What is the proper way to receive a file as a parameter when writing a C# cmdlet? So far I just have a property LiteralPath (aligning with their parameter naming convention) that is a string. This is a problem because you just get whatever is typed into the console; which could be the full path or could be a relative path.
Using Path.GetFullPath(string) doesn't work. It thinks I'm currently at ~, I'm not. Same problem occurs if I change the property from a string to a FileInfo.
EDIT: For anyone interested, this workaround is working for me:
SessionState ss = new SessionState();
Directory.SetCurrentDirectory(ss.Path.CurrentFileSystemLocation.Path);
LiteralPath = Path.GetFullPath(LiteralPath);
LiteralPath is the string parameter. I'm still interested in learning what is the recommended way to handle file paths that are passed as parameters.
EDIT2: This is better, so that you don't mess with the users current directory, you should set it back.
string current = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();
Directory.SetCurrentDirectory(ss.Path.CurrentFileSystemLocation.Path);
LiteralPath = Path.GetFullPath(LiteralPath);
Directory.SetCurrentDirectory(current);
This is a surprisingly complex area, but I have a ton of experience here. In short, there are some cmdlets that accept win32 paths straight from the System.IO APIs, and these typically use a -FilePath parameter. If you want to write a well behaved "powershelly" cmdlet, you need -Path and -LiteralPath, to accept pipeline input and work with relative and absolute provider paths. Here's an excerpt from a blog post I wrote a while ago:
Paths in PowerShell are tough to understand [at first.] PowerShell Paths - or PSPaths, not to be confused with Win32 paths - in their absolute forms, they come in two distinct flavours:
Provider-qualified: FileSystem::c:\temp\foo.txt
PSDrive-qualified: c:\temp\foo.txt
It's very easy to get confused over provider-internal (The ProviderPath property of a resolved System.Management.Automation.PathInfo – the portion to the right of :: of the provider-qualified path above) and drive-qualified paths since they look the same if you look at the default FileSystem provider drives. That is to say, the PSDrive has the same name (C) as the native backing store, the windows filesystem (C). So, to make it easier for yourself to understand the differences, create yourself a new PSDrive:
ps c:\> new-psdrive temp filesystem c:\temp\
ps c:\> cd temp:
ps temp:\>
Now, let's look at this again:
Provider-qualified: FileSystem::c:\temp\foo.txt
Drive-qualified: temp:\foo.txt
A bit easier this time to see what’s different this time. The bold text to the right of the provider name is the ProviderPath.
So, your goals for writing a generalized provider-friendly Cmdlet (or advanced function) that accepts paths are:
Define a LiteralPath path parameter aliased to PSPath
Define a Path parameter (which will resolve wildcards / glob)
Always assume you are receiving PSPaths, NOT native provider-paths (e.g. Win32 paths)
Point number three is especially important. Also, obviously LiteralPath and Path should belong in mutually exclusive parameter sets.
Relative Paths
A good question is: how do we deal with relative paths being passed to a Cmdlet. As you should assume all paths being given to you are PSPaths, let’s look at what the Cmdlet below does:
ps temp:\> write-zip -literalpath foo.txt
The command should assume foo.txt is in the current drive, so this should be resolved immediately in the ProcessRecord or EndProcessing block like (using the scripting API here to demo):
$provider = $null;
$drive = $null
$pathHelper = $ExecutionContext.SessionState.Path
$providerPath = $pathHelper.GetUnresolvedProviderPathFromPSPath(
"foo.txt", [ref]$provider, [ref]$drive)
Now you everything you need to recreate the two absolute forms of PSPaths, and you also have the native absolute ProviderPath. To create a provider-qualified PSPath for foo.txt, use $provider.Name + “::” + $providerPath. If $drive is not $null (your current location might be provider-qualified in which case $drive will be $null) then you should use $drive.name + ":\" + $drive.CurrentLocation + "\" + "foo.txt" to get a drive-qualified PSPath.
