GetFileInformationByHandleEx function (winbase.h)

Retrieves file information for the specified file.

For a more basic version of this function for desktop apps, see GetFileInformationByHandle.

To set file information using a file handle, see SetFileInformationByHandle.

Syntax

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

Parameters

[in] hFile

A handle to the file that contains the information to be retrieved.

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 retrieved.

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

[out] lpFileInformation

A pointer to the buffer that receives the requested file information. The structure that is returned 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 the lpFileInformation buffer, in bytes.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is nonzero and file information data is contained in the buffer pointed to by the lpFileInformation parameter.

If the function fails, the return value is zero. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

If FileInformationClass is FileStreamInfo and the calls succeed but no streams are returned, the error that is returned by GetLastError is ERROR_HANDLE_EOF.

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 class types and their corresponding data structure types for use with this function.

FileInformationClass value lpFileInformation type
FileBasicInfo (0) FILE_BASIC_INFO
FileStandardInfo (1) FILE_STANDARD_INFO
FileNameInfo (2) FILE_NAME_INFO
FileStreamInfo (7) FILE_STREAM_INFO
FileCompressionInfo (8) FILE_COMPRESSION_INFO
FileAttributeTagInfo (9) FILE_ATTRIBUTE_TAG_INFO
FileIdBothDirectoryInfo (0xa) FILE_ID_BOTH_DIR_INFO
FileIdBothDirectoryRestartInfo (0xb) FILE_ID_BOTH_DIR_INFO
FileRemoteProtocolInfo (0xd) FILE_REMOTE_PROTOCOL_INFO
FileFullDirectoryInfo (0xe) FILE_FULL_DIR_INFO
FileFullDirectoryRestartInfo (0xf) FILE_FULL_DIR_INFO
FileStorageInfo (0x10) FILE_STORAGE_INFO
FileAlignmentInfo (0x11) FILE_ALIGNMENT_INFO
FileIdInfo (0x12) FILE_ID_INFO
FileIdExtdDirectoryInfo (0x13) FILE_ID_EXTD_DIR_INFO
FileIdExtdDirectoryRestartInfo (0x14) FILE_ID_EXTD_DIR_INFO
 

Transacted Operations

If there is a transaction bound to the thread at the time of the call, then the function returns the compressed file size of the isolated file view. For more information, see About Transactional NTFS.

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) Yes
SMB 3.0 with Scale-out File Shares (SO) Yes
Cluster Shared Volume File System (CsvFS) Yes
Resilient File System (ReFS) Yes

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 winbase.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.

See also

FILE_INFO_BY_HANDLE_CLASS

File Management Functions

SetFileInformationByHandle