how to close a gzip.GzipFile?

[Justin Guerin]

Hello list,

gzip documentation states that calling the .close() method on a GzipFile 
doesn't really close it.  If I'm really through with it, what's the best 
way to close it?  I'm using Python2.2 (but the gzip module doesn't seem to 
be any different from 2.4).

Here's my code snippet, if it's relevant:

oldfileobj= file(oldfile, 'r')
oldmd5 = md5.new()
tellold = 0
tellnew = 1
while tellold != tellnew:
    line = oldfileobj.readline()
    tellold = tellnew
    tellnew = oldfileobj.tell()
    oldmd5.update(line)


At this point, I'm finished reading the file, and would like to properly 
close it.  Should I just del oldfileobj?

Also, while I'm asking, does anyone know a better way to iterate through a 
gzipped file?  The gzip module doesn't support iteration, nor xreadlines.  
I need to avoid reading the entire file contents into memory, so I can't 
use "for line in oldfileobj.readlines()"

Thanks for the pointers.

Justin Guerin