[libvirt] "invalid connection pointer in virConnectClose" from Python bindings

Howdy. I'm calling libvirt from a program which occasionally has cause to fork() without an immediate exec(). For the sake of simplicity, I presently call close() on all my virConnect objects [which I then delete] before forking and create new ones later. (I'm not forcing an explicit pre-fork garbage collection at present -- hopefully the close() should make one unnecessary). However, libvirt complains (and very occasionally segfaults) as I try to close the connections: libvir: error : invalid connection pointer in virConnectClose libvir: error : invalid connection pointer in virConnectClose Are there any practices I should be following to avoid this? Alternatively, if it is likely to be related to an issue in the Python bindings, is there something I could do to diagnose? Thanks!