How to properly destroy a class - ruby

Question

In Ruby, I have a DAO class, which is extended by a class that makes managing the connections easier, which is extended by a class that represents and manipulates data in a DB, which is further extended by another class. To use an animal metaphor it would look like this:
class Animal
...
end
class Mammal < Animal
...
end
class Feline < Mammal
...
end
class Cat < Feline
...
end
class Lion < Cat
...
end
...
In PHP, there is __destruct method that runs when you destroy/delete a class. And should that class extend another class, you simply add parent::__destruct() to the class's __destruct method like this:
public function __destruct() {
// Clean up code for this class here
...
// Execute clean up code for Parent class
parent::__destruct();
}
I could have a similar method for all the classes except Animal. Since it doesn't extend anything, the parent::__destruct(); line is no longer valid.
However, as I understand it, Ruby doesn't have a method like this for its objects. A finalizer can be set, but I decided to just put in a cleanup method I can call whenever I want to destroy/delete a class. That would take care of anything that needed doing prior to my setting the class to nil.
This raises a new problem though. If the method is always named cleanup and I call lion_instance.cleanup, I assume it calls the Lion#cleanup. How then to get it to call the cleanup in class Cat and then Feline and on down the chain?
Or is this a wrong approach and you have a better idea?

Answer 1

The Ruby idiom for this is to yield to a block which does work, and when the block returns, do cleanup. Ruby's built-in "File.open" does this:
File.open("/tmp/foo") do |file|
file.puts "foo"
end
When the block ends, the file is closed for you, without you having to do anything. This is an excellent idiom. Here's how you might implement something like that:
class Foo
def self.open(*args)
foo = new(*args)
yield foo
foo.close
end
def initialize
# do setup here
end
def close
# do teardown here
end
end
And to use it:
Foo.open do |foo|
# use foo
end
Foo#close will be caused automatically after the end
This will work with subclassing as well. That's because class methods are inherited just as are instance methods. Here's the superclass:
class Superclass
def self.open(*args)
o = new(*args)
yield o
o.close
end
def initialize
# common setup behavior
end
def close
# common cleanup behavior
end
end
and two derived classes:
class Foo < Superclass
def initialize
super
# do subclass specific setup here
end
def close
super
# do subclass specific teardown here
end
end
class Bar < Superclass
def initialize
super
# do subclass specific setup here
end
def close
super
# do subclass specific teardown here
end
end
to use:
Foo.open do |foo|
# use foo
end
Bar.open do |bar|
# use bar
end
If you really need to make sure that cleanup happens no matter what, then use an ensure clause in the class method:
def self.open(*args)
foo = new(*args)
begin
yield foo
ensure
foo.close
end
end
This way, cleanup happens even if there is an exception in the block.

Answer 2

You can use ObjectSpace.define_finalizer
Something like:
class Animal
def initialize
ObjectSpace.define_finalizer(self, proc { # your code })
end
end

Answer 3

Well since no one answered your question about the method moving its way up the inheritance chain...
class Cat
def rawr
puts "rawr"
end
end
class Kitty < Cat
def rawr
puts "meow"
super
end
end
Cat.new.rawr
"Rawr"
Kitty.new.rawr
"rawr"
"meow"
Within a method, you can access the superclass's method of the same name by calling super.