OGR DeleteDataSource not working properly in Python

Question

I have a small Python script which is supposed to delete a shapefile in case the file is empty.

import sys
from osgeo import ogr
drv = ogr.GetDriverByName("ESRI Shapefile")
ds = drv.Open(inData)
if ds is None:
 print "Could not open file."
 sys.exit(1)
lyr = ds.GetLayer() 
if lyr.GetFeatureCount() == 0:
 drv.DeleteDataSource(inData)

everything seems to work fine. The shapefile consists of

• shapefile.dbf
• shapefile.prj
• shapefile.shp
• shapefile.shx

whereas only the *.prj and *.shx get deleted. the *.dbf and *.shp are untouched. Is there anything I am missing?

Answer 1

found the problem:

the files were still busy from the check if it contains geometries.

 ds=None
 lyr=None

Setting both variables = None before actually deleting the file solves the problem.