FileAttributes Enumeration (System.IO)

FileAttributes Enumeration

.NET Framework Class Library

FileAttributes Enumeration

Provides attributes for files and directories.

This enumeration has a FlagsAttribute attribute that allows a bitwise combination of its member values.

Namespace: System.IO
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

Syntax

Visual Basic (Declaration)

<SerializableAttribute> _
<FlagsAttribute> _
<ComVisibleAttribute(True)> _
Public Enumeration FileAttributes

Visual Basic (Usage)

Dim instance As FileAttributes

[SerializableAttribute]
[FlagsAttribute]
[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public enum FileAttributes

Visual C++

[SerializableAttribute]
[FlagsAttribute]
[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public enum class FileAttributes

JScript

public enum FileAttributes

Members

	Member name	Description
	ReadOnly	The file is read-only.
	Hidden	The file is hidden, and thus is not included in an ordinary directory listing.
	System	The file is a system file. The file is part of the operating system or is used exclusively by the operating system.
	Directory	The file is a directory.
	Archive	The file's archive status. Applications use this attribute to mark files for backup or removal.
	Device	Reserved for future use.
	Normal	The file is normal and has no other attributes set. This attribute is valid only if used alone.
	Temporary	The file is temporary. File systems attempt to keep all of the data in memory for quicker access rather than flushing the data back to mass storage. A temporary file should be deleted by the application as soon as it is no longer needed.
	SparseFile	The file is a sparse file. Sparse files are typically large files whose data are mostly zeros.
	ReparsePoint	The file contains a reparse point, which is a block of user-defined data associated with a file or a directory.
	Compressed	The file is compressed.
	Offline	The file is offline. The data of the file is not immediately available.
	NotContentIndexed	The file will not be indexed by the operating system's content indexing service.
	Encrypted	The file or directory is encrypted. For a file, this means that all data in the file is encrypted. For a directory, this means that encryption is the default for newly created files and directories.

Remarks

For an example of creating a file and writing text to a file, see How to: Write Text to a File. For an example of reading text from a file, see How to: Read Text from a File. For an example of reading from and writing to a binary file, see How to: Read and Write to a Newly Created Data File.

All these attributes correspond to those in WinNT.h. Not all attributes are applicable to both files and directories.

It is not possible to change the compression status of a File object using the SetAttributes method.

Platforms

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Version Information

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Compact Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 2.0, 1.0

XNA Framework

Supported in: 3.0, 2.0, 1.0

Reference

System.IO Namespace

Other Resources

File and Stream I/O

How to: Read Text from a File

How to: Write Text to a File