DirectoryInfo.GetFiles is broken

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Jonathan Allen - 30 Sep 2004 21:19 GMT

MSDN> "The matching behavior of searchPattern when the extension is exactly
three characters long is different from when the extension is more than
three characters long. A searchPattern of exactly three characters returns
files having an extension of three or more characters. A searchPattern of
one, two, or more than three characters returns only files having extensions
of exactly that length."

WHAT THE <BLEEP> WERE THEY THINKING!

Ok, not that I have that out of my system...

For what possible reason did MS decide that "*.abc" should be interpreted as
"*.abc*"?

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Jonathan Allen

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James Curran - 30 Sep 2004 22:25 GMT

> For what possible reason did MS decide that "*.abc" should be interpreted as
> "*.abc*"?

Because when you say "*.abc", it doesn't know if you are referring to
the file's longname or it's shortname. A file name "1234567890.abcdef" has
a short name of "123456~1.abc" which matches your pattern.

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James Curran
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> MSDN> "The matching behavior of searchPattern when the extension is exactly
> three characters long is different from when the extension is more than
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> Ok, not that I have that out of my system...

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Greg Burns - 01 Oct 2004 15:09 GMT

Ah, now that at least sheds some light on the issue.

Now, why cannot Willy and I get the same results...

Greg

>> For what possible reason did MS decide that "*.abc" should be interpreted
> as
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> has
> a short name of "123456~1.abc" which matches your pattern.

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Willy Denoyette [MVP] - 30 Sep 2004 22:46 GMT

Not sure what OS .NET version you are running, but it works as expected on
XP SP2 with .NET v1.1 SP1.

so if a directory contains:
readme.abc
and
readme.abcde

GetfFiles(*.abc")
only returns readme.abc

Willy.

> MSDN> "The matching behavior of searchPattern when the extension is
> exactly
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> as
> "*.abc*"?

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Greg Burns - 30 Sep 2004 23:58 GMT

My XP SP2 with .NET v1.1 w/o SP1 works just as the documentation states.

GetfFiles("*.abc") finds:

c:\readme.abc
c:\readme.abcde

JUST WHAT THE <BLEEP> WERE THEY THINKING? :^)

I'll try it again after installing SP1 and see what happens...

Greg

Imports System
Imports System.IO

Public Class Test
Public Shared Sub Main()
Try
Dim di As DirectoryInfo = New DirectoryInfo("c:\")

Console.WriteLine("The number of files in {0} ending with .abc
is {1}", _
di, di.GetFiles("*.abc").Length)

Catch e As Exception
Console.WriteLine("The process failed: {0}", e.ToString())
End Try

Console.ReadLine()
End Sub
End Class

> Not sure what OS .NET version you are running, but it works as expected on
> XP SP2 with .NET v1.1 SP1.
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
>> as
>> "*.abc*"?

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Greg Burns - 01 Oct 2004 13:37 GMT

> I'll try it again after installing SP1 and see what happens...

FYI: SP1 behaves the same way. As would be expected.

Greg

> My XP SP2 with .NET v1.1 w/o SP1 works just as the documentation states.
>
[quoted text clipped - 60 lines]
>>> interpreted as
>>> "*.abc*"?

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Willy Denoyette [MVP] - 01 Oct 2004 14:46 GMT

>> I'll try it again after installing SP1 and see what happens...
>
> FYI: SP1 behaves the same way. As would be expected.
>
> Greg

On XP SP2 and .NET v1.1 SP2

public static void Main()
{
string[] dirs = Directory.GetFiles(@"f:\", "*.abc");
Console.WriteLine("The number of files is {0}.", dirs.Length);
foreach (string dir in dirs)
{
Console.WriteLine(dir);
}
}

prints:
The number of files is 1.
f:\readme.abc

when f:\ contains redme.abc and readme.abcde
as expected.

Willy.

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Greg Burns - 01 Oct 2004 15:06 GMT

>>> I'll try it again after installing SP1 and see what happens...
>>
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>
> Willy.

Your code on my box shows both files! Only change I made was to put my test
files on C: drive.

The number of files is 2.
c:\readme.abc
c:\readme.abcde

Not sure what "is to be expected". Common sense says one thing. The
documentation says another. All my test have followed what the docs say.

Greg

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace ConsoleApplication2
{
/// <summary>
/// Summary description for Class1.
/// </summary>
class Class1
{
/// <summary>
/// The main entry point for the application.
/// </summary>
[STAThread]
public static void Main()
{
string[] dirs = Directory.GetFiles(@"c:\", "*.abc");
Console.WriteLine("The number of files is {0}.", dirs.Length);
foreach (string dir in dirs)
{
Console.WriteLine(dir);
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}

}

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Willy Denoyette [MVP] - 01 Oct 2004 16:21 GMT

> Your code on my box shows both files! Only change I made was to put my
> test files on C: drive.
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> Greg

Directory.GetFiles calls Win32 API's FindFirstFile - FindNextFile , so IMO
"the expected behavior" is what these API return.
To be sure I wrote following C program, and the results are exactly the same
when run with f:\*.abc as argument.

#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x0400
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
WIN32_FIND_DATA FindFileData;
HANDLE hFind = FindFirstFile(argv[1], &FindFileData);
printf ("First file: %s\n", FindFileData.cFileName);
while (FindNextFile(hFind, &FindFileData))
{
printf ("Next file: %s\n", FindFileData.cFileName);
}
FindClose(hFind);
return (0);
}

Note that the FS is NTFS and I have NET v2.0 beta installed as well.

Willy.

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Joep - 01 Oct 2004 15:09 GMT

On XP Pro, VS.NET Pro 7.1.3088, Net 1.1.4322 SP1 I get both. I will try SP2
and see what that gets me.

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DirectoryInfo.GetFiles is broken

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