In [1]: import libvirt, os, gc

In [2]: 

In [3]: # testcase 1

In [4]: os.system("netstat -na|grep -v LISTENING |grep -c libvirt-sock")
0
Out[4]: 256

In [5]: c = libvirt.open('qemu:///system')

In [6]: os.system("netstat -na|grep -v LISTENING |grep -c libvirt-sock")
1
Out[6]: 0

In [7]: c.close()
Out[7]: 0

In [8]: os.system("netstat -na|grep -v LISTENING |grep -c libvirt-sock")
0
Out[8]: 256

In [9]: 

In [10]: # work's OK (and ruby binding works the same way)

In [11]: 

In [12]: # testcase 2

In [13]: c = libvirt.open('qemu:///system')

In [14]: os.system("netstat -na|grep -v LISTENING |grep -c libvirt-sock")
1
Out[14]: 0

In [15]: d = c.lookupByName("t1")

In [16]: d
Out[16]: <libvirt.virDomain instance at 0x95ef4cc>

In [17]: os.system("netstat -na|grep -v LISTENING |grep -c libvirt-sock")
1
Out[17]: 0

In [18]: c.close()
Out[18]: 1

In [19]: os.system("netstat -na|grep -v LISTENING |grep -c libvirt-sock")
1
Out[19]: 0

In [20]: c._o is None
Out[20]: True

In [21]: d.connect()._o is None
Out[21]: True

In [22]: d._conn._o is None
Out[22]: True

In [23]: d.create()
Out[23]: 0

In [24]: os.system("netstat -na|grep -v LISTENING |grep -c libvirt-sock")
1
Out[24]: 0

In [25]: d=None

In [26]: c.close()
libvir: error : invalid connection pointer in virConnectClose
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
libvirtError                              Traceback (most recent call last)

/home/imo/src/libvirt/python/<ipython console> in <module>()

/home/imo/src/libvirt/python/libvirt.pyc in close(self)
   1330         ret = libvirtmod.virConnectClose(self._o)
   1331         self._o = None
-> 1332         if ret == -1: raise libvirtError ('virConnectClose() failed', conn=self)
   1333         return ret
   1334 

libvirtError: invalid connection pointer in virConnectClose

In [27]: c=None

In [28]: gc.collect()
Out[28]: 24

In [29]: os.system("netstat -na|grep -v LISTENING |grep -c libvirt-sock")
1
Out[29]: 0