AspNetCore.Docs/aspnetcore/fundamentals/file-providers.md

title	author	description	ms.author	ms.custom	ms.date	uid
File Providers in ASP.NET Core	guardrex	Learn how ASP.NET Core abstracts file system access through the use of File Providers.	riande	mvc	08/01/2018	fundamentals/file-providers

File Providers in ASP.NET Core

By Steve Smith and Luke Latham

ASP.NET Core abstracts file system access through the use of File Providers. File Providers are used throughout the ASP.NET Core framework:

• IHostingEnvironment exposes the app's content root and web root as IFileProvider types.
• Static File Middleware uses File Providers to locate static files.
• Razor uses File Providers to locate pages and views.
• .NET Core tooling uses File Providers and glob patterns to specify which files should be published.

View or download sample code (how to download)

File Provider interfaces

The primary interface is IFileProvider. IFileProvider exposes methods to:

• Obtain file information (IFileInfo).
• Obtain directory information (IDirectoryContents).
• Set up change notifications (using an IChangeToken).

IFileInfo provides methods and properties for working with files:

• Exists
• IsDirectory
• Name
• Length (in bytes)
• LastModified date

You can read from the file using the IFileInfo.CreateReadStream method.

The sample app demonstrates how to configure a File Provider in Startup.ConfigureServices for use throughout the app via dependency injection.

File Provider implementations

Three implementations of IFileProvider are available.

::: moniker range=">= aspnetcore-2.0"

Implementation	Description
PhysicalFileProvider	The physical provider is used to access the system's physical files.
ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider	The manifest embedded provider is used to access files embedded in assemblies.
CompositeFileProvider	The composite provider is used to provide combined access to files and directories from one or more other providers.

::: moniker-end

::: moniker range="< aspnetcore-2.0"

Implementation	Description
PhysicalFileProvider	The physical provider is used to access the system's physical files.
EmbeddedFileProvider	The embedded provider is used to access files embedded in assemblies.
CompositeFileProvider	The composite provider is used to provide combined access to files and directories from one or more other providers.

::: moniker-end

PhysicalFileProvider

The PhysicalFileProvider provides access to the physical file system. PhysicalFileProvider uses the System.IO.File type (for the physical provider) and scopes all paths to a directory and its children. This scoping prevents access to the file system outside of the specified directory and its children. When instantiating this provider, a directory path is required and serves as the base path for all requests made using the provider. You can instantiate a PhysicalFileProvider provider directly, or you can request an IFileProvider in a constructor through dependency injection.

Static types

The following code shows how to create a PhysicalFileProvider and use it to obtain directory contents and file information:

var provider = new PhysicalFileProvider(applicationRoot);
var contents = provider.GetDirectoryContents(string.Empty);
var fileInfo = provider.GetFileInfo("wwwroot/js/site.js");

Types in the preceding example:

• provider is an IFileProvider.
• contents is an IDirectoryContents.
• fileInfo is an IFileInfo.

The File Provider can be used to iterate through the directory specified by applicationRoot or call GetFileInfo to obtain a file's information. The File Provider has no access outside of the applicationRoot directory.

The sample app creates the provider in the app's Startup.ConfigureServices class using IHostingEnvironment.ContentRootFileProvider:

var physicalProvider = _env.ContentRootFileProvider;

Obtain File Provider types with dependency injection

Inject the provider into any class constructor and assign it to a local field. Use the field throughout the class's methods to access files.

::: moniker range=">= aspnetcore-2.0"

In the sample app, the IndexModel class receives an IFileProvider instance to obtain directory contents for the app's base path.

Pages/Index.cshtml.cs:

[!code-csharp]

The IDirectoryContents are iterated in the page.

Pages/Index.cshtml:

[!code-cshtml]

::: moniker-end

::: moniker range="< aspnetcore-2.0"

In the sample app, the HomeController class receives an IFileProvider instance to obtain directory contents for the app's base path.

Controllers/HomeController.cs:

[!code-csharp]

The IDirectoryContents are iterated in the view.

Views/Home/Index.cshtml:

[!code-cshtml]

::: moniker-end

::: moniker range=">= aspnetcore-2.0"

ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider

The ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider is used to access files embedded within assemblies. The ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider uses a manifest compiled into the assembly to reconstruct the original paths of the embedded files.

[!NOTE] The ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider is available in ASP.NET Core 2.1 or later. To access files embedded in assemblies in ASP.NET Core 2.0 or earlier, see the ASP.NET Core 1.x version of this topic.

