Include list of processes that have the file open in IOException message on Windows
@adamsitnik is already working on this.
Since Jan 16, 2025.
Assessment
This issue has not been assessed yet.
Description
Description
Windows's Restart Manage allows to query for process that have a file open:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/restartmanager/nf-restartmanager-rmgetlist
This Win32 API is used by msbuild and Roslyn to provide better error message to users, when a build task or the compiler attempts to write to a file that's locked by another process. Having this info in the error message makes it easier to diagnose intermittent file locking issues (e.g. on CI).
The proposal is to move this code to runtime and automatically list process names and ids in the message of System.IO.IOException (The process cannot access the file ... because it is being used by another process.). Possibly allow controlling it by an AppContext switch, so that a host app could decide whether or not to include this information in all instances of IOException caused by access to a file used by another process.
Reproduction Steps
n/a
Expected behavior
The message of System.IO.IOException is
The process cannot access the file ... because it is being used by another process. The file may be locked by <app name> (<pid>), <app name> (<pid>), ...
Actual behavior
The message of System.IO.IOException does not include process information:
The process cannot access the file ... because it is being used by another process.
Regression?
no
Known Workarounds
No response
Configuration
No response
Other information
No response
- Dominant language
- C#
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