``contextlib`` --- Utilities for ``with``-statement contexts.
*************************************************************
New in version 2.5.
This module provides utilities for common tasks involving the ``with``
statement. For more information see also *Context Manager Types* and
*With Statement Context Managers*.
Functions provided:
contextlib.contextmanager(func)
This function is a *decorator* that can be used to define a factory
function for ``with`` statement context managers, without needing
to create a class or separate ``__enter__()`` and ``__exit__()``
methods.
A simple example (this is not recommended as a real way of
generating HTML!):
from contextlib import contextmanager
@contextmanager
def tag(name):
print "<%s>" % name
yield
print "%s>" % name
>>> with tag("h1"):
... print "foo"
...
foo
The function being decorated must return a *generator*-iterator
when called. This iterator must yield exactly one value, which will
be bound to the targets in the ``with`` statement's ``as`` clause,
if any.
At the point where the generator yields, the block nested in the
``with`` statement is executed. The generator is then resumed
after the block is exited. If an unhandled exception occurs in the
block, it is reraised inside the generator at the point where the
yield occurred. Thus, you can use a
``try``...``except``...``finally`` statement to trap the error (if
any), or ensure that some cleanup takes place. If an exception is
trapped merely in order to log it or to perform some action (rather
than to suppress it entirely), the generator must reraise that
exception. Otherwise the generator context manager will indicate to
the ``with`` statement that the exception has been handled, and
execution will resume with the statement immediately following the
``with`` statement.
contextlib.nested(mgr1[, mgr2[, ...]])
Combine multiple context managers into a single nested context
manager.
Code like this:
from contextlib import nested
with nested(A(), B(), C()) as (X, Y, Z):
do_something()
is equivalent to this:
m1, m2, m3 = A(), B(), C()
with m1 as X:
with m2 as Y:
with m3 as Z:
do_something()
Note that if the ``__exit__()`` method of one of the nested context
managers indicates an exception should be suppressed, no exception
information will be passed to any remaining outer context managers.
Similarly, if the ``__exit__()`` method of one of the nested
managers raises an exception, any previous exception state will be
lost; the new exception will be passed to the ``__exit__()``
methods of any remaining outer context managers. In general,
``__exit__()`` methods should avoid raising exceptions, and in
particular they should not re-raise a passed-in exception.
contextlib.closing(thing)
Return a context manager that closes *thing* upon completion of the
block. This is basically equivalent to:
from contextlib import contextmanager
@contextmanager
def closing(thing):
try:
yield thing
finally:
thing.close()
And lets you write code like this:
from contextlib import closing
import urllib
with closing(urllib.urlopen('http://www.python.org')) as page:
for line in page:
print line
without needing to explicitly close ``page``. Even if an error
occurs, ``page.close()`` will be called when the ``with`` block is
exited.
See also:
**PEP 0343** - The "with" statement
The specification, background, and examples for the Python
``with`` statement.