Issue 18249: Incorrect and incomplete help docs for close() method (original) (raw)

Issue18249

Created on 2013-06-18 00:55 by DaveA, last changed 2022-04-11 14:57 by admin. This issue is now closed.

Messages (3)
msg191382 - (view)	Author: Dave Angel (DaveA)	Date: 2013-06-18 00:55
Python 3.3.0 (default, Mar 7 2013, 00:24:38) [GCC 4.6.3] on linux q = open('/dev/null') help(q.close) the entire output is: ------------------------------- Help on built-in function close: close(...) (END) ------------------------------- But close() is NOT a built-in, it's a method. (In Python 2.7.* the output is: ------------------------------- Help on built-in function close: close(...) close() -> None or (perhaps) an integer. Close the file. Sets data attribute .closed to True. A closed file cannot be used for further I/O operations. close() may be called more than once without error. Some kinds of file objects (for example, opened by popen()) may return an exit status upon closing. (END) ------------------------------- which is only partially wrong.
msg191383 - (view)	Author: Christian Heimes (christian.heimes) *	Date: 2013-06-18 01:09
In fact it is a built-in method without a doc string: >>> f = open("/dev/null") >>> f.close <built-in method close of _io.TextIOWrapper object at 0x7feefaab42f0> >>> f.close.__doc__ All functions and methods that are implemented in C are referred to as built-in functions. It's an implementation detail.
msg338575 - (view)	Author: Andrés Delfino (adelfino) *	Date: 2019-03-22 01:33
Closing with Victor Stinner's approval.