closefrom shim for Python 3

closefrom.py

import os
import os.path
import fcntl
import ctypes
from ctypes.util import find_library
import re

libc = None
F_CLOSEM = None
strategy = None

__all__ = ('closefrom', 'closefrom_impl')


def closefrom(fd):
    """
    A portable Python implementation-shim for the closefrom(2) system call,
    using various other OS's equivalents of the same wherever available.
    Should work on most BSDs, Linux, and OS X at least. Raises a
    NotImplementedError if no implementation strategy works.
    """
    fd = int(fd)
    
    global strategy
    if not strategy: strategy = closefrom_impl()
    
    if strategy == 'closefrom':
        return libc.closefrom(fd)
    elif strategy == 'fclosem':
        return fcntl.fcntl(fd, F_CLOSEM, 0)
    elif strategy == 'devfd':
        return closefrom_dir('/dev/fd', fd)
    elif strategy == 'procfs':
        return closefrom_dir('/proc/%d/fd' % os.getpid(), fd)
    else:
        raise NotImplementedError('closefrom is not supported on this platform')

def closefrom_dir(dir, fd):
    fds = [int(fd) for fd in os.listdir(dir)]
    for open_fd in fds:
        try:
            if open_fd >= fd: os.close(open_fd)
        except OSError: pass

def closefrom_impl():
    """
    Detects available methods for implementing closefrom(2), and returns
    a string value representing the one that closefrom will use.
    
    Return values, in order of preference:
        - closefrom
            closefrom(2) directly (FreeBSD)
        - fclosem
            The F_CLOSEM fcntl, functionally equivalent to closefrom (NetBSD)
        - devfd
            The /dev/fd/ directory will be listed for the necessary file
            descriptor numbers (OS X)
        - procfs
            Same as devfd except that the /proc/<pid>/fd/ directory is used
            instead (Linux)
        - None
            No implementation available
    """
    
    global libc
    load_libc()
    
    if libc:
        try:
            if callable(libc.closefrom):
                return 'closefrom'
        except AttributeError: pass
    
    global F_CLOSEM
    F_CLOSEM = fclosem_constant()
    if F_CLOSEM:
        return 'fclosem'
    
    if os.path.isdir('/dev/fd'):
        return 'devfd'
    elif os.path.isdir('/proc/%d/fd' % os.getpid()):
        return 'procfs'

    return None

def fclosem_constant():
    try:
        return fcntl.F_CLOSEM
    except AttributeError: pass
    
    fclosem_re = re.compile(rb"^#define\s+F_CLOSEM\s+(\d)+\s")
    if os.path.isfile('/usr/include/fcntl.h'):
        with open('/usr/include/fcntl.h', 'rb') as header_file:
            for line in header_file:
                match = fclosem_re.match(line)
                if match:
                    return int(match.group(1))
    
    return None

def load_libc():
    global libc

    libc_name = find_library('c')
    if libc_name:
        try:
            libc = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary(libc_name)
        except OSError: return None
    else:
        return None

closefrom_test.py

# basic test script for closefrom.py
# passes on:
# - Mac OS X 10.10.2 (devfd)
# - FreeBSD 10.1 (closefrom)
# - Linux 3.13.0 (Ubuntu 14.04, devfd)
# - NetBSD 6.1.5 (closefrom)

import closefrom
import os

strategy = closefrom.closefrom_impl()
if strategy:
    print('using %r closefrom implementation' % strategy)
else:
    print('no closefrom implementation supported on this platform')
    
    try:
        os.closefrom(3)
    except NotImplementedError:
        print('correctly raised NotImplementedError')
        os._exit(0)
    
    print("something happened and NotImplementedError didn't get raised, though?")
    os._exit(1)

pipe = os.pipe()
print('created pipe with fds %r' % (pipe,))
lowerfd = min(pipe)

print("calling closefrom(%d)" % lowerfd)
try:
    closefrom.closefrom(lowerfd)
except NotImplementedError:
    print("hmm, we detected an implementation strategy but still got a NotImplementedError")
except OSError:
    print("hmm, OSError was raised")

passed = True
for fd in pipe:
    print("checking %d" % fd)
    try:
        os.fstat(fd)
    except OSError:
        print("%d seems to have been closed properly" % fd)
        continue
    
    print("hmm, it looks like %d wasn't closed" % fd)
    passed = False

if passed:
    print("closefrom tests passed!")
    os._exit(0)
else:
    print("closefrom tests failed")
    os._exit(1)

Isn't this shit what POSIX was meant to help with?

@46bit Well, you’d hope so. The ‘POSIX way’ to do this is woefully inefficient, though: you do sysconf(_SC_OPEN_MAX) to get the largest file descriptor possible (the default on my shell is 2560, to give you an idea — server processes often have it set much higher) and call close on all of them individually.

Quite a lot of Unixes now support closefrom or the fcntl, with OS X and Linux being the major exception. (NetBSD actually supports closefrom now too, and as far as I know AIX is the only OS that has the fcntl and no closefrom.) Hopefully one or the other will get standardized in a future version of POSIX.

(Not that POSIX standardization necessarily represents cross-platform support: Have you seen all the bugs in Apple’s semaphore implementation?)