Develop Reference

How to delete and copy to folder correctly in C#?

My co-worker and me got a little IT troll battle and I wanted to make an .exe in C# that copies itself to autostart when launched and then shuts down the PC. I got this to work but after a reboot I get an exception that the file already exists. Now I tried to delete it with File.Delete(#Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Startup), fileName));
but I get another exception System.IO.FileNotFoundException: that says it couldn't find "C:\Windows\system32\Test.exe" (Test.exe is the program) I cant post the full error because its in german so, yea.
Is there a way to just ignore the exception and overwrite it anyways?
Here is my full code:
String fileName = String.Concat(Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName, ".exe");
String filePath = Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, fileName);
File.Delete(#Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Startup), fileName));
File.Copy(filePath, Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Startup), fileName));
Process.Start("shutdown", "/s /t 0");

Use the override of File.Copy that takes a third argument for overwrite.
File.Copy(filePath, Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Startup), fileName), true);

c# webbrowser coding to navigate local to html

I'm trying to put a local html location address to the web browser in my C# application but always failed. I'm using debug mode now so the html files had already copied into my Debug folder because i put copy always in the copy to output option.
Below is my code:
string appPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase);
string filePath = Path.Combine(appPath, "index.html");
webBrowser1.Navigate(new System.Uri(#"file://"+ filePath));
There always this error coming out using that way:
An unhandled exception of type 'System.UriFormatException' occurred in System.dll
Any idea what went wrong?

Its a bit unclear but try this out. Hope this may help.
webBrowser1.Navigate(new Uri(#"your File Name"))
Or
webBrowser1.Navigate(new Uri(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory == "\\File Name")
Edit:
May be this causing error,
webBrowser1.Navigate(new System.Uri("#" filePath + "file://"));

You just need to change your code slightly - here is the correct syntax:
string appPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase);
string filePath = Path.Combine(appPath, "index.html");
webBrowser1.Navigate(new System.Uri(filePath));
The issue is that CodeBase returns the path in URI format already so you do not need to add the additional the "file://" to the path.

Directory.Move(): Access to Path is Denied

I'm writing this Windows Form Application in Visual Studio 2010 using C#.
There is a Execute button on the form, the user will hit the button, the program will generate some files and are stored in the Output folder (which is created by the program using Directory.CreateDirectory())
I want to create an Archive folder to save the output files from previous runs.
In the beginning of each run, I try to move the existing Output folder to the Archive folder, then create a new Output folder. Below is the function I ran to move directory.
static void moveToArchive()
{
if (!Directory.Exists("Archive")) Directory.CreateDirectory("Archive");
string timestamp = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmms");
try
{
Directory.Move("Output", "Archive\\" + timestamp);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Can not move folder: " + e.Message);
}
}
The problem I ran into confuses me a lot...
There are some times that I can successfully move the Output folder to archive, but sometimes it fails.
The error message I got from catching the exception is Access to path 'Output' is denied.
I have checked that all the files in the Output folder are not in use. I don't understand how access is denied sometimes and not all the times.
Can someone explain to me and show me how to resolve the problem?
--Edit--
After HansPassant comment, I modified the function a little to get the current directory and use the full path. However, I'm still having the same issue.
The function now looks like this:
static void moveToArchive()
{
string currentDir = Environment.CurrentDirectory;
Console.WriteLine("Current Directory = " + currentDir);
if (!Directory.Exists(currentDir + "\\Archive")) Directory.CreateDirectory(currentDir + "\\Archive");
string timestamp = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmms");
try
{
Directory.Move(currentDir + "\\Output", currentDir + "\\Archive\\" + timestamp);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Can not move folder: " + e.Message);
}
}
I printed out the current directory and it is just as what I was expecting, and I'm still having trouble using full path. Access to path 'C:\Users\Me\Desktop\FormApp\Output' is denied.
--Edit--
Thank you everyone for answering and commenting.
I think some of you miss this part so I'm going stress it a bit more.
The Directory.Move() sometimes work and sometimes fails.
When the function succeed, there was no problem. Output folder is moved to Archive
When the function fails, the exception message I got was Access to path denied.

