How to ensure I can replace files in a directory?

Question

I want to completely replace one directory on the file system with another directory in a temp directory. The tricky part is that the files in the folder to be replaced could be being used at any time, causing the replace operation to fail.

I need to somehow wait on an exclusive lock on the directory so that I can delete all of its contents without failing, so I can then move the other directory in to replace it.

To make matters potentially more difficult, the process that is likely to be using the files is my own (via a Lucene.net library and out of my hands). So it can't be a process-level lock it has to be an object-level lock.

Any thoughts on how I might do this? Or should I just keep re-attempting until it succeeds? I guess that's always an option.

Answer 1

If you're replacing the entire directory, you can rename the original directory, then rename to new one to the original name.

Answer 2

The InUse.exe utility from Microsoft will accomplish this, however it requires that the computer be restarted for the changes to take effect. More information: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/228930

Example usage:

c:\Program Files (x86)\Resource Kit>inuse C:\temp\new C:\temp\old /y
InUse - version 1.4
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 1994-1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved
Windows 2000 detected - WFP is enforced
Confirmation suppressed

INUSE is about to replace the following file

        Existing:    C:\temp\old
        No version info available

        Replacement: C:\temp\new
        No version info available

        C:\temp\new is replacing --> C:\temp\old

Changes will not take affect until you reboot.