The file you open() may be closed as soon as it is no longer possible to refer to it.
So in the first case, because the top-level variable 'f' continues to refer to the opened file, the file may not be closed. In the second case, no variable refers to the opened file after lock() returns, so Python is free to close the file at any time. In fact, Python happens to close the function exactly when lock() returs. If you want an open file descriptor that is not automatically closed, use os.open(). Or, store the file descriptor somewhere so you can later close() or unlock it at an appropriate time. Jeff
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