What Automatic Resource Management alternatives exist for Scala?

Chris Hansen's blog entry 'ARM Blocks in Scala: Revisited' from 3/26/09 talks about about slide 21 of Martin Odersky's FOSDEM presentation. This next block is taken straight from slide 21 (with permission):

def using[T <: { def close() }]
    (resource: T)
    (block: T => Unit) 
{
  try {
    block(resource)
  } finally {
    if (resource != null) resource.close()
  }
}

--end quote--

Then we can call like this:

using(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("file"))) { r =>
  var count = 0
  while (r.readLine != null) count += 1
  println(count)
}

What are the drawbacks of this approach? That pattern would seem to address 95% of where I would need automatic resource management...

Edit: added code snippet

Edit2: extending the design pattern - taking inspiration from python with statement and addressing:

• statements to run before the block
• re-throwing exception depending on the managed resource
• handling two resources with one single using statement
• resource-specific handling by providing an implicit conversion and a Managed class

This is with Scala 2.8.

trait Managed[T] {
  def onEnter(): T
  def onExit(t:Throwable = null): Unit
  def attempt(block: => Unit): Unit = {
    try { block } finally {}
  }
}

def using[T <: Any](managed: Managed[T])(block: T => Unit) {
  val resource = managed.onEnter()
  var exception = false
  try { block(resource) } catch  {
    case t:Throwable => exception = true; managed.onExit(t)
  } finally {
    if (!exception) managed.onExit()
  }
}

def using[T <: Any, U <: Any]
    (managed1: Managed[T], managed2: Managed[U])
    (block: T => U => Unit) {
  using[T](managed1) { r =>
    using[U](managed2) { s => block(r)(s) }
  }
}

class ManagedOS(out:OutputStream) extends Managed[OutputStream] {
  def onEnter(): OutputStream = out
  def onExit(t:Throwable = null): Unit = {
    attempt(out.close())
    if (t != null) throw t
  }
}
class ManagedIS(in:InputStream) extends Managed[InputStream] {
  def onEnter(): InputStream = in
  def onExit(t:Throwable = null): Unit = {
    attempt(in.close())
    if (t != null) throw t
  }
}

implicit def os2managed(out:OutputStream): Managed[OutputStream] = {
  return new ManagedOS(out)
}
implicit def is2managed(in:InputStream): Managed[InputStream] = {
  return new ManagedIS(in)
}

def main(args:Array[String]): Unit = {
  using(new FileInputStream("foo.txt"), new FileOutputStream("bar.txt")) { 
    in => out =>
    Iterator continually { in.read() } takeWhile( _ != -1) foreach { 
      out.write(_) 
    }
  }
}

Here's James Iry solution using continuations:

// standard using block definition
def using[X <: {def close()}, A](resource : X)(f : X => A) = {
   try {
     f(resource)
   } finally {
     resource.close()
   }
}

// A DC version of 'using' 
def resource[X <: {def close()}, B](res : X) = shift(using[X, B](res))

// some sugar for reset
def withResources[A, C](x : => A @cps[A, C]) = reset{x}

Here are the solutions with and without continuations for comparison:

def copyFileCPS = using(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("test.txt"))) {
  reader => {
   using(new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter("test_copy.txt"))) {
      writer => {
        var line = reader.readLine
        var count = 0
        while (line != null) {
          count += 1
          writer.write(line)
          writer.newLine
          line = reader.readLine
        }
        count
      }
    }
  }
}

def copyFileDC = withResources {
  val reader = resource[BufferedReader,Int](new BufferedReader(new FileReader("test.txt")))
  val writer = resource[BufferedWriter,Int](new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter("test_copy.txt")))
  var line = reader.readLine
  var count = 0
  while(line != null) {
    count += 1
    writer write line
    writer.newLine
    line = reader.readLine
  }
  count
}