Quickstart C# Skeleton
Here's a skeleton of a C# provider-aware cmdlet to get you going. It has built in checks to ensure it has been handed a FileSystem provider path. I am in the process of packaging this up for NuGet to help others get writing well-behaved provider-aware Cmdlets:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Management.Automation;
using Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands;
namespace PSQuickStart
{
[Cmdlet(VerbsCommon.Get, Noun,
DefaultParameterSetName = ParamSetPath,
SupportsShouldProcess = true)
]
public class GetFileMetadataCommand : PSCmdlet
{
private const string Noun = "FileMetadata";
private const string ParamSetLiteral = "Literal";
private const string ParamSetPath = "Path";
private string[] _paths;
private bool _shouldExpandWildcards;
[Parameter(
Mandatory = true,
ValueFromPipeline = false,
ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = true,
ParameterSetName = ParamSetLiteral)
]
[Alias("PSPath")]
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty]
public string[] LiteralPath
{
get { return _paths; }
set { _paths = value; }
}
[Parameter(
Position = 0,
Mandatory = true,
ValueFromPipeline = true,
ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = true,
ParameterSetName = ParamSetPath)
]
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty]
public string[] Path
{
get { return _paths; }
set
{
_shouldExpandWildcards = true;
_paths = value;
}
}
protected override void ProcessRecord()
{
foreach (string path in _paths)
{
// This will hold information about the provider containing
// the items that this path string might resolve to.
ProviderInfo provider;
// This will be used by the method that processes literal paths
PSDriveInfo drive;
// this contains the paths to process for this iteration of the
// loop to resolve and optionally expand wildcards.
List<string> filePaths = new List<string>();
if (_shouldExpandWildcards)
{
// Turn *.txt into foo.txt,foo2.txt etc.
// if path is just "foo.txt," it will return unchanged.
filePaths.AddRange(this.GetResolvedProviderPathFromPSPath(path, out provider));
}
else
{
// no wildcards, so don't try to expand any * or ? symbols.
filePaths.Add(this.SessionState.Path.GetUnresolvedProviderPathFromPSPath(
path, out provider, out drive));
}
// ensure that this path (or set of paths after wildcard expansion)
// is on the filesystem. A wildcard can never expand to span multiple
// providers.
if (IsFileSystemPath(provider, path) == false)
{
// no, so skip to next path in _paths.
continue;
}
// at this point, we have a list of paths on the filesystem.
foreach (string filePath in filePaths)
{
PSObject custom;
// If -whatif was supplied, do not perform the actions
// inside this "if" statement; only show the message.
//
// This block also supports the -confirm switch, where
// you will be asked if you want to perform the action
// "get metadata" on target: foo.txt
if (ShouldProcess(filePath, "Get Metadata"))
{
if (Directory.Exists(filePath))
{
custom = GetDirectoryCustomObject(new DirectoryInfo(filePath));
}
else
{
custom = GetFileCustomObject(new FileInfo(filePath));
}
WriteObject(custom);
}
}
}
}
private PSObject GetFileCustomObject(FileInfo file)
{
// this message will be shown if the -verbose switch is given
WriteVerbose("GetFileCustomObject " + file);
// create a custom object with a few properties
PSObject custom = new PSObject();
custom.Properties.Add(new PSNoteProperty("Size", file.Length));
custom.Properties.Add(new PSNoteProperty("Name", file.Name));
custom.Properties.Add(new PSNoteProperty("Extension", file.Extension));
return custom;
}
private PSObject GetDirectoryCustomObject(DirectoryInfo dir)
{
// this message will be shown if the -verbose switch is given
WriteVerbose("GetDirectoryCustomObject " + dir);
// create a custom object with a few properties
PSObject custom = new PSObject();
int files = dir.GetFiles().Length;
int subdirs = dir.GetDirectories().Length;
custom.Properties.Add(new PSNoteProperty("Files", files));
custom.Properties.Add(new PSNoteProperty("Subdirectories", subdirs));
custom.Properties.Add(new PSNoteProperty("Name", dir.Name));
return custom;
}
private bool IsFileSystemPath(ProviderInfo provider, string path)
{
bool isFileSystem = true;
// check that this provider is the filesystem
if (provider.ImplementingType != typeof(FileSystemProvider))
{
// create a .NET exception wrapping our error text
ArgumentException ex = new ArgumentException(path +
" does not resolve to a path on the FileSystem provider.");
// wrap this in a powershell errorrecord
ErrorRecord error = new ErrorRecord(ex, "InvalidProvider",
ErrorCategory.InvalidArgument, path);
// write a non-terminating error to pipeline
this.WriteError(error);
// tell our caller that the item was not on the filesystem
isFileSystem = false;
}
return isFileSystem;
}
}
}
Cmdlet Development Guidelines (Microsoft)
Here is some more generalized advice that should help you out in the long run:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms714657%28VS.85%29.aspx
Related
I try to get the Full Path of a File. ie. calc
Input: calc
Expected output: C:\WINDOWS\system32\calc.exe
I could find out how to do it with PowerShell:
(Get-Command calc).Source
Or with CommandLine:
where.exe calc
But unfortunately I can not get it done with C#.
