• os.close(..) internally calls the C-API close(..) that takes an integer file descriptor. Not string as you passed.