Posted by Chung Leong on 04/30/07 12:34

On Apr 30, 10:58 am, Tyno Gendo <you@localhost> wrote:
> I just wondered if someone could clarify... I have a a script connecting
> with mysql_connect and in an include at end of page mysql_close
>
> If they script terminates before end of page ie. with an exit() or maybe
> trigger_error(), does php always disconnect the open'ed connection?
>
> I ask because PHP manual says yes, but I've seen some comments relating
> to PHP 4 saying it doesn't.
>
> Please can you tell me your experiences?

Yes, that applies to all resource handles opened during execution--
database connections included. It's actually just one instance of a
general phenomenon in PHP. When the last variable pointing to the
resource handle goes out of scope, the handle is closed. For example,
in the following function:

function log($s) {
$f = fopen("log.txt", "wb");
fwrite($f, $s);
}

the file will be closed automatically when the function returns, as $f
goes out of scope.

And the following is perfectly okay:

if(mysql_connect( ... )) {
}

Since the handle returned isn't saved, the connection will be closed
immediately.

When a script terminates--one way or another--all variables within it
are destroyed, so all resource handles will be closed.

Persistent connections are a different story--you can only close these
by terminating the web server.

As a side note: Don't wait till the end of the page before you close
the database connection. That's a recipe for "Too many connections"
errors. Read the necessary data from the database then close the
connection before you output to the client.

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