The documentation for Get-Command says:
Get-Command * gets all types of commands, including all of the non-PowerShell files in the Path environment variable ($env:Path), which it lists in the Application command type.
So we will need to get the Path environment variable and iterate over the directories it lists, looking for files with extensions that indicate the file is a program, for example "*.com" and "*.exe".
The problem with the Path environment variable is that it can become polluted with non-existent directories, so we will have to check for those.
The case of the filename and extension don't matter, so case-insensitive comparisons need to be made.
static void ShowPath(string progName)
{
var extensions = new List<string> { ".com", ".exe" };
string envPath = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("Path");
var dirs = envPath.Split(new char[] { ';' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
foreach (string d in dirs.Where(f => Directory.Exists(f)))
{
foreach (var f in (Directory.EnumerateFiles(d).
Where(thisFile => extensions.Any(h => Path.GetExtension(thisFile).Equals(h, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)))))
{
if (Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(f).Equals(progName, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
{
Console.WriteLine(f);
return;
}
}
}
Console.WriteLine("Not found.");
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
ShowPath("calc");
Console.ReadLine();
}
Output:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\calc.exe
There is always the possibility that the current user does not have permission to list the files from somewhere in the path, so checks should be added for that. Also, you might want to use StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase for the comparison.
You can get the Pathenvironment variable, split it with ; as delimiter and loop over that result. Then, check if the file path + #"\" + name + ".exe" exists.
var findMe = "calc";
var pathes = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("Path").Split(';');
foreach (var path in pathes)
{
var testMe = $#"{path}\{findMe}.exe";
if (File.Exists(testMe))
{
Console.WriteLine(testMe);
}
}
This outputs :
C:\WINDOWS\system32\calc.exe
I do not know about any way of doing that exact thing from C# either. However the paths are usually well known and can be retreived via the SpecialFolders Enumeration:
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
namespace RunAsAdmin
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
/*Note: Running a batch file (.bat) or similar script file as admin
Requires starting the interpreter as admin and handing it the file as Parameter
See documentation of Interpreting Programm for details */
//Just getting the Absolute Path for Notepad
string windir = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Windows);
string FullPath = Path.Combine(windir, #"system32\notepad.exe");
//The real work part
//This is the programm to run
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(FullPath);
//This tells it should run Elevated
startInfo.Verb = "runas";
//And that gives the order
//From here on it should be 100% identical to the Run Dialog (Windows+R), except for the part with the Elevation
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(startInfo);
}
}
}
I did not just use System (37) back then, as I wrote it when x32/x86 Systems were still a thing. You would need to check how it resolves nowadays.
Note that most of those paths are duplicated in the PATH System Variable, so you could look it up: https://www.architectryan.com/2018/03/17/add-to-the-path-on-windows-10/
Path Variables in turn go back to the old DOS days. Basically if you gave the Commandline a command/filename it would try the build-in commands, then Executables in the current working Directory (.bat, .com, .exe), and then go look over the path directories to again look for executeables. And only if all that failed, would it complain.
