28.7. contextlib — Utilities for with-statement contexts

New in version 2.5.

Source code: Lib/contextlib.py

---

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.

While many objects natively support use in with statements, sometimes a resource needs to be managed that isn’t a context manager in its own right, and doesn’t implement a close() method for use with contextlib.closing

An abstract example would be the following to ensure correct resource management:

from contextlib import contextmanager

@contextmanager
def managed_resource(*args, **kwds):
    # Code to acquire resource, e.g.:
    resource = acquire_resource(*args, **kwds)
    try:
        yield resource
    finally:
        # Code to release resource, e.g.:
        release_resource(resource)

>>> with managed_resource(timeout=3600) as resource:
...     # Resource is released at the end of this block,
...     # even if code in the block raises an exception

The function being decorated must return a