To generate a manifest of the embedded files, set the <GenerateEmbeddedFilesManifest> property to true. Specify the files to embed with <EmbeddedResource>:

[!code-csharp]

Use glob patterns to specify one or more files to embed into the assembly.

The sample app creates an ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider and passes the currently executing assembly to its constructor.

Startup.cs:

var manifestEmbeddedProvider = 
    new ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly());

Additional overloads allow you to:

• Specify a relative file path.
• Scope files to a last modified date.
• Name the embedded resource containing the embedded file manifest.

Overload	Description
ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider(Assembly, String)	Accepts an optional root relative path parameter. Specify the root to scope calls to GetDirectoryContents to those resources under the provided path.
ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider(Assembly, String, DateTimeOffset)	Accepts an optional root relative path parameter and a lastModified date (DateTimeOffset) parameter. The lastModified date scopes the last modification date for the IFileInfo instances returned by the IFileProvider.
ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider(Assembly, String, String, DateTimeOffset)	Accepts an optional root relative path, lastModified date, and manifestName parameters. The manifestName represents the name of the embedded resource containing the manifest.

::: moniker-end

::: moniker range="< aspnetcore-2.0"

EmbeddedFileProvider

The EmbeddedFileProvider is used to access files embedded within assemblies. Specify the files to embed with the <EmbeddedResource> property in the project file:

<ItemGroup>
  <EmbeddedResource Include="Resource.txt" />
</ItemGroup>

Use glob patterns to specify one or more files to embed into the assembly.

The sample app creates an EmbeddedFileProvider and passes the currently executing assembly to its constructor.

Startup.cs:

var embeddedProvider = new EmbeddedFileProvider(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly());

Embedded resources don't expose directories. Rather, the path to the resource (via its namespace) is embedded in its filename using . separators. In the sample app, the baseNamespace is FileProviderSample..

The EmbeddedFileProvider(Assembly, String) constructor accepts an optional baseNamespace parameter. Specify the base namespace to scope calls to GetDirectoryContents to those resources under the provided namespace.

::: moniker-end

CompositeFileProvider

The CompositeFileProvider combines IFileProvider instances, exposing a single interface for working with files from multiple providers. When creating the CompositeFileProvider, pass one or more IFileProvider instances to its constructor.

::: moniker range=">= aspnetcore-2.0"

In the sample app, a PhysicalFileProvider and a ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider provide files to a CompositeFileProvider registered in the app's service container:

[!code-csharp]

::: moniker-end

::: moniker range="< aspnetcore-2.0"

In the sample app, a PhysicalFileProvider and an EmbeddedFileProvider provide files to a CompositeFileProvider registered in the app's service container:

[!code-csharp]

::: moniker-end

Watch for changes

The IFileProvider.Watch method provides a scenario to watch one or more files or directories for changes. Watch accepts a path string, which can use glob patterns to specify multiple files. Watch returns an IChangeToken. The change token exposes:

• HasChanged: A property that can be inspected to determine if a change has occurred.
• RegisterChangeCallback: Called when changes are detected to the specified path string. Each change token only calls its associated callback in response to a single change. To enable constant monitoring, use a TaskCompletionSource (shown below) or recreate IChangeToken instances in response to changes.

In the sample app, the WatchConsole console app is configured to display a message whenever a text file is modified:

::: moniker range=">= aspnetcore-2.0"

[!code-csharp]

::: moniker-end

::: moniker range="< aspnetcore-2.0"

[!code-csharp]

::: moniker-end

Some file systems, such as Docker containers and network shares, may not reliably send change notifications. Set the DOTNET_USE_POLLING_FILE_WATCHER environment variable to 1 or true to poll the file system for changes every four seconds (not configurable).

Glob patterns

File system paths use wildcard patterns called glob (or globbing) patterns. Specify groups of files with these patterns. The two wildcard characters are * and **:

*
Matches anything at the current folder level, any filename, or any file extension. Matches are terminated by / and . characters in the file path.

**
Matches anything across multiple directory levels. Can be used to recursively match many files within a directory hierarchy.

Glob pattern examples

directory/file.txt
Matches a specific file in a specific directory.

directory/*.txt
Matches all files with .txt extension in a specific directory.

directory/*/appsettings.json
Matches all appsettings.json files in directories exactly one level below the directory folder.

directory/**/*.txt
Matches all files with .txt extension found anywhere under the directory folder.