#5511: Added the ability to use ZipFile as a context manager. Patch by Brian Curtin.

Doc/library/zipfile.rst

@@ -105,28 +105,35 @@ ZipFile Objects
    Open a ZIP file, where *file* can be either a path to a file (a string) or a
    file-like object.  The *mode* parameter should be ``'r'`` to read an existing
    file, ``'w'`` to truncate and write a new file, or ``'a'`` to append to an
-   existing file.  If *mode* is ``'a'`` and *file* refers to an existing ZIP file,
-   then additional files are added to it.  If *file* does not refer to a ZIP file,
-   then a new ZIP archive is appended to the file.  This is meant for adding a ZIP
-   archive to another file, such as :file:`python.exe`.  Using ::
-
-      cat myzip.zip >> python.exe
-
-   also works, and at least :program:`WinZip` can read such files. If *mode* is
-   ``a`` and the file does not exist at all, it is created. *compression* is the
-   ZIP compression method to use when writing the archive, and should be
-   :const:`ZIP_STORED` or :const:`ZIP_DEFLATED`; unrecognized values will cause
-   :exc:`RuntimeError` to be raised.  If :const:`ZIP_DEFLATED` is specified but the
-   :mod:`zlib` module is not available, :exc:`RuntimeError` is also raised.  The
-   default is :const:`ZIP_STORED`.  If *allowZip64* is ``True`` zipfile will create
-   ZIP files that use the ZIP64 extensions when the zipfile is larger than 2 GB. If
-   it is  false (the default) :mod:`zipfile` will raise an exception when the ZIP
-   file would require ZIP64 extensions. ZIP64 extensions are disabled by default
-   because the default :program:`zip` and :program:`unzip` commands on Unix (the
-   InfoZIP utilities) don't support these extensions.
+   existing file.  If *mode* is ``'a'`` and *file* refers to an existing ZIP
+   file, then additional files are added to it.  If *file* does not refer to a
+   ZIP file, then a new ZIP archive is appended to the file.  This is meant for
+   adding a ZIP archive to another file (such as :file:`python.exe`).
 
    .. versionchanged:: 2.6
-      If the file does not exist, it is created if the mode is 'a'.
+      If *mode* is ``a`` and the file does not exist at all, it is created.
+
+   *compression* is the ZIP compression method to use when writing the archive,
+   and should be :const:`ZIP_STORED` or :const:`ZIP_DEFLATED`; unrecognized
+   values will cause :exc:`RuntimeError` to be raised.  If :const:`ZIP_DEFLATED`
+   is specified but the :mod:`zlib` module is not available, :exc:`RuntimeError`
+   is also raised. The default is :const:`ZIP_STORED`.  If *allowZip64* is
+   ``True`` zipfile will create ZIP files that use the ZIP64 extensions when
+   the zipfile is larger than 2 GB. If it is  false (the default) :mod:`zipfile`
+   will raise an exception when the ZIP file would require ZIP64 extensions.
+   ZIP64 extensions are disabled by default because the default :program:`zip`
+   and :program:`unzip` commands on Unix (the InfoZIP utilities) don't support
+   these extensions.
+
+   ZipFile is also a context manager and therefore supports the
+   :keyword:`with` statement.  In the example, *myzip* is closed after the
+   :keyword:`with` statement's suite is finished---even if an exception occurs::
+
+      with ZipFile('spam.zip', 'w') as myzip:
+          myzip.write('eggs.txt')
+
+   .. versionadded:: 2.7
+      Added the ability to use :class:`ZipFile` as a context manager.
 
 
 .. method:: ZipFile.close()

Lib/zipfile.py

@@ -721,6 +721,12 @@ class ZipFile:
                 self.fp = None
             raise RuntimeError, 'Mode must be "r", "w" or "a"'
 
+    def __enter__(self):
+        return self
+
+    def __exit__(self, type, value, traceback):
+        self.close()
+
     def _GetContents(self):
         """Read the directory, making sure we close the file if the format
         is bad."""

Misc/NEWS

@@ -44,8 +44,11 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #5511: now zipfile.ZipFile can be used as a context manager.
+  Initial patch by Brian Curtin.
+
 - Distutils now correctly identifies the build architecture as "x86_64"
-  when building on OSX 10.6 without "-arch" flags. 
+  when building on OSX 10.6 without "-arch" flags.
 
 - Issue #7556: Distutils' msvc9compiler now opens the MSVC Manifest 
   file in text mode.