> close a file (which ironically is the poster child for RAII) Yes, I call this "RAII is a lie" (T-shirt pending). Closing file descriptors is univerally used

> close a file (which ironically is the poster child for RAII) Yes, I call this "RAII is a lie" (T-shirt pending). Closing file descriptors is univerally used to showcase RAII, but it should never be used for that. C++ has the same problem: https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines/issues/2203 https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines/issues/2203 In there, it is acknowledged that a manual Close() should always be provided, and used if you want guarantees. > is a bad pattern Good that Rust at least figured it out early that it's a bad pattern! Never use RAII in situations where the cleanup can fail!