I finally tried to combine all three answers and came up with this:
I post it here in case someone has the same problem.
public static string[] GetPathOf(string cmd)
{
var list = new List<string>();
list.AddRange(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("path", EnvironmentVariableTarget.Machine).Split(';'));
list.AddRange(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("path", EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process).Split(';'));
list.AddRange(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("path", EnvironmentVariableTarget.User).Split(';'));
list = list.Distinct().Where(e=>Directory.Exists(e)).SelectMany(e=> new DirectoryInfo(e).GetFiles()).Where(e=>Regex.IsMatch(e.Name,"(?i)^"+cmd+"\\.(?:exe|cmd|com)")).Select(e=>e.FullName).ToList();
return list.ToArray();
}
Maybe someone knows a simple solution to my problem.
I do not know the entry of the file so it's not a static value.
It can be changed through the BizTalk gui and there we have a URI through the receiveport. But I do not believe it's accessible that easy. What I want to do is write out the full path as the filename. It works well with the messageID where the file is given a specific filepath name. But the Path-Name where the file was dropped is not working that well.
I keep getting this error :
Message:
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
the message resource is present but the message is not found in the string/message table
-Does not say me much
Below you can see a snip from my code
internal static string UpdateMacroPathProperty(IBaseMessage baseMessage, string macroPathProperty, string macroDefsFile)
{
if (macroName == "MessageID")
{
contextPropertyValue = baseMessage.MessageID.ToString();
}
else if (macroName == "SourceFileName")
{
contextPropertyValue = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();
}
}
This is an specific created pipeline. Has anyone encountered this problem or can point me in the right way.
I know that BizTalk has a built in function for this, BizTalk Server: List of Macros as the %SourceFileName% but I'm trying to save this as logs in a specific map structure so that it does not get processed.
It's adapter dependent; some adapters will use the FILE adapter's namespace even though they're not the file adapter, but this is the kind of logic that I've used in the past for this:
string adapterType = (string)pInMsg.Context.Read("InboundTransportType",
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003/system-properties");
string filePath = null;
if (adapterType != null)
{
if (adapterType == "FILE")
{
filePath = (string)pInMsg.Context.Read("ReceivedFileName",
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003/file-properties");
}
else if (adapterType.Contians("SFTP") && !adapterType.Contains("nsoftware"))
// nsoftware uses the FTP schema
{
filePath = (string)pInMsg.Context.Read("ReceivedFileName",
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2012/Adapter/sftp-properties");
}
else if (adapterType.Contains("FTP"))
{
filePath = (string)pInMsg.Context.Read("ReceivedFileName",
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003/ftp-properties");
}
}
And then you can just fall back to the MessageID if you can't get the file path from any of these.
This question already has answers here:
See if file path is inside a directory
(2 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
How can I check in C# if the specific path is to directory in "Program Files" ?
C:\Program Files\someDir... -> is in Program Files
D:\Apps\someDir... -> isn't in Program Files
Thanks!
