os.remove() in windows gives "[Error 32] being used by another process"

Question

I know this question has been asked before quiet a lot on SO and elsewhere too. I still couldn't get it done. And im sorry if my English is bad

Removing file in linux was much more simpler. Just os.remove(my_file) did the job, But in windows it gives

    os.remove(my_file)
WindowsError: [Error 32] The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process: (file-name)

my code :

line_count = open(my_file, mode='r')        #
t_lines = len(line_count.readlines())       # For total no of lines
outfile = open(dec_file, mode='w')
with open(my_file, mode='r') as contents:
    p_line = 1
    line_infile = contents.readline()[4:]
    while line_infile:
        dec_of_line = baseconvert(line_infile.rstrip(),base16,base10)
        if p_line == t_lines:
            dec_of_line += str(len(line_infile)).zfill(2)
            outfile.write(dec_of_line + "\r\n")
        else:
            outfile.write(dec_of_line + "\r\n")
        p_line += 1
        line_infile = contents.readline()[4:]
outfile.close()
os.remove(my_file)

Here my_file is a variable that contains complete path structure of a file. Like wise dec_file also contains path, but to a new file. And the file im trying to remove is the file that's being used under read mode. Need some help please.

my try's :

1. Tried closing the file my_file.close(). The corresponding error i got was AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'close'. I knew, when a file is in read mode it automatically closes when it comes to the end of the file. But still i gave it a try
2. Also tried by os.close(my_file) as per https://stackoverflow.com/a/1470388/3869739. i got error as TypeError: an integer is required
3. Or, am i getting this error just because i have opened the file twice (for counting the line and to read the file content),..?

Answer 1

Pythonic way of reading from or writing to a file is by using a with context.

To read a file:

with open("/path/to/file") as f:
    contents = f.read()
    #Inside the block, the file is still open

# Outside `with` here, f.close() is automatically called.

To write:

with open("/path/to/file", "w") as f:
    print>>f, "Goodbye world"

# Outside `with` here, f.close() is automatically called.

---

Now, if there's no other process reading or writing to the file, and assuming you have all the permission you should be able to close the file. There is a very good chance that there's a resource leak (file handle not being closed), because of which Windows will not allow you to delete a file. Solution is to use with.

---

Further, to clarify on few other points:

• Its the garbage collector that causes the closure of the stream when the object is destroyed. The file is not auto-closed upon complete reading. That wouldn't make sense if the programmer wanted to rewind, would it?
• os.close(..) internally calls the C-API close(..) that takes an integer file descriptor. Not string as you passed.