Question

I need to test if a user can write to a folder before actually attempting to do so.

I’ve implemented the following method (in C# 2.0) that attempts to retrieve the security permissions for the folder using Directory.GetAccessControl() method.

private bool hasWriteAccessToFolder(string folderPath)
{
    try
    {
        // Attempt to get a list of security permissions from the folder. 
        // This will raise an exception if the path is read only or do not have access to view the permissions. 
        System.Security.AccessControl.DirectorySecurity ds = Directory.GetAccessControl(folderPath);
        return true;
    }
    catch (UnauthorizedAccessException)
    {
        return false;
    }
}

When I was googling how to test for write access nothing like this came up and it appeared very complicated to actually test permissions in Windows. I am concerned that I am over-simplifying things and that this method is not robust, although it does seem to work.

Will my method to test if the current user has write access work correctly?

Answer 1

That’s a perfectly valid way to check for folder access in C#. The only place it might fall down is if you need to call this in a tight loop where the overhead of an exception may be an issue.

There have been other similar questions asked previously.