You can check a path in ProgramFiles(x86) by using the code below:
string path = "yourpath";
var programfileX86 = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86);
if (path.IndexOf(programfileX86, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) >= 0)
{
//Found path
}
There're some interseting and subtle issues with the problem:
You should compare paths case insenstive, e.g. "C:\PRogRAM FILES (x86)\Sample" is OK
Separators could be either / or \ so "C:/PRogRAM FILES (x86)/Sample" is OK as well
You should break on separatos only, e.g. "C:\Program Files (x86)MyData\Sample" is not OK
The Code:
public static Boolean PathIncludes(String path, String pathToInclude) {
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(pathToInclude))
return false;
else if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(path))
return false;
String[] parts = Path.GetFullPath(path).Split(Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar, Path.DirectorySeparatorChar, Path.VolumeSeparatorChar);
String[] partsToInclude = Path.GetFullPath(pathToInclude).Split(Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar, Path.DirectorySeparatorChar, Path.VolumeSeparatorChar);
if (parts.Length < partsToInclude.Length)
return false;
for (int i = 0; i < partsToInclude.Length; ++i)
if (!String.Equals(parts[i], partsToInclude[i], StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
return false;
return true;
}
public static Boolean InProgramFiles(String path) {
return PathIncludes(path, Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86)));
}
// Tests:
// Supposing that ProgramFilesX86 is "C:\Program Files (x86)"
InProgramFiles(#"C:\PRogRAM FILES (x86)\Sample"); // <- true
InProgramFiles(#"C:/PRogRAM FILES (x86)/Sample"); // <- true
InProgramFiles(#"D:/PRogRAM FILES (x86)/Sample"); // <- false
InProgramFiles(#"C:/PRogRAM FILES (x86)A/Sample"); // <- false
First you need to get the program files path. You can do that with System.Environment:
var programFilesPath = System.Environment.GetFolderPath(System.Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles);
If you want the 32 bit program files path you would just change the special folder you are looking for (System.Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86). Then I would do a contains:
var isInProgramFiles = myPath.ToLower().Contains(programFilesPath.ToLower());
That should get you 90% of the way there at least! Best of luck!
EDIT / Sanitize Note
As a side note - there are situations where you can have a valid input and this still wouldn't match. For example - using "/" instead of "\". If you want to make sure you handle these boundary cases correctly, you can create a "DirectoryInfo" object from your input string, validate that it is actually a folder and also standardize the formatting for it. That code looks something like:
if (!System.IO.Directory.Exists(inputPath)) return false;
var checkPath = (new System.IO.DirectoryInfo(inputPath)).FullName;
In this example "inputPath" is the same as "myPath" was above. That should do a moderately good job of sanitizing the input. Best of luck!
If you have a path variable:
string path = "/* whatever path */";
You can check if it is in a folder subfolder this way:
path.IndexOf('\\' + subfolder + '\\') != -1
Note that in more complex cases .. may revert you out of a subdirectory, meaning that you are not in folder f2 if you have something like this:
"\\base_on_drive\\subfolder\\f1\\f2\\..\\a_file.txt"
The .. will bump you back into it's parent folder f1.
if (path.Contains(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles)) || (path.Contains(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86)))
{
}
Assuming your program might be running inside of ProgramFiles, you will probably want to get the fullpath of any path you're checking (in case you get a relative path). In addition, C# has a handy SpecialFolder enumeration that you can use to get the ProgramFiles directory.
The following code will take in a path, convert it to a fullpath, and check if the ProgramFiles directory can be found inside of it. You may want to add some error handling (such as checking for null paths).
static string programfileX86 = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86);
public bool IsInsideProgramFiles(string path)
{
// Get the fullpath in case 'path' is a relative path
string fullPath = System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(path);
return (fullPath.IndexOf(programfileX86, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) >= 0);
}
Note: Depending on the systems your code is running in, you may want to check for both SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles and SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesx86.
Credit goes to Toan Nguyen's for the code to get the ProgramFiles directory:
i am trying to use the various file functions in C# like File.GetLastWriteTime, copy command on the file placed at the path greater than maximum allowed path on windows 7 i.e 260. Its giving me an error on long path name. On MSDN support i they have asked to use the \\?\ before the path. I did the same but still i got the same error, it seems it doesn't make any change. Below is my code. Please let me know if i am using it correct or i need to add any thing:
These all lib i am using as the code is having other things also:
the below is the respective code:
filesToBeCopied = Directory.GetFiles(path,"*",SearchOption.AllDirectories);
for (int j = 0; j < filesToBeCopied.Length; j++)
{
try
{
String filepath = #"\\?\" + filesToBeCopied[j];
File.GetLastWriteTime(filepath);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
MessageBox.Show("Error Inside the single file iteration for the path:" +
filesToBeCopied[j] + " . The exception is :" + ex.Message);
}
}
where as path is the path to the folder at windows machine starting with drive letter. for ex.: d:\abc\bcd\cd\cdc\dc\..........
