[Python-Dev] Deprecate sys.exitfunc? (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Tue Aug 17 03:21:55 CEST 2004


Multiple well-written modules can use sys.exitfunc in a way that is compatible. atexit is merely a glue to discourage non-well-written modules. I'd say that atexit should be encouraged but there is nothing wrong with using sys.exitfunc directly, if one is aware of the common patching pattern: "save-old-value, replace-with-my-function, upon-call-invoke-saved-old-value".

But why offer two ways of doing the same thing? Apart from b/w compatibility, what's the advantage of using sys.exitfunc directly?

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)



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