a difference in the DBhandler module i'm using to the one posted here is the ability for it to use multiple dbd's. i've added support for both oracle and mysql.

the $self reference that holds the actual db reference becomes $self->{_db_handle}{$arg{engine}}{$arg{handle}}.

when i've gone about disconnecting the database connection in the destructor i've ommited the engine variable.

if i perform an explicit disconnect in the DESTROY method, correctly the database connection is dropped when the object goes out of scope (ie with a delete or an undef. the reverse is also true, if you dont perform an explicit disconnect when the object goes out of scope, the database connection remains, which i think could be considered a bug in the DBI/DBD/perl/whatever.

to those who have spent their valuable time on this, i apologise, i've lead you down the garden path, making reference to code that is different to what i've been actually using. lesson learnt.

to those who would like to have a crack at reproducing the bug, this is what i used below.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

use Daemon;

my $app = Daemon->new();

while (1) {
    $app->do_something();
    print scalar(localtime)." Sleeping 5 seconds...\n";
    sleep 5;
}

-------8<--------------------------------

package Daemon;

use Data::Dumper;

use Handle;

{

    sub _createConnection {

        my $self = shift;
        my %args = @_;
        my $retval;

        $self->{dbo} = Handle->new( handle => 'handle', user   => 'jwi
+lliams', pwd => 'type895', sid => 'ossp1',) if (! $self->{dbo} );

    }
}

sub new {
    my ($caller, %arg) = @_;
    my $caller_is_obj = ref($caller);
    my $class = $caller_is_obj  || $caller;
    my $self  = bless {}, $class;


    return $self;
}

sub do_something {

    my $self = shift;
    my %args = @_;

    $self->_createConnection();
    undef $self->{dbo};

    return 'status message';
}
1

-------8<--------------------------------

package Handle;

use Data::Dumper;

$VERSION = 1.00;
use strict;
use DBI;
use Carp;
use Hook::LexWrap;

{

    sub _get_db_handle {

        my ($self, %args) = @_;
        croak "Must supply username" unless ($args{user});
        croak "Must supply password" unless ($args{pwd});
        croak "Must supply SID"      unless ($args{sid});

        my $dsn  = "DBI:Oracle:".$args{sid};           #set the datase
+t name
        my %attr = ( RaiseError => 1, PrintError => 0, AutoCommit => 1
+ || $self->{_AutoCommit} ); #set error raising and printing

        # lets go get the handle
        my $handle = DBI->connect($dsn,$args{user},$args{pwd}, \%attr)
+;
        $handle->{InactiveDestroy} = 1;

        croak "Unable to connect to ".$args{sid} unless ($handle);
        return $handle;
    }


}

sub new {
    my ($caller, %arg) = @_;
    my $caller_is_obj = ref($caller);
    my $class = $caller_is_obj  || $caller;
    my $self  = bless {}, $class;

    $arg{engine} = 'oracle' if (!defined $arg{engine} );
    $self->{_db_handle}{$arg{engine}}{$arg{handle}} = $self->_get_db_h
+andle(%arg);

    wrap 'DESTROY', pre => \&predestroy, post=> \&postdestroy;

    return $self;
}

sub predestroy {
    print STDERR "predestroy: ".Dumper(@_);
}

sub postdestroy {
    print STDERR "postdestroy: ".Dumper(@_);
}


sub DESTROY {
    my $self = shift;
    foreach my $handle ( keys %{$self->{_db_handle}{'oracle'}} ) {

       # non bug condition, the object is correctly referenced
       #$self->{_db_handle}{'oracle'}{$handle}->disconnect;

       # bug condition, the object is incorrectly referenced
       $self->{_db_handle}{$handle}->disconnect;
    }
}
1

-------8<--------------------------------

SQL> l
  1  select username, to_char(logon_time, 'dd-mon-yyyy hh24:mi:ss') as
+ logon from v$session
  2* where username = '<username>'
SQL>
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