Here's a solution for at least the copying portion of your request (thank you pinvoke.net):
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
static extern bool CopyFile(string lpExistingFileName, string lpNewFileName, bool bFailIfExists);
And then to actually copy your file:
// Don't forget the '\\?\' for long paths
string reallyLongPath = #"\\?\d:\abc\bcd\cd\cdc\dc\..........";
string destination = #"C:\some\other\path\filename.txt";
CopyFile(reallyLongPath , destination, false);
As far as I know, you can't access a file directly if its path is too long (by directly, I mean using the methods of File, by creating a FileInfo via the constructor, or by using Directory.GetFiles(string fileName).
The only way I've found that will let you access such a file is to access a directory somewhere in the path before it gets too long, and then programatically walk down the tree until you get to your file, as seen here.
I've taken my code from there and modified it a little to return a FileInfo object for a file with a path that is "too long". Using this code, you can access the necessary properties on the returned FileInfo object (like LastWriteTime). It still has some limitations though, like the inability to use functions like CopyTo() or OpenText().
// Only call GetFileWithLongPath() if the path is too long
// ... otherwise, new FileInfo() is sufficient
private static FileInfo GetFile(string path)
{
if (path.Length >= MAX_FILE_PATH)
{
return GetFileWithLongPath(path);
}
else return new FileInfo(path);
}
static int MAX_FILE_PATH = 260;
static int MAX_DIR_PATH = 248;
private static FileInfo GetFileWithLongPath(string path)
{
string[] subpaths = path.Split('\\');
StringBuilder sbNewPath = new StringBuilder(subpaths[0]);
// Build longest sub-path that is less than MAX_PATH characters
for (int i = 1; i < subpaths.Length; i++)
{
if (sbNewPath.Length + subpaths[i].Length >= MAX_DIR_PATH)
{
subpaths = subpaths.Skip(i).ToArray();
break;
}
sbNewPath.Append("\\" + subpaths[i]);
}
DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(sbNewPath.ToString());
bool foundMatch = dir.Exists;
if (foundMatch)
{
// Make sure that all of the subdirectories in our path exist.
// Skip the last entry in subpaths, since it is our filename.
// If we try to specify the path in dir.GetDirectories(),
// We get a max path length error.
int i = 0;
while (i < subpaths.Length - 1 && foundMatch)
{
foundMatch = false;
foreach (DirectoryInfo subDir in dir.GetDirectories())
{
if (subDir.Name == subpaths[i])
{
// Move on to the next subDirectory
dir = subDir;
foundMatch = true;
break;
}
}
i++;
}
if (foundMatch)
{
// Now that we've gone through all of the subpaths, see if our file exists.
// Once again, If we try to specify the path in dir.GetFiles(),
// we get a max path length error.
foreach (FileInfo fi in dir.GetFiles())
{
if (fi.Name == subpaths[subpaths.Length - 1])
{
return fi;
}
}
}
}
// If we didn't find a match, return null;
return null;
}
Now that you've seen that, go rinse your eyes and shorten your paths.
try with this code
var path = Path.Combine(#"\\?\", filesToBeCopied[j]); //don't forget extension
"\?\" prefix to a path string tells the Windows APIs to disable all string parsing and to send the string that follows it straight to the file system.
Important : Not all file I/O APIs support "\?\", you should look at the reference topic for each API
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/11/filesystem-paths-how-long-is-too-long.html
I recently imported some source code for a customer that exceeded the maximum path limit of 256 characters.
The path you pasted was 285 characters long.
As you noted in your comment, MSDN's link here (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247%28VS.85%29.aspx#maximum%5Fpath%5Flength) explains this length in greater detail:
In the Windows API (with some exceptions discussed in the following paragraphs), the maximum length for a path is MAX_PATH, which is defined as 260 characters. A local path is structured in the following order: drive letter, colon, backslash, name components separated by backslashes, and a terminating null character. For example, the maximum path on drive D is "D:\some 256-character path string" where "" represents the invisible terminating null character for the current system codepage. (The characters < > are used here for visual clarity and cannot be part of a valid path string.)
