I've seen several of answers about using Handle or Process Monitor, but I would like to be able to find out in my own code (C#) which process is locking a file.
I have a nasty feeling that I'm going to have to spelunk around in the win32 API, but if anyone has already done this and can put me on the right track, I'd really appreciate the help.
One of the good things about handle.exe is that you can run it as a subprocess and parse the output.
We do this in our deployment script - works like a charm.
This works for dlls locked by other processes. This routine will not find out for example that a textfile is locked by a wordprocess.
C#:
using System.Management;
using System.IO;
static class Module1
{
static internal ArrayList myProcessArray = new ArrayList();
private static Process myProcess;
public static void Main()
{
string strFile = "c:\\windows\\system32\\msi.dll";
ArrayList a = getFileProcesses(strFile);
foreach (Process p in a) {
Debug.Print(p.ProcessName);
}
}
private static ArrayList getFileProcesses(string strFile)
{
myProcessArray.Clear();
Process[] processes = Process.GetProcesses;
int i = 0;
for (i = 0; i <= processes.GetUpperBound(0) - 1; i++) {
myProcess = processes(i);
if (!myProcess.HasExited) {
try {
ProcessModuleCollection modules = myProcess.Modules;
int j = 0;
for (j = 0; j <= modules.Count - 1; j++) {
if ((modules.Item(j).FileName.ToLower.CompareTo(strFile.ToLower) == 0)) {
myProcessArray.Add(myProcess);
break; // TODO: might not be correct. Was : Exit For
}
}
}
catch (Exception exception) {
}
//MsgBox(("Error : " & exception.Message))
}
}
return myProcessArray;
}
}
VB.Net:
Imports System.Management
Imports System.IO
Module Module1
Friend myProcessArray As New ArrayList
Private myProcess As Process
Sub Main()
Dim strFile As String = "c:\windows\system32\msi.dll"
Dim a As ArrayList = getFileProcesses(strFile)
For Each p As Process In a
Debug.Print(p.ProcessName)
Next
End Sub
Private Function getFileProcesses(ByVal strFile As String) As ArrayList
myProcessArray.Clear()
Dim processes As Process() = Process.GetProcesses
Dim i As Integer
For i = 0 To processes.GetUpperBound(0) - 1
myProcess = processes(i)
If Not myProcess.HasExited Then
Try
Dim modules As ProcessModuleCollection = myProcess.Modules
Dim j As Integer
For j = 0 To modules.Count - 1
If (modules.Item(j).FileName.ToLower.CompareTo(strFile.ToLower) = 0) Then
myProcessArray.Add(myProcess)
Exit For
End If
Next j
Catch exception As Exception
'MsgBox(("Error : " & exception.Message))
End Try
End If
Next i
Return myProcessArray
End Function
End Module
I had issues with the above code. Below is a modified version which seems to work well.
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Management;
using System.IO;
static class Module1
{
static internal ArrayList myProcessArray = new ArrayList();
private static Process myProcess;
public static void Main()
{
string strFile = "c:\\windows\\system32\\msi.dll";
ArrayList a = getFileProcesses(strFile);
foreach (Process p in a)
{
Debug.Print(p.ProcessName);
}
}
private static ArrayList getFileProcesses(string strFile)
{
myProcessArray.Clear();
Process[] processes = Process.GetProcesses();
int i = 0;
for (i = 0; i <= processes.GetUpperBound(0) - 1; i++)
{
myProcess = processes[i];
//if (!myProcess.HasExited) //This will cause an "Access is denied" error
if (myProcess.Threads.Count > 0)
{
try
{
ProcessModuleCollection modules = myProcess.Modules;
int j = 0;
for (j = 0; j <= modules.Count - 1; j++)
{
if ((modules[j].FileName.ToLower().CompareTo(strFile.ToLower()) == 0))
{
myProcessArray.Add(myProcess);
break;
// TODO: might not be correct. Was : Exit For
}
}
}
catch (Exception exception)
{
//MsgBox(("Error : " & exception.Message))
}
}
}
return myProcessArray;
}
}
See if any of the answers for "How does one figure out what process locked a file using c#?" work for you.
It is very complex way to invoke Win32 from C#.
You should use tool Handle.exe from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896655.aspx
After that your C# code have to be the following:
string fileName = @"c:\aaa.doc";//Path to locked file
Process tool = new Process();
tool.StartInfo.FileName = "handle.exe";
tool.StartInfo.Arguments = fileName;
tool.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
tool.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
tool.Start();
tool.WaitForExit();
string outputTool = tool.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
string matchPattern = @"(?<=\s+pid:\s+)\b(\d+)\b(?=\s+)";
foreach(Match match in Regex.Matches(outputTool, matchPattern))
{
Process.GetProcessById(int.Parse(match.Value)).Kill();
}