can FindFirstFile() be used to move a file

Question

Can FindFirstFile() be used to move or copy a file from one directory to another? Since it returns a handle, can this handle be used to do it?

Answer 1

No, it's even not a kernel handle. This handle may only be passed to FindNextFile and FindClose.

P.S. You don't expect a handle returned by CreateEvent to be able to copy a file...

Answer 2

The MoveFile() function just takes in 2 parameters (from file name, to file name) so you wouldn't need to use FindFirstFile to move a file. The CopyFile() function is similar.

Answer 3

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa364418(v=vs.85).aspx

See the quote:

If the function succeeds, the return value is a search handle used in a subsequent call to FindNextFile or FindClose, and the lpFindFileData parameter contains information about the first file or directory found.

The return value is a search handle, not a file handle. From this, it would seem that you can not.

Answer 4

FindFirstFile returns search handle (not file handle) and its purpose is only for file search. Since you're already passing file name (and path) as an argument to FindFirstFile, why not just passing it to MoveFile/MoveFileEx. You don't even need to call FindFirstFile, MoveFile would fail if file doesn't exist.

Answer 5

The handle it returns is only useful to allow you to call FindNextFile(). Quite handy, lets you pass a wildcard ("." for example) to iterate all the files that match. Don't forget to call FindClose().

The real nugget is the WIN32_FIND_DATA.cFileName value it returns. That's the one you need to call MoveFile() to actually move the file.