C# file read/write fileshare doesn't appear to work

Question

Hi,

My question is based off of inheriting a great deal of legacy code that I can't do very much about. Basically, I have a device that will produce a block of data. A library which will call the device to create that block of data, for some reason I don't entirely understand and cannot change even if I wanted to, writes that block of data to disk.

This write is not instantaneous, but can take up to 90 seconds. In that time, the user wants to get a partial view of the data that's being produced, so I want to have a consumer thread which reads the data that the other library is writing to disk.

Before I even touch this legacy code, I want to mimic the problem using code I entirely control. I'm using C#, ostensibly because it provides a lot of the functionality I want.

In the producer class, I have this code creating a random block of data:

FileStream theFS = new FileStream(this.ScannerRawFileName, 
  FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.Read);
//note that I need to be able to read this elsewhere...
BinaryWriter theBinaryWriter = new BinaryWriter(theFS);
int y, x;
for (y = 0; y < imheight; y++){
    ushort[] theData= new ushort[imwidth];
    for(x = 0; x < imwidth;x++){
       theData[x] = (ushort)(2*y+4*x);
    }
    byte[] theNewArray = new byte[imwidth * 2];
    Buffer.BlockCopy(theImage, 0, theNewArray, 0, imwidth * 2);
    theBinaryWriter.Write(theNewArray);
    Thread.Sleep(mScanThreadWait); //sleep for 50 milliseconds
    Progress = (float)(y-1 >= 0 ? y-1 : 0) / (float)imheight;
}
theFS.Close();

So far, so good. This code works. The current version (using FileStream and BinaryWriter) appears to be equivalent (though slower, because of the copy) to using File.Open with the same options and a BinaryFormatter on the ushort[] being written to disk.

But then I add a consumer thread:

FileStream theFS;
if (!File.Exists(theFileName)) {
    //do error handling
    return;
}
else {
     theFS = new FileStream(theFileName, FileMode.Open, 
        FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read);
            //very relaxed file opening
}
BinaryReader theReader = new BinaryReader(theFS);

//gotta do this copying in order to handle byte array swaps
//frustrating, but true.
byte[] theNewArray = theReader.ReadBytes(
   (int)(imheight * imwidth * inBase.Progress) * 2);
ushort[] theData = new ushort[((int)(theNewArray.Length/2))];
Buffer.BlockCopy(theNewArray, 0, theData, 0, theNewArray.Length);

Now, it's possible that the declaration of theNewArray is broken, and will cause some kind of read overflow. However, this code never gets that far, because it always always always breaks on trying to open the new FileStream with a System.IO.IOException that states that another process has opened the file.

I'm setting the FileAccess and FileShare enumerations as stated in the FileStream documentation on MSDN, but it appears that I just can't do what I want to do (ie, write in one thread, read in another). I realize that this application is a bit unorthodox, but when I get the actual device involved, I'm going to have to do the same thing, but using MFC.

In any event, What am I forgetting? Is what I'm wanting to do possible, since it's specified as possible in the documentation?

Thanks! mmr

Answer 1

I haven't had time to test this but I think you may need to call the Flush method of the BinaryWriter

FileStream theFS = new FileStream(this.ScannerRawFileName, 
  FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.Read);
//note that I need to be able to read this elsewhere...
BinaryWriter theBinaryWriter = new BinaryWriter(theFS);
int y, x;
for (y = 0; y < imheight; y++){
    ushort[] theData= new ushort[imwidth];
    for(x = 0; x < imwidth;x++){
       theData[x] = (ushort)(2*y+4*x);
    }
    byte[] theNewArray = new byte[imwidth * 2];
    Buffer.BlockCopy(theImage, 0, theNewArray, 0, imwidth * 2);
    theBinaryWriter.Write(theNewArray);
    Thread.Sleep(mScanThreadWait); //sleep for 50 milliseconds
    Progress = (float)(y-1 >= 0 ? y-1 : 0) / (float)imheight;
    theBinaryWriter.Flush();
}
theFS.Close();

Sorry I haven't had time to test this. I ran into an issue with a file I was creating that was similar to this (although not exact) and a missing "Flush" was the culprit.

Answer 2

Your consumer must specify FileShare.ReadWrite.

By trying to open the file as FileShare.Read in the consumer you are saying "I want to open the file and let others read it at the same time" ... since there is already a writer that call fails, you have to allow concurrent writes with the reader.

Answer 3

I believe Chuck is right, but keep in mind The only reason this works at all is because the filesystem is smart enough to serialize your read/writes; you have no locking on the file resource - that's not a good thing :)