Mono implements a small subset of the Win32 API for some file system interaction, I/O, thread and process operations.
On Windows, Mono uses directly the services provided by the operating system. On other operating system it uses its own implementation (referred to as the "io-layer" or "wapi").
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The handle to release
Closes and invalidates handle, releasing any resources it consumes. When the last handle to a temporary or non-persistent object is closed, that object can be deleted. Closing the same handle twice is an error. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise.
Parameters
Remarksname: a pointer to a NULL-terminated unicode string, that names
the file to be copied. dest_name: a pointer to a NULL-terminated unicode string, that is the new name for the file. fail_if_exists: if TRUE and dest_name exists, the copy will fail. Copies file name to dest_name Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise.
Parameters
Remarksname: a pointer to a NULL-terminated unicode string, that names
the directory to be created. security: ignored for now Creates directory name Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise.
Parameters
Remarkssecurity: Ignored for now. manual: Specifies whether the new event handle has manual or auto
reset behaviour. initial: Specifies whether the new event handle is initially signalled or not. name:Pointer to a string specifying the name of this name, or %NULL. Currently ignored. Creates a new event handle. An event handle is signalled with SetEvent(). If the new handle is a manual reset event handle, it remains signalled until it is reset with ResetEvent(). An auto reset event remains signalled until a single thread has waited for it, at which time the event handle is automatically reset to unsignalled. Return value: A new handle, or %NULL on error.
Parameters
Remarksname: a pointer to a NULL-terminated unicode string, that names
the file or other object to create. fileaccess: specifies the file access mode sharemode: whether the file should be shared. This parameter is currently ignored. security: Ignored for now. createmode: specifies whether to create a new file, whether to overwrite an existing file, whether to truncate the file, etc. attrs: specifies file attributes and flags. On win32 attributes are characteristics of the file, not the handle, and are ignored when an existing file is opened. Flags give the library hints on how to process a file to optimise performance. template: the handle of an open %GENERIC_READ file that specifies attributes to apply to a newly created file, ignoring attrs. Normally this parameter is NULL. This parameter is ignored when an existing file is opened. Creates a new file handle. This only applies to normal files: pipes are handled by CreatePipe(), and console handles are created with GetStdHandle(). Return value: the new handle, or %INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE on error.
Parameters
Remarkssecurity: Ignored for now. owned: If %TRUE, the mutex is created with the calling thread
already owning the mutex. name:Pointer to a string specifying the name of this mutex, or %NULL. Creates a new mutex handle. A mutex is signalled when no thread owns it. A thread acquires ownership of the mutex by waiting for it with WaitForSingleObject() or WaitForMultipleObjects(). A thread relinquishes ownership with ReleaseMutex(). A thread that owns a mutex can specify the same mutex in repeated wait function calls without blocking. The thread must call ReleaseMutex() an equal number of times to release the mutex. Return value: A new handle, or %NULL on error.
Parameters
Remarkssecurity: Ignored for now. initial: The initial count for the semaphore. The value must be
greater than or equal to zero, and less than or equal to max. max: The maximum count for this semaphore. The value must be greater than zero. name: Pointer to a string specifying the name of this semaphore, or %NULL. Currently ignored. Creates a new semaphore handle. A semaphore is signalled when its count is greater than zero, and unsignalled otherwise. The count is decreased by one whenever a wait function releases a thread that was waiting for the semaphore. The count is increased by calling ReleaseSemaphore(). Return value: a new handle, or NULL
Parameters
Remarksname: a pointer to a NULL-terminated unicode string, that names
the file to be deleted. Deletes file name. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise.
Parameters
Remarksfile_time: Points to a %WapiFileTime structure that contains the
number of ticks to convert. system_time: Points to a %WapiSystemTime structure to receive the broken-out time. Converts a tick count into broken-out time values. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise.
Parameters
Remarkswapi_handle: the find handle to close.
Closes find handle wapi_handle Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: Handle to open file. The handle must have
%GENERIC_WRITE access. Flushes buffers of the file and causes all unwritten data to be written. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise.
