When is a returned MemoryStream released in WCF?

Question

In the following scenario I want to return just a string because that's what the spec says but to do that I have to return a stream and I just want to make sure than I don't keep too many streams around for too long. The method looks like:

[WebGet(BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare,
    RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml,
    ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml,
    UriTemplate = "someuri/{parameter}")]
[OperationContract]
public Stream FooBar(string parameter)
{
    byte[] bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("some string");
    return new MemoryStream(bytes);
}

Does anyone know when this resource is released?

Answer 1

I would think by the GC, as for a normal object: when all references to it have gone.

And that is not bad, MemoryStream does implement IDisposable but doesn't really need it.

Answer 2

I've been doing some research and found a few interesting articles on the topic:

• Closing Returned Streams in WCF
• WCF Streaming: Upload files over HTTP

Hope that might be helpful!