[nerdponx]

For what it's worth, using context managers for this kind of thing is pretty much standard nowadays, and not supporting this behavior feels jarring and archaic.

[slownews45]

Agreed - I spent so much time trouble shooting this exact issue because I honestly couldn't even imagine that I wasn't freeing the connection.

I ended just giving up and doing a close() after searching for every use. But even then didn't immediately understand what was going on.

With XXX do Y

is totally standard - but here we open but do not close.