Sets the attributes for a file or directory.

To perform this operation as a transacted operation, use the SetFileAttributesTransacted function.

Syntax

BOOL WINAPI SetFileAttributes(
  __in  LPCTSTR lpFileName,
  __in  DWORD dwFileAttributes
);

Parameters

lpFileName [in]

The name of the file whose attributes are to be set.

In the ANSI version of this function, the name is limited to MAX_PATH characters. To extend this limit to 32,767 wide characters, call the Unicode version of the function and prepend "\\?\" to the path. For more information, see File Names, Paths, and Namespaces.

dwFileAttributes [in]

The file attributes to set for the file.

This parameter can be one or more values, combined using the bitwise-OR operator. However, all other values override FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL.

Not all attributes are supported by this function. For more information, see the Remarks section.

The following is a list of supported attribute values.

Value	Meaning
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE 32 (0x20)	A file or directory that is an archive file or directory. Applications typically use this attribute to mark files for backup or removal.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN 2 (0x2)	The file or directory is hidden. It is not included in an ordinary directory listing.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL 128 (0x80)	A file that does not have other attributes set. This attribute is valid only when used alone.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NOT_CONTENT_INDEXED 8192 (0x2000)	The file or directory is not to be indexed by the content indexing service.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_OFFLINE 4096 (0x1000)	The data of a file is not available immediately. This attribute indicates that the file data is physically moved to offline storage. This attribute is used by Remote Storage, which is the hierarchical storage management software. Applications should not arbitrarily change this attribute.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY 1 (0x1)	A file that is read-only. Applications can read the file, but cannot write to it or delete it. This attribute is not honored on directories. For more information, see "You cannot view or change the Read-only or the System attributes of folders in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, or in Windows Vista".
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_SYSTEM 4 (0x4)	A file or directory that the operating system uses a part of, or uses exclusively.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_TEMPORARY 256 (0x100)	A file that is being used for temporary storage. File systems avoid writing data back to mass storage if sufficient cache memory is available, because typically, an application deletes a temporary file after the handle is closed. In that scenario, the system can entirely avoid writing the data. Otherwise, the data is written after the handle is closed.

 

Return Value

If the function succeeds, the return value is nonzero.

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

Remarks

The following table describes how to set the attributes that cannot be set using SetFileAttributes. For a complete list of all file attribute values and their descriptions, see File Attributes.

Transacted Operations

If a file is open for modification in a transaction, no other thread can open the file for modification until the transaction is committed. So if a transacted thread opens the file first, any subsequent threads that try modifying the file before the transaction is committed receives a sharing violation. If a non-transacted thread modifies the file before the transacted thread does, and the file is still open when the transaction attempts to open it, the transaction receives the error ERROR_TRANSACTIONAL_CONFLICT.

Examples

For an example, see Retrieving and Changing File Attributes.

Requirements

See Also

File Attributes

File Management Functions

GetFileAttributes

SetFileAttributesTransacted

Symbolic Links

Transactional NTFS

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Build date: 11/12/2009