With respect to the \\?\ functionality:
Many but not all file I/O APIs support "\?\"; you should look at the reference topic for each API to be sure.
My goal is to check, if DirectoryInfo.FullName is one of the special folders.
Here is what I'm doing for this (Check directoryInfo.FullName to each special folder if they are equal):
DirectoryInfo directoryInfo = new DirectoryInfo("Directory path");
if (directoryInfo.FullName == Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Windows) ||
directoryInfo.FullName == Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles ||)
...
...
)
{
// directoryInfo is the special folder
}
But there are many special folders (Cookies, ApplicationData, InternetCache, etc.). Is there any way to do this task more efficiently?
Thanks.
Try this following code :
bool result = false;
DirectoryInfo directoryInfo = new DirectoryInfo("Directory path");
foreach (Environment.SpecialFolder suit in Enum.GetValues(typeof(Environment.SpecialFolder)))
{
if (directoryInfo.FullName == Environment.GetFolderPath(suit))
{
result = true;
break;
}
}
if (result)
{
// Do what ever you want
}
hope this help.
I'm afraid the answers given seem to be the only way, I hate the special folders because what ought to be a very simple function -
void CollectFiles(string strDir, string pattern) {
DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(strDir);
foreach(FileInfo fi in di.GetFiles(pattern) {
//store file data
}
foreach(DirectoryInfo diInfo in di.GetDirectories()) {
CollectFiles(diInfo);
}
}
Becomes ugly because you have to include
Check If This Is A Special Folder And Deal With It And Its Child Folders Differently ();
Fair enough Microsoft, to have a folder that could exist anywhere, on a remote PC, on a server etc. But really what is wrong with the UNIX/Linux way, use links to folder and if the destination physical folder has to move, alter the link. Then you can itterate them in a nice neat function treating them all as if ordinary folders.
I don't have enough reputation to add a comment so as a +1 to BobRassler's answer, string comparisons might be more useful.
bool isSpecialFolder = false;
DirectoryInfo directoryInfo = new DirectoryInfo(Path.Combine(tbx_FolderName.Text, fileName));
foreach (Environment.SpecialFolder specialFolder in Enum.GetValues(typeof(Environment.SpecialFolder)))
{
if (directoryInfo.FullName.ToString()
.ToLower() ==
Environment.GetFolderPath(specialFolder)
.ToLower())
{
isSpecialFolder = true;
break;
}
}
if (isSpecialFolder)
{
// something
}
else
{
// something else
}
Use a reflection to get all values from that enum, like here http://geekswithblogs.net/shahed/archive/2006/12/06/100427.aspx and check against collection of generated paths you get.
I ended up using it this way:
public static bool IsSpecialFolder(DirectoryInfo directoryInfo, out Environment.SpecialFolder? _specialFolder) {
bool isSpecialFolder = false;
_specialFolder = null;
string directoryInfo_FullPath = directoryInfo.FullName;
foreach (Environment.SpecialFolder specialFolder in Enum.GetValues(typeof(Environment.SpecialFolder))) {
var specialFolder_FullPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(specialFolder);
if (string.Equals(directoryInfo_FullPath, specialFolder_FullPath, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)) {
isSpecialFolder = true;
_specialFolder = specialFolder;
break;
}
}
return isSpecialFolder;
}
If handling strings from dubious sources (the user :-) ), there are three caveats to keep in mind:
Path.Combine vs. Path.Join, since they handle absolute paths (or paths that look like absolute paths) differently.
Path.GetFullPath, which takes a string an produces the full and normalized version of it.
GetFolderPath can return an empty string, which generates a System.ArgumentException: 'The path is empty. (Parameter 'path')' when used for creating a DirectoryInfo.
I like to keep this logic outside the method, but I am not sure if the OrdinalIgnoreCase or any other normalization is still necessary. I guess not.
P.S.: I think in modern lingo the method should be called TrySpecialFolder or something :-)