Since this is obviously an unsupported scenario, I doubt it can be done without using some low-level file access.
What you could try to do is drop FileInfo and go with
File.Exists(path) and File.ReadAllBytes(path).
These might be able to circumvent the issue.
File Access using SafeFileHandle
The following is untested
Creating an instance of UnmanagedFileLoader (Code below, taken from MSDN), allows you to create a SafeFileHandle object which can be passed to the FileStream constructor in the following way:
UnmanagedFileLoader ufl = new UnmanagedFileLoader(path);
FileStream fs = new FileStream(ufl.Handle, FileMode.Open);
Note: Remember to call ufl.Handle.Dispose().
This should give you a more, shall we say, direct access to the file, and so go around the enforcement of a valid filename that Windows has in place.
UnmanagedFileLoader Code
class UnmanagedFileLoader
{
public const short FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL = 0x80;
public const short INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE = -1;
public const uint GENERIC_READ = 0x80000000;
public const uint GENERIC_WRITE = 0x40000000;
public const uint CREATE_NEW = 1;
public const uint CREATE_ALWAYS = 2;
public const uint OPEN_EXISTING = 3;
// Use interop to call the CreateFile function.
// For more information about CreateFile,
// see the unmanaged MSDN reference library.
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet=CharSet.Unicode)]
static extern SafeFileHandle CreateFile(string lpFileName, uint dwDesiredAccess,
uint dwShareMode, IntPtr lpSecurityAttributes, uint dwCreationDisposition,
uint dwFlagsAndAttributes, IntPtr hTemplateFile);
private SafeFileHandle handleValue = null;
public UnmanagedFileLoader(string Path)
{
Load(Path);
}
public void Load(string Path)
{
if (Path == null || Path.Length == 0)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("Path");
}
// Try to open the file.
handleValue = CreateFile(Path, GENERIC_WRITE, 0, IntPtr.Zero, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, IntPtr.Zero);
// If the handle is invalid,
// get the last Win32 error
// and throw a Win32Exception.
if (handleValue.IsInvalid)
{
Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(Marshal.GetHRForLastWin32Error());
}
}
public SafeFileHandle Handle
{
get
{
// If the handle is valid,
// return it.
if (!handleValue.IsInvalid)
{
return handleValue;
}
else
{
return null;
}
}
}
}
File Date Access using Windows API
The GetFileTimeSample class below, taken from www.pinvoke.net uses another Windows API call, specifically GetFileTime.
This implementation is just an example, you sure will be able to adapt it to get only the date you need. In its current form it will output all three dates.
Usage:
DateTime fileDateCreated;
DateTime fileDateAccessed;
DateTime fileDateModified;
GetFileTimeSample.GetFileTimes(path, out fileDateCreated, out fileDateAccessed, out fileDateModified);
Since C# 7.0 it is possible to declare out variables directly in the function call like so:
GetFileTimeSample.GetFileTimes(path, out DateTime fileDateCreated, out DateTime fileDateAccessed, out DateTime fileDateModified);
GetFileTimeSample
public class GetFileTimeSample
{
private const uint GENERIC_READ = 0x80000000;
private const uint FILE_SHARE_READ = 0x1;
private const uint FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL = 0x80;
private const int INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE = -1;
private const uint OPEN_EXISTING = 3;
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
private struct FILETIME
{
public uint dwLowDateTime;
public uint dwHighDateTime;
}
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
private static extern bool CloseHandle(
IntPtr hObject
);
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall, SetLastError = true)]
private static extern IntPtr CreateFile(
string lpFileName,
uint dwDesiredAccess,
uint dwShareMode,
IntPtr SecurityAttributes,
uint dwCreationDisposition,
uint dwFlagsAndAttributes,
IntPtr hTemplateFile
);
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern bool GetFileTime(
IntPtr hFile,
ref FILETIME lpCreationTime,
ref FILETIME lpLastAccessTime,
ref FILETIME lpLastWriteTime
);
public static void GetFileTimes(string FileName, out DateTime CreationTime, out DateTime LastAccessTime, out DateTime LastWriteTime)
{
CreationTime = DateTime.MinValue;
LastAccessTime = DateTime.MinValue;
LastWriteTime = DateTime.MinValue;
IntPtr ptr = IntPtr.Zero;
FILETIME ftCreationTime = new FILETIME();
FILETIME ftLastAccessTime = new FILETIME();
FILETIME ftLastWriteTime = new FILETIME();
try
{
ptr = CreateFile(FileName, GENERIC_READ, FILE_SHARE_READ, IntPtr.Zero, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, IntPtr.Zero);
if (ptr.ToInt32() == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(Marshal.GetHRForLastWin32Error());
if (GetFileTime(ptr, ref ftCreationTime, ref ftLastAccessTime, ref ftLastWriteTime) != true)
Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(Marshal.GetHRForLastWin32Error());
CreationTime = DateTime.FromFileTimeUtc((((long)ftCreationTime.dwHighDateTime) << 32) | ((uint)ftCreationTime.dwLowDateTime));
LastAccessTime = DateTime.FromFileTimeUtc((((long)ftLastAccessTime.dwHighDateTime) << 32) | ((uint)ftLastAccessTime.dwLowDateTime));
LastWriteTime = DateTime.FromFileTimeUtc((((long)ftLastWriteTime.dwHighDateTime) << 32) | ((uint)ftLastWriteTime.dwLowDateTime));
}
catch (Exception e)
{
throw (e);
}
finally
{
if (ptr !=IntPtr.Zero && ptr.ToInt32() != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) CloseHandle(ptr);
}
}
}