Parameters
Remarkslength: size of the buffer buffer: pointer to buffer that recieves path
Retrieves the current directory for the current process. Return value: number of characters in buffer on success, zero on failure
Remarks
Looks up the thread ID of the current thread. This ID can be passed to OpenThread() to create a new handle on this thread. Return value: the thread ID. NB this is defined as DWORD (ie 32 bit) in the MS API, but we need to cope with 64 bit IDs for s390x and amd64. This doesn't really break the API, it just embraces and extends it on 64bit platforms :)
Parameters
Remarksname: a pointer to a NULL-terminated unicode filename. level: must be GetFileExInfoStandard info: pointer to a WapiFileAttributesData structure
Gets attributes, size and filetimes for name; Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE on failure
Parameters
Remarksname: a pointer to a NULL-terminated unicode filename.
Gets the attributes for name; Return value: %INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES on failure
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The file handle to query. The handle must have
%GENERIC_READ or %GENERIC_WRITE access. highsize: If non-%NULL, the high 32 bits of the file size are stored here. Retrieves the size of the file handle. If the library is compiled without large file support, highsize has its value set to zero on a successful return. Return value: On success, the low 32 bits of the file size. If highsize is non-%NULL then the high 32 bits of the file size are stored here. On failure %INVALID_FILE_SIZE is returned.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The file handle to query. The handle must have
%GENERIC_READ access. create_time: Points to a %WapiFileTime structure to receive the number of ticks since the epoch that file was created. May be %NULL. last_access: Points to a %WapiFileTime structure to receive the number of ticks since the epoch when file was last accessed. May be %NULL. last_write: Points to a %WapiFileTime structure to receive the number of ticks since the epoch when file was last written to. May be %NULL. Finds the number of ticks since the epoch that the file referenced by handle was created, last accessed and last modified. A tick is a 100 nanosecond interval. The epoch is Midnight, January 1 1601 GMT. Create time isn't recorded on POSIX file systems or reported by stat(2), so that time is guessed by returning the oldest of the other times. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The file handle to test.
Finds the type of file handle. Return value: %FILE_TYPE_UNKNOWN - the type of the file handle is unknown. %FILE_TYPE_DISK - handle is a disk file. %FILE_TYPE_CHAR - handle is a character device, such as a console. %FILE_TYPE_PIPE - handle is a named or anonymous pipe.
Remarks
Retrieves the last error that occurred in the calling thread. Return value: The error code for the last error that happened on the calling thread.
Parameters
Remarksstdhandle: specifies the file descriptor
Returns a handle for stdin, stdout, or stderr. Always returns the same handle for the same stdhandle. Return value: the handle, or %INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE on error
Parameters
Remarksname: a pointer to a NULL-terminated unicode string, that names
the file to be moved. dest_name: a pointer to a NULL-terminated unicode string, that is the new name for the file. Renames file name to dest_name. MoveFile sets ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS if the destination exists, except when it is the same file as the source. In that case it silently succeeds. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The event handle.
Sets the event handle handle to the signalled state, and then resets it to unsignalled after informing any waiting threads. If handle is a manual reset event, all waiting threads that can be released immediately are released. handle is then reset. If handle is an auto reset event, one waiting thread is released even if multiple threads are waiting. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise. (Currently only ever returns %TRUE).
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The file handle to read from. The handle must have
%GENERIC_READ access. buffer: The buffer to store read data in numbytes: The maximum number of bytes to read bytesread: The actual number of bytes read is stored here. This value can be zero if the handle is positioned at the end of the file. overlapped: points to a required %WapiOverlapped structure if handle has the %FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED option set, should be NULL otherwise. If handle does not have the %FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED option set, this function reads up to numbytes bytes from the file from the current file position, and stores them in buffer. If there are not enough bytes left in the file, just the amount available will be read. The actual number of bytes read is stored in bytesread. If handle has the %FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED option set, the current file position is ignored and the read position is taken from data in the overlapped structure. Return value: %TRUE if the read succeeds (even if no bytes were read due to an attempt to read past the end of the file), %FALSE on error.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The mutex handle.
