GetLastError() returs "File Already Exist" in all cases.
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Check if file is in use by other process
Is there any method/win32 call available to check if the file is in use by any other process.
I have a requirement where i need to check if the file is in use or not.
I found that i can try to open the file in a try/catch block and if any exception generates it means that file is being used by some other process. The problem is that this method is resource intensive as some of the files are huge in size and also it is not 100 percent perfect as exception may generate due to some other problems. I need something which has least resource requirement and very light weight and reliable.
Thanks
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Answers
In such case even making a driver to enumerate open handles from kernel mode is not sufficient (because notepad closes the handle after reading).
I'd recommend handling each application individually, e.g. by enumerating windows and reading their titles. The notepad title says, for example, "Notepad - myfile.txt".
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by: GurudenisPosted on 2008-04-22 at 13:50:39ID: 21415465
Using CreateFile (similarly to the method you described) is reliable enough because you can call GetLastError() to see if the error was caused by sharing violation or by any other error. Also, CreateFile doesn't care about the size of the file, so it's not as resource intensive as it may seem. The same applies to CFile, though, because you can learn the reason for error by examining the CFileException object thrown. The only difference is that the exception mechanism is slightly less efficient in terms of runtime.