How To: Prevent Timeout When Inspecting Unavailable Network Share - C#

Question

We have some basic C# logic that iterates over a directory and returns the folders and files within. When run against a network share (\\server\share\folder) that is inaccessible or invalid, the code seems to 'hang' for about 30 seconds before returning back from the call.

I'd like to end up with a method that will attempt to get folders and files from the given path, but without the timeout period. In other words, to reduce or eliminate the timeout altogether.

I've tried something as simple as validating the existence of the directory ahead of time thinking that an 'unavailable' network drive would quickly return false, but that did not work as expected.

System.IO.Directory.Exists(path) //hangs 

System.IO.DirectoryInfo di = new System.IO.DirectoryInfo(path); //hangs

Any suggestions on what may help me achieve an efficient (and hopefully managed) solution?

any final solution with full source code sample working about it ? — Kiquenet, May 17 '13 at 06:52

score 27 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 18 '11 at 15:51

27

You can use this code:

var task = new Task<bool>(() => { var fi = new FileInfo(uri.LocalPath); return fi.Exists; });
task.Start();

return task.Wait(100) && task.Result;

answered Aug 18 '11 at 15:51

Jonathan ANTOINE

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+1 from me, this is great for files but using this to answer the original question is useless. To answer the question, try replacing `new FileInfo(uri.LocalPath)` with `new DirectoryInfo(strPath)` to check directories instead of files. – Arvo Bowen Nov 06 '15 at 21:06
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*** this should be the answer *** OP pls chng – Leo Gurdian Nov 07 '17 at 19:53

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 07 '09 at 16:46

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Place it on its own thread, if it doesn't come back in a certain amount of time, move on.

answered Apr 07 '09 at 16:46

Al Katawazi

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 07 '09 at 16:46

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Perhaps you could try pinging the server first, and only ask for the directory info if you get a response?

answered Apr 07 '09 at 16:46

mqp

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I have used this successfully for walking our network of machines, looking for software. However, it may not be feasible to parse out the server from the UNC path. – John Gietzen Apr 07 '09 at 16:49

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

0

See...

Faster DirectoryExists function?

...for a way of setting the execution time for Directory.Exists

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community

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answered Nov 17 '10 at 12:15

Kevin Dance

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How To: Prevent Timeout When Inspecting Unavailable Network Share - C#

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