Alternative to contextlib.nested with variable number of context managers

The new Python 3 contextlib.ExitStack class was added as a replacement for contextlib.nested() (see issue 13585).

It is coded in such a way you can use it in Python 2 directly:

import sys
from collections import deque


class ExitStack(object):
    """Context manager for dynamic management of a stack of exit callbacks

    For example:

        with ExitStack() as stack:
            files = [stack.enter_context(open(fname)) for fname in filenames]
            # All opened files will automatically be closed at the end of
            # the with statement, even if attempts to open files later
            # in the list raise an exception

    """
    def __init__(self):
        self._exit_callbacks = deque()

    def pop_all(self):
        """Preserve the context stack by transferring it to a new instance"""
        new_stack = type(self)()
        new_stack._exit_callbacks = self._exit_callbacks
        self._exit_callbacks = deque()
        return new_stack

    def _push_cm_exit(self, cm, cm_exit):
        """Helper to correctly register callbacks to __exit__ methods"""
        def _exit_wrapper(*exc_details):
            return cm_exit(cm, *exc_details)
        _exit_wrapper.__self__ = cm
        self.push(_exit_wrapper)

    def push(self, exit):
        """Registers a callback with the standard __exit__ method signature

        Can suppress exceptions the same way __exit__ methods can.

        Also accepts any object with an __exit__ method (registering a call
        to the method instead of the object itself)
        """
        # We use an unbound method rather than a bound method to follow
        # the standard lookup behaviour for special methods
        _cb_type = type(exit)
        try:
            exit_method = _cb_type.__exit__
        except AttributeError:
            # Not a context manager, so assume its a callable
            self._exit_callbacks.append(exit)
        else:
            self._push_cm_exit(exit, exit_method)
        return exit # Allow use as a decorator

    def callback(self, callback, *args, **kwds):
        """Registers an arbitrary callback and arguments.

        Cannot suppress exceptions.
        """
        def _exit_wrapper(exc_type, exc, tb):
            callback(*args, **kwds)
        # We changed the signature, so using @wraps is not appropriate, but
        # setting __wrapped__ may still help with introspection
        _exit_wrapper.__wrapped__ = callback
        self.push(_exit_wrapper)
        return callback # Allow use as a decorator

    def enter_context(self, cm):
        """Enters the supplied context manager

        If successful, also pushes its __exit__ method as a callback and
        returns the result of the __enter__ method.
        """
        # We look up the special methods on the type to match the with statement
        _cm_type = type(cm)
        _exit = _cm_type.__exit__
        result = _cm_type.__enter__(cm)
        self._push_cm_exit(cm, _exit)
        return result

    def close(self):
        """Immediately unwind the context stack"""
        self.__exit__(None, None, None)

    def __enter__(self):
        return self

    def __exit__(self, *exc_details):
        # We manipulate the exception state so it behaves as though
        # we were actually nesting multiple with statements
        frame_exc = sys.exc_info()[1]
        def _fix_exception_context(new_exc, old_exc):
            while 1:
                exc_context = new_exc.__context__
                if exc_context in (None, frame_exc):
                    break
                new_exc = exc_context
            new_exc.__context__ = old_exc

        # Callbacks are invoked in LIFO order to match the behaviour of
        # nested context managers
        suppressed_exc = False
        while self._exit_callbacks:
            cb = self._exit_callbacks.pop()
            try:
                if cb(*exc_details):
                    suppressed_exc = True
                    exc_details = (None, None, None)
            except:
                new_exc_details = sys.exc_info()
                # simulate the stack of exceptions by setting the context
                _fix_exception_context(new_exc_details[1], exc_details[1])
                if not self._exit_callbacks:
                    raise
                exc_details = new_exc_details
        return suppressed_exc

Use this as your context manager, then add nested context managers at will:

with ExitStack() as stack:
    managers = [stack.enter_context(my_context(arg)) for arg in items]
    print("processing under", managers)

For your example context manager, this prints:

>>> my_fn(range(3))
('entering', 0)
('entering', 1)
('entering', 2)
('processing under', [0, 1, 2])
('exiting', 2)
('exiting', 1)
('exiting', 0)

You can also install the contextlib2 module; it includes ExitStack as a backport.