Thank you all for the replies and help. I have figured out what the issue was.
It is because there was a file that's not completely closed.
I was checking the files that were generated, and missed the files the program was reading from.
All files that were generated were closed completely. It was one file I used StreamReader to open but didn't close. I modified the code and am now not having problem, so I figure that's were the issue was.
Thanks for all the comments and answers, that definitely help me with thinking and figuring out the problem.

See http://windowsxp.mvps.org/processlock.htm
Sometimes, you try to move or delete a file or folder and receive access violation or file in use - errors. To successfully delete a file, you will need to identify the process which has locked the file. You need to exit the process first and then delete the particular file. To know which process has locked a file, you may use one of the methods discussed in this article.
Using Process Explorer - download from http://download.sysinternals.com/files/ProcessExplorer.zip
Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.
Download Process Explorer from Microsoft site and run the program.
Click the Find menu, and choose Find Handle or DLL...
Type the file name (name of the file which is locked by some process.)
After typing the search phrase, click the Search button
You should see the list of applications which are accessing the file.

I bumped on the same problem recently. Using PE I'd figured that only process using that particular directory was explorer.exe. I'd opened few windows with explorer, one pointing to parent directory of one that I was about to move.
It appeared, that after I visited that sub-folder and then returned (even to root level!) the handle was still being kept by explorer, so C# was not able to modify it in any way (changing flags, attributes etc.).
I had to kill that explorer window in order to made C# operate properly.

File.SetAttributes(Application.dataPath + "/script", FileAttributes.Normal);
Directory.Move(Application.dataPath + "/script", Application.dataPath + "/../script");
This fixed my problem.

Try this:
If this does not solve, maybe check/change the antivirus, or the some other program is locking some file in or the folder.
static object moveLocker = new object();
static void moveToArchive()
{
lock (moveLocker)
{
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(2000); // Give sometime to ensure all file are closed.
//Environment.CurrentDirectory = System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
string applicationPath = System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
string archiveBaseDirectoryPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(applicationPath, "Archive");
if (!Directory.Exists(archiveBaseDirectoryPath)) Directory.CreateDirectory(archiveBaseDirectoryPath);
String timestamp = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmms");
String outputDirectory = System.IO.Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, "Output");
String destinationTS = System.IO.Path.Combine(archiveBaseDirectoryPath, timestamp);
try
{
Directory.Move(outputDirectory, destinationTS);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Can not move folder " + outputDirectory + " to: " + destinationTS + "\n" + ex.Message);
}
}
}

I had the same problem, it failed sometimes but not all the time. I thought I'd wrap it in a Try Catch block and present the user with an Access Denied message and once I wrapped it in the Try Catch block it stopped failing. I can't explain why.
If existingFile.FileName <> newFileName Then
Dim dir As New IO.DirectoryInfo(existingFile.FilePath)
Dim path As String = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(dir.FullName)
newFileName = path & "\" & newFileName
File.SetAttributes(existingFile.FilePath, FileAttributes.Normal)
Try
IO.File.Move(existingFile.FilePath, newFileName)
Catch ex As Exception
End Try
End If

I had a similar problem. Renamed many directories in a loop when following the certain template. From time to time the program crashed on different directories. It helped to add a sleep thread before Directory.Move. I need to create some delay.
But it slows down the copying process.
foreach (var currentFullDirPath in Directory.GetDirectories(startTargetFullDirectory, "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories))
{
var shortCurrentFolderName = new DirectoryInfo(currentFullDirPath).Name.ToLower();
if (shortCurrentFolderName.Contains(shortSourceDirectoryName))
{
// Add Thread.Sleep(1000);
Thread.Sleep(1000);
var newFullDirName = ...;
Directory.Move(currentFullDirPath, newFullDirName);
}
}

