From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by olra.theworths.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 943E7431FC2 for ; Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:22:13 -0700 (PDT) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at olra.theworths.org X-Spam-Flag: NO X-Spam-Score: 0 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0 tagged_above=-999 required=5 tests=[none] autolearn=disabled Received: from olra.theworths.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (olra.theworths.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id xm95IG9l+PeQ for ; Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:22:13 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail.cryptobitch.de (cryptobitch.de [88.198.7.68]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by olra.theworths.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id DF668431FAE for ; Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:22:12 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail.jade-hamburg.de (mail.jade-hamburg.de [85.183.11.228]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.cryptobitch.de (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 58BA85A9030 for ; Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:22:11 +0200 (CEST) Received: by mail.jade-hamburg.de (Postfix, from userid 401) id 3B1FCDF2A4; Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:22:11 +0200 (CEST) Received: from thinkbox.jade-hamburg.de (unknown [IPv6:2002:55b7:be4:1:213:e8ff:fe51:7a89]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: teythoon) by mail.jade-hamburg.de (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 1D638DF2A1; Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:22:08 +0200 (CEST) Received: from teythoon by thinkbox.jade-hamburg.de with local (Exim 4.80) (envelope-from ) id 1T1Koh-0004th-3I; Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:22:07 +0200 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable From: Justus Winter <4winter@informatik.uni-hamburg.de> User-Agent: alot/0.3.2+ To: Jani Nikula , Michal Nazarewicz , David Bremner , notmuch@notmuchmail.org References: <87a9xx4yuj.fsf@maritornes.cs.unb.ca> <87fw7p1viu.fsf@nikula.org> In-Reply-To: <87fw7p1viu.fsf@nikula.org> Message-ID: <20120814172206.12994.63545@thinkbox.jade-hamburg.de> Subject: =?UTF-8?B?UmU6IOKAmGNsYXNzIFhhcGlhbjo6RGF0YWJhc2XigJkgaGFzIG5v?= =?UTF-8?B?IG1lbWJlciBuYW1lZCDigJhjbG9zZeKAmQ==?= Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:22:06 +0200 X-BeenThere: notmuch@notmuchmail.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.13 Precedence: list List-Id: "Use and development of the notmuch mail system." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:22:13 -0000 Quoting Jani Nikula (2012-08-14 14:57:13) > > Is close() really required though? The comment justifies it saying > > that: > > > > Many Xapian objects hold references to the database, so merely > > deleting the database may not suffice to close it. Thus, we > > explicitly close it here. > > > > but wouldn't the database get closed when the last reference gets > > deleted anyway? Yes, it is. > IIRC this was related to how closing is handled in the python > bindings. Well this issue isn't in anyway specific to the python bindings, but in c you can determine exactly whether a database has been closed because this only happens if you explicitly destroy the database object. In any garbage collected language you have to wait for the object to be collected and this is usually not easy to detect. So we decided to explicitly close the database and to split ..database_destroy in ..database_close and ..database_destroy later on. Justus