Ruby: Destructors?

Question

I need to occasionaly create images with rmagick in a cache dir.

To then get rid of them fast, without loosing them for the view, I want to delete the image-files wh

Answer 1

You can use ObjectSpace.define_finalizer when you create the image file, and it will get invoked when the garbage man comes to collect. Just be careful not to reference the object itself in your proc, otherwise it won't be collected by the garbage man. (Won't pick up something that's alive and kicking)

class MyObject
  def generate_image
    image = ImageMagick.do_some_magick
    ObjectSpace.define_finalizer(self, proc { image.self_destruct! })
  end
end