How to get the process ID that catches a certain file

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I wanted to delete all temporary files in the temp folder of the current user. For this purpose I wrote the following code

C#

string s = System.IO.Path.GetTempPath();
Console.WriteLine(s);
DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(s);
FileInfo[] fi = di.GetFiles();
foreach (FileInfo f in fi)
{
  f.Delete();
}

I then was faced with a problem that some files may be used by some processes and finally they won't be deleted and an exception would be trigger at the line

C#

f.delete()

I thought that I'd better get the process ID that catches each file and kill it. The question is how to get that process id.

OP's additional information moved from non-solution below
When I know the process that catches a file I can activate the screen that represent this process and ask the user to save/cancel , or if the process in the background I can warn the user that the this process catches this file and you may lost work. This program with this ability would be similar to the SHUT DOWN warning process that the windows do.

Posted 15-Dec-12 4:49am

Tarek Elqusi

Updated 15-Dec-12 22:08pm

Nelek

v2

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OriginalGriff · Answer 1 · 2012-12-15T05:05:00

Solution 1

Why would you want to delete temporary files which are in use? Since you do not know what the process is doing with them, you could potentially lose the user a lot of work by identifying and killing the process.

Why not just detect the locked file, and ignore it? Use a try...catch block round the delete and ignore the exception (but be sure to comment why you ignore it!)

Posted 15-Dec-12 5:05am

OriginalGriff

Comments

Nelek 15-Dec-12 13:13pm

Good advice.

Jibesh 15-Dec-12 16:31pm

Agree with you Griff.

[no name] 16-Dec-12 0:28am

my vote Griff

Krunal Rohit · Answer 2 · 2012-12-15T18:21:00

Solution 3

You can use Process.Id Property[^] or else Process.GetProcesses[^]

Hope it will help you... :)

Posted 15-Dec-12 18:21pm

Krunal Rohit

Jibesh · Answer 3 · 2012-12-15T18:47:00

Solution 4

I think this is what you need. http://www.kartmann.org/freeware/WhoSLocking/ReadMe.htm[^]

The process who locked your file trying to delete. they have share the source code too. have a look at that.

Posted 15-Dec-12 18:47pm

Jibesh

RajeshwarReddy@.Net · Answer 4 · 2012-12-15T19:44:00

I think intially you need to know whether the file is in use and if not you can .
delete it.

Add this function which returns whether the file is in open.

C#

public static bool IsFileInUse(string pathToFile)
    {
        if (!System.IO.File.Exists(pathToFile))
        {
            // File doesn't exist, so we know it's not in use.
            return false;
        }

        bool inUse = false;
        System.IO.FileStream fs;
        try
        {
            fs = System.IO.File.Open(pathToFile, System.IO.FileMode.OpenOrCreate, System.IO.FileAccess.Read, System.IO.FileShare.None);
            fs.Close();

DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(pathToFile));
FileInfo[] fi = di.GetFiles();
foreach (FileInfo f in fi)
{
  f.Delete();
}
        }
        catch (System.IO.IOException ex)
        {
            string exMess = ex.Message;
            inUse = true;
        }
        return inUse;
    }

If the file is in open and if you know the process name which it takes in task manager you can forcefully delete the process which releases the files.

Code for killing that particular process.

Here I've taken Acrobat reader as the process which opens the PDF files.

C#

public void KillProcess()
{
    try
    {
        foreach (Process process in Process.GetProcesses())
        {
            if (process.ProcessName == "AcroRd32")
            {
                process.Kill();
            }
        }
    }
    catch (Exception exception)
    {
        
    }
}