From: Mat Schaffer <schapht@...>
Date: 2006-06-06T22:53:37+09:00
Subject: Re: leaving files open

On Jun 6, 2006, at 9:45 AM, Dirk Meijer wrote:
> hello list!
> i've learnt to open files like this:
>
> File.open("foo", "w") do |file|
>  file.write "foo"
> end
>
> because everyone always says it's _dangerous_ to leave files open...
> just, wondering, what could really happen?
>
> suppose i write a program that write to a file, infinitely, i'll  
> want to
> shut this program off after a while, the file will not properly  
> close...
> what could actually happen?
>
> greetings, Dirk.

No expert here, and I'm sure it depends on the OS.  But I think the  
biggest danger you face is loosing some of the data you wrote to the  
file.  It's possible that some data is in a buffer and hasn't  
actually been written when the program exits.  Closing a file writes  
the buffer, so not closing it and just exiting may leave buffer data  
unwritten.
-Mat