mplayer slave mode - can't delete files after watching

Question

Hi

I'm using mplayer in my C# app running in .NET on Windows and Mono on Linux. I start mplayer using Process.Start and run it in -slave -idle.

To play a video, I write to stdin like this:

loadfile {filename}

When I'm ready to play the next video, I call loadfile again with the new filename.

Problem: if I play a video and then sometime go to delete that file, I can't - on Windows I get "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process". I check with Process Explorer and see that mplayer still has a handle open on the file, even though it finished playing it some time ago.

Any ideas on how I can get mplayer to release handles on files that it has finished playing?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Use a pipe.