Releases ownership if the mutex handle handle. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise. This function fails if the calling thread does not own the mutex handle.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The semaphore handle to release. count: The amount by which the semaphore's count should be
increased. prevcount: Pointer to a location to store the previous count of the semaphore, or %NULL. Increases the count of semaphore handle by count. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise.
Parameters
Remarksname: a pointer to a NULL-terminated unicode string, that names
the directory to be removed. Removes directory name Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The event handle.
Resets the event handle handle to the unsignalled state. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise. (Currently only ever returns %TRUE).
Parameters
Remarkspath: path to new directory
Changes the directory path for the current process. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE on failure.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The file handle to set. The handle must have
%GENERIC_WRITE access. Moves the end-of-file position to the current position of the file pointer. This function is used to truncate or extend a file. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The event handle
Sets the event handle handle to the signalled state. If handle is a manual reset event, it remains signalled until it is reset with ResetEvent(). An auto reset event remains signalled until a single thread has waited for it, at which time handle is automatically reset to unsignalled. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise. (Currently only ever returns %TRUE).
Parameters
Remarksname: name of file attrs: attributes to set
Changes the attributes on a named file. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE on failure.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The file handle to set. The handle must have
%GENERIC_READ or %GENERIC_WRITE access. movedistance: Low 32 bits of a signed value that specifies the number of bytes to move the file pointer. highmovedistance: Pointer to the high 32 bits of a signed value that specifies the number of bytes to move the file pointer, or %NULL. method: The starting point for the file pointer move. Sets the file pointer of an open file. The distance to move the file pointer is calculated from movedistance and highmovedistance: If highmovedistance is %NULL, movedistance is the 32-bit signed value; otherwise, movedistance is the low 32 bits and highmovedistance a pointer to the high 32 bits of a 64 bit signed value. A positive distance moves the file pointer forward from the position specified by method; a negative distance moves the file pointer backward. If the library is compiled without large file support, highmovedistance is ignored and its value is set to zero on a successful return. Return value: On success, the low 32 bits of the new file pointer. If highmovedistance is not %NULL, the high 32 bits of the new file pointer are stored there. On failure, %INVALID_SET_FILE_POINTER.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The file handle to set. The handle must have
%GENERIC_WRITE access. create_time: Points to a %WapiFileTime structure that contains the number of ticks since the epoch that the file was created. May be %NULL. last_access: Points to a %WapiFileTime structure that contains the number of ticks since the epoch when the file was last accessed. May be %NULL. last_write: Points to a %WapiFileTime structure that contains the number of ticks since the epoch when the file was last written to. May be %NULL. Sets the number of ticks since the epoch that the file referenced by handle was created, last accessed or last modified. A tick is a 100 nanosecond interval. The epoch is Midnight, January 1 1601 GMT. Create time isn't recorded on POSIX file systems, and is ignored. Return value: %TRUE on success, %FALSE otherwise.
Parameters
Remarkscode: The error code.
Sets the error code in the calling thread.
Parameters
Remarkssignal_handle: An object to signal wait: An object to wait for timeout: The maximum time in milliseconds to wait for alertable: Specifies whether the function returnes when the system
queues an I/O completion routine or an APC for the calling thread. Atomically signals signal and waits for wait to become signalled, or timeout ms elapses. If timeout is zero, the object's state is tested and the function returns immediately. If timeout is %INFINITE, the function waits forever. signal can be a semaphore, mutex or event object. If alertable is %TRUE and the system queues an I/O completion routine or an APC for the calling thread, the function returns and the thread calls the completion routine or APC function. If %FALSE, the function does not return, and the thread does not call the completion routine or APC function. A completion routine is queued when the ReadFileEx() or WriteFileEx() function in which it was specified has completed. The calling thread is the thread that initiated the read or write operation. An APC is queued when QueueUserAPC() is called. Currently completion routines and APC functions are not supported. Return value: %WAIT_ABANDONED - wait is a mutex that was not released by the owning thread when it exited. Ownershop of the mutex object is granted to the calling thread and the mutex is set to nonsignalled. %WAIT_IO_COMPLETION - the wait was ended by one or more user-mode asynchronous procedure calls queued to the thread. %WAIT_OBJECT_0 - The state of wait is signalled. %WAIT_TIMEOUT - The timeout interval elapsed and wait's state is still not signalled. %WAIT_FAILED - an error occurred.
