Question

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Unique file identifier in windows

I need to retrieve a unique identifier for certain files on the computer, and have only came across the Win32 GetFileInformationByHandle function. How can I accomplish this with the. NET framework?

Update: I need a persistent id that will not change if the file is moved, updated, renamed, etc.

Update2: How can the same be accomplished with folders?

Answer 1

Here’s some code from Ashley Henderson I copied from this answer. It implies two approaches which both return the same unique identifier.

public class WinAPI
    {
        [DllImport("ntdll.dll", SetLastError = true)]
        public static extern IntPtr NtQueryInformationFile(IntPtr fileHandle, ref IO_STATUS_BLOCK IoStatusBlock, IntPtr pInfoBlock, uint length, FILE_INFORMATION_CLASS fileInformation);

        public struct IO_STATUS_BLOCK
        {
            uint status;
            ulong information;
        }
        public struct _FILE_INTERNAL_INFORMATION {
          public ulong  IndexNumber;
        } 

        // Abbreviated, there are more values than shown
        public enum FILE_INFORMATION_CLASS
        {
            FileDirectoryInformation = 1,     // 1
            FileFullDirectoryInformation,     // 2
            FileBothDirectoryInformation,     // 3
            FileBasicInformation,         // 4
            FileStandardInformation,      // 5
            FileInternalInformation      // 6
        }

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
        public static extern bool GetFileInformationByHandle(IntPtr hFile,out BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION lpFileInformation);

        public struct BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION
        {
            public uint FileAttributes;
            public FILETIME CreationTime;
            public FILETIME LastAccessTime;
            public FILETIME LastWriteTime;
            public uint VolumeSerialNumber;
            public uint FileSizeHigh;
            public uint FileSizeLow;
            public uint NumberOfLinks;
            public uint FileIndexHigh;
            public uint FileIndexLow;
        }
  }

  public class Test
  {
       public ulong ApproachA()
       {
                WinAPI.IO_STATUS_BLOCK iostatus=new WinAPI.IO_STATUS_BLOCK();

                WinAPI._FILE_INTERNAL_INFORMATION objectIDInfo = new WinAPI._FILE_INTERNAL_INFORMATION();

                int structSize = Marshal.SizeOf(objectIDInfo);

                FileInfo fi=new FileInfo(@"C:\Temp\testfile.txt");
                FileStream fs=fi.Open(FileMode.Open,FileAccess.Read,FileShare.ReadWrite);

                IntPtr res=WinAPI.NtQueryInformationFile(fs.Handle, ref iostatus, memPtr, (uint)structSize, WinAPI.FILE_INFORMATION_CLASS.FileInternalInformation);

                objectIDInfo = (WinAPI._FILE_INTERNAL_INFORMATION)Marshal.PtrToStructure(memPtr, typeof(WinAPI._FILE_INTERNAL_INFORMATION));

                fs.Close();

                Marshal.FreeHGlobal(memPtr);   

                return objectIDInfo.IndexNumber;

       }

       public ulong ApproachB()
       {
               WinAPI.BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION objectFileInfo=new WinAPI.BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION();

                FileInfo fi=new FileInfo(@"C:\Temp\testfile.txt");
                FileStream fs=fi.Open(FileMode.Open,FileAccess.Read,FileShare.ReadWrite);

                WinAPI.GetFileInformationByHandle(fs.Handle, out objectFileInfo);

                fs.Close();

                ulong fileIndex = ((ulong)objectFileInfo.FileIndexHigh << 32) + (ulong)objectFileInfo.FileIndexLow;

                return fileIndex;   
       }
  }