Using Web API to download a file

Question

I took the Web API template and made slight change to working endpoint for the download.

[HttpGet(Name = "GetWeatherForecast")]
public FileStream Get()
{
    var path = @"C:\Users\user1\download.msi";
    return new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
}

It's a 100mb download and I'm getting Out of memory when I trying download the file.

Memory limit? https://stackoverflow.com/a/18531025/7167572 – Tatranskymedved Jun 19 '23 at 04:44 — Tatranskymedved, Jun 19 '23 at 04:44

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 19 '23 at 05:21

To output a file, you should use the File method:

var f = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
return File(f, "application/octet-stream");

If you return a FileStream, I guess ASP.NET will consider it as special type, attempting to serialize the entire object before outputing it.

Using Web API to download a file

1 Answers1