Windows File System API Reference

This section provides comprehensive documentation for the Windows API functions related to file system operations. You can find details on creating, reading, writing, deleting, and managing files and directories, as well as handling file attributes and security permissions.

File Operations

Explore the functions for interacting with individual files:

Function	Description
`CreateFile`	Creates or opens a file or I/O device.
`ReadFile`	Reads data from a file or I/O device.
`WriteFile`	Writes data to a file or I/O device.
`CloseHandle`	Closes an open object handle.
`DeleteFile`	Deletes a specified file.
`MoveFile`	Moves an existing file or directory.
`CopyFile`	Copies an existing file to a new location.

Directory Operations

Manage directories and their contents:

Function	Description
`CreateDirectory`	Creates a directory.
`RemoveDirectory`	Removes an empty directory.
`FindFirstFile` / `FindNextFile`	Enumerates files and directories in a specified directory.
`GetCurrentDirectory`	Retrieves the current working directory of the calling process.
`SetCurrentDirectory`	Changes the current working directory.

File Attributes

Functions for managing file metadata and attributes:

Function	Description
`GetFileAttributes`	Retrieves the file system attributes of a specified file or directory.
`SetFileAttributes`	Sets the file system attributes for a specified file or directory.

Security

Understand how to manage access control for files and directories:

For detailed information on file security and access control lists (ACLs), please refer to the Security and Identity documentation.

Advanced Features

Explore more advanced file system functionalities:

Asynchronous I/O: Learn about non-blocking file operations using Overlapped I/O.
File Mapping: Understand how to map files into the address space of a process for efficient data access.
Volume Management: Discover APIs for querying and managing disk volumes.
Transacted Operations: Explore the possibility of atomic file system operations using Transactional NTFS (TxF).

Example: Reading a file


#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    HANDLE hFile;
    char buffer[256];
    DWORD bytesRead;

    hFile = CreateFile(
        "example.txt",            // File name
        GENERIC_READ,             // Desired access
        FILE_SHARE_READ,          // Share mode
        NULL,                     // Security attributes
        OPEN_EXISTING,            // Creation disposition
        FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL,    // Flags and attributes
        NULL);                    // Template file

    if (hFile == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
        printf("Error opening file: %lu\n", GetLastError());
        return 1;
    }

    if (ReadFile(hFile, buffer, sizeof(buffer) - 1, &bytesRead, NULL)) {
        buffer[bytesRead] = '\0'; // Null-terminate the string
        printf("File content:\n%s\n", buffer);
    } else {
        printf("Error reading file: %lu\n", GetLastError());
    }

    CloseHandle(hFile);
    return 0;
}