[X]My Assistant

[dmhzx]

Hi, I'm working on my first vb .net programme. A backup utility featuring recursive calls.
It is all working fine until it comes to a file that is locked by another process.

The line that errors is this

CODE

FromFile.CopyTo(ToFileName, True)

I get an exception thrown
"System.IO.IOException: 'The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a portion of the file."
With VBA I could trap such an error and ask the code to continue to the next line, but am struggling with how to do that in VB .Net.

It look like I need a Try/Catch and Finally bit of code, but can't work out how to do it.
All help appreciated.

Thanks

David

[jleach]

I don't think you can do that in .NET.

A try/catch is typically how you'd handle exceptions, but once you get to the catch block, I don't know that you can return to the next line of execution in the try block.

Why would you want to? If the file is locked, why continue?

Alternatively, check of a file lock prior to trying to execute IO on it. There's still a potential race condition, but at least then you can use a simple If statement to bypass it (if you feel you really need to).

[dmhzx]

Hi folks: FWIW I found A solution, which works - I need to refine it a bit,but any comments would be appreciated

CODE

Try
                    FromFile.CopyTo(ToFileName, True)

                Catch ex As System.IO.IOException
                    If ex.HResult = -2147024863 Or ex.HResult = -2147024864 Then ' these are the two exceptions found sofar
                    Else
                        MsgBox(ex.HResult & " - " & ex.Message)
                    End If

                End Try

I think I just need to put "Return" after the message box - But I will do that later.

[projecttoday]

Try this.

When I tried to find documention on a .CopyTo method what I got was a string operation. So where did you get this? How do you specify the source file?

[dmhzx]

Thanks Jack:
In this case I only have the one line of code in the try statement, and I discovered that the default actions is in effect 'resume next' in VBA speak.

I will also look at catching the fact that the file is locked. It's all good learning

David

[dmhzx]

Hi Robert:
I pick up the source and destination folder for a couple of text boxes on a form, together with some Booleand covering what is to be copied, and if subfolders are wanted.
Here is the whole sub that does the work

CODE

Private Sub CopyNow(FromFolder As String, ToFolder As String, Newer As Boolean, NotThere As Boolean, CopyAll As Boolean, AndSubs As Boolean, ByRef Examined As Long, ByRef Copied As Long)

        Dim FromFile As FileInfo

        Dim fldrSource As DirectoryInfo


      
        Dim OKtoCopy As Boolean


        Dim ToFileExists As Boolean
        Dim ToFileName As String

        fldrSource = FileIO.FileSystem.GetDirectoryInfo(FromFolder)



        For Each FromFile In fldrSource.GetFiles
            ToFileName = ToFolder & "\" & FromFile.Name
            ToFileExists = IO.File.Exists(ToFileName)
            Examined = Examined + 1


            If NotThere = True And ToFileExists = False Then
                OKtoCopy = True
            ElseIf CopyAll = True Then
                OKtoCopy = True
            ElseIf Newer = True Then

                If ToFileExists Then
                    If FromFile.LastWriteTime > IO.File.GetLastWriteTime(ToFileName) Then
                        OKtoCopy = True
                    Else
                        OKtoCopy = False
                    End If
                Else 'tofile doesn't exist
                    OKtoCopy = True




                End If
            Else
                OKtoCopy = False

            End If

            If OKtoCopy = True Then
                If Directory.Exists(ToFolder) Then

                Else
                    Directory.CreateDirectory(ToFolder)
                End If

                Try
                    Copied = Copied + 1
                    FromFile.CopyTo(ToFileName, True)

                Catch ex As System.IO.IOException
                    If ex.HResult = -2147024863 Or ex.HResult = -2147024864 Then
                        Copied = Copied - 1
                    Else
                        MsgBox(ex.HResult & " - " & ex.Message)
                    End If

                End Try


            End If


        Next
        If AndSubs = True Then
            For Each fldrSource In fldrSource.GetDirectories
                FromFolder = fldrSource.FullName
                ToFolder = Replace(FromFolder, Me.txtCopyFrom.Text, txtCopyTo.Text)
                Call CopyNow(FromFolder, ToFolder, Newer, NotThere, CopyAll, AndSubs, Examined, Copied)

            Next
        End If


    End Sub

Happy to explain any of the steps, and happy to receive any comments. (Please be gentle with me, this is my first ever vb .net piece of work)

[projecttoday]

This is your first vb.net program? My reaction is it's quite complex! I don't believe I've ever done such a file manipulation program. In any language. This type of file manipulation makes me think either you're programming a utility or there is a design issue. Or maybe neither.

[dmhzx]

Hi Robert:
Yes it IS intended as a utility.

I've written similar ones using Excel and Access as the 'holder' of the user interface, and it seemed like a reasonable start for VB.net.
(I didn't see much point in a "Hello World")

So I knew more or less how I wanted it to go, and it was in effect a 'translation' exercise -- and wasn't easy !!..
Very simple requirement
To back up files from one place to another, using a simple copy process.
User to select source and destination folders
User to chose
Copy all
Copy only Newer
Copy only those missing
Whether subfolders are wanted.

Program to display at the end how many files were looked at and how many were copied.

Next problem: How to turn that into an exe file.

Thanks for the input

David

[projecttoday]

You're welcome.

Not sure you can do that with vb.

[jleach]

>> Next problem: How to turn that into an exe file <<

Set the Project Type as a Console Application (right click the project and select Properties, or in the VS menu: Project -> Properties - it'll be on the Application tab in the properties).

When you change it to a Console App, it'll need a static main void entry point. I don't work with VB.NET (we use C#), so I can't give the exact syntax, but I'm sure you can find it online. The C# equivalent will be:

CODE

public static void main(string[] args)

... in VB you'll have the same in a slightly different syntax. The single argument, "args" will be an array of strings, which will hold your commandline parameters (split by space, but you can use quotations to delimit a value with spaces in).

hth

[dmhzx]

As a final update, I did manage to get an installation package with a Setup.exe to install it all as an application.

Can't remember exactly how I got there in then end, but the final step was an option to "Publish" the application. (And it was a lot easier than doing it with Access and the runtime).

I now have my backup utility available from my desktop..


Thanks for all the pointers

David

[FrankRuperto]

Including these at the begining and refactoring your code would simplify your console program.

CODE

Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO
Imports System.Environment

Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO Namespace
Properties and methods for working with drives, files, and directories, e.g. My.Computer.FileSystem

Environment Class
For retrieving information such as command-line args, exit codes, environment variable settings, call stack contents, time since last system boot, CLR version.
This post has been edited by FrankRuperto: Nov 11 2019, 10:57 AM