[Python-Dev] atexit missing an unregister method

[Raymond Hettinger]

[Nick Jacobson]
> I was looking at the atexit module the other day; it seems like an
elegant
> way to ensure that resources are cleaned up (that the garbage
collector
> doesn't take care of).
> 
> But while you can mark functions to be called with the 'register'
method,
> there's no 'unregister' method to remove them from the stack of
functions
> to
> be called.  
 . . .
> Alternatively, it would be great if there were a way to view the stack
of
> registered functions, and delete them from there.



Please file a feature request on SourceForge.

Will mull it over for a while.  My first impression is that try/finally
is a better tool for the scenario you outlined.  

The issue with unregister() is that the order of clean-up calls is
potentially significant.  If the same function is listed more than once,
there would be no clear-cut way to know which should be removed when
unregister() is called.

Likewise, I suspect that exposing the stack will create more pitfalls
and risks than it could provide in benefits.  Dealing with a stack of
functions is likely to be clumsy at best.


Raymond Hettinger