What Automatic Resource Management alternatives exist for Scala?

Question

I have seen many examples of ARM (automatic resource management) on the web for Scala. It seems to be a rite-of-passage to write one, though most look pretty much like one another. I did see a pretty cool example using continuations, though.

At any rate, a lot of that code has flaws of one type or another, so I figured it would be a good idea to have a reference here on Stack Overflow, where we can vote up the most correct and appropriate versions.

Answer 1

Chris Hansen's blog entry 'ARM Blocks in Scala: Revisited' from 3/26/09 talks about about slide 21 of Martin Odersky's FOSDEM presentation. This next block is taken straight from slide 21 (with permission):

def using[T <: { def close() }]
    (resource: T)
    (block: T => Unit) 
{
  try {
    block(resource)
  } finally {
    if (resource != null) resource.close()
  }
}

--end quote--

Then we can call like this:

using(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("file"))) { r =>
  var count = 0
  while (r.readLine != null) count += 1
  println(count)
}

What are the drawbacks of this approach? That pattern would seem to address 95% of where I would need automatic resource management...

Edit: added code snippet

---

Edit2: extending the design pattern - taking inspiration from python with statement and addressing:

• statements to run before the block
• re-throwing exception depending on the managed resource
• handling two resources with one single using statement
• resource-specific handling by providing an implicit conversion and a Managed class

This is with Scala 2.8.

trait Managed[T] {
  def onEnter(): T
  def onExit(t:Throwable = null): Unit
  def attempt(block: => Unit): Unit = {
    try { block } finally {}
  }
}

def using[T <: Any](managed: Managed[T])(block: T => Unit) {
  val resource = managed.onEnter()
  var exception = false
  try { block(resource) } catch  {
    case t:Throwable => exception = true; managed.onExit(t)
  } finally {
    if (!exception) managed.onExit()
  }
}

def using[T <: Any, U <: Any]
    (managed1: Managed[T], managed2: Managed[U])
    (block: T => U => Unit) {
  using[T](managed1) { r =>
    using[U](managed2) { s => block(r)(s) }
  }
}

class ManagedOS(out:OutputStream) extends Managed[OutputStream] {
  def onEnter(): OutputStream = out
  def onExit(t:Throwable = null): Unit = {
    attempt(out.close())
    if (t != null) throw t
  }
}
class ManagedIS(in:InputStream) extends Managed[InputStream] {
  def onEnter(): InputStream = in
  def onExit(t:Throwable = null): Unit = {
    attempt(in.close())
    if (t != null) throw t
  }
}

implicit def os2managed(out:OutputStream): Managed[OutputStream] = {
  return new ManagedOS(out)
}
implicit def is2managed(in:InputStream): Managed[InputStream] = {
  return new ManagedIS(in)
}

def main(args:Array[String]): Unit = {
  using(new FileInputStream("foo.txt"), new FileOutputStream("bar.txt")) { 
    in => out =>
    Iterator continually { in.read() } takeWhile( _ != -1) foreach { 
      out.write(_) 
    }
  }
}