Re: GC and file descriptors (and external resources.in general, I guess)

[Gary Houston]

> From: Michael Livshin <address@hidden>
> Date: 31 Oct 2000 20:17:44 +0200

> hello everybody.
> 
> currently, if a call to `open' or `opendir' fails, Guile throws an
> error.
> 
> what it *should* do, IMHO, is try to GC first, since it is likely to
> free some file descriptors.
> 
> so, well, is there any reason why this isn't done?  if there's no good 
> reason, I'll add this functionality.

There was a short discussion of this years ago.  I was going to say
nobody got around to implementing it, but this is from SCM:

1998-11-11  Radey Shouman  <address@hidden>

        * scmfig.h (SCM_INTERRUPTED): Abstracted the interrupted test from
        SYSCALL.
        (SCM_OPENCALL): Similar to SYSCALL, but will gc to reclaim
        file descriptors.

        * sys.c (try_open_file): Now uses SCM_OPENCALL.
        (gc_for_open_files): Added.

        * ioext.c:
        * posix.c:
        * socket.c: File opening system calls now use SCM_OPENCALL.
        If an open fails because there are no unused file handles, GC for
        for file handles.