Picamera get back from "Out of resources (other than memory)"

Question

As the picamera has a lot of flexilibity, I have integrated it using boost::python to my C++ program.

In my application I create a PiCamera() instance at the beginning in order to continuously update the awb algorithm. The main problem occurs if the application closes unexpectedly, when I try to run it again I have the following error:

./externalC++App

mmal: mmal_vc_component_enable: failed to enable compononent : ENOSPC
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line, in
...
...
picamera.exc.PiCameraMMALError: Camera component couldn't be enabled: Out of resources (other than memory)

I know that is due to a unreleased camera object in the previous execution (but I couldn't manage it because I got a segmentation error).

Of course, the best solution will be fix all that unexpected endings, but we are in a really early stage so that may occur sometimes (we are working to decrease the amount of such errors).

The main question is, there is a way to check if the camera is busy at the beginning and release it if needed? whether in Python or in command shell, both solutions will work for me.

Answer 1

After Waveform80 made me notice in that GitHub issue that was a problem related with the Boost.Python I tried to find a workaround.

Finally I came up with the following: I forced a Py_Finalize() call at the beginning of my code before a Py_Initialize(), by that way, if the interpreter wasn't properly closed, I do force the closing, and thus release the picamera object, before initializing a new one. Otherwise the Py_Finalize() doesn't take effect.