Can Python's shelve.open be called in a nested fashion?

Question

I am trying to write a memoization library that uses shelve to store the return values persistently. If I have memoized functions calling other memoized functions, I am wondering about how to correctly open the shelf file.

import shelve
import functools


def cache(filename):
    def decorating_function(user_function):
        def wrapper(*args, **kwds):
            key = str(hash(functools._make_key(args, kwds, typed=False)))
            with shelve.open(filename, writeback=True) as cache:
                if key in cache:
                    return cache[key]
                else:
                    result = user_function(*args, **kwds)
                    cache[key] = result
                    return result

        return functools.update_wrapper(wrapper, user_function)

    return decorating_function


@cache(filename='cache')
def expensive_calculation():
    print('inside function')
    return


@cache(filename='cache')
def other_expensive_calculation():
    print('outside function')
    return expensive_calculation()

other_expensive_calculation()

Except this doesn't work

$ python3 shelve_test.py
outside function
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "shelve_test.py", line 33, in <module>
    other_expensive_calculation()
  File "shelve_test.py", line 13, in wrapper
    result = user_function(*args, **kwds)
  File "shelve_test.py", line 31, in other_expensive_calculation
    return expensive_calculation()
  File "shelve_test.py", line 9, in wrapper
    with shelve.open(filename, writeback=True) as cache:
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/shelve.py", line 239, in open
    return DbfilenameShelf(filename, flag, protocol, writeback)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/shelve.py", line 223, in __init__
    Shelf.__init__(self, dbm.open(filename, flag), protocol, writeback)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.4.1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/dbm/__init__.py", line 94, in open
    return mod.open(file, flag, mode)
_gdbm.error: [Errno 35] Resource temporarily unavailable

What you recommend for a solution to this sort of problem.

Answer 1

Rather than trying to nest calls to open (which as you have discovered, does not work), you could make your decorator maintain a reference to the handle returned by shelve.open, and then if it exists and is still open, re-use that for subsequent calls:

import shelve
import functools

def _check_cache(cache_, key, func, args, kwargs):
    if key in cache_:
        print("Using cached results")
        return cache_[key]
    else:
        print("No cached results, calling function")
        result = func(*args, **kwargs)
        cache_[key] = result
        return result

def cache(filename):
    def decorating_function(user_function):
        def wrapper(*args, **kwds):
            args_key = str(hash(functools._make_key(args, kwds, typed=False)))
            func_key = '.'.join([user_function.__module__, user_function.__name__])
            key = func_key + args_key
            handle_name = "{}_handle".format(filename)
            if (hasattr(cache, handle_name) and
                not hasattr(getattr(cache, handle_name).dict, "closed")
               ):
                print("Using open handle")
                return _check_cache(getattr(cache, handle_name), key, 
                                    user_function, args, kwds)
            else:
                print("Opening handle")
                with shelve.open(filename, writeback=True) as c:
                    setattr(cache, handle_name, c)  # Save a reference to the open handle
                    return _check_cache(c, key, user_function, args, kwds)

        return functools.update_wrapper(wrapper, user_function)
    return decorating_function


@cache(filename='cache')
def expensive_calculation():
    print('inside function')
    return


@cache(filename='cache')
def other_expensive_calculation():
    print('outside function')
    return expensive_calculation()

other_expensive_calculation()
print("Again")
other_expensive_calculation()

Output:

Opening handle
No cached results, calling function
outside function
Using open handle
No cached results, calling function
inside function
Again
Opening handle
Using cached results

Edit:

You could also implement the decorator using a WeakValueDictionary, which looks a bit more readable:

from weakref import WeakValueDictionary

_handle_dict = WeakValueDictionary()
def cache(filename):
    def decorating_function(user_function):
        def wrapper(*args, **kwds):
            args_key = str(hash(functools._make_key(args, kwds, typed=False)))
            func_key = '.'.join([user_function.__module__, user_function.__name__])
            key = func_key + args_key
            handle_name = "{}_handle".format(filename)
            if handle_name in _handle_dict:
                print("Using open handle")
                return _check_cache(_handle_dict[handle_name], key, 
                                    user_function, args, kwds)
            else:
                print("Opening handle")
                with shelve.open(filename, writeback=True) as c:
                    _handle_dict[handle_name] = c
                    return _check_cache(c, key, user_function, args, kwds)

        return functools.update_wrapper(wrapper, user_function)
    return decorating_function

As soon as there are no other references to a handle, it will be deleted from the dictionary. Since our handle only goes out of scope when the outer-most call to a decorated function ends, we'll always have an entry in the dict while a handle is open, and no entry right after it closes.