Does a Stream get Disposed when returning a File f

Question

This question already has answers here:

Does FileStreamResult close Stream? (1 answer)

How do I dispose my filestream when implementing a file download in ASP.NET? (2 answers)

Closed 3 years ago.

I'm writing a string to a MemoryStream I need to return the stream to the Controller Action so I can send it off as a file for download.

Normally, I wrap the Stream in a using statement, but, in this case, I need to return it. Does it still get Disposed after I return it? Or do I need to dispose it myself somehow?

//inside CsvOutputFormatter
public Stream GetStream(object genericObject)
{
    var stream = new MemoryStream();
    var writer = new StreamWriter(stream, Encoding.UTF8);
    writer.Write(_stringWriter.ToString());
    writer.Flush();
    stream.Position = 0;
    return stream;
}

Controller Action that returns the file:

[HttpGet]
[Route("/Discussion/Export")]
public IActionResult GetDataAsCsv()
{
    var forums = _discussionService.GetForums(_userHelper.UserId);

    var csvFormatter = new CsvOutputFormatter(new CsvFormatterOptions());

    var stream = csvFormatter.GetStream(forums);
    return File(stream, "application/octet-stream", "forums.csv");

    //is the stream Disposed here automatically?
}

Answer 1

According to source code here aspnet/AspNetWebStack/blob/master/src/System.Web.Mvc/FileStreamResult.cs

Yes

protected override void WriteFile(HttpResponseBase response)
{
    // grab chunks of data and write to the output stream
    Stream outputStream = response.OutputStream;
    using (FileStream)
    {
        byte[] buffer = new byte[BufferSize];

        while (true)
        {
            int bytesRead = FileStream.Read(buffer, 0, BufferSize);
            if (bytesRead == 0)
            {
                // no more data
                break;
            }

            outputStream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
        }
    }
}

Where FileStream would have been the stream passed when you called

return File(stream, "application/octet-stream", "forums.csv");

Update.

Your question was originally tagged as Asp.Net MVC but the code looks like the more recent core framework.

Found it there as well though written differently it does the same thing technically.

aspnet/AspNetCore/blob/master/src/Mvc/Mvc.Core/src/Infrastructure/FileResultExecutorBase.cs

protected static async Task WriteFileAsync(HttpContext context, Stream fileStream, RangeItemHeaderValue range, long rangeLength)
{
    var outputStream = context.Response.Body;
    using (fileStream)
    {
        try
        {
            if (range == null)
            {
                await StreamCopyOperation.CopyToAsync(fileStream, outputStream, count: null, bufferSize: BufferSize, cancel: context.RequestAborted);
            }
            else
            {
                fileStream.Seek(range.From.Value, SeekOrigin.Begin);
                await StreamCopyOperation.CopyToAsync(fileStream, outputStream, rangeLength, BufferSize, context.RequestAborted);
            }
        }
        catch (OperationCanceledException)
        {
            // Don't throw this exception, it's most likely caused by the client disconnecting.
            // However, if it was cancelled for any other reason we need to prevent empty responses.
            context.Abort();
        }
    }
}