FileSystemWatcher Changed event is raised twice

Question

I have an application where I am looking for a text file and if there are any changes made to the file I am using the OnChanged eventhandler to handle the event. I am using the NotifyFilters.LastWriteTime but still the event is getting fired twice. Here is the code.

public void Initialize()
{
   FileSystemWatcher _fileWatcher = new FileSystemWatcher();
  _fileWatcher.Path = "C:\\Folder";
  _fileWatcher.NotifyFilter = NotifyFilters.LastWrite;
  _fileWatcher.Filter = "Version.txt";
  _fileWatcher.Changed += new FileSystemEventHandler(OnChanged);
  _fileWatcher.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
}

private void OnChanged(object source, FileSystemEventArgs e)
{
   .......
}

In my case the OnChanged is called twice, when I change the text file version.txt and save it.

Answer 1

I spent some significant amount of time using the FileSystemWatcher, and some of the approaches here will not work. I really liked the disabling events approach, but unfortunately, it doesn't work if there is >1 file being dropped, second file will be missed most if not all times. So I use the following approach:

private void EventCallback(object sender, FileSystemEventArgs e)
{
    var fileName = e.FullPath;

    if (!File.Exists(fileName))
    {
        // We've dealt with the file, this is just supressing further events.
        return;
    }

    // File exists, so move it to a working directory. 
    File.Move(fileName, [working directory]);

    // Kick-off whatever processing is required.
}

Answer 2

This code worked for me.

        private void OnChanged(object source, FileSystemEventArgs e)
    {

        string fullFilePath = e.FullPath.ToString();
        string fullURL = buildTheUrlFromStudyXML(fullFilePath);

        System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("iexplore", fullURL);

        Timer timer = new Timer();
        ((FileSystemWatcher)source).Changed -= new FileSystemEventHandler(OnChanged);
        timer.Interval = 1000;
        timer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(t_Elapsed);
        timer.Start();
    }

    private void t_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
    {
        ((Timer)sender).Stop();
        theWatcher.Changed += new FileSystemEventHandler(OnChanged);
    }

Answer 3

I simple add a dupe check as follows:

 private void OnChanged(object source, FileSystemEventArgs e)
    {
        string sTabName = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(e.Name);
        string sLastLine = ReadLastLine(e.FullPath);
        if(sLastLine != _dupeCheck)
        {
            TabPage tp = tcLogs.TabPages[sTabName];
            TextBox tbLog = (TextBox)tp.Controls[0] as TextBox;

            tbLog.Invoke(new Action(() => tbLog.AppendText(sLastLine + Environment.NewLine)));
            tbLog.Invoke(new Action(() => tbLog.SelectionStart = tbLog.Text.Length));
            tbLog.Invoke(new Action(() => tbLog.ScrollToCaret()));
            _dupeCheck = sLastLine;
        }
    }

    public static String ReadLastLine(string path)
    {
        return ReadLastLine(path, Encoding.Default, "\n");
    }

    public static String ReadLastLine(string path, Encoding encoding, string newline)
    {
        int charsize = encoding.GetByteCount("\n");
        byte[] buffer = encoding.GetBytes(newline);
        using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite))
        {
            long endpos = stream.Length / charsize;
            for (long pos = charsize; pos < endpos; pos += charsize)
            {
                stream.Seek(-pos, SeekOrigin.End);
                stream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
                if (encoding.GetString(buffer) == newline)
                {
                    buffer = new byte[stream.Length - stream.Position];
                    stream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
                    return encoding.GetString(buffer);
                }
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
    private static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int wMsg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

    private const int WM_VSCROLL = 0x115;
    private const int SB_BOTTOM = 7;

    /// <summary>
    /// Scrolls the vertical scroll bar of a multi-line text box to the bottom.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="tb">The text box to scroll</param>
    public static void ScrollToBottom(TextBox tb)
    {
        SendMessage(tb.Handle, WM_VSCROLL, (IntPtr)SB_BOTTOM, IntPtr.Zero);
    }

Answer 4

I have created a Git repo with a class that extends FileSystemWatcher to trigger the events only when copy is done. It discards all the changed events exept the last and it raise it only when the file become available for read.

Download FileSystemSafeWatcher and add it to your project.

Then use it as a normal FileSystemWatcher and monitor when the events are triggered.

var fsw = new FileSystemSafeWatcher(file);
fsw.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
// Add event handlers here
fsw.Created += fsw_Created;

Answer 5

The main reason was first event's last access time was current time(file write or changed time). then second event was file's original last access time. I solve under code.

        var lastRead = DateTime.MinValue;

        Watcher = new FileSystemWatcher(...)
        {
            NotifyFilter = NotifyFilters.FileName | NotifyFilters.LastWrite,
            Filter = "*.dll",
            IncludeSubdirectories = false,
        };
        Watcher.Changed += (senderObject, ea) =>
        {
            var now = DateTime.Now;
            var lastWriteTime = File.GetLastWriteTime(ea.FullPath);

            if (now == lastWriteTime)
            {
                return;
            }

            if (lastWriteTime != lastRead)
            {
                // do something...
                lastRead = lastWriteTime;
            }
        };

        Watcher.EnableRaisingEvents = true;

Answer 6

if you register to the OnChanged event, then by deleting the monitored file before changing it might work, as long as you only need to monitor the OnChange event..