17/10/22, 15:49 GetFileInformationByHandleEx function (winbase.

h) - Win32 apps | Microsoft Learn

GetFileInformationByHandleEx function
(winbase.h)
Article • 07/28/20222 minutes to read

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
C++

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.

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[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

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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
   

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

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Redistributable Windows SDK on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.

See also
FILE_INFO_BY_HANDLE_CLASS

File Management Functions

SetFileInformationByHandle

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