CreateFile() returns INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE but GetLastError() is ERROR_SUCCESS

Question

I am opening a serial port using CreateFile(). I've got a testcase (too complicated to redistribute) that consistently causes CreateFile() to return INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE and GetLastError() to return ERROR_SUCCESS. By the looks of it, this bug only occurs if one thread opens the port at the exact same time that another port closes it. The thread opening the port runs across this problem.

I don't know if this makes a difference, but later on in the code I associate the port with a CompletionPort using CreateIoCompletionPort.

Here is my code:

HANDLE port = CreateFile(L"\\\\.\\COM1",
                         GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE,
                         0,                    // must be opened with exclusive-access
                         0,                    // default security attributes
                         OPEN_EXISTING,        // must use OPEN_EXISTING
                         FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED, // overlapped I/O
                         0);                   // hTemplate must be NULL for comm devices
if (port == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
{
    DWORD errorCode = GetLastError();
    cerr << L"CreateFile() failed with error: " << errorCode << endl;
}

I'm pretty sure this sort of thing should not happen. Am I doing anything wrong? How do I get the API to return a correct result?

---

MORE DETAILS: This code is taken from a serial-port library I've developed: JPeripheral

Here is the actual (unsanitized) source-code:

JLong SerialChannel::nativeOpen(String name)
{
    cerr << "nativeOpen(" << name << ")" << endl;
    wstring nameWstring = name;
    HANDLE port = CreateFile((L"\\\\.\\" + nameWstring).c_str(),
        GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE,
        0,                                          // must be opened with exclusive-access
        0,                                          // default security attributes
        OPEN_EXISTING,                  // must use OPEN_EXISTING
        FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED,       // overlapped I/O
        0);                                         // hTemplate must be NULL for comm devices
    cerr << "nativeOpen.afterCreateFile(" << name << ")" << endl;
    cerr << "port: " << port << ", errorCode: " << GetLastError() << endl;
    if (port == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
    {
        DWORD errorCode = GetLastError();

        switch (errorCode)
        {
            case ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND:
                throw PeripheralNotFoundException(jace::java_new<PeripheralNotFoundException>(name, Throwable()));
            case ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED:
            case ERROR_SHARING_VIOLATION:
                throw PeripheralInUseException(jace::java_new<PeripheralInUseException>(name, Throwable()));
            default:
            {
                throw IOException(jace::java_new<IOException>(L"CreateFile() failed with error: " +
                    getErrorMessage(GetLastError())));
            }
        }
    }

    // Associate the file handle with the existing completion port
    HANDLE completionPort = CreateIoCompletionPort(port, ::jperipheral::worker->completionPort, Task::COMPLETION, 0);
    if (completionPort==0)
    {
        throw AssertionError(jace::java_new<AssertionError>(L"CreateIoCompletionPort() failed with error: " +
            getErrorMessage(GetLastError())));
    }
    cerr << "nativeOpen.afterCompletionPort(" << name << ")" << endl;

    // Bind the native serial port to Java serial port
    SerialPortContext* result = new SerialPortContext(port);
    cerr << "nativeOpen.afterContext(" << name << ")" << endl;
    return reinterpret_cast<intptr_t>(result);
}

Here is the actual output I get:

nativeOpen(COM1)
nativeOpen.afterCreateFile(COM1)
port: 00000374, errorCode: 0
nativeOpen.afterCompletionPort(COM1)
nativeOpen.afterContext(COM1)
[...]
nativeOpen(COM1)
nativeOpen.afterCreateFile(COM1)
port: FFFFFFFF, errorCode: 0
java.io.IOException: CreateFile() failed with error: The operation completed successfully.

Answer 1

 HANDLE port = CreateFile(...);
 cerr << "nativeOpen.afterCreateFile(" << name << ")" << endl;
 cerr << "port: " << port << ", errorCode: " << GetLastError() << endl;
 if (port == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
 {
    DWORD errorCode = GetLastError();

The output to cerr invokes winapi calls under the hood. Which will reset the thread error value returned by GetLastError(). Fix:

 HANDLE port = CreateFile(...);
 int err = GetLastError();
 // etc, use err instead...