Can you keep a StreamReader from disposing the underlying stream?

Question

Is there a way to do this:

this.logFile = File.Open("what_r_u_doing.log", FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.ReadWrite);

using(var sr = new StreamReader(this.logFile))
{
    // Read the data in
}

// ... later on in the class ...

this.logFile = File.Open("what_r_u_doing.log", FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.ReadWrite);

using(var sw = new StreamWriter(this.logFile))
{
    // Write additional data out...
}

Without having to open the file twice?

I can't seem to make the StreamReader not-dispose my stream. I don't want to just let it go out of scope, either. Then the garbage collector will eventually call the Dispose, killing the stream.

Answer 1

Close it yourself in a try/finally clause when you're done with it.

var sr = new StreamReader();
try {
    //...code that uses sr
    //....etc
}
finally
{
    sr.Close();
}

Answer 2

Just remove the using-Block. You don't have to Dispose() the StreamReader if you don't want to do Dispose() the stream, I think.

Answer 3

You should dispose that file handle as soon as possible, even you need to reopen it again later, just like you probably do with your database connection.

If you don't want to get your file handled disposed, you should drop your using.

Answer 4

I don't want to just let it go out of scope, either. Then the garbage collector will eventually call the Dispose, killing the stream.

Garbage collector will call the Finalize method (destructor), not the Dispose method. The finalizer will call Dispose(false) which will not dispose the underlying stream. You should be OK by leaving the StreamReader go out of scope if you need to use the underlying stream directly. Just make sure you dispose the underlying stream manually when it's appropriate.

Answer 5

You could use the NonClosingStreamWrapper class from Jon Skeet's MiscUtil library, it serves exactly that purpose

Answer 6

You could create a new class which inherits from StreamReader and override the Close method; inside your Close method, call Dispose(false), which as Mehrdad pointed out, does not close the stream. Same applies to StreamWriter, of course.

However, it seems like a better solution would simply be to hold onto the StreamReader and StreamWriter instances as long as you may need them. If you're already planning to keep the stream open, you might as well keep a StreamReader and StreamWriter open also. If you use StreamWriter.Flush and Stream.Seek correctly, you should be able to make this work even when doing both reading and writing.