And here's Tiark Rompf's suggestion of improvement:

trait ContextType[B]
def forceContextType[B]: ContextType[B] = null

// A DC version of 'using'
def resource[X <: {def close()}, B: ContextType](res : X): X @cps[B,B] = shift(using[X, B](res))

// some sugar for reset
def withResources[A](x : => A @cps[A, A]) = reset{x}

// and now use our new lib
def copyFileDC = withResources {
 implicit val _ = forceContextType[Int]
 val reader = resource(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("test.txt")))
 val writer = resource(new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter("test_copy.txt")))
 var line = reader.readLine
 var count = 0
 while(line != null) {
   count += 1
   writer write line
   writer.newLine
   line = reader.readLine
 }
 count
}

For now Scala 2.13 has finally supported: try with resources by using Using :), Example:

val lines: Try[Seq[String]] =
  Using(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("file.txt"))) { reader =>
    Iterator.unfold(())(_ => Option(reader.readLine()).map(_ -> ())).toList
  }

or using Using.resource avoid Try

val lines: Seq[String] =
  Using.resource(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("file.txt"))) { reader =>
    Iterator.unfold(())(_ => Option(reader.readLine()).map(_ -> ())).toList
  }

You can find more examples from Using doc.

A utility for performing automatic resource management. It can be used to perform an operation using resources, after which it releases the resources in reverse order of their creation.

I see a gradual 4 step evolution for doing ARM in Scala:

1. No ARM: Dirt
2. Only closures: Better, but multiple nested blocks
3. Continuation Monad: Use For to flatten the nesting, but unnatural separation in 2 blocks
4. Direct style continuations: Nirava, aha! This is also the most type-safe alternative: a resource outside withResource block will be type error.

Another alternative is Choppy's Lazy TryClose monad. It's pretty good with database connections:

val ds = new JdbcDataSource()
val output = for {
  conn  <- TryClose(ds.getConnection())
  ps    <- TryClose(conn.prepareStatement("select * from MyTable"))
  rs    <- TryClose.wrap(ps.executeQuery())
} yield wrap(extractResult(rs))

// Note that Nothing will actually be done until 'resolve' is called
output.resolve match {
    case Success(result) => // Do something
    case Failure(e) =>      // Handle Stuff
}

And with streams:

val output = for {
  outputStream      <- TryClose(new ByteArrayOutputStream())
  gzipOutputStream  <- TryClose(new GZIPOutputStream(outputStream))
  _                 <- TryClose.wrap(gzipOutputStream.write(content))
} yield wrap({gzipOutputStream.flush(); outputStream.toByteArray})

output.resolve.unwrap match {
  case Success(bytes) => // process result
  case Failure(e) => // handle exception
}

More info here: https://github.com/choppythelumberjack/tryclose

Here is @chengpohi's answer, modified so it works with Scala 2.8+, instead of just Scala 2.13 (yes, it works with Scala 2.13 also):

def unfold[A, S](start: S)(op: S => Option[(A, S)]): List[A] =
  Iterator
    .iterate(op(start))(_.flatMap{ case (_, s) => op(s) })
    .map(_.map(_._1))
    .takeWhile(_.isDefined)
    .flatten
    .toList

def using[A <: AutoCloseable, B](resource: A)
                                (block: A => B): B =
  try block(resource) finally resource.close()

val lines: Seq[String] =
  using(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("file.txt"))) { reader =>
    unfold(())(_ => Option(reader.readLine()).map(_ -> ())).toList
  }

While Using is OK, I prefer the monadic style of resource composition. Twitter Util's Managed is pretty nice, except for its dependencies and its not-very-polished API.

To that end, I've published https://github.com/dvgica/managerial for Scala 2.12, 2.13, and 3.0.0. Largely based on the Twitter Util Managed code, no dependencies, with some API improvements inspired by cats-effect Resource.

The simple example:

import ca.dvgi.managerial._
val fileContents = Managed.from(scala.io.Source.fromFile("file.txt")).use(_.mkString)

But the real strength of the library is composing resources via for comprehensions.

Let me know what you think!