Expiring Database Connections

[Tim Roberts]

This question is only marginally related to Python, but I'm going to ask it
here because (a) this is the most tolerant group in the comp.lang
hierarchy, and (b) people in this group would know the answer.

Many of the Python-based web solutions use a long-running process: WebWare,
FastCGI, and mod_python all run an interpreter long-term, and keep the
classes loaded until the web server stops.

On Windows, with some databases, this represents a problem. With Access
specifically, and with SQLite occasionally, having an open database
connection can make it impossible to open the database from another
process, such as from a command line. It seems to me that I could solve
this problem by starting up a deadman timer when a database connection is
opened, and if no additional connections are made in, say, one or two
minutes, close the database connection completely.

I'm wondering if anyone has done such a thing and/or has any thoughts or
comments. My web searches were unsuccessful.

 

[drs]

Many of the Python-based web solutions use a long-running process: WebWare,
FastCGI, and mod_python all run an interpreter long-term, and keep the
classes loaded until the web server stops.

On Windows, with some databases, this represents a problem. With Access
specifically, and with SQLite occasionally, having an open database
connection can make it impossible to open the database from another
process, such as from a command line. It seems to me that I could solve
this problem by starting up a deadman timer when a database connection is
opened, and if no additional connections are made in, say, one or two
minutes, close the database connection completely.

I'm wondering if anyone has done such a thing and/or has any thoughts or
comments. My web searches were unsuccessful.

Perhaps you could create a middle tier between the web and db to hold and or
pool the db connections. This way, you don't need to worry about which web
processes continue to run, you can share the connection object among them so
you don't have to close it at all, and you'll have a bit more control.

-drs