CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#multithreading
simonbs
simonbs

Reputation: 8042

Cannot access file because it's used by another process

I am using TvdbLib in a program. This library can use a cache for loading TV series quicker. To further improve the speed of the program, I do all my loading of TV series on separate threads. When two threads run simultaneously and try to read/write from the cache simultaneously, I will get the following error:

The process cannot access the file 'C:\BinaryCache\79349\series_79349.ser' because it is being used by another process.

Does anyone know how to avoid this and still have the program running smoothly?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 181

Answers (3)

Polyfun
Polyfun

Reputation: 9639

From the error I assume that TvdbLib does not support multiple concurrent threads accessing the same cache. As it is an open source project, you could get the source code and implement your own protection around the cache access, e.g., using the lock statement. Of course, you could lock within your own code before it calls TvdbLib, but because this will be a higher level, the lock will be maintained for longer and you may not get the fine-grained concurrency that you want.

Upvotes: 0

sam1589914
sam1589914

Reputation: 816

You can use the lock statement to ensure only one thread is accessing the cache at the same time:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c5kehkcz(v=vs.71).aspx

Upvotes: 1

Yahia
Yahia

Reputation: 70369

CacheProvider is not built for being used in multi-threaded scenarios... either use it in one thread only or lock on every access via a shared object or supply every thread with its own CacheProvider and its own distinct _root directory (in the constructor).

Upvotes: 2

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