SetFileInformationByHandle function (fileapi.h)

Article
10/13/2021

Sets the file information for the specified file.

To retrieve file information using a file handle, see GetFileInformationByHandle or GetFileInformationByHandleEx.

Syntax

BOOL SetFileInformationByHandle(
  [in] HANDLE                    hFile,
  [in] FILE_INFO_BY_HANDLE_CLASS FileInformationClass,
  [in] LPVOID                    lpFileInformation,
  [in] DWORD                     dwBufferSize
);

Parameters

[in] hFile

A handle to the file for which to change information.

This handle must be opened with the appropriate permissions for the requested change. For more information, see the Remarks and Example Code sections.

This handle should not be a pipe handle.

[in] FileInformationClass

A FILE_INFO_BY_HANDLE_CLASS enumeration value that specifies the type of information to be changed.

For a table of valid values, see the Remarks section.

[in] lpFileInformation

A pointer to the buffer that contains the information to change for the specified file information class. The structure that this parameter points to corresponds to the class that is specified by FileInformationClass.

For a table of valid structure types, see the Remarks section.

[in] dwBufferSize

The size of lpFileInformation, in bytes.

Return value

Returns nonzero if successful or zero otherwise.

To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

Certain file information classes behave slightly differently on different operating system releases. These classes are supported by the underlying drivers, and any information they return is subject to change between operating system releases.

The following table shows the valid file information classes and their corresponding data structure types for use with this function.

FileInformationClass value	lpFileInformation type
FileBasicInfo 0	FILE_BASIC_INFO
FileRenameInfo 3	FILE_RENAME_INFO
FileDispositionInfo 4	FILE_DISPOSITION_INFO
FileAllocationInfo 5	FILE_ALLOCATION_INFO
FileEndOfFileInfo 6	FILE_END_OF_FILE_INFO
FileIoPriorityHintInfo 12	FILE_IO_PRIORITY_HINT_INFO

You must specify appropriate access flags when creating the file handle for use with SetFileInformationByHandle. For example, if the application is using FILE_DISPOSITION_INFO with the DeleteFile member set to TRUE, the file would need DELETE access requested in the call to the CreateFile function. To see an example of this, see the Example Code section. For more information about file permissions, see File Security and Access Rights.

If there is a transaction bound to the handle, then the changes made will be transacted for the information classes FileBasicInfo, FileRenameInfo, FileAllocationInfo, FileEndOfFileInfo, and FileDispositionInfo. If FileDispositionInfo is specified, only the delete operation is transacted if a DeleteFile operation was requested. In this case, if the transaction is not committed before the handle is closed, the deletion will not occur. For more information about TxF, see Transactional NTFS (TxF).

In Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, this function is supported by the following technologies.

Technology	Supported
Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 protocol	Yes
SMB 3.0 Transparent Failover (TFO)	See comment
SMB 3.0 with Scale-out File Shares (SO)	See comment
Cluster Shared Volume File System (CsvFS)	Yes
Resilient File System (ReFS)	Yes

SMB 3.0 does not support rename of alternate data streams on file shares with continuous availability capability.

Examples

The following C++ example shows how to create a file and mark it for deletion when the handle is closed.

//...
  HANDLE hFile = CreateFile( TEXT("tempfile"), 
                             GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE | DELETE,
                             0 /* exclusive access */,
                             NULL, 
                             CREATE_ALWAYS,
                             0, 
                             NULL);

  if (hFile != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
   {
    FILE_DISPOSITION_INFO fdi;
    fdi.DeleteFile = TRUE; // marking for deletion

    BOOL fResult = SetFileInformationByHandle( hFile, 
                                               FileDispositionInfo, 
                                               &fdi, 
                                               sizeof(FILE_DISPOSITION_INFO) );

    if (fResult)
     {
      // File will be deleted upon CloseHandle.
      _tprintf( TEXT("SetFileInformationByHandle marked tempfile for deletion\n") );

      // ... 
      // Now use the file for whatever temp data storage you need,
      // it will automatically be deleted upon CloseHandle or 
      // application termination.
      // ...
     }
    else
     {
      _tprintf( TEXT("error %lu:  SetFileInformationByHandle could not mark tempfile for deletion\n"), 
                GetLastError() );
     }

    CloseHandle(hFile); 

    // At this point, the file is closed and deleted by the system.
   }
  else 
   {
    _tprintf( TEXT("error %lu:  could not create tempfile\n"), 
              GetLastError() );
 }
//...

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows Vista [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2008 [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	fileapi.h (include Windows.h)
Library	Kernel32.lib; FileExtd.lib on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP
DLL	Kernel32.dll
Redistributable	Windows SDK on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.

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