Best way to determine if two path reference to same file in C#

by

As far as I can see (1) (2) (3) (4), the way JDK7 does it, is by calling GetFileInformationByHandle on the files and comparing dwVolumeSerialNumber, nFileIndexHigh and nFileIndexLow.

Per MSDN:

You can compare the VolumeSerialNumber and FileIndex members returned in the BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION structure to determine if two paths map to the same target; for example, you can compare two file paths and determine if they map to the same directory.

I do not think this function is wrapped by .NET, so you will have to use P/Invoke.

It might or might not work for network files. According to MSDN:

Depending on the underlying network components of the operating system and the type of server connected to, the GetFileInformationByHandle function may fail, return partial information, or full information for the given file.

A quick test shows that it works as expected (same values) with a symbolic link on a Linux system connected using SMB/Samba, but that it cannot detect that a file is the same when accessed using different shares that point to the same file (FileIndex is the same, but VolumeSerialNumber differs).

More Related Contents:

  1. Can you call Directory.GetFiles() with multiple filters?
  2. How do I check if a given string is a legal/valid file name under Windows?
  3. Recommended ServiceStack API Structure
  4. Wait Until File Is Completely Written
  5. How to get a path to the desktop for current user in C#?
  6. Asp.net Core 2 API POST Objects are NULL?
  7. How can I compare (directory) paths in C#?
  8. Getting the folder name from a full filename path
  9. Is there a faster way to scan through a directory recursively in .NET?
  10. Unique file identifier in windows
  11. Path.Combine absolute with relative path strings
  12. Determining if file exists using c# and resolving UNC path
  13. C# JSON.NET convention that follows Ruby property naming conventions?
  14. How to get the colour of a pixel at X,Y using c#?
  15. Can I simply ‘read’ a file that is in use?
  16. How do I include subclasses in Swagger API documentation/ OpenAPI specification using Swashbuckle?
  17. What is the best way to get the executing exe’s path in .NET?
  18. How can I pass a pointer to an array using p/invoke in C#?
  19. Atomicity of File.Move
  20. .NET virus scanning API
  21. Strings sent through Web API’s gets wrapped in quotes
  22. How do I find the parent directory in C#?
  23. How to perform “nslookup host server”
  24. How do I detect when a directory or file changes without constant scanning
  25. How do you Screen Scrape? [closed]
  26. Where is the correct place to store my application specific data?
  27. click on a button in another application from my C# application?
  28. Find a file within all possible folders?
  29. Writing to file in a thread safe manner
  30. C# how to use WM_GETTEXT / GetWindowText API / Window Title

Leave a Comment