Parameters
Remarksms: The time in milliseconds to suspend for alertable: if TRUE, the wait can be interrupted by an APC call
Suspends execution of the current thread for ms milliseconds. A value of zero causes the thread to relinquish its time slice. A value of %INFINITE causes an infinite delay.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: a handle to the process to wait for timeout: the maximum time in milliseconds to wait for
This function returns when either handle process is waiting for input, or timeout ms elapses. If timeout is zero, the process state is tested and the function returns immediately. If timeout is %INFINITE, the function waits forever. Return value: 0 - handle process is waiting for input. %WAIT_TIMEOUT - The timeout interval elapsed and handle process is not waiting for input. %WAIT_FAILED - an error occurred.
Parameters
Remarksnumobjects: The number of objects in handles. The maximum allowed
is %MAXIMUM_WAIT_OBJECTS. handles: An array of object handles. Duplicates are not allowed. waitall: If %TRUE, this function waits until all of the handles are signalled. If %FALSE, this function returns when any object is signalled. timeout: The maximum time in milliseconds to wait for. alertable: if TRUE, the wait can be interrupted by an APC call
This function returns when either one or more of handles is signalled, or timeout ms elapses. If timeout is zero, the state of each item of handles is tested and the function returns immediately. If timeout is %INFINITE, the function waits forever. Return value: %WAIT_OBJECT_0 to %WAIT_OBJECT_0 + numobjects - 1 - if waitall is %TRUE, indicates that all objects are signalled. If waitall is %FALSE, the return value minus %WAIT_OBJECT_0 indicates the first index into handles of the objects that are signalled. %WAIT_ABANDONED_0 to %WAIT_ABANDONED_0 + numobjects - 1 - if waitall is %TRUE, indicates that all objects are signalled, and at least one object is an abandoned mutex object (See WaitForSingleObject() for a description of abandoned mutexes.) If waitall is %FALSE, the return value minus %WAIT_ABANDONED_0 indicates the first index into handles of an abandoned mutex. %WAIT_TIMEOUT - The timeout interval elapsed and no objects in handles are signalled. %WAIT_FAILED - an error occurred. %WAIT_IO_COMPLETION - the wait was ended by an APC.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: an object to wait for timeout: the maximum time in milliseconds to wait for alertable: if TRUE, the wait can be interrupted by an APC call
This function returns when either handle is signalled, or timeout ms elapses. If timeout is zero, the object's state is tested and the function returns immediately. If timeout is %INFINITE, the function waits forever. Return value: %WAIT_ABANDONED - handle is a mutex that was not released by the owning thread when it exited. Ownership of the mutex object is granted to the calling thread and the mutex is set to nonsignalled. %WAIT_OBJECT_0 - The state of handle is signalled. %WAIT_TIMEOUT - The timeout interval elapsed and handle's state is still not signalled. %WAIT_FAILED - an error occurred. %WAIT_IO_COMPLETION - the wait was ended by an APC.
Parameters
Remarkshandle: The file handle to write to. The handle must have
%GENERIC_WRITE access. buffer: The buffer to read data from. numbytes: The maximum number of bytes to write. byteswritten: The actual number of bytes written is stored here. If the handle is positioned at the file end, the length of the file is extended. This parameter may be %NULL. overlapped: points to a required %WapiOverlapped structure if handle has the %FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED option set, should be NULL otherwise. If handle does not have the %FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED option set, this function writes up to numbytes bytes from buffer to the file at the current file position. If handle is positioned at the end of the file, the file is extended. The actual number of bytes written is stored in byteswritten. If handle has the %FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED option set, the current file position is ignored and the write position is taken from data in the overlapped structure. Return value: %TRUE if the write succeeds, %FALSE on error.
The extended APIs provide access to a few internals of the WAPI stack that are not exposed through the standard Win32 APIs.
Remarks
Clear the wait handle of the current thread.