System.UnauthorizedAccessException while creating a file

I was trying to write a code so that I could log the error messages. I am trying to name the file with the date and would like to create a new log file for each day. After going through a little look around, I came with the following code...
class ErrorLog
{
public void WriteErrorToFile(string error)
{
//http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa326721.aspx refer for more info
string fileName = DateTime.Now.ToString("dd-MM-yy", DateTimeFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);
//# symbol helps to ignore that escape sequence thing
string filePath = #"c:\users\MyName\mydocuments\visual studio 2012\projects\training\" +
#"discussionboard\ErrorLog\" + fileName + ".txt";
if (File.Exists(filePath))
{
// File.SetAttributes(filePath, FileAttributes.Normal);
File.WriteAllText(filePath, error);
}
else
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(filePath);
// File.SetAttributes(filePath, FileAttributes.Normal)
//Throws unauthorized access exception
RemoveReadOnlyAccess(filePath);
File.WriteAllText(filePath, error);
}
}
public static void RemoveReadOnlyAccess(string pathToFile)
{
FileInfo myFileInfo = new FileInfo(pathToFile);
myFileInfo.IsReadOnly = false;
myFileInfo.Refresh();
}
/*Exception thrown:
* UnAuthorizedAccessException was unhandled.
* Access to the path 'c:\users\anish\mydocuments\visual studio 2012\
* projects\training\discussionboard\ErrorLog\04\12\2013.txt' is denied.
*/
}
I found a forum that has discussed about a similar problem but using
File.SetAttrributes(filePath, FileAttributes.Normal) did not help neither did the RemoveReadOnlyAccess (included in the code above). When I check the properties of the folder, it has read only marked but even when I tick that off it comes back again. I checked the permissions on the folder and except for the special permission, which I was not able to change, everything is allowed.
Any suggestion on how I should proceed would be appreciated.
Why is access to the path denied? the link discusses about a similar problem, but I wasn't able to get my thing working with suggestions listed there.
Thanks for taking time to look at this.

Your path is strange : "My documents" directory must be "C:\Users\MyName\Documents\"
You can use Environment in order to correct it easily :
String myDocumentPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments);
Note that it will acces to "My documents" folder of the user that running your exe.
Second error, CreateDirectory must have a path in argument, not a file. using like you do will create a sub-directory with the file name. So you can't create a file with this name !
Try this :
String fileName = DateTime.Now.ToString("d", DateTimeFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);
String filePath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments)
+ #"\visual studio 2012\projects\training\discussionboard\ErrorLog\";
String fileFullName = filePath + fileName + ".txt";
if (File.Exists(fileFullName ))
{
File.WriteAllText(fileFullName , error);
}
else
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(filePath);
[...]
}
}

Some possible reasons:
your app is not running under account which is allowed to access that path/file
the file is being locked for writing (or maybe reading too) by some other process
The first situation could be solved by checking under which account the process is running and verifying that the account has the appropriate rights.
The other situation can be solved by checking if any other process is locking the file (e.g. use tools like 'WhosLocking' or 'ProcessExplorer'

I had to run my app as an administrator in order to write to protected folders in c:. For example if debugging your app in visual studio make sure to right click on "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" and choose "Run As Administrator". Then open your solution from there. My app was trying to write to the root of c:\

Check your antivirus, it might be blocking the file creation.

How to programmatically convert a .cal file to a .cg4?

In windows explorer I am able to just change the file extension of a .cal file to a .cg4 file. When I do it I get a warning; "changing the file extension might render the file useless, do you still wish to change?" or something like that (OS not in english), but if I click "yes" it works.
But trying to do this programmatically with C# doesn't work. I get an error that states: "The given path's format is not supported."
I'm using File.Move for renaming/converting and that's where the error occurs.
File.Move(directory + fileNameWithoutExtension + ".cal", directory + fileNameWithoutExtension + ".cg4");
What can I do?

does this work?
var pathSource = System.IO.Path.Combine(directory, fileNameWithoutExtension, ".cal");
var pathDest = System.IO.Path.Combine(directory, fileNameWithoutExtension, ".cg4");
File.Move(pathSource, pathDest);
if it also throws an error, check if
fileNameWithoutExtension
already contains the data of
directory