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Best way to disconnect from ldap?

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From	John Gordon <gordon@panix.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Subject	Best way to disconnect from ldap?
Date	Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:30:16 +0000 (UTC)
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I'm writing an application that interacts with ldap, and I'm looking
for advice on how to handle the connection.  Specifically, how to
close the ldap connection when the application is done.

I wrote a class to wrap an LDAP connection, similar to this:

    import ldap
    import ConfigParser

    class MyLDAPWrapper(object):

        def __init__(self):

            config = ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser()
            config.read('sample.conf')
        
            uri = config.get('LDAP', 'uri')
            user = config.get('LDAP', 'user')
            password = config.get('LDAP', 'password')

            self.ldapClient = ldap.initialize(uri)
            self.ldapClient.simple_bind_s(user, password)

My question is this: what is the best way to ensure the ldap connection
gets closed when it should?  I could write an explicit close() method,
but that seems a bit messy; there would end up being lots of calls to
close() scattered around in my code (primarily inside exception handlers.)

Or I could write a __del__ method:

        def __del__(self):
            self.ldapClient.unbind_s()

This seems like a much cleaner solution, as I don't ever have to worry
about closing the connection; it gets done automatically.

I haven't ever used __del__ before.  Are there any 'gotchas' I need to
worry about?

Thanks!

-- 
John Gordon                   A is for Amy, who fell down the stairs
gordon@panix.com              B is for Basil, assaulted by bears
                                -- Edward Gorey, "The Gashlycrumb Tinies"

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Best way to disconnect from ldap? John Gordon <gordon@panix.com> - 2012-03-21 19:30 +0000
  Re: Best way to disconnect from ldap? "J. Cliff Dyer" <jcd@sdf.lonestar.org> - 2012-03-21 16:21 -0400
  Re: Best way to disconnect from ldap? Chris Rebert <clp2@rebertia.com> - 2012-03-21 13:34 -0700
  Re: Best way to disconnect from ldap? Chris Kaynor <ckaynor@zindagigames.com> - 2012-03-21 13:54 -0700
  Re: Best way to disconnect from ldap? Tycho Andersen <tycho@tycho.ws> - 2012-03-22 08:14 -0500
    Re: Best way to disconnect from ldap? Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-03-22 17:26 +0000
      Re: Best way to disconnect from ldap? Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2012-03-22 12:54 -0500
      Re: Best way to disconnect from ldap? Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2012-03-22 15:27 -0400
      Re: Best way to disconnect from ldap? Tycho Andersen <tycho@tycho.ws> - 2012-03-22 16:02 -0500
  Re: Best way to disconnect from ldap? Chris Rebert <clp2@rebertia.com> - 2012-03-22 06:27 -0700
  Re: Best way to disconnect from ldap? Tycho Andersen <tycho@tycho.ws> - 2012-03-22 09:00 -0500
  Re: Best way to disconnect from ldap? John Gordon <gordon@panix.com> - 2012-04-05 18:38 +0000
    Re: Best way to disconnect from ldap? Michael Ströder <michael@stroeder.com> - 2012-04-05 20:56 +0200

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