How to force deletion of a python object?

Question

I am curious about the details of __del__ in python, when and why it should be used and what it shouldn\'t be used for. I\'ve learned the hard way that it is n

Answer 1

The way to close resources are context managers, aka the with statement:

class Foo(object):

  def __init__(self):
    self.bar = None

  def __enter__(self):
    if self.bar != 'open':
      print 'opening the bar'
      self.bar = 'open'
    return self # this is bound to the `as` part

  def close(self):
    if self.bar != 'closed':
      print 'closing the bar'
      self.bar = 'close'

  def __exit__(self, *err):
    self.close()

if __name__ == '__main__':
  with Foo() as foo:
    print foo, foo.bar

output:

opening the bar
<__main__.Foo object at 0x17079d0> open
closing the bar

---

2) Python's objects get deleted when their reference count is 0. In your example the del foo removes the last reference so __del__ is called instantly. The GC has no part in this.

class Foo(object):

    def __del__(self):
        print "deling", self

if __name__ == '__main__':
    import gc
    gc.disable() # no gc
    f = Foo()
    print "before"
    del f # f gets deleted right away
    print "after"

output:

before
deling <__main__.Foo object at 0xc49690>
after

The gc has nothing to do with deleting your and most other objects. It's there to clean up when simple reference counting does not work, because of self-references or circular references:

class Foo(object):
    def __init__(self, other=None):
        # make a circular reference
        self.link = other
        if other is not None:
            other.link = self

    def __del__(self):
        print "deling", self

if __name__ == '__main__':
    import gc
    gc.disable()   
    f = Foo(Foo())
    print "before"
    del f # nothing gets deleted here
    print "after"
    gc.collect()
    print gc.garbage # The GC knows the two Foos are garbage, but won't delete
                     # them because they have a __del__ method
    print "after gc"
    # break up the cycle and delete the reference from gc.garbage
    del gc.garbage[0].link, gc.garbage[:]
    print "done"

output:

before
after
[<__main__.Foo object at 0x22ed8d0>, <__main__.Foo object at 0x22ed950>]
after gc
deling <__main__.Foo object at 0x22ed950>
deling <__main__.Foo object at 0x22ed8d0>
done

---

3) Lets see:

class Foo(object):
    def __init__(self):

        raise Exception

    def __del__(self):
        print "deling", self

if __name__ == '__main__':
    f = Foo()

gives:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "asd.py", line 10, in 
    f = Foo()
  File "asd.py", line 4, in __init__
    raise Exception
Exception
deling <__main__.Foo object at 0xa3a910>

Objects are created with __new__ then passed to __init__ as self. After a exception in __init__, the object will typically not have a name (ie the f = part isn't run) so their ref count is 0. This means that the object is deleted normally and __del__ is called.